Bug Off - Revelation 9:1-12

[0:00] Revelation chapter, I keep wanting to say chapter 20 because we're in Exodus 20.! Revelation 20 because Revelation 20 is so amazing.! Revelation 20 is so amazing. But it's Revelation 9. We'll get to 20 someday. Someday.

[0:11] So chapter 9. If you remember where we were, if you back up in chapter 8, and we read there verse 13, the last verse of chapter 8 of Revelation. I beheld and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth.

[0:28] By reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound. And it's not woe, woe, woe, because a bunch of people wearing cowboy boots. But it's woe meaning a primary exclamation of grief.

[0:40] It's something that is not good. It is very bad. So there are these three woes, and they will coincide with these three trumpets that will be taking place. The three woes specifically, where they fall out.

[0:53] So Revelation 9.1, we're going to read tonight, is the first woe. And that will end in 9.12. It will say the first woe has come to an end. The second woe then begins in verse 13 of chapter 9.

[1:07] And it will go all the way to chapter 11. Chapter 10 is kind of like an interlude. And then, but 11.14 is where the second woe will end. And then we're going to see that it's not until Revelation 12 that the third woe picks up.

[1:24] And as we saw last time, they're very well founded, because up until now, we've had all of these judgments that were coming upon the earth, but they weren't necessarily directed specifically at man.

[1:35] Man was involved in them. Man was very often the cause of them, or not the cause, the instrument. God was the cause, but the instrument. But now we're going to see they're very much so directed at man.

[1:48] We're going to see one third of the earth's population being wiped out. That's what's left of the population after all those wars, famine, and pestilence, and earthquakes.

[2:00] And then now, whatever's left, we're going to see a third is going to be wiped out. And God is making very loudly known for all the world to hear what is taking place here.

[2:10] As he says, the angel flying throughout heaven, letting the inhabitants of the earth, the inhabitants of the earth, those that dwell, that are settled in the earth, and God's judgment is trying to unsettle man from this earth, to unsettle them to where they will repent.

[2:27] So, if you look at the end of chapter 9, and look at verse 20 and verse 21, we're not going to break those down in depth tonight. We're just going to go through the first woe. But they kind of are very instrumental in understanding the chapter.

[2:43] So, verse 20 says, And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands. They should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk.

[2:59] Neither repented they of their number, of their murders, I'm sorry, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. Interesting. Murder, and fornication, and theft, murder, adultery, theft, it's like, always seems to be together in the Bible.

[3:16] I've never noticed that until we've gone now through that in Exodus 20, that those three things very much coincide. So you think, hey, I'm just stealing something. Well, before you know it, you know, you'd be in one of these other two things.

[3:29] But the whole point there is what? Repentance. Repentance. Judgment must come. It will come. But it's not, doesn't necessarily need to come upon all. Right? We are all under judgment, but we all don't have to come under the effects of judgment, because Jesus already did for us.

[3:45] The point here still in God's judgment is not to destroy man. It's not even like, well, I'm going to bring my wrath upon man. Well, God's wrath is coming upon man. But the desire is for repentance.

[3:56] For you and I, who have repented, we are not going to see this, right? This is Revelation 9. We're long past Revelation 4, where the church is caught up to heaven. For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.

[4:11] He has not appointed us to what? Wrath. Well, I don't know if it really means that. No, it means he's not appointed us to wrath. We back up in 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 10.

[4:25] But we are to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. Have we experienced, has the world experienced the wrath we're reading about in Revelation 9?

[4:37] No. That means it's what? Still to come. What did the Bible just tell us? Well, we're not going to experience that. We're going to be delivered from the wrath, which is to come, to wait for his son from heaven.

[4:50] Who are we waiting for? Waiting for Jesus. You know, I think sometimes we can focus on, there's going to be a lot of creepy things that we're going to read about tonight. And we can focus on, what is it?

[5:01] What's it supposed to be? I mean, when we read about the description of these things, what are they? Are they technology? Are they just straight up demon manifestations? And I think we can get so focused on that.

[5:12] And we can focus on, well, we're seeing signs and wonders. We're seeing wars and rumors of war. We're seeing earthquakes and all of these signs coming to pass. And we get so focused on that. Well, we're not going to experience wrath. But it might get really, really, really bad before Jesus comes.

[5:26] Well, I'm not going to focus on that. Because the Bible says I'm delivered from wrath and I'm to look for Jesus who's coming from heaven. I'm not going to spend my time trying to figure out all this other stuff that I'm not going to be here for.

[5:37] I'm not going to expect that Jesus said, hey, I'm going to deliver you from wrath. Look for me. I'm coming to get you. Oh, oops. But I'm going to make you go through a really, really hard time of pre-tribulation, two years of stuff.

