Good morning. Let's open our Bibles to Revelation chapter 9. OK, before we begin, let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, as we come before your throne of grace, we would ask for your guidance and your wisdom in understanding this chapter. We would ask you, Lord, that you would give us ears to hear, minds to understand, and hearts that would be open to your word. We would ask your blessing upon your word today, that it might bring glory to you and honor. We would ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Okay. So I'm gonna do a extremely quick overview. We've gone over this many times, but we have a lot to cover today. As we're gonna be studying today, we're in the Great Tribulation period.

We've already gone through a vision that God has given to the Apostle John of who Jesus Christ is, and gave him instructions to write seven letters to the seven churches. And then he was exposed, brought up to heaven, and given sort of a first-hand viewpoint of who God is. The throne of God saw what we interpret as being all three members of the Godhead. And there was a scroll that was given to him. That scroll is basically outlining the future events in the tribulation. And if you remember, there was no one worthy to open it. except for one.

And that was because the Lord Jesus Christ had overcome. And so now we're going into chapter nine, which has to do with the seven trumpets. five and six, there's two woes in it. Now, chapter six onward has set the stage for continuing the revelation of God's future judgments that are being poured out on the earth because of sin and our current creation's destruction in the new heaven and earth for us to dwell in a new Jerusalem. So with that, let's proceed.

Now, before I get into this, I wanna try to take a step back for a minute. There's two perspectives regarding what I consider to be time, the way we're looking at this. One is John experiencing some type of virtual reality movie that God has planned out for the future. Or, Is John actually experiencing what is happening in real time, looking at it from a spiritual perspective in heaven? So those are two different viewpoints. I brought some of this out when I was teaching on chapter four, but the second perspective would mean that John is experiencing something outside of our time, covering over 1,000 years of future history. and then his spirit is being returned back to his body in our time frame, or his time frame. This would bring new light to at least one of the scriptures regarding how to view time.

In 2 Peter 3, seven through nine, it says, but his word, but by his word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some consider slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. So this is sort of a theme, you might say, of Revelation is the fact that The Lord is giving, is really giving us time so that all may come to repentance.

But in either case, God's sovereign will and plan will take place, just as it is revealed to John. The sovereign plan is outlined as the scroll is presented, in the heavenly scene in chapter five. The scroll was able to be opened only by Jesus Christ, who was worthy because he overcame. Each of the seals within the scroll would be opened in sequence at specific times, out of which events would take place according to God's detailed plan.

It's interesting to note as part of what we know of the Bible, is whatever God says or whenever God says something will occur in the future, it does. It is guaranteed it will certainly happen exactly as he said it will. So whether these events as things that will happen or as already happening real time in heaven, meaning past tense, The question of if they will occur exactly this way is the same. God's sovereignty is the same in each scenario. There is nothing that will change God's plan. There will be no surprise endings. In either case, you may proclaim, as some might say, God wins in the end. There is also at least four other ways to interpret how John is viewing things as he's seeing these in the last chapters of Revelation, which I will try to bring up each perspective in reviewing Revelation 9.

The first point, or case. As representations of something, not as they would be actually seen from our human viewpoint, but as a type or metaphor or something having a spiritual interpretation. This is one of the most common viewpoints that is held by most of our conservative scholars and is a way to maintain consistency when viewing the whole book of Revelation. The second case. as indicating something about their characteristics or inward attributes, but is displayed outwardly in the spiritual realm.

I tried to explain this when I went through chapter four. But what I'm talking about here is that you're seeing the true nature or the characteristic of something as it's seen in heaven by its outward appearance. I think I used the term that you're judging the book by its cover, by seeing it in heaven.

It's how certain angelic beings can be seen as having certain attributes that represent something about them. Having various faces, wings, eyes all about and throughout their form, but about what those represent about them. And how Christ, can be seen as a very awesome man with a two-edged sword coming out of his mouth, but also seen as a lion, seen as a lamb, or seen as a lamb that was slain. So the way things in heaven were described in John and Isaiah and Ezekiel, very similar, they're all very similar. which would lead us to believe this viewpoint.

