Revelation 8-9 // A Look Behind The Scenes

we're in Revelation chapter 9 Revelation chapter 9 let's turn there and we'll pray before we get into it Revelation chapter 9 is like the weirdest chapter the Bible man well let's pray thank you again Lord for our time together thank you for your word thank you for the book of Revelation thank you for it's exciting to me but I you know I know it's scary at the same time there there are scary things coming on this planet and Lord as we're going through and looking at some of those things actually some of the weirdest things and here in Chapter 9 we prayed that you again would give us a heart for you number one a heart that looks up you said that when you when we see these things beginning to come to pass that we need to look up because our redemption is drawing near and so first off floor we want a heart for you and God obviously we want a heart for the people who are around us because we're not going to be undergoing these things but there are a lot of people on this planet that are and they needed an opportunity to know you and so God as we get into your word we pray that you would speak to us and that you do this all in Jesus name Amen okay last week we were we started the or actually we didn't start the four trumpets but we ended up in Chapter eight with the fourth trumpet and if you look at chapter eight verse 12 it says in the fourth angel sounded and a third of the Sun was struck a third of the moon and a third of the stars so that a third of them were darkened a third of the day did not shine and likewise the night and I looked and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven saying with a loud voice woe woe woe to the inhabitants of the earth because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound and so that's the end of those judgments one of one of the things that you have with the trumpet judgments is that they're basically divided up into two parts the first part of the trumpet judgments are the are the first through the fourth judgments and those are judgments on the earth on the trees on the grass on the sea on the rivers on the lights of heaven and when we get to chapter 9 it's all about mankind it's all a judgment on mankind and not that those other things aren't you know things that are affecting people obviously they are but the fifth and the sixth trumpet are specifically judgments on people who are in rebellion against God one of the things that I didn't do last week that I wanted to finish up with it talks about I at least I don't remember doing it you can you can correct me if I did it talks about the 1/3 of the Sun is struck and 1/3 of the moon and a third of the stars and obviously they're there it says that there's something like a mountain burning with fire that hits the ocean we talked about the effects that come from that one of the effects that comes from that is going to obviously be a huge amount of smoke and soot and that kind of thing in the atmosphere and so most likely it's talking about the fact that a third of the light from the Sun and from the moon and from the stars is not going to be able to get through to the earth because of the after-effects of the of the previous judgments but one of the things that I wanted to show you is the fact that in the Old Testament there are passages that are really scary that talk about destruction and actually problems with the earth on a cosmic scale and so just just a couple of them why don't you turn with me to Isaiah chapter 24 Isaiah chapter 24 because Isaiah Jeremiah lamentations Ezekiel after Psalms I think I think we talked about some of these passages when we were talking about the sixth trumpet but I just want I just want this to be in the in the front end of your mind Isaiah chapter 24 verse one it says behold the Lord makes the earth empty and makes it waste distorts its surface and scatters abroad its inhabitants and it shall be as with the people so with the priest as with the servant so with the master has with the maid so with their mistress as with a buyer so with the seller as with the lender so with the borrower as with the creditor so with the debtor the land shall be entirely emptied and utterly plundered for the Lord has spoken his word it's talking about the fact that the judgments that are coming are going to distort the Earth's surface and it's going to be worldwide and it's going to be all encompassing nobody gets away from these things and then if you look down in verse 17 it says fear in the pit and a snare upon you o inhabitant of the earth and it shall be that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit and he who comes up from the midst of the pit shall be caught in the snare for the windows from on high are open and the foundations of the earth are shaken the earth is violently broken the earth is split open the earth is shaken exceedingly the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard and shall totter like a Hut its transgression shall be heavy upon it and it will fall and not rise again in verse 21 it says it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will punish on high the host of exalted ones that's talking about angelic beings talking about this is time of fallen angels here and on the earth the kings of the earth so at the same time that he's punishing the kings of the earth in the same events he's going to be punishing the fallen angels they will be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit and will be shut up in the prison after many days they will be punished and that actually takes place after the second coming then look at verse 23 then the moon will be disgraced the Sun ashamed for the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before his elders gloriously and if you turn back to chapter 13 chapter 13 it says in verse nine now let's start in verse six the member the passage that we read in in Luke 21 where it talks about men's hearts failing them for the things that are coming upon them in this passage you have something that's that's pretty similar six whale for the day of the Lord is at hand it will come as destruction from the Almighty and again the term the day of the Lord is most often talking about in the Old Testament the Tribulation Period and so it's a it's a term that's used for God intervening in human events it will come as destruction from the Almighty therefore all hands will be limp every man's heart will melt and they will be afraid pangs and sorrows will take hold of