[5:48] I'm just going to take the Bible as it says. You know, if you've been around me for any length of time, you know that I like inductive Bible study. And it's essentially the other word of saying studying your Bible.

[6:00] There is no other way to study it. You observe it. You interpret it. You apply it. What does it say? What does it mean? Then what does it mean to me and the you and to the rest of the world? But the more I study my Bible, I don't think it's O-I-A.

[6:12] Observe. Oh, yeah. Observe, interpret, apply. I think it's O-O-O. Observe, observe, observe. The more I observe it, it's like I can't apply it.

[6:22] I can't interpret it unless I can observe it. How do I know what that scripture means I'm observing? Well, I'm going to observe some other place in scripture, which is going to interpret that for me. How do I know how to apply that to my life?

[6:34] That interpretation I've just observed. I'm going to find another place in scripture where God's going to tell me, this is how you apply that to your life. The more I study scripture, I'm finding it's just observe, observe, observe.

[6:45] And God will just take the rest and take it from there. So when it says, when I observe that it says that I'm going to be delivered from wrath, that I'm to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, that's what I'm going to do.

[6:58] How do I interpret that? I'm going to interpret it according to what it says, not what I see around me. How do I apply it? I'm going to apply it by living a life that way. So tonight we're going to see some interesting creatures.

[7:11] They're called locusts. So we're going to tell them to bug off. So the point of woe is not to wreck man, but to waken man. God is trying to wake people up, right? The rapture has happened.

[7:22] And he's gone through all of these different judgments. And now it's getting to this point where man has to choose. Is he going to repent or is he going to suffer what this world has never yet suffered?

[7:34] So verse one of chapter nine, And the fifth angel sounded. And John says, And I saw a star fall from heaven under the earth. And to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

[7:47] So this would be our fifth trumpet now. We've had our first four trumpets. We go into the fifth. And we're going to see here the first woe also take place.

[7:59] And the first, the fifth trumpet is the unleashing of the demonic horde. And the first woe is literally hell on earth as we get into this. But I like here where it says that this key that he has, it was given.

[8:12] It was not taken. There's a specific time, a specific place, and a specific purpose for this to happen and for this to take place. It was given. It wasn't taken. But as we go into these next three judgments, the trumpet judgments, we can look back and we can see how the first four trumpet judgments and the first four seal judgments, if you remember, they're very earth focused.

[8:37] You had things falling from heaven. You had the trees being destroyed and you had the water turning to blood. And it was very earth focused. The last three seal judgments, they're very heaven focused.

[8:48] If you remember, you had the signs in the heavens. Well, these last three trumpet judgments, we've had earth focused. We've got heaven focused. They're going to be very hell focused. And the last three judgments of that fall under the trumpet judgments are going to be very much a focus on or a releasing of hell on earth.

[9:09] It's going to look very chaotic. It's going to look very out of control. But God's judgments are never in chaos. It may be chaotic, but it is not chaos.

[9:20] It's not outside his control. It's not outside of his plan and his timing. So it goes through this and you see it's very, very specific timing, very specific events happening that are given to specific entities to do certain things.

[9:34] It's not almost how we picture that, you know, Armageddon is just all hell breaks loose. Well, yes, all hell is going to break loose, but all hell is still under God's control.

[9:46] Judgment is an ordered events that are foreordained and foretold by God. A judgment of God is a foreordained event. It's been foretold by God, but it happens in a specific time and sequence.

[10:00] All of God's judgments happen in a specific time and sequence. All of God's judgments have been foreordained and foretold. None of them will be a surprise. God, you didn't tell us about that one. No, he told us about all of them.

[10:12] They're all in there. And the fifth angel sounded and he saw a star fall from heaven under the earth. And to him was given this key. And what does the key do? It opens the bottomless pit.

[10:23] When the Greek, that's the abusos, or I think I might've said that right. It's not, it doesn't sound how it's spelled. It's Greek. It's like abusos. At least that's what it was when I clicked the little speaker in the blue letter Bible.

[10:37] And he said, you know, Strong's G, whatever, abusos. That's why I'm going to believe him. This word comes up other times in scripture.

[10:47] It's not just in this place. If you remember when Jesus had cast out the demons into the pigs, before that, in Luke 8, 31, they besought him and said that he would not command them to go into the deep.

[11:03] That is the same place, the same wording, into the abusos. Do not send us into the bottomless pit. That's what that word is. Peter will write about this bottomless pit. In 2 Peter chapter 2, he's talking about the angels that fell.

[11:19] In verse 4, he said, For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. The same place where he's sending them.

[11:31] Those angels that fell. Jude also speaks of this and of the angels that are there. Jude chapter 1, verse 6, Now to be reserved unto judgment and unto judgment of the great day, I think it could have two meanings.

