Two local pastors were fishing on the side of the road. They made a sign saying, "The end is near! Turn yourself around now before it's too late!" and showed it to each passing car.
One driver who drove by didn't appreciate the sign and shouted at them, "Leave us alone, you religious nuts!"
All of a sudden they heard a big splash, looked at each other, and the one pastor said to the other, "You think maybe we should have just said 'Bridge Out' instead?"
Unfortunately, that story, though humorous, contains much more truth that we would often care to admit. The end is in fact near, although none of us know exactly how near it is for us and for those around us. And there will indeed be a point at which it will be too late to turn around and repent. It is also true that as we proclaim that message to a world around us that is increasingly antagonistic towards Jesus that others will call us religious nuts and tell us to leave them alone.
But in spite of that, what I hope that you’ll take away from the message this morning is a renewed urgency to take the gospel message to the world around us, both out of a profound respect and awe for the ways of God and a deep concern over the eternal fate of others.
Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 9 as we continue our journey through that book. Now that you’re there, I’m going to go back just one verse to the last verse of chapter 8. Although we read that verse last week, we didn’t spend a whole lot of time examining it. But since it provides an important introduction to what we’ll look at this morning in chapter 9, let’s begin there:
Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”
Revelation 8:13 (ESV)
Remember that we’ve already seen the first four trumpets, which represent God’s judgment against a portion of His creation for the purpose of extending an opportunity for people to experience His grace. And everyone on earth during those trumpet judgments – both believers and unbelievers – will be impacted by the consequences of those events.
But God is about to turn up the heat, so He sends an eagle to fly above the earth and send out one last warning. There is still time to repent before God releases the last three trumpet judgments. He is also warning that that things are about to get much worse – the last three trumpets are also referred to here as “woes”. I don’t think we need a complete exposition of all the places in the Bible where God uses the term “woe” to understand that it describes some really terrible things.
But I want you to notice one key phrase in this verse - those who dwell on the earth. It is a phrase that we’ve seen previously in chapters 3 and 6, although we didn’t take the time to examine it thoroughly then. We’ll see it again five more times before we finish our journey through Revelation. Whenever that term is used, it always refers to unbelievers - to those who have rejected the invitation of Jesus to accept Him as Savior and Lord. That is an important distinction because the two woes that we will examine this morning and the third woe which we’ll see in a few weeks, seem to be limited to unbelievers.
With that in mind, follow along as I read the first 12 verses of the chapter:
1 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. 2 He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. 3 Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. 6 And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
7 In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, 8 their hair like women's hair, and their teeth like lions' teeth; 9 they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. 10 They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails. 11 They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.
12 The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.
As we’ve seen consistently throughout the book of Revelation, the key to making this passage relevant to our lives is to make sure we don’t get so bogged down in the details that we miss the big picture. We need to keep in mind here that John is seeing things that are completely indescribable in human terms, so he has to use pictures of things that are familiar to his readers to give them some sense of what is going on. That is why he uses the word “like” nine times in these first 12 verses. So we need to avoid the temptation to give too much significance to all the details or try to make something out of them that was never intended.
HELL ON EARTH (vv. 1-12)
We often hear people use the phrase “hell on earth” to describe some kind of difficult or terrible situation. For instance, when I Googled that phrase this week, I found that people applied it to:
• Red tape that businesses must deal with
• The explosion of an underground gas pipeline in California a couple of weeks ago
• Human rights violations
• The increase in number and intensity of wildfires
The phrase has also been used as an album title for an east coast hip hop group and as a movie title and there is even a video game with that title.
But none of those things can even begin to compare to the literal “hell on earth” that is described in this passage. Let’s briefly look at some of the significant facts about these events:
1) There is both a physical and a spiritual element to this judgment
These events begin with a star who has fallen from heaven to earth and who is given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. In this case, we can be certain that this star is not a literal star, but that it is a symbol because the text identifies the star as “he.”
So who is this star? One possibility is that it is merely another one of the angels that we see throughout Revelation who carry out the will of God and His plans. But the Greek verb tense here indicates that there is another possibility. The verb “fallen” is in what is known as the perfect tense, which indicates a past action that has continuing consequences. About the closest we could come in English would be to say that the star “had fallen.” And in both the Old and New Testaments, we are given some further information about such an event:
“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
Isaiah 14:12-14 (ESV)
This passage is almost universally accepted as a description of Satan’s rebellion against God and how he was cast down to earth. You will note that Satan is specifically referred to here as a star. Jesus also spoke about this same event:
And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
Luke 10:18 (ESV)
So it appears here that Satan is given the key to the bottomless pit for the purpose of releasing a huge hoard of locust-like beings. Once again we see the sovereignty of God. Satan cannot open the bottomless pit until He is given the key. And when that occurs, we see that, unlike with the first four trumpets, this judgment is focused directly on mankind.
I don’t want to focus much at all on the details of this hoard of locust like beings, other than to see that this is much more than just a physical locust invasion. We’re certainly reminded of Joel where a physical invasion of locusts was merely a picture of something far worse to come in the future.