them they will be in pain as a woman in childbirth they will be amazed at one another their faces will be like flames behold the day of the Lord comes cruel with both wrath and fierce anger delay the land desolate and he will destroy its sinners from it for the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light the Sun will be darkened and it's going forth and the moon will not cause its light to shine I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity and I will halt the arrogance of the proud and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold a man more than the golden wedge of Oh fear talking about depopulation and we're going to talk more about that as we get into chapter 9 therefore I will shake the heavens and the earth will move out of our place you understand what that means I mean if if God's actually doing this stuff you're talking about orbital shifts you're talking about changes in the orbit of the earth it's it's pretty intense I'll shake the heavens the earth will move out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of Hosts and in the day of his fierce anger it shall be as the hunted gazelle so when a gazelle is hunted what's happening to it it's being chased what's the earth gonna get chased by and we'll talk about that later and as a sheep that no man takes up every man will turn to his own people everyone will flee to his own land everyone who is found will be thrust through and everyone who is captured will fall by the sword and you know the passage goes on in any case there are a number of passages in the Old Testament that talk about these these kind of cosmic judgments that the Bible specifically mentions in Revelation chapter 8 and then also again in Revelation chapter 9 like I said Revelation chapter 9 is all about judgments on mankind and actually I believe it's kind of a look behind the scenes one of the things that we have in the Bible is the teaching that what we see physically is not all that there is the Bible talks about spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places in fact I'm going to I'm going to use that verse a little bit later on and talks about the influences that are taking place behind the scenes as far as influences on the people that we deal with influences on nations influences on government officials influences on the people who oppose Christianity opposed Jesus influences that come from that from the spiritual side and you know when when you look at that it's not just evil influences the Bible talks about the fact that there are good guys in the spiritual realm too and so we see angels and I you know I don't I don't know about you but you know I I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about what's going on in the spiritual realm I'm kind of you know I'm kind of more you know seated right here on the earth and I see what I see him and when I'm talking to somebody I understand that Satan is trying to influence them to not listen to what I have to say I experienced those things before I was a Christian in fact I've experienced those things after I'm a Christian anytime I am being told something that I know is true and I don't want to do I can see the III experienced the influences and there are voices speaking in my head I'm not a crazy person but there are voices speaking in my head saying don't listen that guy you don't have to pay attention anything that he has to say he doesn't know your situation he doesn't understand you he doesn't know you and all the excuses that come up and some of those excuses can just come from me but some of them are pretty well thought out there they're pretty well planned and they're pretty effective at keeping me from truth and one of the things that we know about Satan is that he's wise he's wise being beyond anything that we've ever experienced before he was the greatest of the creation the greatest creation of God when the when the world was put together and so he's not you know he's not some cartoon and he's able obviously to deceive people and so you know I can see that on a daily basis but you know I think that if God opened up the spiritual realm if he just gave us a peek into what's going on behind the scenes we would freak because the Bible talks about the angel of the lord encamps around about those who fear him why is the angel of the Lord and camping round about me why is that happening and the reason it's happening is because I'm under attack and so I like it that there are angels protecting me I think that's pretty cool but protecting me from what and obviously they would be protecting me from demons that's what that's what they would be doing and so if the whole thing opened up right now and I could see in the spiritual realm not only would I see angels around me very cool but I would see demons on the other side of them trying to get at me very not cool you know and in fact that could be very scary in a whole lot of ways whenever I whenever I'm talking to people about the Lord I know that those things are going on you know we goof around you know and the when the high school group did their their fund raisers they had a skit about shoulder angels and they had one of the guys you know climb up on top of Matt's shoulder and and whisper in his ear you know talking is ear you know it's like the whole angel on your shoulder versus demon on your shoulder and that kind of thing hilarious stuff it was just really hilarious but there's truth to that and so you know you have the Lord speaking to your heart trying to guide you in all true the holy spirit doing that but then you have the enemy trying to deceive you and so there's truth to that whole thing and so when I'm talking to somebody who doesn't know Jesus I can see if I'm if I'm there personally in front of them like they're on the other side of my desk for me or I'm sitting in a room with them I can see the play on their faces I can see what's going on and a lot of times when when I when I'm talking to them I am actually not responding to the things that they're saying I'm responding to what's on their face at the moment that I'm saying things and so I might be talking to them and I say something about Jesus will save you and you don't have to do it by works and then I see this look on their face and I go and this is why and I go into this whole thing on why works don't get you to heaven and why you'll never be good enough why Jesus had to do it for you because he loved you and then I see another play on their face and I realized