[11:55] One, reserved unto the judgment of the great day when God will judge all things. And two, reserved unto the day when God will use them in that great day of judgment, as we're going to see today in the world.

[12:07] Where is the bottomless pit? I don't know. So it was the center of the earth, because if you fall, you just keep falling, you know?

[12:19] And if you've seen Star Wars and Luke gets his hand cut off and he falls, and then he's like, bottomless, there's no end to it. I don't think it matters. It doesn't matter where it is.

[12:30] What matters is that it is. It is a place. There is a bottomless pit. We're not told where it is, but that it is. It is very specifically. And there are those that are reserved there into judgment.

[12:42] And here, the shooting star, you know, the fifth angel sounded and he saw a star fall from heaven. Is it a fallen angel? I don't think so. It seems to be doing God's bidding.

[12:53] It's being given this key to unlock it. So it's the shooting star. It had a key that unlocked hell. It's going to release the angels that are bound there, bound for judgment, to be used in judgment and ultimately to go to judgment.

[13:07] But we have a key. Do you know that? We've been given a key that unlocks something as well. It doesn't unlock the bottomless pit, but it does unlock heaven. This angel is being given a key that will unlock hell and release these angels for judgment.

[13:21] We have keys that will unlock heaven and release souls that are bound for hell. Jesus says in Matthew 16, verse 19, he said, I'll give unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

[13:34] You know, when you first get those keys to the car, you can finally drive. And he's like, oh, man, these are my keys. You know, if you're a girl, you fill them up with all kinds of things that aren't keys to go along with them.

[13:45] Right? If you're a guy, you usually want as small as possible so it can fit in your pocket. You know. Jesus says, I'm going to give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

[13:57] Whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. What does that mean? That we can go off into some crazy kind of doctrine about naming it and claiming it, binding and loosing. No, we have to observe the text.

[14:08] What's he giving them the keys to? The kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven. What is loosed for heaven on earth? Souls.

[14:20] Souls are loosed for heaven. There's nothing else on this earth that's loosed for heaven. No amount of wealth, health, and materialism. No amount of success. It's not loosed for the kingdom of heaven.

[14:32] Only thing loosed on this earth is souls. We have the authority based on God's word to be able to say to someone, you are loosed on earth and you are loosed in heaven because you have put your faith in Jesus Christ.

[14:45] We have the same authority to say to someone, if you don't put your trust in Jesus, you are bound on this earth and you are bound in heaven. You cannot be loosed. We have those keys. We have that authority. The key that was given, it fits a lock.

[14:59] Very specifically for this guy here. Fit the lock to the bottomless pit. The key that we have fits the lock to the hearts and souls of men. But it must be used. There's no point for it to be given.

[15:10] If this fallen star here or this shooting star had the key and never used it, what good is that going to do? It's the same with us. We're given the key, but if we never use it, what good is that key going to do?

[15:23] If this fallen angel, fallen in whatever sense he is, is faithful to use what he was given, how much more should we be using the keys we've been given? How much more should I be willing to unlock the key to someone's heart?

[15:35] Now, again, I can't do that, but I have the key. I can at least offer it. Say, hey, this can loose you from what you're bound with. And he opened the bottomless pit in verse 2, and there arose a smoke out of the pit.

[15:50] And the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. So he does what he's told to do. Sometimes it can be a scary thing to open something like this, knowing that as he opened this, that he's going to bring this judgment on the world.

[16:04] Knowing that it's going to bring pain and suffering and death. Sometimes the things that are bound in our lives that God wants to unlock, they do the same thing. It can bring pain. It can bring suffering.

[16:15] It can bring death. But for us, death always leads to resurrection, right? We crucify the flesh so that we can receive that resurrection. But he opens this.

[16:27] And we see that the spiritual now, the spiritual world, is being very clearly seen in the physical. This is very different than anything we've ever experienced or the world's ever experienced. This bottomless pit's open and a smoke arises out of it.

[16:39] And it's darkening the sun. There's no escaping the fact that you and I, reality, the reality we live in, is not what we experience materially or physically.

[16:52] Reality is not temporal or material. It's spiritual and it's eternal. And the reality of that is something man is constantly trying to hide themselves from. Because if I accept the fact that reality is eternal and spiritual, it means there's an accountability that goes with that.

[17:10] John would tell us about this world, this temporal, material world. In 1 John 2.17, he writes and says, The world passes away, and the desire thereof, the lust thereof.

[17:21] But he that does the will of God abides forever. So our reality, it's not temporal and material. It's eternal and it's spiritual. 2 Corinthians, we quote this one all the time, it seems like.

