Revelation chapter 9, I forgot to plug in my tablet.
I realize that at 5.10, 5.15 today, where all my sermons are.
So I charged it for however much I had.
It gave me about 20%.
Luckily for you folks, I can just wing it if I have to.
In chapter 9, we are continuing this section on the 7 trumpets.
We started this a couple weeks ago.
Last week in particular, we were really focusing on that 5th trumpet.
This is a very confusing section of Revelation.
We are on trumpets 5 and 6.
We'll get to 6 tonight maybe.
But trumpet 5, and we spent all of our time last week talking about that 5th trumpet and
what's going to happen.
But since it is a confusing section, we need to recap a little bit.
So just follow along kind of.
I won't read every verse.
But just remember that when the angel blows the 5th trumpet, you see this star that's
going to fall.
So we have a star and it's falling from heaven in order to unlock open the bottomless pit.
And what comes out of the bottomless pit do we remember?
Locusts.
We get some locusts coming out of the bottomless pit, but these are special locusts.
They're not just locusts.
So let's backtrack.
This falling star, remember it didn't refer to it as an it.
It referred to it as a he.
So who did we say the falling star is?
Everybody remember?
Yeah, so that's Satan.
And so Satan goes down and he is given the keys.
So remember Satan has no authority of his own.
He has no power of his own.
It's granted to him from God to open the bottomless pit or the abyss, whatever your translation
says.
And he unleashes these locusts upon the earth.
Now what was special about the locusts?
They're not literal locusts.
What are they?
Demons.
That's right.
Good job guys.
They're demons, right?
We learned this last week.
You look at the descriptions and they're not literal locusts because, I mean, just look
at how they're described here.
They're not literal, but they're the swarm of demons that are coming out.
And I don't know how to draw this, but with the locusts, something like this, that's a
smoke.
It looks more like a smog cloud.
Called to be a pastor, not an artist.
Just trying to help.
So this smoke also rises with the locusts.
And we said that this is a spiritual aspect here.
The smoke is darkening things, right?
So like when a room fills up with smoke, you can't see anything.
Your eyes hurt.
You have to shut your eyes.
So the smoke that comes with these demons, they are darkening the minds of unbelievers.
Because remember, the locusts demons, they only target unbelievers.
They don't touch any Christian.
He says only those who do not have the seal of God on them.
So anybody who's not a Christian, they are targeted by these locusts demons.
And the smoke comes with them.
And that smoke is darkening the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the glorious light
of the gospel of Christ.
So they are keeping people in spiritual darkness.
Now we'll elaborate on that in a second, but here's my question to you.
You remember why it was appropriate for the Bible to describe these things as locusts?
Because you're looking at these, you're like, okay, well, it's got the face of a human,
but it's dressed like a horse ready for battle.
And it's also got women's hair and a tail like a scorpion.
And yet you look at that, I would never describe it as a locust, but the Bible does.
Why is it appropriate that they're described as locusts?
Anybody remember?
What's the locust eat?
They eat what?
A harvest, right?
Locust eat a harvest.
They're destructive animals that come to the harvest fields to destroy them, to eat them
up, right?
Well, do you remember what Jesus said?
When he looked out at the world, he said, the what is ripe for picking?
What did he say?
The harvest is plentiful, right?
The harvest is plentiful.
The problem is we don't have any laborers.
So Jesus looks at the world, he sees this great big harvest and he says, all right,
it's ready, you know, go out and pick it.
And at the same time, Satan sends his demons to the same harvest.
And so you have one thing, I'm not going to take the time, but let's just, let's pretend
these are the harvest fields, okay?
These are the harvest fields.
And you have two groups of people who are simultaneously headed for these harvest fields.
You have the Christians who were called to go and reap the harvest for the Lord.
And at the same time, you have these demonic forces sent from Satan to go and destroy the
harvest before the Christians get there to take that which the Lord would have as his
own.
So that's the situation we're dealing with.
And we're saying that these demons are being unleashed.
They're coming with them, this smoke, these fogs.
And they have these, these tails.
You remember the tails?
They're like scorpion tails and it stings people.
And we were saying that it's not like a physical harm because when the, the locusts from trumpet
five or release, they're not killing people.
They're tormenting people.
And we said it's this psychological, spiritual, mental, emotional torment that they're experiencing.
And they're, the, the torment is such that they long to die.
Do you remember that?
They look for death.
They're seeking death.
They want to die.