Although it is just not possible to determine just how much of the suffering that is inflicted is physical and how much is spiritual, it is clear that both elements are present here. These are obviously not merely locusts. Their appearance certainly confirms that, but the fact that they come from the bottomless pit reveals that these are demons who take on the appearance of a locust-like creature. Both Peter and Jude give us some insight here:
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment…
2 Peter 2:4 (ESV)
And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day…
Jude 6 (ESV)
The fact that they have a king (v. 11) also supports the idea that this is not just a hoard of locusts since we read these words in Proverbs:
…the locusts have no king…
Proverbs 30:27 (ESV)
While we can’t understand all the details, we can see that there is a class of fallen angels that God has cast into this bottomless pit where they remain until God allows them to be released as part of the Day of the Lord judgment on mankind. And the judgment they inflict is therefore spiritual, but it clearly has a physical element to it as well. Just ask Thelma if you doubt that the sting of a scorpion can bring physical torment.
2) This judgment is directed at unbelievers
We’ve already seen this in the last verse of chapter 8 and it’s confirmed here again in verse 4 where these demons are commanded not to harm those who have the seal of God on their foreheads. From the text, we can determine that this includes at least the 144,000 from the tribes of Israel that we saw in chapter 7. But based on Revelation 8:13, it may very well apply to all believers. The reason that this judgment is directed specifically at unbelievers is because…
3) The purpose is to extend one more opportunity for God’s grace
Both the Old and New Testaments reveal that God loves all of mankind so much that His desire is that none should perish:
Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?
Ezekiel 33:11 (ESV)
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
2 Peter 3:9 (ESV)
While God desires that all come to Him through faith in Jesus, both of these passages make it clear that requires repentance – Ezekiel describes it as “turning back from your evil ways”
There are two aspects of this trumpet that demonstrate God’s mercy. First, as we have seen earlier, the judgment is limited – this time to a five month period. The second is that even though men desire to die during this time, death is somehow suspended so that man cannot die and escape the suffering even if he wants to.
There are things that are worse than death. In fact, this whole idea of death as an escape is nothing but a lie from the bottomless pit.
The morning before they went to Columbine High school and massacred 13 people and injured 21 others, Dylan Klebod and Eric Harris made a videotape. On that tape Dylan apologized to his mother and then spoke these words: “Just know I'm going to a better place. I didn't like life too much and I know I'll be happy wherever [expletive deleted] I go.” What a tragic deception – to think that on the day that you plan to commit horrible murders that you are going to end up in a better place.
That is the same lie that these people here in Revelation 9 are going to cling to. But for their sake God won’t allow them to die because He desires that they repent and turn to Him and He gives them every possible opportunity to do so.
But this still isn’t the worst; there are two more woes to come. We’ll look at the second woe this morning and then come to the third and final woe in a few weeks at the end of chapter 11.
A GREAT SLAUGHTER (vv. 13-19)
Let’s continue reading in verse 13:
13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 The number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard their number. 17 And this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them: they wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur, and the heads of the horses were like lions' heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths. 18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound.
The events associated with this sixth trumpet reinforce what we saw in the fifth seal. Since we’ve already covered these in some detail I’ll be brief here and just point out a few significant details.
1) There is both a physical and a spiritual element to this judgment
Again this is all under God’s sovereign control. It is not until the voice comes from the altar – once again it is likely that this is God’s response to the prayers of the saints – that the angels are released to begin the devastation.
The Euphrates River was significant for several reasons. First, it was the easternmost boundary of the land that God had promised to Abraham and his descendents. It was also the easternmost boundary of the Roman Empire and, as we saw in Daniel, there will be some form of a revived Roman Empire in the last days.
The number of troops here – 200 million – has been the subject of much speculation. In the mid 1960’s, when China claimed to have an army of this size, it was amazing how many people immediately assumed that this was the fulfillment of this passage.
Of course, since they didn’t have nearly that many horses, these horses became tanks with missile launchers or whatever else a particular commentator believed them to be.
But given the context here, this again appears to be a demonic army who this time takes on the appearance of something like a horse. The weapons of fire, smoke and sulfur, which are even depicted by the colors on their breastplates, are certainly consistent with the descriptions of hell and of demonic activity that we see throughout Scripture. Even if this is a human army, it appears that at a minimum they are driven by satanic forces.
2) This judgment is directed at unbelievers
We’ve already addressed this adequately, so we can move on to the third, and most significant, aspect of this judgment.
3) The purpose is still to extend one more opportunity for God’s grace
Once again, the destruction – in this case death – is not complete. It is limited to one-third of unbelieving mankind. Because God desires that none should perish, He provides one last opportunity for people to see His hand in all these events and repent and turn to Him. But sadly, in spite of how God has consistently extended an opportunity to experience His grace throughout the six seals and the six trumpets, man still refuses to choose to come to Him.
MAN’S RESPONSE (vv. 20-21)
Let’s finish reading the chapter:
20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, 21 nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
We saw a similar response to the sixth seal when unredeemed man prayed to the mountains and the rocks to fall on them so that they would not have to face the wrath of God. In both cases, although it is clear to man that the judgments begin directed against them are from the hand of God, they still refuse to repent and to turn to Him.