[17:38] 4.18, Paul writes, While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. So we look at things we don't see. It's kind of like Sunday. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

[17:50] But that's where my focus is. For the things which are seen are temporal. For the things which are not seen are eternal. And here we have the spiritual very much crossing over now into the physical.

[18:03] In a way that this world's not really experienced before. For those who seek to delve into the forbidden. For those who seek to figure out what's beyond and what's in the other realm.

[18:15] And if only we could break through into these other powers in the world out there that thinks there's something to be found in that. They are going to get their wish. But what does it lead to? It leads to greater darkness.

[18:27] The sun is darkened. The air is thick. Not greater illumination like they think and like they hope. There's a greater darkness that comes with this spiritual awakening.

[18:40] John chapter 3. John writes about Jesus coming into the world. And he says in verse 19, And this is the condemnation. That light is coming to the world. And men loved darkness rather than light.

[18:53] Because their deeds were evil. For everyone that does evil hates the light. Neither comes to the light. Lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that does truth. Comes to the light.

[19:04] That his deeds may be made manifest. That they are brought in God. That's a privilege we have. Don't ever let the enemy or your guilt or whatever keep you from coming to the light. The privilege of coming into the light.

[19:15] As God shines on our life and says, I'm in Christ. The light shining on my life makes manifest the fact that my deeds are wrought in God. Remarkably.

[19:26] Amazingly. Brings greater illumination. And so there came out of the smoke. And so you have the smoke coming up out of this pit. And there comes out of the smoke locusts upon the earth.

[19:37] And unto them was given power. As the scorpions of the earth have power. Very interesting. Locusts. Big giant grasshoppers. Seen videos of locust swarms.

[19:49] I would never want to be in a locust swarm. But locusts, the word means that which devours. The locust is a devour. Devours everything in its path.

[20:00] Everything it can eat. Everything green. Locust is that which it devours. Locust is one of God's creatures that he reserves for judgment.

[20:11] Hail and locusts are each reserved for judgment. Where have we seen locusts in judgment recently? Anybody remember? Maybe. Exactly.

[20:22] Back in Exodus chapter 10. And Moses came and Aaron unto Pharaoh. And they said unto him, thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Just like we said at the beginning.

[20:33] They would not repent. They would not change their mind. How long? Let my people go that they may serve me. Or else, if you refuse to let my people go.

[20:46] Listen. Listen. What's bound on earth is bound in heaven. Pharaoh, if you're going to refuse to unbind your heart. All right. Behold, tomorrow I'll bring locusts into your coast. And they shall cover the face of the earth that one cannot be able to see the earth.

[20:59] And they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped. Which remains unto you from the hail. And shall eat every tree which grows for you out of the field. Locusts.

[21:09] The devourer. Scorpions are also spoken about in scripture. Luke chapter 10. Jesus says, behold, I give unto you power to tread on the serpents and the scorpions.

[21:23] You know what serpents and scorpions have in common? They both inject venom. They both inject poison. I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.

[21:35] And nothing shall by any means hurt you. Is he talking literally about stomping at scorpions and serpents? No. He just, he told us what it is. If we observe it and over all the power of the enemy.

[21:48] So when you see a snake in your yard, it's not the power of the enemy. He's likening it to that. Saying, yes, the serpents and scorpions of the enemy. Because they come and they inject their venom. Luke chapter 11.

[22:00] Jesus is speaking of the Holy Spirit. He said, if a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

[22:11] Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion? No, he's not going to give him something like that. If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more?

[22:22] Will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? Contrary, he's not going to give you what? Something that's going to inject poison. It's not going to be something harmful. A scorpion injects poison through its tail.

[22:39] Through a syringe-like stinger. It's very interesting. We're going to get over here to the end of the chapter. And we're going to see this word in Revelation for the first time. They repented not of their murderers nor their sorceries.

[22:50] And the word sorceries there in the Greek is pharmakia. Same place we get pharmacy. Or like drugs. Right? They did not repent. Pharmakia is the practice of man seeking to take into himself that which alters his state.

[23:06] I'm not saying anything from the world in the medical industry that you inject into yourself or medicine that you take is necessarily evil. But it is pharmakia in the sense that you are taking something to alter your state.

[23:22] There have been many amazing and wonderful advances in medicine because of people who put their faith in Christ or those that have acted upon the truth of God's order in creation.

[23:36] Accepting the fact that this is how God has made bodies. And then learning about that and then using that to bless people. But don't take at face value the fact that the world says, oh, we're here to help you.

[23:49] And then they want to alter your state. According to what? Right? We want to be good Bereans. We want to understand the word. But, you know, Paul says, hey, I do not want you to be ignorant of the times and seasons that you're in.