But the ironic part was what?
Death escapes them because we learn actually they're afraid of it.
And that's what we see in our world so often is that people are depressed.
They want to die.
They don't want to keep on living.
And yet at the same time, there's this great irony that so many people who want to die
are afraid of death.
And it's exactly what the Bible is saying here.
They're seeking death.
They long for death, but death escapes them.
And so we see that they're just tormenting all of humanity.
And so what you're seeing here when the smoke rises with them is that you see all the effects
that are present in our world today.
Remember what we said, you know, this is something that you can actually see today.
For instance, yeah, disinformation.
That keeps people in the dark.
A couple of examples we said last week is, you know, I was thinking about a gay pride
rally, gay pride parade, people marching in supporting these this this thing that the
Bible calls an abomination is literally sin that's being celebrated.
And I was saying, when you see that, the Bible says what you're actually looking at is a
swarm of locusts, a whole horde of locusts that have descended upon the earth to destroy
the harvest of God and to keep people in darkness.
Yeah.
Name the sea.
Right.
That's a prime example.
When you look in the world and you see other things like like, I mean, even the education
system, which we've gone on about before to with what they're teaching, what they're
not teaching, what they're putting in pushing today, that's the smoke coming from the abyss
that keeps people in spiritual darkness and keeps them from seeing the glorious light of
the gospel.
That's literally what you're seeing there.
I mean, when you see people who are like marching for abortion rights and things like that,
or you see these gay pride parades where I've told you before, there was this this trans
parade going on and they were literally saying, we're here, we're queer, we're coming for
your children, just chanting it.
And you look at that and if you're looking at that and you you're looking from a worldly
perspective, you say, OK, I may or may not agree with it, but you know, to each their
own.
But as a Christian, you're like, there's the swarm of demons.
Those are the ones coming from the abyss.
They're here on earth.
They're a destructive force.
They're coming to the harvest fields and it's distorting what people are understanding today
and keeping them in spiritual darkness.
And so this is stuff that we're already seeing in our world today.
It doesn't look like a locus like you would imagine.
But remember, as we started Revelation, we said that Revelation is a picture book that's
trying to give us a new way to view reality through the lens of God.
And so it's not just like, OK, we're going to dissect everything.
It's like learn to view the world in terms of a story in a picture book where there are
actual evil forces present in our world today that are seeking to do real harm in this world.
And so the question that I want to pose is we're starting going to get into verse seven
here in a second is when does all this occur?
So all this that we talked about, when does it occur?
Happening now?
OK.
I would agree with you 100%, Doug.
Here's my question because there are those who would disagree with me, which is fine.
We've said the whole time through Revelation we can disagree, but we all love Jesus.
So that's what matters.
Is there a way to prove from this passage that this is already taking place right now
today, apart from me trying to give you real world application examples based on my understanding
of the text?
Is there a way to actually look in this passage and say this is happening now?
It started a long time ago, I would argue, in the ministry of Jesus and continues to
happen today.
Can you do that?
How so, Doug?
OK.
Can anyone point me to a verse in chapter nine where you say this is a pretty key indication
that this is already happening, that this started a long time ago, it's happening today?
I'm going to give you, it's not a hint, it's just an answer.
This is verse one say, the store is falling.
OK.
So let's talk about that for a second.
If this store is Satan, do we all agree it's Satan?
We don't have to all agree, but I think pretty consensus would say it's Satan.
Now it falls, here's my question, has Satan already fallen from heaven?
Happened a long time ago, right?
I mean in Jesus' ministry, right, when the apostles are coming back and they're like,
oh, this is amazing, we did this and did that, and Jesus says, I saw Satan falling from
heaven like lightning.
It happened a long, long time ago, so if the fall of Satan has already happened, and it
says that after this store falls, he opens the abyss, I think there's a clear indication
in the text that this started a long time ago and continues today, and I argue it will
continue on until Jesus returns.
It will only get worse as we're going to see as we go through out revelation, but it started
a long time ago.
It continues to this day, because let me just remind you, Satan is not in heaven.
He's here on earth.
I feel like we forget that sometimes as Christians, don't you think?
I mean we walk around like everything's all fine and dandy, like the greatest enemy of
God, who's ever existed, isn't just walking around the earth somewhere, the Bible says
he's prowling around like a lion seeking someone to devour.
He's here on earth probably not easily.
He can only be in one place at one time.
Maybe Washington, D.C.
