Revelation Chapter 9 Then the 5th Angel sounded and I saw a *
fallen from heaven to the earth. It's not a media, it's not an
asteroid because it says in in the next verse to him, notice to
him. So it's a person was given, so
the authority that he's about to have is given to him, was given
the key to the bottomless pit. And he so it's a person opened
the bottomless pit. Smoke arose out of the pit like
the smoke of a great furnace. And so the sun in the air would
darken just like you know when a volcano goes off and the ash
goes into the air. Well, as this pit is open, just
think of all that just gushing out and next minute the sun and
everything turns, this haze, it's like an eclipse.
This is what's happening. The sun and the air were
darkened because of the smoke of the pit.
Just like as I said, a massive volcanic reaction.
Then the 5th Angel sounded verse one.
This is the fifth Angel that sounded the trumpet.
There were 7 seals followed thematically if not
chronologically by 7 trumpets and that's where we were at in
their arranged order. They are very similar.
The 1st 4 seals that Jesus broke on the scroll and trumpets
presented judgements directed against the earth.
We see that in both. In the 1st 4 seals there were
the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, bringing tyranny,
war, famine and death on the earth, LED of course by the
Antichrist, a man of sin. In the 1st 4 trumpets, these
were the ecological destruction of the vegetation.
We looked at that on Sunday. The ocean, remember, was 1/3 of
1/3 of the fresh waters poisoned people began to die because of
the water wasn't that I weren't able to do the rivers and the
waters and the springs were polluted by that asteroid or
whatever it is, a meteorite that was called Wormwood and and the
sky, the last three seals focused upon heaven.
You remember the cry of the martyrs, those who rejected the
mark of the beast, rejected worshipping the Antichrist.
They were haunted down, killed for their witness.
And there were cosmic disturbances and the heavenly
prelude to the seven trumpets. The last three trumpets we're
going to look at tonight. Literally, it's like you've
heard the term and all hell broke loose.
This is kind of like it and it's in terms of the demonic.
The 5th Angel sounded. He said I saw John said I saw a
* fallen from heaven to the earth.
To him it's a personality was given the key to the bottomless
pit. This is not a meteorite, not an
asteroid, but a person to him was given the key in chapter 12
of Revelation verse 3 it says and another sign appeared in
heaven. Behold, a great fiery red dragon
having 7 heads, 10 horns, 7 diadems or crowns on his head.
His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them
to the earth. We have yet to get there and but
that's a reference to Satan's original fall from heaven.
Plus when he fell, cast out a third of the angels.
Fallen angels went with him. And so fallen angels, we would
call them demons. In Luke chapter 10 verse 18,
Jesus made reference to Satan's original fall.
Jesus said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
Now John is not writing about the original fall here as he
sees this one, this fallen Angel going to the pit with the key.
John sees he says a fallen star. So he he's, this is, this is the
one who fell. So he says, I see a fallen star,
not a falling star. He is given this one, the key to
the bottomless pit. In the Greek language, it's the
word abuso and it's the pit of the at where we get our English
word abyss. And this is where in this
location as he unlocks it in this place where the most vile
and wicked demons, fallen angels are at this moment confined.
Peter also refers to these as such into Peter chapter 2 verse
4. It says for if God did not spare
the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell, delivered
them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgement.
You'll also remember when Jesus was sailing across the the
Galilee. It comes to the shore.
We've been to the area of Ghaderi and he comes to a place
where there's a cemetery and a demon possessed man came rushing
up to Jesus in Luke 826. They sailed to the country of
the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee, so it's the other side
of the Galilee. When Jesus stepped out on the
land, they met him, a certain man from the city who had demons
for a long time. Jesus asked him, saying what's
your name? And he said legion, Legion in
the sense of this is how many we there are because many demons
had entered this man. And now the demons know who it
is because they rushed bowed down to them because they knew
who Jesus was. And I begged Jesus that he would
not command them to go into the abyss where this Satan is now
about to unlock. The abyss is the same place
where Satan will will be chained in the future and confined
during the thousand year reign called the Millennial reign of
Christ. In Revelation chapter 20, John
writes. Then I saw an Angel coming down
from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great
chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon.