They are experiencing things as their spirit is actually in heaven from a spiritual perspective. Third case, from an earthly perspective. Not an option if you're viewing things in heaven, but perhaps from things described in Revelation from an earthly perspective. And the fourth case, which is a combination of both one, two, and three, depending upon what's being described in the vantage point. Things experienced in heaven might be seen as option one and two. Things experienced on earth might be observed or interpreted from option one, two, and or option three. depending upon if it's a physical or spiritual nature or both. Since this is a long chapter, I'm not going to read all the way through it in one fell swoop. I'm going to start into the lesson, starting with Revelation 9, 1 through 6.

Then the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth and the key of the pit of the abyss was given to him. And he opened the pit of the abyss and smoke went up from out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth and power was given them as the scorpions of the earth have power.

And they were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months. And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. And in those days men will seek death and will never find it. They will long to die and death flees from them.

So who was the star from heaven which was fallen to earth? It wasn't a physical star or some asteroid, right? like may have been mentioned in previous parts earlier in Revelation, but it's interpreted as being a spiritual being. What are angels that have fallen called? Demons, right. The question is, was this an angel or a demon? It's not totally clear. But in other parts of scripture, fallen angels are classified as demons. Some have speculated that this might be Satan himself, finally being kicked out of access to heaven.

We'll see more of that in chapter 12. Think back to the book of Job. Remember how Satan had access to God in the past as an accuser of God's chosen? like a prosecuting attorney in a courtroom of heaven. If you hold a pre-tribulation rapture view, then Satan's time for accusation is probably nearly ended. The church has been raptured prior to this, if it's been raptured prior to this, then there would be no need for Satan to accuse us any longer because we would be where? in heaven. According to Revelation, Satan is allowed time on the earth during the tribulation, then bound up for a thousand years, and then released for a short period of time.

But in either case, whoever this spiritual being is, he has been given the key to unlock an area under the earth that has acted as a prison for specific demonic entities. But why were these demons in prison there in the first place? Some have suggested that these were put there to prevent them from specific former activity on the earth. I'll go into that in another example in a minute, but the term here for pit of the abyss was a specific place. In Matthew 8, Mark 5, Luke 8, remember the story where the demon-possessed man was living in the tombs? He encountered Jesus as he came off the boat. Luke 8, 28 through 33 says, Now seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before him and said in a loud voice, what do I have to do with you, Jesus, son of the most high God? I beg you, do not torment me.

For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. And Jesus asked him, what is your name? And he said, Legion, for many demons had entered him. And they were pleading with him not to command them to go away into the abyss. Now there was a herd of many swine feeding there on the mountain, and the demons pleaded with him to permit them to enter the swine. And he gave them permission. And when the demons had came out of the man, they entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. So a legion is typically identified as 1,000.

So there were many demons in this man, which meant that they could inhabit him, not only in the same space as him, but in some other spiritual aspect or sense. The spiritual realm may coexist in our physical realm, but it is not the same. This man was in a tormented state. He was wild, he was unclothed, he lived alone in the tombs and the caves, and could not be restrained even with chains. It should be noted that he cut himself. As with possessed individuals, he hurt himself. Just like the young lad who was possessed, he threw himself into the fire, if you remember that scripture. Some have speculated that this is what the demons unleashed on the earth to torment man would do to indwell them as spirits. But remember what the demons said to Jesus.

They pleaded not to be sent into the abyss. They knew about that place and feared going to that place, but Matthew 8, 29 indicates something additional. And behold, they cried out, saying, what do we have to do with you, son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? They knew they would eventually end up there. This portion of scripture is often interpreted as at an appointed time of judgment. but they wanted to delay it. They knew Jesus would cast them out of the man.