that they got a problem with love or the enemy is sitting there speaking to him going love yeah what's love and then we can go in and talk about and I'll do that with people and a lot of times they think that I'm just like really you know like like really it's really wild how you knew what you know what's going on with me well the reason I know what's going on with them is because I know what goes on with me I have exactly the same questions I have exactly the same issues and I have that kind of face to when when when I'm thinking something you can usually tell just by looking at my face I don't hide things very well and a lot of people are like that in any case I know that there are things going on with them and I'm actually really thankful that God doesn't open up the spiritual realm to me because if I was watching the interplay I would be yeah I'd be more freaked out by that I just sit back and watch what's going on in any case you you have a look behind the scenes I believe in Revelation chapter 9 yeah at the end of verse 13 you have an angel your translation may have an eagle and you have that again in chapter 14 and verse 6 most likely you know there's there's you know there's some there's some trans trans missional issues with there with that but one of the things that we need to remember about the four beasts or the or living creatures that are standing before the throne of God back in Chapter four and five one of them had the face of an eagle right yeah and so most likely that's what we're talking about and that may be where the changes came in there in any case he says woe woe to the inhabitants of the earth because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound and so you have the three woes that are that are mentioned here and each one of these sections is going to be dealing with a woe there's a load of those who won't bow the knee there is a woe to those who worship demons and then finally there's the second coming of Christ which is going to be the end of anybody who refuses to follow after him and end to those who are the the ones who are called in the in the book of Revelation the earth dwellers there are those who have their citizenship in heaven and then there are those who are the earth dwellers and when you're when you're talking about what's happening in the book of Revelation revelation is all about Jesus is coming to get what he bought which is the earth and everyone in it and so Revelation book of Revelation all the way to chapter 19 is escrow we're going through the preliminaries of Jesus coming in and taking over the the real estate that he bought you have specific judgments in this passage on demon worshippers if you look at revelation 9 verse 10 or no it's not it's it's not that one excuse me 9 verse 20 it says but the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their 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 of their murders or their saw Suri's or their drugs depending on your translation or their sexual immorality or their thefts and so in this section you have specific judgments coming down on those who worship demons and again this is one of those things that when I first read the book of Revelation I was like who worships demons I mean we had some freaky movies you know back in the 70s so Rosemary's Baby was a was a freaky movie and it was all about the birth of the Antichrist and and and that kind of stuff and and then you had that movie with Damien in it and that was was all about the Antichrist and and those kinds of things but as far as people just worshipping demons and and things like that you know that's that's something that was pretty far from my experience except for a good a large portion of the planet does exactly that and so you have some passages in the Bible here's one this is in first Corinthians chapter 8 it says this therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no other god but one but even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth as there are many gods and many Lords yet for us there is one God the Father of whom are all things and we for him and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and through whom we live and so one of the points that Paul makes is that idols are really nothing they're just pieces of stone that kind of thing but when you get to chapter 10 same book same author when you get to chapter 10 he talks about the spiritual reality behind the worship of the pagans and in verses 19 through 21 he says this what am I saying then that an idol is anything or what is offered to idols is anything rather that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons you cannot partake of the lord's table and of the table of demons and in the context that paul is speaking about he's talking about worship in the temples in greece so this is in corinth and they would go to the temples to have feasts and when it's talking about eating at the table of demons or drinking at the table of demons he's talking about the gods that these guys are worship worshiping so we're familiar with them we're familiar with the gods like Apollo and and Zeus and and Aphrodite and all of these different gods we've heard of them and what Paul says about the this worship this pagan worship is that although the idols are nothing but stone what is worshipped when they're worshiping these idols is something that's real and so there are false gods that are trying to impersonate the God of the Bible there are false gods who are trying to take the place of the God of the Bible and this is not just talking about Grecian worship and it's not just talking about Roman worship you have the same thing in the context of Canaanite worship you have the same thing in the context of Egyptian worship it's all pagan worship that God deals with in fact you know the the the 10 plagues that were poured out on the Egyptians you know what they were designed to do there were plagues that were poured out on the gods of the Egyptians everything that was plagued in the ten plagues was something that the Egyptians worshipped and it started with the Nile they were worshippers of the Nile they worshipped bugs they worship you know they worshipped cattle they worshipped frogs they were you know and gods like you you like frogs I'll give you frogs and so they get frogs everywhere frogs and their beds frogs and their bedrooms frogs and they're in their dining rooms frogs in their ovens frogs everywhere God's like like frogs okay frogs frogs it is Bucky and