So he seizes Satan, that serpent of old, who is the devil and
Satan, so we know exactly who it is, binds him up for 1000 years
and cast him into the bottomless pit.
The abyss shut him up and set a seal on him so that he should
deceive the nations no more till 1000 years were finished.
But that's future. The word abyss, the root word
that means it means without depth, a shaft.
Jude picks up the same sort of language in Jude verse 6.
And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left
their own abode, God has reserved in everlasting chains
and the darkness for the judgement of the great day, as
Satan, who has been given the key and the authority to open
this bottomless pit, this shaft. Demons surge out and are
released upon the world during the tribulation.
And note carefully it says And to them then out of the smoke,
locusts came upon the earth, and to them was given power.
As the scorpions of the earth have power, they were commanded.
So the parameters are set not by Satan, but my God.
He says, this is what, this is what you're allowed to do.
This is how far you can go. And they were commanded exactly
not to harm the grass of the earth.
And remember, 1/3 of it's been destroyed thus far, or any other
green thing or any tree, a third of them previously.
But you're only allowed to go and attack those men who do not
have the seal of God on their foreheads.
That's every unbeliever. It says they are given power.
So God, this is God's plan. This is the judgement of the
world, judgement of a fallen world.
They are commanded. This is what you're allowed to
do. These are the ones, the only
ones you can touch. These ones, you can't touch how
far they can go. John now describes in detail the
best he can, these demonic creatures, verse 5.
And they were not given authority to kill them, but to
torment them. That's every unbeliever for five
months, a specific period. Their torment was like the
torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man.
Now we in Australia, we have scorpions but always like to
relate it to being stung by a Stingray or so many of you have
ever been crabbing here in Australia.
Cobblers, you know the Cobblers, Oh my goodness.
And anyone that's suffered that, it is sheer agony as they shoot
protein into you. In those days when this occurs,
notice this. Men will seek death.
They'll want to commit suicide and will not find it.
They will desire to die and death will flee from them.
The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle.
On their heads were crowns of something like gold.
Their faces were like the faces of men.
Now I want to stop here before I go any further because so many,
well this is John is now describing helicopter gunships
and things like that, modern military armour and you know,
the machine gun stuff. No, no, no, this is demonic.
He is describing demons. He's not describing man made
engines or weapons or anything like that because otherwise you,
you just, you're missing what's happening here.
On their heads were crowns of something like gold.
Their faces were like the faces of men.
They had hair like woman's hair. Their teeth were like lion's
teeth. They had breastplates like
breastplates of iron. And the sound of their wings was
like the sound of Chariots with many horses running into battle
so loud, just just with their their their vision of them
horrifying with the noise of them terrifying.
And they loose this 10. They had tiles like scorpions
and there were stings in their tiles.
Their power that's repeated was to hurt men five months and they
had as king over them the Angel of the bottomless pit.
We know who that is. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon,
but in Greek is the name Apollyon.
Now notice it says they're like locusts, but they aren't actual
locusts. The average lifespan, by the
way, of a real locust, it's interesting, is five months.
These demonic creatures have a limited period in which they can
wreak and God has allowed their havoc five months.
During this time, verse 10, they swarm an attack.
And if you've ever seen, most of us have seen on TV the plagues
of locusts, plagues of locusts. Remember in Egypt, plague.
They swarm with so many and they overwhelm men with their
numbers. It's horrific, but it says that
they will not harm the remaining grass, so they're not like us
nor trees. Verse 4.
So Satan's agenda, he's, he's given command, He's the king of
these. Satan's agenda for these demons
is to inflict pain on the unsaved people of the earth.
So they sting people. Verse 10.
And with that sting, it brings such agony and pain, but they
are not given the authority to be lethal.
So you feel the pain, but it won't kill you.
But you want to die. This 5.
Now remember in the book of Job, God laid out to Satan, as he
kept on saying, well, yeah, Job, he's, he only worships you
because you protect him and you give me food and you bless him.