The question is, where would they be sent? They requested permission to go into a nearby herd of swine, which they could occupy as another set of physical life. But why are there fallen angels already in this specific abyss? Who were they? John MacArthur gave an interesting exposition of this topic in a sermon last year on the first part of Revelation 9. I won't go into the details due to time, but he suggested that these were fallen angels that had abandoned their proper abode or dominion.

He started in Jude, basically, and went all the way back to Genesis, several chapters in the process. They transferred from the angelic realm to affecting things in the physical realm. That's my interpretation, at least. They had involvement, as indicated in Genesis 6, during the days of Noah, of attempting to create a modified demonic race that was incapable of being saved. This eventually led to the flood, which wiped out any trace of them from propagating.

It should, I should note that one of Satan's prime tactics is to try to modify God's design and in the process to create or corrupt a version of God's creation. You see this with not only his creation, you see it with everything. Worship, religion, everything. What is man doing today? we have learned how to modify God's creation. In trying to supposedly improve it, we usually end up making it, making things worse. And now, it's now led us to unleashing modifications that in some cases are irreversible as they spread throughout the world.

Just in the days of Noah, do you think God would allow the same thing to happen? Revelation indicates he will not flood the earth again, but will judge men and the earth. Now let's look at Revelation 9, 2 through 5. And he, I won't read this because I've already read it again, but so going back to Revelation 9, 2, when he opened the pit of the abyss, smoke went up, and the sun in the air was darkened by the smoke of the pit, and then something seen like locusts came out of the pit.

If we take an option one viewpoint, these are interpreted as being demonic forces rising out of the pit. As a matter of fact, both of these are seen that way. The light coming out of the, that would be coming from the sun, the moon, the stars, would also indicate a spiritually induced dimming of the origins of the light. From a physical realm perspective, this would mean that the light coming from stars would have been dimmed thousands of years ago in sequence to correspond with the dimming of the sun. There was nothing necessarily physical about the smoke or the locusts either, but merely spiritual entities invading men and causing torment, much like being demon possessed as was described in the Old Testament. This would be what may be seen as a spiritually, or as a spiritual perspective, again, outlined as option one. A large majority of this perspective is held by preachers like S. Lewis Johnson, John MacArthur, and L. Dwight Custis.

Looking at this from option three, earthly realm perspective in combination, what happens when you have a lot of smoke in the air? A volcanic eruption spewing particulates in the air? Volcanoes are hot and smoke comes out of them? How many of you are familiar with the eruption of Mount St. Helens? Or when fires occur in the Northwest?

What happens? The sky gets darkened. You don't see much light from the sun or the moon or the stars. The physical light is obscured. Although John has been given spiritual sight in the heavenly realm, things happening on earth may be described as what we would see them in the physical realm. It's the only reason I bring this up. It's another perspective. But these may be mixed depending upon what is described, what is physical and what is spiritual.

But another interesting thing in verse six is that men will long to die. but won't be able to. Men will somehow be prevented from dying just to prolong their suffering? How hard is it to commit suicide? Will it be outlawed? Will they be held in a jailed captivity to be tormented by these creatures? Or will they be controlled by indwelt demons that will torment them but not allow them to kill themselves?

All of these things are possibilities. And then if we take a look now at Revelation 9, 7 through 12, And the appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle, and on their heads appeared to be crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men, and they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions, and they had breastplates like the breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle, and they have tails like scorpions and stings, and their tails And in their tales is their power to hurt men for five months.

They have as a king over them the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon. One woe is past, behold, two woes are still coming after these things. So the view held using option one and two is that the description of these creatures are the characteristics of the attributes, viewing them from a purely spiritual perspective.

Horses being powerful and mighty when arrayed for battle. The word stephanos is used for crowns, perhaps describing that they are victorious in nature. The faces of men, like those described on some of the angelic hosts in chapter four, may indicate that they are intelligent or have rational thought like a man. Hair like women may be interpreted that there is something alluring and seductive about them. Teeth like lions may indicate that they have a ferocious hidden nature. Breastplates of iron may indicate that they are impervious to attack.