[24:02] And as we get closer to the end, the times and seasons are there's going to be more scorpions and there's going to be more serpents that are going to be popping up in our world. And we have the authority to tread on them. We don't have to allow them to inject us.

[24:13] We don't have to allow their poison to come in. Scorpion injects poison through his stinger. Neither repented they. Again, the point here, God desires man to repent.

[24:28] However poisonous a physical poison may be, however poisonous it may be for to receive that venom from a serpent or from a scorpion or whatever your views may be upon like modern medicine or whatever.

[24:42] We do not divide over that. But also there is a poison which is much worse. Much, much worse. Jesus talks about it in Matthew 15. Verse 11, he says, Not that which goes into the mouth defiles a man, but that which comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.

[24:58] But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts.

[25:10] There are again those three things together. False witness, blasphemies. That comes out of the heart. There's a poison. The poison of the heart is much greater than any physical poison that this world could inflict upon us.

[25:25] But even in this, what do we see here in this scripture? The enemy's power is not his own. The scorpions of the earth, it was given unto them to have power.

[25:38] It's not his own and it's not at his own disposal. He doesn't get to decide when and how he wants to use it. Where is a good example of that? Of the enemy being subject to God and God's determination of his use of his power.

[25:52] Turn to Job chapter 1 if you would. We're going to look at this because it's a little bit longer section to put on the screen. The enemy wants us to think that he's all powerful or at least really powerful.

[26:08] And that at any time, if he so chose, he could just come with all of his power against us. He could send those scorpions and those serpents. But in Job chapter 1, if we pick up in verse 6, we read that there was a day when the sons of God, that would be the angels, came to present themselves before the Lord.

[26:26] And Satan came also among them. And I just have pictured in my mind that you have all of them coming, like, you know, just lined up, ready, like coming to class. And then you got the one kid who's like, just kind of grumbling in.

[26:37] And it's Satan. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hey, bud, when comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it.

[26:51] Don't got anything to do. And Satan answered the Lord, if we've jumped down to verse 9 now. Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for nothing? Because God says, Have you considered my servant Job who's upright in all his ways?

[27:04] Has not thou made a hedge about him and about his house and about all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

[27:16] But put forth your hand now and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only upon himself put forth thine hand.

[27:29] So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. Okay, all that he has is in your power, Satan. All right, I'm going to go, but don't touch him. Oh, I can't do that. No, you cannot.

[27:40] God sets the boundaries. God determines this. The enemy's power is limited. It's not his to use as he sees fit. It's not even his own power. God has to give it to him. Very specifically, God is allowing that which has been withheld to this point.

[27:55] We see coming upon the world uninhibited interaction between the material world and the spiritual world. Between fallen angels and man, completely uninhibited.

[28:09] Well, that kind of reminds me of a time when that happened something like that before, but I think this is like something we've never seen. Remember, when we read there in 2 Peter that God spared not the angels that left their first estate.

[28:23] And Jude told us that they're reserved to judgment. Well, we read in Genesis chapter 6 that there were angels that saw the sons of God, the angels, the same ones that were presenting themselves before God and Job. They saw the daughters of men that they were pleasing to their eyes and they went down and they cohabitated with them.

[28:37] And it says, and were born these giants, these men of renown, these men of old. Where you had the spiritual and the material interacting in a very uninhibited way.

[28:51] We can observe that and try and understand that. And we can then see as we get after the flood, we can see throughout Judges when Israel is battling in the promised land.

[29:01] And there's other giants that are there. See, Goliath is a giant. Ah, the king of Bashan and others like that. But all that we know is what the Bible tells us. All that we have is what the Bible tells us.

[29:13] And that's all we can go on. We don't need to try and add anything else or take away from the Bible. The fact that God says he's reserved these angels means that they are not currently interacting with the world in a way that it seems they did at one time.

[29:31] So to try and infer that what was happening before the flood is going to directly happen again now, I don't think we can because of what the Bible says.

[29:43] We take the Bible for what it says. In the same way as we look at these, the visual representation that we're getting here of these demonic horde that's coming from the pits as their locusts.

[29:54] Locusts. Again, all we know is what the Bible tells us about their visual representation. However, the Bible is not validated by how these entities will appear.

[30:06] The Bible doesn't need them to match up with something in the manifest world. I don't need to try and figure out how this matches up with what's taking place today. Is it going to be locusts? Is that going to be drones?

[30:17] I don't know if you've ever seen a drone swarm. They're intense. And it looks like a bunch of locusts. And I don't know. I don't need to try and match that up. That's not going to validate or invalidate the Bible.

[30:30] It is the Bible that validates our experience in the manifest world and in the spiritual world. The Bible validates my experiences in this world and it validates my experiences in the spiritual world.