out that you know they get all these things and so you and when you're talking about the darkness they worship the Sun and so God takes away the Sun from the Egyptians because he can just do that and again you have this constant revelation all the way through the Bible that when these people are worshipping their their gods they're worshipping something that's false something that's less than God something that's a demon it's still the case today and so when you go over to India for example 100 million gods that's one of the one of the the numbers that that I've gotten I got another number 200 million gods and I got another number 300 million guns I don't know how many gods the the Indians are worshipping the Hindus are worshipping I have no idea but it's a lot they have gods of everything and then you then you have people who worship trees and you worship you know their their pantheists they worship the stuff that's around them and a large portion of the world is in that position they think that there's a forest god they think that there's a tree god they think that there's a river god they think that there's all these different gods and what the Bible says is that the things that they're worshiping are demons in fact a lot of times when missionaries are going into places like this people are afraid to follow Jesus because they would be changing gods and they're afraid of the gods that they worship which is a you know that's just a perfect tactic if I'm a demon and I want to get people to worship me and I don't like them why would I try to show them love and compassion how about I just show them judgment and you know and if you don't do what I do you know what I want you to I you're you know I kill your family I give you diseases I do this I do that that kind of that kind of thing and just ruling people with fear in that sense and so again you have this all over the world when you're talking about the false Christian religions we were talking about Mormonism it would be exactly the same thing the Mormons are not worshipping the God of the Bible the God of the Bible is completely and totally different than what Mormons are worshipping and what they are worshipping is something that is more on the same level as Zeus than it is the God of the Bible Zeus had all kinds of children Zeus can get down to the earth and impregnated women Zeus said you know they had demigods and all of that kind of stuff and you have a lot of the same kind of nonsense and in Mormonism specifically with the birth of Jesus the God of Mormonism comes down literally has sex with Mary and so that is not biblical that is not something that you can get from the Word of God and so again Paul is talking about that that kind of stuff but that's kind of background to me that's like that's like you know you got people who are in darkness and some of them are just deceived like we've talked about and some of them just don't know in the sense that they need to be told about Christ they need to be told about the fact that there's a God who cares about him who loves them and he's the creator and and that whole thing there are people who need to have that put right in front of them it's not that they don't know because every one of the pantheist religions or every one of the even of Stone Age tribes that missionaries go to they always know that there's a God who's the Creator they are they call them the actually anthropologists call them the sky God and now what missionaries do is when they go into these these tribes the tribes will say well we have a God of the forest or we have a God of the of the of the rivers or we have a God of the mountains or we have a God of this they go tell me about the God who made everything and they always have a tradition of the God who made everything and then they always have a tradition that they've lost the knowledge of him and they're worshipping these lesser gods because they don't know the God who created everything and it's at that point that the missionaries will go well let me tell you about him that's who I want to talk to you about and a lot of times when you look at these traditions these these these mythologies the got the sky God the God who created everything has a son and they don't know him either and it's just really wild you know and so when people figured that out it was a pretty cool boon to missionary work you can read about that and in a book I always recommend this it's eternity in their hearts it's a book on specifically on missions in any case demons these guys are worship demon worshiping demons and the Bible teaches that when this stuff is taken place it's not just the stuff that we have going on here it's going to be actively promoted and that they're actually going to be worshipping Satan have have you noticed the the PR move on Lucifer lately have you met have you noticed all the the crime shows and all the you know kind of fantasy shows that put Lucifer as a main character and and they they try to rehabilitate his reputation and and that kind of thing have you noticed that and it's stuff that again you know when I was when I was a first Christian first a Christian nobody said stuff like that nobody did anything like that we we had we had a culture that even though it wasn't Christian it still had the leftovers from a Christian culture and the idea that you could take Lucifer and you could make him a hero or a sympathetic character was far from from the the psyche of the culture and now we've turned that whole thing around and people are saying that Lucifer got a bad rap from the Christians where the Christians get their stuff from Jesus so Lucifer got a bad rap from Jesus and that's a situation that we we've got at this point the Bible talks about worship of the dragon turn over to Revelation 13 Revelation chapter 13 verses four through eight it says so they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast beasts being the Anti Christ in his kingdom they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the Beast and they worshipped the Beast saying who is like the Beast who was able to make war with him and he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months then he opened his mouth and blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name his tabernacle and those who dwell in heaven that's an interesting phrase well we'll expound on that when we get to it it was granted to him to make war with the Saints and to overcome them and authority was given him over every tribe