I don't know.
He's somewhere, but he's here on earth, not in heaven.
He's already fallen, so I would say that this is happening now, and we're going to learn
more about this in chapter 12 when it really talks about what Satan is up to during this
time between Jesus' ascension and his return.
But what we're going to learn from chapter 12 is one of the main things that he's doing
is he's going around trying to cause as much trouble as he possibly can until Jesus returns.
He knows that he's a defeated enemy.
He knows that his kingdom will never prosper.
He knows that he's been defeated, and so he's just trying to cause as much trouble as he
possibly can until Jesus returns.
One of the ways that he does that is by unlocking the bottomless pit and unleashing this swarm
of demons on the earth to torment people, to destroy the harvest of God, and try to thwart
the plans of God.
The question is, well, how do we recognize these demons?
This is where I want you to start looking at verse 7.
How do we recognize these demons?
If you see something that looks like this.
Verse 7, in appearance, the locusts were like horses prepared for battle.
And their heads were what looked like crowns of gold.
Their faces were like human faces.
Their hair, like women's hair, and their teeth like lion's teeth.
They had breastplates, like breastplates of the viron.
And the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing
into battle.
They have tails and stings, like scorpions.
And their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails.
They have a king over them.
The angel of the bottomless pit, his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek is a polyon.
And so I think this description that you see here, it goes to further prove that these
are not literal locusts.
Locusts, I don't know if you know this about, they don't have tails.
Just one thing, but these do.
So they're not literal.
Also locusts usually have human faces and hair like women's hair.
So these aren't literal locusts, but you have to understand what's going on here is under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, John is seeing this vision and he's trying to communicate
it the best he can.
Because you know sometimes something happens to you or you see something or experience
something and it's just hard to put into words.
And so oftentimes what you do is you relate how you feel or the impression that something
left on you rather than a literal description.
So if you went to like an amusement park, you might not describe every ride, but you
might say, man, I had the time of my life.
I had so much fun while I was there.
You focus more on the impression that you had of the thing rather than all the details
of the thing itself.
So for instance, I mean just look at something like the tails, right?
It's not a literal tail of a scorpion, but like scorpions, these demons have the ability
to inflict terrible pain on others.
So John isn't saying, hey, these things, whatever they are, they have these literal
tails.
He's saying these things, like a scorpion, have the ability to inflict a lot of great
pain on other people.
And you might be thinking, well, why does he say it's a tail?
Well, that's how they did things back then.
It's how we still do things today, right?
If I were to tell you, hey, my buddy, he's got a silver tongue.
Anybody in here think that my buddy actually has a silver tongue?
No, what am I saying?
He's a smooth talker, right?
I mean, this guy, he's like, and I actually do have a friend in mind.
He does have a silver tongue like that.
Or, you know, what if I said that this other guy, no, he's got a fork tongue?
Does he actually have a fork tongue?
No, I'm saying he's deceitful.
He can't really be trusted with the things that he says.
I mean, we do this all the time, silver tongue, fork tongue, heart of gold, cold shoulder,
cold feet, sweet tooth, all ears.
I mean, we do this with body parts all the time.
Are we literally saying this person is just all ears?
No, he's a good listener, right?
That's what John's doing here.
He's using something that he knows from his world like a scorpion sting and saying, those
things hurt and have the ability to inflict pain.
And these things, these demons, they do as well.
So it's metaphorical.
And he does this with all these descriptions, right?
So they're like horses prepared for battle.
Why?
Because this swarm of demons is here to wage war on humanity.
That's how you would describe it back then.
If your primary means of going into war was a war horse that's battle armored on it, you'd
say, okay, whatever this thing is, the swarm of demons, they're ready for war.
They're kind of like horses like that.
You go on and you see they have these golden crowns.
What would that be trying to communicate, you think?
Golden crowns, yeah, that's good.
So he sees golden crowns because these things, these locusts have been given the authority
to go and harm humanity.
So they're representative of the authority they have to go and inflict this pain and
this torture upon humanity.
And then notice this, these locusts, demons, they also have human faces and hair like women's
hair.
What would that be trying to communicate?
Yeah, that's right.
So we said this a couple of weeks ago, but if you were to ask Hollywood, what's the devil
look like?
They're going to draw like a red guy with some horns and a fork tail and a pitch fork
and everything.
That's not what he looks like.
Or if you were to ask us, hey, what does a demon look like, we might draw a monster of
some kind.