But you let me have a crack on him.
He'll, he'll turn on you. I remember God has that
discussion with Satan. God laid out to Satan the
boundaries that he could reach in Satan's attack on Job in the
Old Testament. And Job was not allowed to take.
Sorry, Satan was not allowed to take Job's life.
He removed his children, lost his wealth, sores, agony,
everything, couldn't kill him but these demons.
Chapter 9 Revelation let out of this pit have a specific target
group selected who they alone will attack.
They'll only attack these. They will not touch or attack or
go near this for any of God's people who were sealed by God.
Who were they? We learnt that they are the
144,000 Jewish servants we read about in Revelation Chapter 7.
Now a good question that comes up here and I cannot answer it.
This is well. What about the non believers who
get saved during sorry the other people who come to the Lord
during that I don't know. That doesn't tell us.
But I do know for certainty that the 144,000 who are sealed by
God can't be touched. The agony and the pain from
these demonic creatures on as they sting unbelievers is so
brutal that people will seek death, suicide, to kill
themselves to escape the pain they enduring.
But here's the here's the kicker.
Death will not be able to be had by any of them.
So you'll be stung by a demon agony.
You'll take a gun, put it to your head, blow your brains out.
You'll not die, you'll only suffer more agony.
You'll throw yourself off a building, fall to the ground.
You'll do all the damage to you. You still won't die.
Death. You know, death for, for, for us
is is is the Christ, what he's done with it.
He's taking the sting and the power out of death for us,
doesn't He? And death, you know when you are
ailing. If I'm inflicted and I visited
many and many a person who was dying of cancer and illnesses
and things and I just wanted to go home to be with the Lord, and
death is, Oh yes, let me stop being in agony and the Lord let
me go, take me. And so death is also a blessing
in that sense for us, but for these people, as they try and
commit suicide in every, every possible way, drink poison,
won't make any difference. You'll suffer from what you're
doing to yourself. You'll only add more pain and
affliction to yourself. But you will not die for that
period. There's six in those days.
Men will seek death, will not find it.
They'll desire to die and death will flee from them.
So this provides something also. It's a there's another picture
here, a snapshot of what eternal judgement will be like for those
who ultimately reject the gospel of Jesus Christ and his
forgiveness. It's not going to be I'm sitting
in hell just quietly knitting. There's gnashing of teeth,
there's torment. You remember the story of rich
man or Lazarus runs over on the outside with Abraham's in
Abraham's bosom being comforted the other guys.
I'm saying, oh, man, you can just send a drop over man.
Just. I'm thirsty.
Yeah, because you've, you've rejected he.
You can quench your thirst. Can he just put a drop on my
lips? Well, this is a snapshot of what
it's going to be like for eternity for every man and woman
who rejects Jesus Christ. It's not a pretty picture.
But also let me say at this point, because everyone's going,
wow, man, that's, that's pretty tough, Pretty rough, isn't it?
I mean, wow, how could God do that?
Well, here's the deal. None of this is God's desire.
God didn't want to do that. He never created this place for
humanity. In Ezekiel 33 verse 11, the Lord
says, say to them as I live, says the Lord God, I have no
pleasure in the death of the wicked, but my heart's desire is
that the wicked turn from his way and live.
That's why John 316 is in the Bible.
For God so loved the world. This is what I'm going to do.
I'm going to give my son. To die for you so you can.
All you have to do is accept it, but I won't force you.
This is for the people who've gone not interested, don't want
it. Matthew 2541 as Jesus spoke of
the judgement Day, he said then he will also say to those on the
left hand, depart from me. You cursed into the everlasting
fire, which was originally prepared for the devil and his
angels. But every Sinner who rejects
Jesus and God's offer a forgiveness of sin.
You see, when you reject, you go.
Well, yeah, but I'm still making up my mind.
Now when you reject, you're either Jesus said you're either
for me or you're against me. There's no.
Oh, well, I'm still making up my
mind. It's not neutral.