tongue and nation all who dwell on the earth earlier on I was talking about the earth dwellers that's what we're talking about here not everybody on the planet is going to do this it's all who dwell on the earth all whose home is the earth instead of their home being heaven all who dwell on the earth will worship Him whose names have not been written in the book of life of a lamb slain from the foundation of the world and in the previous chapter we find out that the dragon is literally Satan verse 9 of chapter 12 it says so the Great Dragon was cast out that serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world he was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him and so we got people who are worshiping the power behind the beast literally worshiping the dragon and so God begins to bring down judgments on these people who have taken the worship of God flipped it on its head and are actually worshiping the enemy of God once you go back to a chapter 9 I think that we've probably ought to read some of it and instead of me just talking about it it says in verse 1 then the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth to him was given the key to the bottomless pit and he opened the bottomless pit and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace so the Sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth and to them was given power and the Scorpions of the earth have power they were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth or any green thing or any tree but only those men who didn't do not have the seal of God on their foreheads and they were not given authority to kill them but to torment them for five months their torment was like a like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man in those days men will seek death 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 and their faces were like the faces of men they had hair like women's hair and their teeth were like lion's teeth and 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 they had tails like scorpions and there were stings in their tails their power was to hurt men five months and they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit whose name is in Hebrew is a baton but in Greek he has the name apollyon one wall was passed behold still two more woes are coming after these things and again you know like we like we talked about earlier these guys are actually worshipping the dragon they are ash actually worshipping Satan they are actually worshipping demons and so you know I was talking about the Egyptians and they worship frogs and so God goes you like frogs I'll give you frogs and he gives them frogs and in this case God's going you like demons I'll give you demons and he gives them demons and I think that that's literally what's going on here you know this whole thing with a with the worship of the dragon and specifically the worship of the Beast is a fulfillment of second Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 9 through 12 let me let me read that to you in that passage it's talking about the coming of the Antichrist and he says the coming of the lawless one talking about the Antichrist is according to the working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved and for this reason God will send strong delusion that they should believe the lie that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness and so when you see the world turning after Satan like literally going after the Antichrist Satan's men and making him the one that they want to worship the reason part of the reason that that's going on is because they refused the worship of God God offers himself to them and they go no don't want it and so God gives them over and he gives them over to false worship and the problem is that during the the Tribulation Period you know nowadays one of the things that God does with people is he offers them salvation he makes it clear to them that he loves them that he cares about them that he wants them wants them to be in the family wants them to have a life that's worth living and lots of people go no I don't want that and so they go back to what they were doing and a lot of times they get more into what they were before I'm talking about the debauchery and all the junk that that goes on the Bible says that they're that they're like a dog returning to its vomit like a wash Pig returning to the mire that things get worse for them when they've been presented with righteousness and they reject the righteousness and go back to go back to the world and so basically God presents the truth to people and when they don't take the truth many times what people do is they jump in full force into the world because they're running from God now and so that could be somebody who knew Jesus and walked away or it can be somebody who knows about Jesus and is not interested but they go full force into the world and in our situation going full force into the world is usually it's usually not talking about all this demonic stuff and I'm not saying that there's not demonic things connected with that we've already talked about that the spiritual realm but when you're talking about the tribulation period it is like literally God's you know putting lines in the sand and saying this is where I stand this is where you need to be you need to be on one side or the other and Satan is going full-bore trying to get as many people as he can and God is opposing that and so there is a clear distinction between being a follower of the God of the Bible and being follower of the Antichrist and it involves demon worship it involves Satan worship it involves man worship it is really intense and so it's not the kind of thing where a guy goes well you know I'm just Joe Sixpack and I watch it I like to watch football games and drink beer all day and beat my wife and so I don't want to follow Jesus it's not gonna be like that it's like you follow Jesus or you follow Satan you follow Jesus or you you go full-bore into what the Antichrist is doing and not only is God going to allow the Antichrist to come on the scene he's gonna allow this guy to do false miracles actually things that are so amazing to people that it confirms in their mind that this guy is something supernatural which he is he's somebody who's being specifically empowered by Satan and so that's basically when you're when you're talking about what's going on during the tribulation period that is basically the the situation with all of humanity God's