And John says, actually, I'm looking at these things, they've got human faces and some
beautiful hair.
No, no, no, no, no, not like that.
Not like that.
But like Michael said, basically the idea is these things look like everybody else does.
They're hard to distinguish.
We've got this idea of a monster and so as we're going in our lives, we're thinking as
long as I don't come in contact with a monster as I typically think of one, I'm good.
And John's saying, actually, these demons are here present on earth and they could look
just like we do.
You could be interacting with one.
That's right.
You could be interacting with one and they could be seeking to cause you the type of pain
that we read about here.
And to torment you and cause you all sorts of psychological, mental and spiritual torture.
And then he goes on and he says their teeth are like lions teeth.
And that's a way of pretty much communicating the idea that the destructive nature of their
mouths, basically they use their words to kill and inflict spiritual, mental and psychological
pain on others.
I mean, you would say that this person, he uses his mouth for evil to cause pain for
others.
So their teeth, they're like lions teeth in that regard.
And again, he says, talking about the breastplate to show that they're ready for war and battle
and the scorpion tale is a way to talk about the fact that they're here to inflict this
pain on other people and cause them great torment.
And we learn that they are under the authority of another, right?
It says that there is a king over them and that king is the angel of the bottomless pit
in his name.
In Greek is a polyon and in Hebrew it's Abaddon.
And both these names, I mean, just roughly translated into English, they would mean destroyer.
So it's really cool right now, I'm getting to read the Pilgrim's Progress with my oldest
son, the one who's pitching the temper tantrum earlier.
And it's a kid's version of the Pilgrim's Progress.
And so it's a picture book and everything.
It's one of my favorite stories.
And we're getting to read it.
And the other night we got to the section where Christian, the main character, encounters
a polyon who's a dragon in the story.
And Christian is coming from the city of destruction.
And he learns in that moment that the dragon, a polyon, is the king of the city of destruction
because he is the destroyer.
And so Judah was thinking it was so cool to see Christian fight this dragon and slay
him and all this kind of stuff.
And I was like, buddy, do you know that's in the Bible?
And he's like, what is in the Bible?
So we got to have a really cool story about that.
But both of these are just references, again, to Satan.
These are names that would be associated with Satan.
And what's interesting is, in particular, if you look there, the word Abaddon.
So you'll find that all throughout the Old Testament.
And what's interesting is Abaddon, in the Old Testament, it normally refers to the place
of death.
So it's kind of like a similar case to Sheol, the place, the realm of the dead.
So Abaddon, all throughout the Old Testament, it refers to the place of the dead.
And so what you have here is this terrifying picture where, in the mindset of those who
are reading this in the original languages, it looks like death has come to life.
The place of the dead has now been personified in this person.
So you have Satan here, who is the king of the abyss.
And the terrifying picture is, as you finally are introduced to the king of the abyss or
the king of the bottomless pit, and he has this name that refers to the place of the
dead.
And what's coming from this place is death personified.
And coming with him is a swarm of demons that are come to inflict and torment humanity.
So this terrifying picture is what we're met with here.
And I just want to remind you that as they're coming, the only people who are safe are those
who are sealed by God.
And so we get into the sixth trumpet, and I want you to start looking there at verse
12.
We'll read through this pretty quickly.
The first woe has passed, behold, two woes are still to come.
The sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden
altar before God saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, release the four angels
who were bound at the great river Euphrates.
So the four angels who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year
were released to kill.
So notice there's a progression.
We're going from torment to now we're killing a third of mankind.
The number of mounted troops was twice 10,000 times 10,000.
I heard their number.
And this is how I saw the horses in my vision, those who rode them.
They wore breastplates, the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur.
And the heads of the horses were like lions heads and fire and smoke and sulfur came out
of their mouths.
By these three plagues, a third of mankind was killed by the fire, the smoke and the
sulfur coming out of their mouth.
For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails.
For their tails are like serpents with heads.
And by means of them, they wound.
The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works
of their hands, nor did they give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze
and stone and wood which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders
or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
So I want you to notice how this woe here, it's very similar to the Horde of Locus, right?
You have another group of beings coming out this time, horses with riders on them, and
they have been given the right, the ability to unleash three plagues upon humanity, and
by these plagues a third of humanity will die.
And like the Locus, the horses' power is in their mouths and in their tails, and they
use them to inflict pain and suffering and now death upon humanity.