[30:42] I don't reverse that. I don't come and try and validate the Bible based on experience, based on how something's lining up that I think, well, this could be this. This could be drone swarms.

[30:53] It could be locusts. And this could be the Nephilim. And this could be, I don't know. And personally, I don't really care because I have enough of the Bible that tells me what I need to be doing. And what do we need to be doing?

[31:05] Looking for Jesus who's going to deliver us from this wrath to come. And it was commanded them in verse 4. So the fallen angels and the demonic horde that are being released from the pit, they're all under God's command.

[31:19] How sad that fallen man refuses to obey even in the face of such judgment. And yet all of these demons, they're under God's command, but man will not bring himself.

[31:30] And it was commanded them they should not hurt the grass of the earth. If what's left of it, if you remember, there's a third that was destroyed. So the two thirds that remains, they're not allowed to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree.

[31:43] But only those men which have not the seals of God in their foreheads. Remember Revelation 7? God said, hey, I'm going to seal them. Another angel came down and he said, do not hurt the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we've sealed the servants of God in their foreheads.

[31:59] How many were there? 144,000 that are sealed. These alone, out of all the earth, are untouchable, are sealed.

[32:11] This seal cannot be loosed. There's no key that the enemy has or that an angel has, no matter how great, that's going to unlock this seal. We have a seal that cannot be loosed either.

[32:23] We have a seal that no entity, no power, no demon can loose. In fact, God himself won't loose this seal because to do so would invalidate the cross.

[32:39] Ephesians chapter 1 verse 12, So for God to break that seal would be to break his what?

[32:59] promise. Well, we talked about Sunday how my faith is only as valid, is only as sure as the promiser. The promise is only as good as the promiser.

[33:11] So if God breaks his promise, my faith is invalid. But we have a seal that cannot be broken. And in the same way, these 144,000 will be sealed, that the enemy will not be able to touch them.

[33:25] So the enemy is given limits, and the enemy knows his limits. He's not going to go beyond this. Well, 144,000 I can't touch. Well, maybe just 143, and I'm just going to see if I can get that guy. No, 144,000 will be sealed.

[33:38] The enemy knows his limitations. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months. And their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he strikes a man.

[33:49] So the word torment is very interesting. It appears quite a few times in this verse. Torment, the idea, it means a touchstone, to test by touchstone. Touchstone was a black, siliceous stone used to test the purity of gold or silver.

[34:03] Or by seeing if he could streak, by rubbing it against the metal to see if it would streak on it or not. So here he's saying they will be tormented. They will be tested.

[34:15] They will see what they're made of, what their metal is. These entities will be allowed to give man a taste of hell, but they're not allowed to send him there. They will not die.

[34:26] You cannot put them to death. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but they should be tormented. So they cannot be put to death.

[34:37] They will give them a taste of hell, but they will not be allowed to send them there. How much better the temporary sting from a demonic locust than the eternal sting of death. For you and I, oh death, where is your sting?

[34:50] Oh grave, where is your victory? The strength, the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. Come right back to the law.

[35:01] But thanks be to God which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then Paul says this, God's about to give five months of grace here.

[35:28] Five in scripture is the number of grace. And God is going to give man five months to repent. Five months for grace. For grace. But we know from Revelation 9.21, And they repented not.

[35:41] And in those days shall men seek death and they shall not find it. The word seek there means to crave or demand. They will demand death. They will crave it. They will long for it.

[35:53] They shall not find it. They shall desire to die and death shall flee from them. There's two words there for die or death. Men shall seek death. That word there means to pass into the place of the dead.

[36:05] Get me out of here. I just want to be out of this life. The man today even thinks, Oh, my struggles and troubles are so hard. If I could leave this life, everything will be better. You think what that moment must be like.

[36:17] When they wake up in eternity, their heart stops here, their last breath. And then all of a sudden you realize in that moment, it's not better. And the second word to die.

[36:27] So the first one is to pass into the place of the dead. Let us pass into the place of the dead. The second is, and she'll desire, she'll crave to be separate from one's body, to die, to be separated from your body.

[36:39] If I can escape this physical torment, if I can escape this place, man is going to have a taste of what he's always wanted, what he's longing for. He's going to get the Holy Grail.

[36:50] He's going to get immortality for five months. The thing that he's craved, that he's demanded. But what does it lead to? Immortality leads to a desire for more death.

[37:02] It doesn't lead to life. It just leads to a desire for more death. Fallen man is already in a state of death. Immortality is not life. It is simply hell on earth.

[37:13] If man could obtain immortality, it would simply be hell on earth. See that before the flood, right? Why are there so few that believe before the flood? Why is it just Noah and the line of, you know, coming from Seth and down through Noah?

