The Book of Revelation -- PART 9 -- Hell On Earth Part 1 -- Lismore 9-13-20AM
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The Fifth Trumpet
Hell on Earth Part 1 -- Revelation 9:1-12
CONTEXT
- Rapture of the Church
- Tribulation has begun
o At great cost, some will be saved
o Some can't
- Jesus takes the scroll: Title deed to the Earth
- 7 seals have been broken
o >>7 Trumpets of Judgments
o 1-4 = Supernatural Judgment on the Land, sea, fresh water, heavenly bodies
- Revelation 8:13 (HCSB) 13 I looked again and heard an eagle flying high overhead, crying out in a loud voice, "Woe! Woe! Woe to those who live on the earth, because of the remaining trumpet blasts that the three angels are about to sound!"
- Today, 5th Trumpet is blown
- John Phillips: Picture what the world would be like if we were to open the doors of all the penitentiaries of earth and set free the world's most vicious and violent criminals, giving them full reign to practice their infamies upon mankind. Something worse than that lies in store for the world. Satan, cast out of heaven, is now permitted to summon to his aid the most diabolical fiends in the abyss to act as his agents in bringing mankind to the footstool of the Beast.
Revelation 9:1-12 (HCSB) 1 The fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth. The key to the shaft of the abyss was given to him. 2 He opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke came up out of the shaft like smoke from a great furnace so that the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft. 3 Then locusts came out of the smoke on to the earth, and power was given to them like the power that scorpions have on the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green plant, or any tree, but only people who do not have God's seal on their foreheads. 5 They were not permitted to kill them but were to torment ⌊them⌋ for five months; their torment is like the torment caused by a scorpion when it strikes a man. 6 In those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them. 7 The appearance of the locusts was like horses equipped for battle. Something like gold crowns was on their heads; their faces were like men's faces; 8 they had hair like women's hair; their teeth were like lions' teeth; 9 they had chests like iron breastplates; the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses rushing into battle; 10 and they had tails with stingers like scorpions, so that with their tails they had the power to harm people for five months. 11 They had as their king the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he has the name Apollyon. 12 The first woe has passed. There are still two more woes to come after this.
Satan's Fall
Demons Loosed
Hatred Unleashed
Satan's Fall (Rev 9:1)
Revelation 9:1 (HCSB) 1 The fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth. The key to the shaft of the abyss was given to him.
- Who is the Star Who Had Fallen?: (Him) Lucifer, Satan, Devil
- 2 falls of Satan
o 1st Fall -- Before Adam and Eve sinned
- Isaiah 14:12-15 (HCSB) 12 Shining morning star, how you have fallen from the heavens! You destroyer of nations, you have been cut down to the ground. 13 You said to yourself: "I will ascend to the heavens; I will set up my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the ⌊gods'⌋ assembly, in the remotest parts of the North. 14 I will ascend above the highest clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." 15 But you will be brought down to Sheol into the deepest regions of the Pit.
- Luke 10:18 He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a lightning flash.
- Today: No heavenly home, but still access to God's presence, where he constantly accuses believers (Rev. 12:10; Job 1:6).
o 2nd Fall -- Happens in the future
- Recorded in 9:1 & 12 (interlude, footnotes, parenthetical section - a commentary on 9)
- Revelation 12:7-9 (HCSB) 7 Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels also fought, 8 but he could not prevail, and there was no place for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was thrown out-the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world. He was thrown to earth, and his angels with him.
- Imagine:
o Satan standing by helplessly at the Rapture
o Satan seething as he sees multitudes of Jewish people realize and accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah.
o His fury as a great multitude converts to Christ during the first months of the tribulation.
o Then, kicked out of the heavens to earth permanently, He fixes His eyes on all of creation with a vengeance.
- Keys to the Abyss are given to Him
- Abyss = Bottomless Pit - place of torment
Demon's Loosed (Rev 9:2-3)
Revelation 9:2-3 (HCSB) 2 He opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke came up out of the shaft like smoke from a great furnace so that the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft. 3 Then locusts came out of the smoke on to the earth, and power was given to them like the power that scorpions have on the earth.
1. The smoke from the shaft?
- Picture: Locust swarm - darkens the sun and air
- Demons > taken the form of a locust-like creature
2. The Demons Released:
- What is a demon? Fallen Angels cast to earth - Satan took 1/3 with him (Rev 12:4).