taking as many people out as he can and he's making the the situation clear the options here are clear you either follow the God of the Bible or you follow Satan and there's not an in-between thing there's no mixing mixing up things there's no fogginess about this whole thing they literally worship demons and they believe it says in the passage the lie and that's how it's read in Greek they believe the lie so what's the lie and I've had lots of people come up with all kinds of things that they think are think is lie but this is what I think a lie is I think it's the first one it's the first one that's Satan used with Eve and it's in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 5 Satan said to Eve God knows that in the day you eat of it talking about the fruit of the knowledge of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil and ever since that point people have have been trying to make themselves gods the the the point that Satan was making with Adam and Eve is that God's hiding something from you he's and and God was he was hiding evil for but God's hiding something from you and it's something that you should be looking into and he doesn't trust you and you know all of that kind of nonsense when God was just protecting them and so when they ate from the tree what happened was they understand understood what evil was at that point because they'd never done anything evil before and it wasn't about the fruit wasn't magic fruit it wasn't a magic tree it was just something that God centered on to see if mankind would do what he said and he says you know buddy basically says this is the only command I have for you just don't eat from that tree everything else it's all yours you get the whole planet don't eat from that tree and she's hanging out by the tree Adams there too he's somewhere in the inn in range at that point hanging out by the tree and Satan uses that to corrupt mankind turn him away from turn away from the Lord and the temptation is that you're gonna be like God literally in Hebrew it says you'll be like God's knowing good and evil and lots of people will think that their God lots of people think that they're the Creator lots of people think that they have the God's Spirit within sight within him the Christ spirit within him and all they got to do is pull it out Marianne Williamson thinks this she wants to be president and you know lots of people are googling Marianne Williamson and stuff and that's that's part of her philosophy that God's within you one of my favorite things was oh I forgot what her name is who's the lady that was on the beach Bob Shirley MacLaine Thank You Mitch Shirley Shirley MacLaine was sitting on the on the beach in Malibu stretching out her arms it was it was in the in the movie out on a limb stretching out her arms saying I am God I am God I am God and it's like it's like this big crescendo in the movie and like you know this big revelation she's God and I'm just like Lady you don't even know what's 50 yards off the coast in the water you don't even know what you're looking at when you're when you're looking at the ocean and you think that you're God it's just ridiculous but it's going to come to the point where mankind is going to begin worshipping a man as a god and it's something that happened in ancient times and it's coming again it's coming again worshipping a man is God not only that worshipping Him but worshipping the power behind the throne Ephesians 6:12 says we don't wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places there's always a power behind the throne in behind the Anti Christ throne the power is Satan himself and so people are going to be worshipping the Anti Christ they're going to be worshipping the Beast who gives him its power and that's where the world's going to be when we get to Revelation chapter 9 so the first thing you see in this in in this situation is a demonic release you see in verse 1 then the fifth angel sounded back in chapter 19 and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit and he opened the bottomless pit and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace and so you know in the in the previous chapter we saw in verse 10 a great star fell from heaven burning like a torch and it fell on 1/3 of the waters and on the on the springs of water the word for star is a stir and it's where we get our term asteroid but to the Greeks it meant anything that wasn't a planet anything that wasn't the Sun anything that wasn't the moon and so a planet means wanderer and so that's talking about Mars and Venus and Jupiter and Saturn and all the planets that you could see naked eye and stars were everything else okay and so a star falling to the earth it's not talking about a star in the sense of our Sun is a star it's talking about something that's out in space and it's falling to the earth back in chapter 10 and you can see that because it explodes you know and you know a third of the waters are destroyed but when you get to this star in chapter 9 it has personal pronouns and so you have he him and I know that has implications in our culture you know he him they them you know all that kind of stuff that the politically correct people are doing but this is an indication that what we're talking about is something that's personal something that is a person itself you know we call people stars all the time and so people in Hollywood and so Tom Cruise is a star that kind of thing and this is a star fallen from heaven to the earth when we get actually we already read it in chapter 12 that Satan himself fell from heaven to the earth and most likely that again is what's being spoken about in this passage you have this whole thing with the pit and you know what I think I think I'm going to leave that until next week because I wanna I want to say you know I want to give you a couple of other things but there is this whole thing with the bottomless pit in the Bible first off its bottomless okay and so that's really kind of interesting to me from a physics standpoint how do you get to someplace that's bottomless yeah exactly yeah well you're in the core of the earth core of the Sun core of core of any planet if you if you if you carve out a like a globe shaped area in the core of anything that has gravity you have something that's bottomless because gravity is pulling you in all directions and all the directions around it's like literally bottomless and do you remember where Jesus said that Hades was he said that he's going to spend