The view held using option four, or a combination of all three, a combination of the physical attributes, but directed by spiritual forces. When I taught in Revelation chapter four a few weeks ago, I outlined the differences between how our senses perceive things in our physical realm versus the spiritual realm. There is one other significant, There is one other significant difference in how vision is perceived. We have physical lenses and aperture openings in our eyes that allow us to focus on things at different distances, and we have stereoscopic vision, meaning two eyes.

But the distance focus and even magnification is irrelevant, and John's account may seem to support it. You can ask me later about this. It'll take too long. But imagine that everything is in focus no matter the distance or the relative magnification.

I say this because of the way things are described in various other parts in Revelation. Think about how John is seeing things in the spiritual realm, how he can see countless numbers of people saved standing before the throne of God. Some have said that it would be like stretching out the entire United States. into a flat plane and seeing a portion of it covered with people. Yet John is seeing all of them, all the ones far away, all the ones near. He can also potentially see things that are smaller without needing magnification. He might not need a microscope for detail. Again, it's all in the lens.

But how many of you have seen magnified images of insects? Yeah, pretty scary, huh? Yeah. I was thinking about putting some slides up, but I thought, no, I don't want to cause issues here. Remember how Solomon compared how certain very small attributes of creation appeared, that none were arrayed like the most amazing clothing that we could imagine?

These were description of magnified images. John may be seeing something similar here. Again, just like distance may be irrelevant, so may magnification. So it's what John is allowed to view. We also might compare what John is observing in heaven versus what he's seeing on earth. He may be observing things seen on earth as we would see them, since they are of a physical nature. And some of these things may have a spiritual component as well, like demonic forces.

So one way of interpretation would be to divide these things separately to accurately assess them. If these creatures are being described in the physical terms, then they aren't like anything we've seen today. It would be like if they were genetically modified for this purpose.

Perhaps God had created them, kept them underground just for this purpose until thousands of years later. Just as when God created animals in Genesis, he gave them a natural fear of man. Most wild animals will typically fear man unless they're very hungry. But that's the way God created them.

Good thing, right? Otherwise, you would be prey for your pets. Do spiritual beings eat anything physical that would grow like a plant? No. But many insects do. But these things coming out of the abyss, and they have natural innate programming to not eat vegetation like normal locusts, but to harm men.

Except men that have the seal of God on their foreheads. So who dictates these attributes of these creatures? God. But just like demons can indwell an unsaved man and can indwell an animal like a swine, they can probably indwell a living insect. So these creatures, just like an invading army chastising a rebellious Israel, they are allowed to pour out suffering by God's allowance. Strangely, these creatures are not allowed to kill men, but only make them suffer.

Some interpretations have said that these are spiritual beings. By the way they are described, they have attributes of insects to be feared. Some have speculated, although I cussed this, that a single sting would last for five months, meaning pain. But five months is also the gestation period for most locusts, indicating that these might be actual physical creatures like a locust.

Not to give anyone nightmares, but what's your natural response if you see a cockroach in your house? Yeah, I see. What about a spider? We don't really have many scorpions in our area, but what if you saw a giant spider inside your house crawling on the floor at night? Would you just let it be in the same room as you as you went to bed? Right, just let it be. It's only the size of your hand and you're much bigger, right? It won't bother you. My wife and my kids wouldn't put up with it either.

I can just hear them shouting, kill the spider. Now imagine the torment of a creature like this would cause you if it might get into your room at night. It crawls. It can sting you and put you in pain like a scorpion. It can fly, too. It can probably burrow into your room somehow. It's also difficult, if not impossible, to kill. And unlike most creatures, its main goal is to sting you.

Think of it as a little terminator. insect. Do you think you would be able to sleep much for five months? Just the thought of those everywhere outside and possibly inside would be enough to torment. That's why it's possible to think of these things as actual physical creatures that are perhaps demonically guided. Locusts do not have a centralized leadership structure.