- Abyss: Place of torment for demons
- Some are bound in the Abyss now
- Which demons are bound?:
- Days of Noah
- Human form > cohabitated with women
- Produce demon-influenced, thoroughly corrupt children
- Why? for the purpose of trying to make mankind unredeemable.
- Some are loose on the earth now
Luke 8:30-32
- Man possessed by many demons
- 30 "What is your name?" Jesus asked him. "Legion," he said-because many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged Him not to banish them to the abyss. 32 A large herd of pigs was there, feeding on the hillside. The demons begged Him to permit them to enter the pigs, and He gave them permission.
3. When Satan opens the pit,
the most wicked, vile, and perverted of all the fallen angels are belched out upon earth like a sun darkening smoke.
Hatred Unleashed (9:4-11)
Revelation 9:4 (HCSB) 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green plant, or any tree, but only people who do not have God's seal on their foreheads.
1. THEIR RESTRICTIONS
- Cannot harm vegetation - not real locusts
- Permitted: Torment those without God's seal
o True Christians are marked
2. THEIR FRIGHTENING APPEARANCE - like...(vs. 7-11)
- Stature: Like horses equipped for battle
o They were warlike, powerful, and defiant, like horses straining at the bit and pawing the ground in their eagerness to charge forward on their mission of death.
- Heads: Like gold crowns on their heads
o Stephanoi (victor's crown): invincible, unstoppable, and all-conquering
o Men will have no weapon that can harm them
- Face: Like faces of men
o Intelligent and rational beings
- Hair: Like woman's hair
o Culture - hair was emphasized as the most seductive -- Corinth
o While repulsive, they will be seductive and sensual
- Teeth: Like lions
o Fierce and powerful
- Chest: like iron breastplates
o Impossible to destroy
- Sound: like many chariots rushing to battle
o There will be no escaping their massive, worldwide onslaught; nowhere to run or hide.
- Tails: like scorpions with stingers
o To inflict pain - Job
- King
o High ranking demon
o Abaddon / Apollyon: destroyer
o Whichever interpretation: Organized torment.
3. THEIR SOLE PURPOSE
- To torment for 5 long months
o 1000's of years of bound up hatred
o Short time
o Hell on Earth
- Like a Locust Sting
o not fatal -- sets the nerves on fire
o These demons produce anguish of mind and body almost beyond endurance.
o People will seek relief in death-only to find that death has taken a holiday.
- All attempts at suicide, whether by gunshot, poison, drowning, or leaping from buildings, will fail.
- For 5 months, they wish for death, but cannot die.
Conclusion
- This is a taste of Hell and the Lake of Fire
o Literal Fire and Smoke
o Pain
o Crying
1658 John Bunyan, Sighs from Hell
o They will cry to think that they should be cut off from the land of the living, never more to have any footing therein.
o They will cry to think that the gospel of Christ should be so often offered them - and yet they are not profited by it.
o They will cry to think that now, though they would so willingly repent and be saved - yet they are past all recovery.
o They will cry to think that they should be so foolish as to follow their pleasures, when others were following of Christ.
o They will cry to think that they must be separated from God, Christ, and the kingdom of Heaven - and that forever.
o They will cry to think that their crying will now do them no good.
o They will cry to think that, at the day of judgment, they must stand at the left hand of Christ, among an innumerable company of the damned ones.
o They will cry to think that Lazarus, whom once they slighted, must be of those who must sit down with Christ to judge - to pass a sentence of condemnation on their souls forever and ever (1 Cor 6:2,3).
o They will cry to think that they shall be tormented as long as eternity lasts - without the least intermission or ease!
- There are more than 600 warning in the Bible about the judgment of evil.
o 600 road signs - deep ditch ahead
o The Cross
o If you spend eternity there it will not be because you were not warned.
- Revelation 9:12 (HCSB) 12 The first woe has passed. There are still two more woes to come after this.
Christians:
• Urge us to evangelism
• Devil is as work all around us, reminds us of His future and God's sovereignty
• My Jesus has the Scroll and He will be victorious
Sinner: Run to him this morning while there is yet time.
o The Lord knows those who are His
o The Lord knows who are not His
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