Can't be. Was it Switzerland that was
neutral during the war? There's no Switzerland in the
Bible. Either for me or you're against
me. And Jesus says every Sinner who
rejects Jesus and God's offer of forgiveness of sin chooses
Satan. You've made your choice who will
follow the devil into the same eternal judgement.
You reject Jesus Christ, you are choosing Satan.
And notice Satan. And here's the weird part too
that people don't realise is carrying out his suffering on
who? On his own Unsaved followers?
The ones with the mark of the beast?
Ones who worship the Antichrist? The lawless one?
How often people who reject Jesus Christ and his gospel
speak foolishly of their looking forward to partying with all
their friends and help. Well, when I get there, well,
just yeah. But the reality is Satan seeks
to cause pain. That's his job.
That's what he wants to do. Grief, torture.
To all that choose to follow him.
Follow him. He'll kill you.
This is in direct contrast to what Jesus promises every
believer, those who follow him. He says, I will lead you to a
place where there's no sickness, no sorrow, and no suffering.
The exact opposite. We're told by King Solomon that
earthly locusts have no king. Now Solomon was the world's
greatest botanist. The Bible tells us that Proverbs
30 verse 27, the locusts have no King Solomon said yet they all
advance in ranks. But these demonic creatures in
Chapter 9, do they have a king? We see in verse 11 they had as a
king over them the Angel of the bottomless pit whose name in
Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.
Both names mean destroyer. So as soon as I say that, who's
that? Tell you who it is.
The demons king is Satan John chapter 10 verse 10 The thief
does not come except to to steal, to kill and to destroy.
Verse 12/1 Woe that's just one woe is past.
Behold 2 more woes are coming after these things.
Then the 6th Angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four
horns of the golden altar, which is before God now.
So see where the commands, what's what's happening here,
where it's coming from, saying to the 6th Angel who had the
trumpet, blow your trumpet. This is the sequel.
Now release the four angels. So they're fallen angels,
they're bound up, they're evil who are bound at the great river
Euphrates. So the four angels who had been
now here's another thing. This isn't just all haphazard
and God, God do this, do this. This is planned.
This is judgement planned. That's why throughout the Bible,
you'll see as we go on, the angels and others will say, you
know what, God just you just did.
That was that was the exact right judgement.
It's exactly the right thing to do.
He says release the four angels who abound at the river
Euphrates. So the four angels who had been
prepared planned for the hour, day and month and year.
How specific is this? We're released and now I read
this to kill 1/3 of the remaining of mankind.
Some more demonic angels here as they have been bound and are
about to be released. And the review phrase is an
interesting situation here. The location for We are reminded
that Euphrates was one of the four rivers that flowed out of
the original Garden of Eden. Genesis 2 verse 14.
This was the area, the location where the first ever lie was
recorded. If you eat that, you won't die.
Go ahead, eat it. It was the location where the
first murder was committed. Cain killed his brother Abe.
It was the location where humanity said we're not
dispersing, covering the earth. We're going to stay here, we're
going to look after ourselves. Let's build a tower.
And so the four angels who had been prepared for the hour of
the day and the month were released to kill 1/3 of mankind.
Verse 16. Now, the number of the army of
the horsemen was 200 million. I heard the number of them, 200
million. That's phenomenal.
Thus I saw the horses in the vision, those who sat on them.
Now he's going to describe what he sees.
Had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, sulfa yellow.
The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions.
Out of their mouths came fire. I've heard many people say,
well, these are tanks. He's just describing tanks.
I don't think so. By these 3 plagues 1/3 of
mankind was killed by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone
which came out of their mouths. For their power is in their
mouth, in their tails, for their tails are like serpents having
heads, and with them they do harm.
So a second army in this next trumpet is now being assembled
to intact. Who?
The inhabitants of the earth, Earth dwellers.
Remember the first army was an army of demons like locusts,
scorpions. Now, here's the point.
I used to say, well, this is everyone and many people.
It's China. It's the 200 million, you know,
because they have an army. It's like, I can do that.
Now I kind of wonder about this because as I read this more
carefully, especially in particular, we learned about
what those creatures were that came out of the pit.
My opinion is this, these are demons.