My first reaction to man’s response was “How is that possible? How can man see the hand of God and still choose to reject Him?’ But this isn’t the first place in the Bible where we see this take place.
Certainly the plagues against Egypt come to mind here. In fact, the judgments we see with the first six trumpets have many parallels with those plagues. One of those parallels is that the first few plagues affected all of Egypt, but beginning with the fourth plague of flies, the Hebrew people were protected from the impact of the plagues, just as God’s people are somehow protected from the fifth and sixth trumpet judgments.
As the plagues against Egypt began, Pharaoh was willing to relent, at least to some degree, before then changing his mind. But as the plagues increased in intensity, Pharaoh’s heart became more and more hardened. In spite of the fact that he could see that these plagues were clearly from the hand of God, he refused to relent.
Unfortunately, this is a pattern that is repeated all around us in the world today. For many, if not most, people the more they see God at work around them and the more that they refuse to repent and turn to Him, the harder their hearts become.
So what does this all mean to us? What do we need to do in response to what we’ve learned this morning?
OUR RESPONSE
• For those who have not committed your life to Jesus:
o Commit your life to Jesus today before it’s too late
If you’ve never committed your life to Jesus, I don’t believe it’s just a coincidence that you’re here this morning. Perhaps you’re here because you know, perhaps even subconsciously, that you’ve seen God’s hand at work around you. Maybe that has come in the form of some kind of difficulty or trial that God has allowed into your life as a means of drawing you to Him.
If that is the case, then I want to encourage you to respond to God right here and right now. As we’ve clearly seen this morning, every time you choose not to respond to God, your heart becomes a little bit harder, and eventually it will become so hard that you’ll be just like the people we saw this morning that refuse to repent in spite of all the evidence of God around them.
That’s why the writer of Hebrews wrote these words:
Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”
Hebrews 4:6, 7 (ESV)
Perhaps today, God is speaking those words to you. Today if you hear His voice, please don’t harden your heart.
If this describes where you’re at in your spiritual journey this morning, don’t lose heart. All of us in this room were there at some point in our lives. But don’t delay either. And we’re here to help you follow through with that decision.
There are a couple of ways that we can help you. If you fill out the “Care Card” on the bulletin and check the box that reads “I want to learn more about how to begin a personal relationship with God” and place it in the offering plate in a few minutes, someone will be in contact with you this week. Or any of our elders, including me, would love to sit down and talk with you more about how to commit your life to Jesus after the service this morning. I’m going to ask our elders to stand right now so that you know who they are.
• For Christ-followers:
o Be grateful that God has drawn you to Him
The more I think about man’s response to the seals and trumpets, the more I begin to realize that could easily be me. In fact, at one point in my life, that was me. Even though I could see God at work around me, I refused to respond to Him. And now that I have committed my life to Jesus, I realize more and more just how true these words of Jesus are.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…
John 6:44 (ESV)
Knowing that, how can we not get down on our knees every single day and give thanks to God that He drew us to Himself before we came to the point in our lives where our hearts became so hard we could not respond to Him.
In fact, let’s do that right now. If you are a Christ follower go ahead and bow your heads and take a few moments to just thank God for drawing you to Him.
[Prayer]
But even more than being thankful for my own salvation, this passage ought to develop within us a sense of urgency about how we do all that we can to make sure that others don’t become part of that multitude that refuses to repent and turn to God. So we need to…
o Have a sense of urgency about:
Interceding for others
We’ve been focusing on this now for quite some time on Thursday nights and if you’ve been with us during that time, hopefully you’ve begun to develop a sense of urgency about interceding on behalf of others who have not yet committed their lives to Jesus.
Since no one can come to God unless He draws them, then it is our responsibility to pray for the souls of unbelievers and to intercede on their behalf and ask God to draw them to Him.
I’ve left some space on your sermon outline for you to write down the name of at least one other person that you will commit to pray for at least once a day this week. If you’re not already interceding for the salvation of others, this is a great way to start. Just commit before God to pray for one person every day for one week.
Sharing my faith with others
Every day that a person lives, he or she becomes less and less likely to respond to the gospel.
This chart [http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/ages.htm] shows the ages at which Americans make a commitment to Jesus. As you can see, by the time a person becomes 30 years old, the chances of becoming a Christian are pretty small.
Our passage today leads us to believe the main reason for that is that the more people refuse to respond to Jesus, the harder their hearts become and the less likely it is they will ever repent and turn to Him.
If that is true, then the implication for us is that we need to develop a much higher level of urgency when it comes to sharing the gospel with others. Every day, every moment that we delay, that person’s heart is becoming just a bit more hardened and it becomes more unlikely that they will ever respond to God.
If God was willing to use every tool in His arsenal to extend an opportunity for grace to others, how can we do any less?
Let me close with the words of Vance Havner, the famous 20th century southern preacher and writer:
The real test of how much we believe of prophetic truth is what we're doing to warn men to flee from the wrath to come. To believe the solemn truths of prophecy and then make our way complacently through a world of sin and shame is not merely unfortunate, it is criminal.