So we can get bogged down in the details, but since it's so similar to the Locus, we
don't need to.
What you need to focus on is verses 20 and 21, because notice what happened, right?
Verses 20 and 21, that's the important part to focus on.
The plagues are supposed to in some way be a warning to the rest of the world.
The demons unleash these plagues and they cause unbelievers to die, and the rest of
the world is meant to see what happens to those who do not repent of their sins, who
do not trust in Christ, and they are to respond with repentance and faith, but what does the
Bible say happens here?
It says the rest of the world, even after seeing what will happen to those who do not
turn, they refuse to turn from their sins and trust in Christ.
They refuse to give up worshiping false gods and idols.
They refuse to repent of all of their sins.
They see what will happen and yet they continue in their sinful ways.
That's the part you've got to focus on, because that's the part that's mind blowing, is it
not?
I mean, no one else would do this, right?
If you see people reach, imagine the first person who ever sees a fire and the guy just
reaches his hand in there and you're watching and immediately the dude gets burned.
Are you going to go and stick your hand in there at that point?
No.
You're going to be like, okay, I saw what happened.
That's not for me, right?
I didn't look fun.
I don't want any part of that.
You learn from what happens to other people, but you see the world here.
You see the unbelievers here.
They see what happens to those who die apart from Christ and yet they do not turn.
They continue to deny God.
And so here's what I want you to take away from this.
As we look at this, the first thing I want you to notice is that God takes sin very seriously.
I know that we tend to downplay it.
We can be lax on sin, but God is not.
God hates sin and he will leave no sin unpunished.
If he leaves even one sin unpunished, he is not a just God, right?
No sin will go unpunished.
And so these verses, when you look at the horrific consequences of your sin and remaining
in your sin, it should call you to repentance, to turn from your sins, to stop taking them
lightly, to stop playing around with them, to put your sin to death in your life and
then to turn to faith in Christ because this swarm of demons, as we've already said, they're
already on the loose, right?
They're coming for each and every person who is not sealed by God.
And that should cause us to see how terrible sin is and the consequences of that sin.
Listen, it's only going to get worse because they think that's bad, then you die and guess
what happens then?
Then comes the judgment and then you stand before the Father and you see the Son and
the Son says, I never knew you.
Depart from it.
Denies you in front of the Father and then you go into eternal torment and you never
get used to it.
You know how sometimes you get used to pain?
In hell you never get used to it.
It is eternal torment, nonstop for all of eternity.
That's what this passage is warning us of.
But then my call to the Christians tonight is to reap the harvest before it's destroyed.
So this passage should help you see the consequences of sin, the severity of sin, but then there's
an urgent call here for Christians to get active because you look at this passage and
you see that the Lord has already said, hey, the harvest is ready.
I just need some laborers.
I need some people who are going to go and reap the harvest.
And at the same time you see that Satan, the enemy of God has said, we can get there first.
He sends the swarm of demons out to the harvest fields to try to get the unbelievers before
they can be converted to Christ and receive his seal.
And so the question is, well, who's going to get there first?
It's a call for Christians to wake up and realize that there are literal actual people
who are going to be attacked by these demons unless they have the seal of God.
And God's means of securing the harvest fields and reaping the harvest is his followers.
We talk about all the time, well, what happens to those who never have a chance to hear the
Gospel?
There's actually going to be a great podcast episode on that, releasing next week if you
want to listen to that.
But what happens to those who never hear the Gospel?
And what gets me is I'm saying, people will look at that and they'll go, well, God's
unjust, God's evil because he sent people to hell who had never even had the opportunity
to hear.
And I'm going, God's not evil, Christians are lazy.
It's not God's problem.
He already came up with a solution.
Did Jesus not say go and make disciples of all nations?
He's told us what to do.
He's given us the Holy Spirit.
He's given us the Gospel.
He's given us our calling orders.
God's not at fault here.
It's us.
The problem is we don't actually have a heart for the lost.
We don't actually have that burden to go and reach them.
We just sit back and say, hey, I'm going to heaven, so what does it matter to me?
There's a call here to say, get up, get active, go tell people about Jesus and get the Gospel
out there because there are people who are going to die in their sins apart from Christ
and this is the fate they will meet.
There's a harvest out there, church.
It's ready.
The question is, who's going to get there first?
That's all we got for tonight and that's all my tablet has for tonight.
Michael Stevenson, give us a word of wisdom as we close.