three days and three nights in the center of the earth and so I don't think that there's a big hole down and necessarily down in the center of the earth but I I do think that what God was doing what Jesus was doing was localizing where Hades is found and Hades would be something that's on a spiritual plane you know we talked about that before you know we're sitting here in the physical plane and there's all kinds of spiritual things going on around us and the Bible talks about a spiritual prison for the spirits of people who are have been in opposition to Jesus it's Hades well along with Hades Jesus said that there was a great gulf fixed in Hades there's a hole there in Hades and one of the things that you find is that throughout the Bible there are indications that there are demons that are specifically chained in that place now for the most part demons are just free Jesus calls Satan the Prince of the power of the air the guys you know going around doing all kinds of stuff and he's got all kind of demons buddies that are doing his bidding and and so that's who we're battling against when we're battling against satanic forces you've probably never met up with Satan yourself he's you know I don't think I have I think he's messing with somebody who's you know much bigger time than I am he's probably over in Washington DC whispering in people's ears there or maybe he's over in China dealing with a Christian who's way more intense than then I'll ever be in any case I don't think that most of us have ever really dealt with Satan himself I think that we're dealing with one of his demon buddies but they're free but there is a class of angels and like I said we'll talk about it next week that are not free and they're bound in chains of darkness the Bible says and it looks like it's this class of angels it's like the worst of the worst that are bound that it looks like a released at this point in human history and so it says verse 2 and he opened the bottomless pit and smoke around us arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace so the Sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit now we've just read in chapter 8 about a great mountain burning with fire casting in the sea and then a third of the day and a third of the night are darkened and I don't know if there's a commonality to this you know like like I was saying there is there are physical realities when we're dealing with spiritual things where we see people we talked to them we see them respond we see them not respond and we know that that there's spiritual stuff going on in the background Holy Spirit's convicting holy spear it's prompting holy spirits comforting demons are trying to dissuade them and turn them away that kind of stuff so there's a spiritual reality beyond the behind the physical reality of my conversation with anybody and I don't know if these things are not tied in together I think that there's a physical thing that's like a great mountain that slams into the ocean and the result of that would be smoke and it would blot out the Sun that's what the result would be it looks like there may be a spiritual aspect to that in this instance too it looks like maybe at the very same time that you have this this situation going where there's a smoke coming out up out of the pit and again the Sun and the air were darkened because of that and then it says out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth and to them was given power as the Scorpions of the earth have power and we already read this these guys have tails and they have tails like scorpions they had a sting on the tail and people are stung with these tails and so whenever I read stuff like this I just I just picture that whole thing and so big column of smoke going up and out of them comes something freaky and they're flying and they're like locusts and they come with stings on their tails we all know that locusts don't have stings on their tails locusts are grasshoppers basically that's what we would call them they're just nothing but grasshoppers and so these aren't normal grasshoppers and when you look at the shape of the locusts it says that they're like horses prepared for battle it says on their heads were crowns verse 7 of something like gold and their faces were like the faces of men they had hair like women's hair and their teeth were like lion's teeth that's freaky and these these things come along and verse 4 specifically it says they were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth or any green thing well that's what locusts usually go after and instead of going after the grass of the earth and any green thing they're only going after people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads and we saw that again in Revelation chapter 7 144,000 have the seal of God on their foreheads and most likely that's a reference to anybody who's actually committed there life to Jesus during the Tribulation Period they're given authority to kill them not to kill them but to torment them for five months is what goes on one of the things that that's interesting about locust season is it's five months long and so you have a demonic release you have this fallen star you have this smoke that comes up you have locusts that are coming out but they're weird locusts and again I think that this is something that's probably demonic turn with me and this is gonna be the last verse I give you Joel - Joel chapter 2 and if you have the anointed version it's on page 903 you have my exact Bible it's one of the minor prophets but in Joel chapter 2 actually I want to read in Chapter 1 Joel is all about a prophecy about a judgment that's going to take place on the land of Israel because of their disobedience and that judgment is foreign armies coming into their land and destroying them and God uses a picture of a locust swarm there's an actual locusts swarm that takes place and he says that the armies that are going to come in are going to be like a locust swarm and then he goes beyond that and says that the same thing is going to be happening during the last days and that there are armies good that are going to be coming to attack the Land of Israel if you look at chapter 1 if you're there in verse 6 it says a nation has come up against my land strong and without number his teeth are the teeth of a lion and he has the fangs of a fierce lion it says he's laid waste my vine ruined my fig tree as one of those passages that talked about Israel being the fig tree and he stripped