But the things described here are directed by a demonic influence that has the name Abaddon in the Hebrew and Apollyon in the Greek, both which are associated with the word destroyer in English. So in Revelation, 9 verses 13 through 16, we'll look at that now. I'm gonna look at the first one first.

Then the sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God. One saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, released the four angels who had been bound at the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were released who had been prepared for the hour and the day and the month and the year, so that they would kill a third of mankind. And the number of the armies of the horsemen was 200 million, and I heard the number of them. So the sixth angel is one of a group of angels that are around the throne of God. Sometimes they're referred to as presence angels. They're in the presence of God. But they're the ones that are making these announcements or following up on them.

Where have you heard about the four horns in a golden altar before? They are mentioned in Exodus 30, 37, 39 to describe the altar of incense before the holy place inside the tabernacle. This was an example of how God gave man an earthly model of what was in heaven before God. This altar was representing the witnessing of the prayers of the saints, typically for grace and mercy rising up before God. Before any of these were offered to be offered, however, there had to be atonement for sin made by a blood sacrifice. But Jesus Christ has made this sacrificial atonement once and for all on the cross. In heaven now, this altar has been changed, at least at this point, to one of judgment.

We see that later in Revelation 6 verses 9 through 11. These petitions were from saints under the altar who were slain during the Great Tribulation and who were asking how long before God's standard of righteous judgment would be withheld for evil deeds against them. In Revelation 8 verse 3, the incense was added to the prayers of the saints and the smoke went up before God. So what is the significance in the Bible about the River Euphrates?

It's near where a lot of evil and sinful activities occurred or started. Its location may not be exactly the same today as it was because of the flood, but its general location, strangely enough, flows through modern-day Iran. In that region, there was the Garden of Eden, where Satan tempted man who sinned and sin entered into creation. It was also where Abel was slain by Cain. It's also where Nimrod ruled and the construction of the Tower of Babel. And it is where a lot of idolatry started. where demonic influences started and existed to lead men astray from God. Even today, that region is the area where most false Eastern and Middle Eastern religions maintain a foothold.

But remember how God scattered them by confusing their language? Man had one language, therefore effectively communicated among themselves everywhere. But in Genesis 11, six through seven, it says, and Yahweh said, behold, they are one people and they all have the same language.

And this is what they have begun to do. So now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so that they will not understand another's language. So by comparison, what do we have today with the advent of modern computers and the internet? The ability to equally communicate across all the people from various countries. Language barriers have effectively been eliminated again.

And with the advent of AI, another potential harm for humanity to be led astray and rebel against God has begun. If God didn't allow this type of progression of evil influences back then, do you think he wouldn't put a stop to it today by the same reasoning?

So these angels were bound there, unseen, and then released according to God's timetable, which is indicated by the phrase, who had been prepared for the hour and the day and the month and year. It also indicates that these angels were bound there, which would indicate that they were fallen angels or demons.

Their intent and directive was to enable the killing of a third of the remaining mankind. This is the 13th time in Revelation that the term one third is mentioned, referring to trumpet judgments. It's also interesting to note that In heaven, one third of the angelic host rebelled. But this trumpet judgment, they were to do this killing using a special army of 200 million, using what is described as violent means.

John didn't have to count those in the army. He was given that number. So back in Revelation 6, when the fourth seal was opened, remember that a quarter of the world's population was already eliminated. This would now mean that the combined total would be roughly a half or more of the Earth's complete population.

That they would be struck down from these judgments. Now, mind you, this is only year's period. This isn't a thousand years, this is seven years and it's probably the last part. Probably more even in total related to some of the judgments, the other judgments on the earth. Can you imagine the amount of unburied billions of dead bodies that there would be everywhere? Yet we know that the 144,000 will remain protected and remain alive till the end, as we will see later on in Revelation. So in Revelation, let's look at 9 verses 17 through 21.

