Three Warnings To Earth Dwellers 2

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12/14/2008

THREE WARNINGS TO EARTH DWELLERS

REVELATION 8:13

The book of Revelation is the only book in God’s Word that actually promises a blessing to the people who read and study it. Listen as I read 1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near!

One small part of the blessings that come from reading and hearing and taking heed to the things which are written in this book is the understanding that we gain of how this world is going to end.

However God did not give us prophecy simply so that we can know how this world is going to end. I believe that God gives us prophecy so that we will know how to live our lives in total surrender to Him right up until He takes us out of here through death or the rapture!

There are several very important things that God reveals to us in the book of Revelation that are revealed in a series of sevens. For example in chapters 2-3 God gives seven messages to the Church. Then in chapter 4 the Church disappears and is not seen nor heard from until seven years later when we return with Christ at His second coming.

In chapter 6 we are introduced to seven judgments being released on the world and the people living in the world. Each one of them increasing in there intensity and severity!

 Then in chapter 8 we are introduced to seven new judgments by way of seven angels blowing seven trumpets. With each blast of the trumpet a new judgment is released on the earth and everyone living on the earth.

According to Revelation 8:10 a meteor is going to crash into the earth like a burning torch and it is going to destroy one third of the rivers and the water supply.

You can read all about the first four trumpet judgments in Revelation 8 but today I call your attention to the three “Woes” or “Warnings” in our text today. The messenger that God uses to deliver these three warnings is interesting. John tells us that it was an eagle flying in mid-heaven. We don’t know much about this messenger but I wonder if it could be the same eagle that is described in chapter 4:7-8?

 

 In 4:7-8 we are told that there were four living creatures around the center of the throne. One was like a lion, one was like a calf, one had the face of a man and the other one was like an eagle. They do not cease to give praise to God and when they give glory to God the 24 elders fall down and worship God and shout HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is the Lord God, The Almighty, who was and who is and is to come!

 

As interesting as that might be, the recipients of this three-fold warning, are even more intriguing than the eagle. The phrase “Earth Dwellers” (or “those who dwell on the earth”) is found twelve times in Revelation (3:10; 6:10; 8:13; 11:10 [twice]; 12:12; 13:8, 12, 14; 14:6; 17:2, 8).

 

This phrase means much more than “people who live on the earth,” because that is where all living people reside. Instead, this phrase refers to a kind of people: those who live for the earth and the things of the earth. This phrase refers to the people who rejected Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior and missed the Rapture!

 

 According to chapter 13:8 these “earth-dwellers” are not born again All who “dwell on the earth” will worship him (Anti-Christ), everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear (Rev. 13:8-9).

 

In our text today there are THREE WARNINGS TO EARTH DWELLERS and I want to call them to your attention. First of all:  

 

I.                  DEMONIC ANGELS WILL BE RELEASED

A.    The IDENTIFICATION of the STAR

9:1 . . . I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him 2 He opened the bottomless pit . . .

Who is this fallen star? I believe that this fallen star is a person, and it very well could also be the king over the beings in the pit (Rev. 9:11). “They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is ABADDON (destruction),and in the Greek he has the name APOLLYON (destroyer).

 

 One of the names for Satan is Lucifer, which means “brightness”; he also is compared to the “morning star” (Isa. 14:12–14). Jesus said to His disciples, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18).

 

So we conclude that this “star” is probably Satan and the army, his demons (Eph. 6:10ff).

 

John also makes mention in 9:1 of a place called “The Bottomless Pit”! The “bottomless pit” is literally “the pit of the abyss.” According to Luke 8:31, the pit or the abyss makes it clear that this “pit” is the abode of the demons “They were imploring Him not to send them into the abyss! We also know that  according to Revelation 20:1-3, John states that Satan will be temporarily “jailed” there during our Lord’s reign on the earth.

 

In addition to this we also know that according to Revelation 11:7 and 17:8 the Antichrist (i.e., “the beast”) will ascend out of the bottomless pit and it is important to remember that the abyss is not the lake of fire, because the Lake of Fire is the final “prison” for Satan and all who follow him (Rev. 20:10)!

 

 

**Not only do we see the IDENTIFICATION of the STAR but I also want you to notice:

B.     The LIMITATIONS of the SPIRITS

9:3 Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power 4 They were told . . . to only hurt the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads 5 And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months . . .

            Notice the language in 9:3-4 . . . power was given to them . . .they were told . . .and they were not permitted!

 These demons are not free to do whatever they want to do. God is The Almighty and they are always under His authority!

 

The Abyss is part of that hidden underworld that is completely under the Lord’s authority.

Today, the fearsome army described here is already incarcerated, waiting for the hour of liberation.

He does not have complete authority, for the key to the pit had to be given to him before he could loose his army.

C.    The DEVASTATION from the SUFFERING

9:5 . . . and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man 6 And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them!

 

 

 

II.               DEMONIC ARMIES WILL BE RECRUITED

A.    The ASSIGNMENT of the ANGELS

9:15 And the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind!

It was at the golden altar of incense that the angel offered the prayers of the saints (Rev. 8:3–5); now from this same altar a voice speaks, commanding that four angels be loosed. These angels are apparently wicked, because no holy angel would be bound.

B.     The ASSESSMENT of the ARMIES

9:16 The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million

Are we to identify this as a literal army of men, moving in conquest across the globe? Probably not! Notice three things about the assessment of the armies.

 

 First of all:

1)      Their SIZE is STUNNING

9:16 The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million . . .

Each angel is in charge of part of the vast army that follows them at their liberation, an army of 200 million beings!

2)      Their SOUND is STARTLING

9:16 . . . I heard the number of them!

3)      Their STRENGTH is SURPRISING

9:18 A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths!

The army is released at a precise time, for a special purpose: to kill (not just torment) a third of the world’s population.

 

 Since a fourth of mankind has already been killed (Rev. 6:8), this means that half of the world’s population will be dead by the time the sixth trumpet judgment is completed.

 

The description cannot fit war-horses as we know them or, for that matter, modern warfare equipment, such as tanks. To assert that this is a literal army, and to point to some nation (such as China) that claims to have 200 million soldiers, is to miss the message John is seeking to convey.

 

 This fact is to be taken literally as it confirms the statement by Daniel (Dan. 12:1) and the words of Christ (Matt. 24:21) that the Great Tribulation will be without precedent and would end in the death of all mankind if it were not stopped by His second coming (Matt. 24:22).

 

 

 

III.           DEMONIC ATTACKS WILL BE RESISTED

A.    The DESIRE of GOD’S heart

9:20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues . . .

It is not God’s desire for anybody to choose to become an EARTH DWELLER. Notice the phrase the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues . . .

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance!

B.     The DEPRAVITY of MAN’S heart

9:20 . . . did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; 21 and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts!

 

**I confess with my mouth that Jesus is God and I believe in my heart that He has been raised from the dead. I turn from my sin and I invite Jesus to be my Lord and my Savior.

 

______________________________ Date December 14, 2008

Signed

 

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