[37:29] Because if Adam and Eve, your great, great, great grandmother and grandfather, are telling you, kids, this is what happened. We're all going to die. And you look and you're like, yeah, but great, great, great, great, great, great uncle, Joseph is 860 years old.

[37:46] Nobody dies. Nobody ever dies. What are you talking about? There's no such thing as death. The only death that came was because, whoa, Cain killed someone, and then Lamech killed someone, and it was like a badge of honor, I guess, that we hold life in our hands.

[38:01] Immortality just led to hell on earth, and God was like, all right, we got to wipe this out and start over. Man has for so long tried to hide the existence of death. He tries to pretend death doesn't exist. Today we live in a world that doesn't want to acknowledge death.

[38:13] Death doesn't exist. We'll just pretend it doesn't. And now when he wants it, they won't be able to find it. It'll flee from him. That means to be safe from. Death will be held safe from man's grasp.

[38:24] I don't know what that'll look like. If people will run out into a street and a car will hit them, they'll still live, or if they'll want to do that, and they just can't, and God withholds them. They put the gun to their head, and they can't do it.

[38:34] They just cannot die. Hebrews chapter 2, we're told that man is in a state today where they're in bondage to this death.

[38:49] For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.

[39:02] So Satan, that's one of the powers God has given him, the power of death. So now we see when it says he's removed the sting from death, Satan's been defeated. And deliver them who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

[39:16] There's that key. There's that key that can unlock, can release on earth, and release in heaven. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

[39:29] And ultimately death in Revelation 20, this is in Revelation 20, verse 14, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast in the lake of fire.

[39:43] Man will long for death and it will be withheld them. But eventually death, even death itself, is cast into death. And now we see the shapes of these locusts, and they were like unto horses prepared unto battle, in Revelation 9 verse 7.

[39:56] And on their heads, where is the word like crowns? And their faces, where is the faces of men? Where it says the shapes of the locusts, that word means image, likeness, or figure. You see that in Romans 1, where it says that they changed the incorruptible God into an image made unto like corruptible man, and birds, and beasts.

[40:17] So the shape, the image, the likeness, the figure. It says their horses prepared for battle. What does that mean? Are they four-legged? They're equipped? They're ordered? I don't know.

[40:30] But we're going to see here this word like and as quite a bit in these next few verses. The repetition of like indicates something other than a literal description. The total impact of this picture is one of unnatural and awesome cruelty.

[40:44] What they look like is their like, their as. John is likening them. Not to creep anyone out or give you nightmares, but I love some of the renderings people come up with, like this is what they look. But it says like. So funny how people are like, I don't take the Bible literally.

[40:57] But then sometimes they take the parts that say it's not literal, and they try and make it literal. This is my favorite one. It looks like some like sci-fi thing, like attack of the Babylonian grasshopper men.

[41:12] But the shape is not nearly as important as the effect that they will have. It doesn't matter what the shape is, but the effect is quite bad. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions, and they had breastplates, as it were, breastplates of iron.

[41:30] And the sound of their wings was the sound of chariots, as many horses running to battle. That could be like a drone swarm. I mean, you think of those wings, could sound like running to battle. Breastplates of iron, are they armored?

[41:42] Again, the shape is not as important as the effect. I don't know. I don't know how the material and the spiritual world are going to interact in this time. I don't even know exactly how it does now.

[41:55] But I do know that we don't have to worry about that. We're going to see as we get to the end, our verse will end with, is greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. I don't care what shape it takes.

[42:05] Five months of misery will hopefully lead to an eternity of mercy.

[42:27] Five months of immortality, of hell on earth, of this absolute misery. Nobody will escape this. You're not going to hide from this. Nobody in their bunkers, or where it says the rocks would fall on us, where they go down into the depths of the earth.

[42:40] Nobody's going to hide from this. The 144,000 will stand immune. Imagine the suffering, and then you see this man, one of the 144,000. What do you think they're going to be doing? Ha ha, can't touch me.

[42:52] I'm immune. No, they're going to be ministering. You know what their heart's going to be. They're going to be like, hey, let me help you. Let me serve you. What are you doing? How come you're not getting hurt?

[43:02] Why doesn't it affect you? They had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue has his name Apollyon.

[43:17] King Abaddon means the destroyer, the destroyer king. I don't know who this is, but I got an idea. It's probably, my thought is it's probably Satan.

[43:28] I just can't picture him letting anybody else, tolerating anybody else being called king in the bottomless pit. King over them. He's the one who's king over them. But either way, it's the destroyer, and Satan is the destroyer.

[43:41] The thief comes not but to kill, to steal, and destroy. But I love God's word. God's word does not allow us to allegorize sometimes. You say, well, I wonder what this could be, you know?