Again, this is a demonic. These are creatures like the
world is never seen. But it doesn't matter whether
it's an army of demons or a real earthly army.
What does matter? Whichever way you choose, the
real point is that this army, 200 million, will kill 1/3 of
mankind. Another third of all that's been
taken. When the 5th trumpet sounded,
people were desperately trying to die, but they could not do
so. However, when the 6th trumpet
sounds, death returns with a vengeance, and a third of them
are taken out. Now, the deaths that have
occurred from the seal judgments, the beginning of this
trumpet judgement, equal over half the world's population.
So that's 8 billion. That's 4 billion will have been
killed to this point and we are only that's minus also those who
have gone up in the rapture. I don't know how many that is
and we're only midway through the tribulation period.
We have less than 4 billion people on the earth.
One and every two there's 20 but the rest of mankind.
So not all were killed who were not killed by these plagues.
Notice did not repent of the works of the hands, that they
should not worship demons and idols of gold, silver, brass,
stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.
And they did not repent, says again, of their murders, of
their sorceries, of their sexual immorality or their thefts, the
fact that over half of the world's population has been
raptured or killed, or that 144,000 Jewish evangelists are
proclaiming the only message of hope.
All hell is literally breaking loose on the planet.
And that still has had no effect on those who haven't died as
yet, except what? To harden their hearts even more
so it tells you the type of person that's left that hasn't
been received Christ. It's interesting when God looked
upon the world in Genesis and he saw that man's thoughts were
what continually evil how many made it out of that entire
number living 88. So here we finish off with this.
Those that are left non believers rejecting the true and
living God because you can repent at any time they continue
in their worship of demons. Satanic worship will be at an
all time high pledging themselves to Satan.
How taking the mark on the forehead or on the right hand.
And so the first two commandments of the 10
commandments are broken. Second one, it says they won't
repent of their murder. It's the violation of the 6th
commandment. How will the government itself,
led by the Antichrist people will go around squads, you name
it, however they work it and hunt down everyone who's refused
the mark and murder anyone who follows Jesus.
Those others who are killing one another will be what?
It's the law of the jungle, fighting for survival.
You want something to eat days, you know, days later for a loaf
of bread, nowhere to drink to survive.
You don't care. It's animalistic but it says
here also sorceries and that's the Greek word pharmakeia where
we get our English word pharmacy.
So we see a lot of this, a lot of the crime that occurs in WI W
Australia is because people are high loaded, doing erratic
things, running into shopping centres and taking knives and
doing things all sorts of like that.
Well, drug use, we think it's bad now or drug, drug use will
spike beyond unbelievable and there will be rampant drug use,
Pharmakeia, sorceries during that time.
But worse still, worse still, sexual immorality.
It says here sexual immorality and that word that John writes
here in the Greek is the word pornea.
When we get everything pornographic pornography.
And so we think we live in a sick, sick world.
Now, how often do we read in the paper we go, how can look what's
going on? Now look, look at this, the
number of people that are involved in Child Exploitation
and crimes. Now that you think, how could
that how could they do that? Well, the Bible tells us how
they can do that. It's demonic.
And the last one, it speaks of thievery, thieving, no food, no
water. Everyone's going to be stealing
whatever they can get their hands on.
So such horrendous news. But let us remember God remains
in complete control. He is issuing out how far, how
long, who can, who can't. His will is being done.
You can't mock a holy God. How often have you said, you
know, I don't know why people get away with it.
And haven't you thought of that? You, you know, you see trials
and you know, well, this person has killed someone and they get
away with their right. Well, guess what?
No, that's what the Bible says. God says vengeance is mine.
No one gets away with anything against the holy God.
Whatsoever man, so so shall he reap.
And God is bringing judgement day now the church during this
whole time, thank the Lord, is safe in heaven.
Paul says we can comfort one another with these words.
At this time. We're worshipping God, preparing
to return with Jesus to set up the millennial Kingdom.
Revelation 19 All the wrongs in life.
God through the tribulation period will be made right.
Every score settled. Vengeance is mine, says the
Lord.