it bare and thrown it away its branches are made white and so you have that picture there when you get to over to chapter 2 you you kind of go beyond what the the prophecy was during that day in it and it launches into the last days and in chapter 2 verse 1 it says blow the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in my holy mountains let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming that's how you know that we're talking about the last days passage because the day of the Lord is mentioned for is it is at hand a day of darkness and gloominess a day of clouds and thick darkness like the morning clouds spread over the mountains and so again you have a parallel in Revelation chapter 9 with the Sun being blotted out a people come great and strong the like of whom has never been nor will there ever be any such after them even for many successive generations a fire devours before them and behind them a flame burns the land is like the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate wilderness surely nothing shall escape them their appearances like the appearance of horses and like sweet Swift steeds so they run and so you can see that there's this is the revelation 9 passage is a reference to this passage here with a noise like chariots over the mountaintops they leap and so whenever I'm thinking of this passage I'm thinking of a locusts swarm because that's that's what's being being used as the illustration and so you got to think of these ranks of whatever they are coming towards you and when you look on the hills Mountains in Israel or Hills what we would call Hills when you look at the hills they're all coming over the top and they're leaping as they come over there just swarming down that's that's the picture that you get like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble like as strong people set in battle array before them them people rise in pain all faces are drained of color they run like mighty men they climb the wall like men of war everyone marches in formation they do not break ranks they do not push one another everyone marches in in his own column though they lunge between the weapons they are not cut down they run to and fro in the city they run on the wall they climb into the houses they enter at the windows like a thief the earth quakes before them the heavens tremble the sun and moon grow dark and the stars diminish their brightness the Lord gives voice before his army his camp is very great for strong is the one who executes his word for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible who can endure it now therefore says the Lord turned to me with all your heart with fasting with weeping and with mourning rend your heart not your garments return return to the Lord your God frees gracious and merciful and so this judgment has poured out on these people to get them to turn but it is a judgment and if we're talking about something demonic a lot of the stuff that's in here is pretty scary stuff so they come in and I've never seen a demon and if what God's doing is given a you know given people an insight into what a demon looks like in the sense that these guys are manifesting themselves that way well you you got you got something with lion's teeth and long hair and you know something like a crown of gold and it's going like a horse and it's got a tail that's swinging around and stinging and and it crawls in your window and you can't get away from it crawls up walls and you can't get away from it that's scary and again I think the the the chapter in revelation 9 is pretty is pretty well there's been people who have said that you know maybe what we're talking about is 21st you know century weapons system some people have said maybe we were talking about Apache helicopters or something like that and if revelation 9 is a reference to Joel chapter 2 I've never seen an Apache helicopter climb a wall going through a window or anything like that never seen anything like that and so I don't know could be it could be I kind of think it's probably more of God is like you like demons you like this whole worshipping Satan thing I'm gonna give you Satan and now you're gonna see him you're gonna see what goes on and this is how they decide to manifest themselves I'm Way over and so I'm gonna stop right there I'll pick it up next week and I'll tie some more things together and put it all together in a better package for you but in any case that is a lot of what I think is going on in Chapter 9 I think it's a I think it's a spiritual insight I think it's a look behind the scenes I think that God's letting people see what the demonic forces look like and with what they're doing and that kind of thing it gets really weird because people can't die for five months it's not they're prevented from dying it's they can't die it's not they're prevented from killing themselves it's they can't die for five months that's just weird so anyway that good I weird enough for you let's pray get you out of here thanks Lord again for your word thank you that we have a hope in Jesus and again Lord Jesus you said that when we see these things beginning to place take place we need to look up because our redemption is drawing near and Lord we we're just excited about the fact that you're coming soon and that we can see many of the signs of that coming around us already without even being in the in the period of time that the Bible talks about and so Lord we're looking for you we're looking for your Redemption we're looking for your work in our life and and we're looking for the fact that we're about to go home and you're about to wrap this whole thing up that's a good thing lord help us to have compassion on those around us that's a that's a better thing and so I just commend these people into your hands ask that you bless them Lord ask ask that you walk with them and ask that they become more like you as they're tied in with you and they're tight with you and we asked us all in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 9,176

Rating: 4.8518519 out of 5

Keywords: The End of the World in the bible, Truth, Jesus' Return, The rapture, the second coming, The book of Revelation, The Revelation Of Jesus Christ, The last book in the bible, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Biblical Prophecy, The End Times, End Of The World, The Millennial Kingdom, Revelation's meaning, Jesus

Id: aTIjXQtqZL8

Length: 56min 13sec (3373 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 07 2019