[43:54] Well, or maybe it really is locusts. Maybe it literally is. Even though it said like, maybe it really is locusts. Well, you know, God's word tells us it can't be locusts.

[44:04] Proverbs 30, 27 says, The locusts have no king, yet they go forth all of them by bands. So this cannot actually be a locust swarm that's come upon the world and is decimating the crops and biting people.

[44:17] It can't. The Bible also said it's like and it's as, so we know it is similar. But how to observe God's word, to take the time, we'll find that God's word is sufficiently prepared for anything that's thrown at it.

[44:32] Whether we want to try and allegorize it or whether we want to try and make it into something that God's word clearly says it isn't. The locusts have no king. Revelation 9 is a good example of how the book of Revelation is sometimes wrongfully spiritualized in its interpretation.

[44:52] We can go the opposite way and we can over-spiritualize and we can allegorize and say, well, I don't really understand this, so I'm just going to make something up. There are some commentators who say that the star that fell is the word of God.

[45:02] The pit is human nature. And the lesson is that if the gospel is rejected, then horrors are unleashed. So some people say this means. But it's funny. They'll take the prophecies about Jesus' first coming and unto you a child is born and unto you a son is given.

[45:19] Behold, his name shall be called Emmanuel, wonderful God with us, the everlasting father. They'll take that literally. They won't try and allegorize that, but they'll get to Revelation and they'll say, well, we don't really want to accept this is going to happen, so we're going to do something else with it.

[45:34] The king of the bottomless pit today is active. And he's seeking today to normalize the abnormal. He's seeking to get people ready for this, that they'll receive this, that as this comes down the world, people won't be running in terror like, oh no.

[45:49] They'll think, all right, this is wonderful. This is a beautiful, remember you have the man of sin, the man of lawlessness. You have the Antichrist. This is part of you saying, yes, this is, this is all going to work to our advantage. My kingdom.

[46:02] We see that these demon locusts, demon locusts, whatever they are, they're ordained by God, ordered by God, orchestrated by God.

[46:12] And they are overwhelming. No one will escape this, but they are not out of control. Ordained, ordered, orchestrated, overwhelmed, but not out of control. This is all under God's control. And so one woe is past.

[46:26] And behold, there come two more woes hereafter. Why wait until the last minute? Well, you know what, I want to see what those other two woes are. But just before, you know, I don't know if I'm ready to make a decision for Christ. I mean, demon locusts might not do it.

[46:38] What's next? Why wait until the last minute? Man refuses to do the simple things that lead to life and healing. How often we refuse the simple things that will lead to life and to healing.

[46:51] Have you been in the word? Well, have you been in fellowship? Well, have you prayed? You spending time with the Lord? Well, but I'm struggling and I need help.

[47:04] Well, have you thought of maybe doing the simple things that will lead to your healing and to your life? For you and I, we're not going to be here for this. Praise God.

[47:16] How do we apply this to our lives today? Today, we have the authority to tell the enemy to bug off. We have that authority. We don't have to worry about demon locusts. I'm going to quickly go through some scriptures as we end this.

[47:32] That remind us and show us that we have the authority to tell the enemy to bug off. 1 John chapter 4. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

[47:49] How do we know? Well, hereby know you, the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.

[48:03] And this is that spirit of Antichrist. Whereof you have heard that it should come, and now already is it in the world. The figure of Antichrist instead of Christ.

[48:13] Alternative Christ is not here. But there are many things that are alternatives to what the Bible proclaims Jesus as. Fully God and fully man. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them.

[48:27] All those false spirits. Because greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. Matthew 16. In verse 17, Jesus answered and said unto them, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you.

[48:42] But my Father, which is in heaven, what was revealed to him, that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And I say unto you, you are Peter. And upon this rock I'll build my church. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

[48:53] No gate of hell or pit of hell. And I'll give unto you the keys of the kingdom. That whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

[49:06] Ephesians 6. Verse 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

[49:18] Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all, to stand. Nothing can come against that armor.

[49:30] There's no sting that's going to penetrate that. There's nothing that's going to rock us if we stand in that. We stand secure. Two more. 2 Corinthians chapter 10.

[49:40] For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty through God. Against all of those principalities and powers of darkness.

[49:53] To the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Great is he that's in us, and he that's in the world.

[50:07] We can stand against the enemy. We can cast down the enemy. And there is no weapon that's formed against us that shall prosper. Every tongue that shall rise against us in judgment, we shall condemn.

[50:19] This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. And their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. Third, we have the authority to tell the enemy, bug off.

[50:30] Bug off. And we have the keys that Satan cannot keep us out. He can't put a lock on someone's heart and soul and life that that key cannot unlock. The gospel can change a heart.

[50:44] Any heart.