And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sit on them. The riders had breastplates the color of fire and hyacinth and brimstone, and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths come fire and smoke and brimstone. A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, the fire and the smoke and the brimstone, which came out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents, having heads, and with them they do harm.

So if you take and view this from the option one view, then these 200 million were demonic spiritual forces, not men. Some have interpreted that these spirits have taken on physical form to accomplish this task. Angelic hosts can kill men, but generally demonic forces are not given permission by God to do this. But now these demonic angels will be set loose by God to deliver his judgment upon man with a great slaughter.

If you take the view that these are something in the physical realm, then it depends, then the description of the army may not be clearly recognizable by our current standards of warfare. If John was seeing and trying to describe modern day instruments of war, he might have been seeing something like an Apache helicopter, for instance. But several decades ago, a human army of this size and logistical coordination capabilities didn't exist. But today it might. In the future, this might be a fully automated army.

But in either case, this destruction is strategic and somewhat limited by taking out one third of the population. It's not described as using atomic weaponry that is so feared and expected today to be used in wholesale killing. The way it's described, this will be personally administered to individuals by demonically led and controlled forces. Like with most of prophecy, as things unfold, they will be recognized. I'm sure people will say, oh yeah, that's what scripture was describing. when they witness it.

Speculating on who this army will be aligned with isn't obvious at this point in time. I've tried to take a look at the colors that they've called out and tried to match them up to different countries. No. Especially if you look at their uniforms and you look at how the instruments of war are painted. It's not the same. There are many viewpoints.

But if you think about it in relation to modern day technology, I'm sure it was something John had never experienced, but may have tried his best to describe. If we had to speculate, it might include some modern technology combined with guidance from men, manipulated by the angelic or demonic forces behind it. But it was all ordained by God.

Now in Revelation 20, or nine, 20 through 21, it said, and the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands. So as not to worship demons and the idols of gold and silver and brass and of brass and of stone and of wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk. and they did not repent of their murders, nor their sorceries, nor of their sexual immorality, nor of their thefts. Verse 20 indicates the level of depravity among the general population that was left on the earth.

You would think that if they were faced and seeing all of the suffering in the world, that they would have turned to God. and repented of their evil deeds and desires and asked for his mercy and forgiveness. But instead of turning toward God, they instead turned toward worshiping the very demonic forces behind their suffering. When you witness any worship of a physical idol, it means that demonic forces are behind it. The worship of the idol is really the worship of a demonic influence and the pride associated with it.

In verse 21, it indicates their unrepentant choices reflecting their true nature. They clung to their sin. They clung to their sorceries, which is the Greek word for mechia. indicating their involvement with the administration of drugs. They did not want to give up their sexual immorality thinking it was normal by society's standards. The word here is pornea. which would include things like adultery, incest, rape, pedophilia, prostitution, homosexual acts, lesbianism, premarital sex, and bestiality, just to name a few.

And honesty will be a rarity in their dealings with money or riches, but will be into stealing, robbery, and theft as a part of their daily lives. These attributes describe a portion of those in society today that live without the Savior. Now, just like the scene in Revelation, people may have thought that there was time to repent and turn toward God in their future, but none of us knows our future. Any of us could die at any time. Yet people ignore the gospel that is offered freely today and will taste of this type of suffering, but experience it throughout an eternity. To accept God, you must turn toward him and repent, turning away from your evil deeds. He will cleanse you of all unrighteousness. Remember that to be in His presence is an indescribable joy and peace.

Don't let this opportunity pass you by. With that, let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing us to look into your Word. We thank you for the warning that it gives, but also the promise that you have, that you would not want anyone to die without coming to you. According to your will and your ways, you've allowed people this time to repent, and we would ask your guidance for those people and your guidance for us in following your word and your will. We would ask your blessing today and the rest of the preaching of your word and the hearing of it. We would ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.