Invasion from Hell
Rev. 8:13-9:12
Do you believe in the existence of angels? Surveys show that most people do…but did you know that those same surveys also show that most people do not believe in the existence of demons?! If you believe in angels you MUST also believe in FALLEN ANGELS!…aka demons.
When Jesus walked this earth, He dealt w/ demons on many occasions. “Well, I don’t believe in all that hocus-pocus!”
Jesus did! Jesus not only believed in them, but He often confronted them…inc. the time He dealt w/ one individual who was at that time possessed w/ literally hundreds of demons.
If you watch the news at all…if you ever leave the house, you have to agree, that the world we live in is controlled and influenced predominantly by Satan and His mighty army of fallen angels…demons. The Bible calls Satan the Prince of this world, the Prince of the power of the air.
Eph. 6 says Satan has a great army of evil spirits that assist him in his work…they are divided into 4 categories: principalities/powers/rulers of darkness/spiritual wickedness in high places.
Many Bible scholars believe this to mean there is a hierarchy involved here, not just a bunch of bad guys w/ a leader, but that they are highly organized in their work, using a command structure, delegating orders, organizing wickedness.
Rapists—not just of women, but even toddlers of 2 or 3 years, or the elderly in their 80’s…now that’s depravity which must be inspired by demons!
Child abusers—even parents…defiling their own children in ways so horrible that they defy imagination…that’s depravity which must be inspired by demons! Or a mother that would drown her own children…that’s not natural, only a demon could accomplish that!
Murderers—not just killing their victims, but brutalizing them, and in many cases, cannibalizing them… that’s depravity which must be inspired by demons!
9/11 hijackers—train for several years to die, as long as they can take innocent Americans w/ them. These are people w/ an agenda so warped and a mind so brainwashed, they are the very embodiment of evil…that’s depravity which must be inspired by demons!
Suicide bombers—(homicide bombers) have blown themselves up hundreds of times since Sept., 2000…that’s Palestinian against Jew. They’ve killed thousands in those attempts, and averaged only 3.5 killed by each bomber! What kind of person is willing to do so much w/ so little result? A person which is possessed and controlled and inspired by demons!
What kind of person tries to make a statement to their government by harming and killing innocent people. (Timothy McVeigh, who called children he killed “collateral damage” / anthrax / pipe bomber who drew “smiley face” on US map!) I’ll tell you what kind of person…a demon-possessed person.
Satanism is on the rise. And the Satanists are not just the heavy metal rockers that we think of, or the members of the church of Satan which sacrifice cows and goats and drink the blood. Satanists are not just the people in NM where I grew up that put a small boy into a coffin w/ a straw to breathe thru, then poured in thousands of fire ants…and later referred to the 15 minutes of slow death torture which ensued as a “sacrifice to Satan”.
No, Satanists are also in other forms, like lost people who allow Satan in…they allow him in by the ear gate when they listen to the aforementioned trash / eye gate when they burn themselves from inside-out w/ pornography, or role play w/ today’s mutilating video games, or Harry Potter books / thru the throat by means of a bottle / or thru their nose or their veins, or even their reproductive systems!
And some Christians, though not possessed, allow themselves to be demon-oppressed when they take part in some of the same acts of wickedness.
The goal is not to depress you today…so here’s the point:
We all know the world is in bad shape / Satan’s behind it…
…but do you know: that as bad as things are today, as much influence and power as demons have today…do you realize that the worst of Satan’s demons have never been loosed upon this earth?! That’s right! The worst of the worst are held in chains today. There are demons that are so evil, so insidious, so destructive, that God, in mercy, has kept them incarcerated ever since they followed Lucifer, and fell like stars from heaven with him.
During the tribulation period, those demons will be liberated for a period of five months, for the purpose of tormenting mankind in a judgment that defies description. It is literally an Invasion from Hell.
We studied the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse…who rode into town, ushering in the tribulation, some time after the rapture ushers out the born-again Christians. The antichrist led the way bringing his dominion, division, depravation, and death…and wars and wholesale starvation leads to the deaths of 1/4th of the world’s population, by today’s numbers, well over 1 billion people!
But as bad as that sounds, the worst is yet to come!
We looked Wed. at the first 4 trumpet judgments in ch. 8, where 1/3rd of the earth’s vegetation is annihilated/marine life killed/ocean waters turned to blood/freshwater poisoned/sunlight diminished…and the results include more famine, drought, floods, mudslides, almost unbreathable air…and yet, as horrible as those realities were, as we finished ch. 8, we were reminded that the worst is yet to come!
8:13 If you thought the first 4 trumpet judgments were bad, hold on, because the worst is yet to come! You see, the first 4 of the 7 trumpet judgments were aimed at ecology, the earth itself, but the last 3 trumpet judgments are directed at man, himself.
We’ll only look at the first of the 3 now, it’s in v. 1, then the last 2 tonite.
9:1 This is not just a star, but a “him”! This is Satan himself, granted permission from God Almighty to take the key to the bottomless pit, where demonic forces, perhaps more vicious than even him, are reserved in chains of darkness! (Incidentally, this is the very place where Satan himself will eventually end up for all eternity.)
Well, during the tribulation period, hell has a holiday. At this point in the tribulation, the Lord Jesus Christ, the One Who holds the keys of death and hell, gives the key to Satan for a period of 5 months. Satan opens the doors of hell, and for 5 long months, demons of the worst kind infest the world!
Obviously, demons are at work in the world today, but these demons, incarcerated for eons of time, are so vile, and filthy wicked, that they have been confined for thousands of years in the pit of the abyss…I don’t think they’ll be in a good mood. They will be loosed upon this earth, and they will unleash their venom in ways unimaginable.
Remember in Matt. 8, when Jesus confronted the demon-possessed maniac of Gadara? The demons begged and pleaded with Jesus, that he would not cast them into the abyss. Why were they afraid that He would send them there? Because they had friends in low places…that don’t get out much…that are crazy mad! And so they begged for mercy, and asked to be cast instead into the swine. And Jesus sent them into the pigs, and they went crazy and ran into the sea and drowned.
Did you hear that? Jesus sent the demons into the pigs…the first recorded incident in all of history, of someone making deviled ham!!
Their friends, the demons now held in chains in the pit of the abyss, the bottomless pit, are loosed upon the earth…hell has a holiday…it is literally, an invasion from hell!
Let’s look at the Bible description of these demons, and we’re done. Here’s 7 words to describe them:
1. Infernal
v. 2 When the pit is opened, smoke pours out, so much so that the sun is darkened. This once again reiterates the point…the point made countless other times in scripture, that Hell is a literal furnace of fire! (believe in Angels/demons…Heaven/Hell…which Jesus spoke of twice as much as Heaven!)
Don’t listen to the liberal preachers who tries to explain it away!
I don’t like to preach about it / think about it…I wouldn’t want to imagine my worst enemy going to that literal furnace of fire which Jesus Himself spoke of in Mt. 13:
Matthew 13:42
And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus believed, and so do I, and if I care at all, then I will preach it, even if it’s not politically correct!
I’m commanded to preach the WHOLE counsel of God, and by God’s grace I will.
When I face my Lord someday, I’d rather Him say to me, “Jerry, you took my Word too literally” than “Jerry, you explained it away too easily!”
And it is a place of literal fire, as proven by the rich man in Luke 16:
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, 24 and he cried and said… I am tormented in this flame.
That is the literal furnace of fire of hell, out of which these demons ascend…they are infernal!
v. 3-4 These demons are described by John “as” locusts…not literal locusts, this is symbolism.
Why does John use the term locusts to describe these demons?
I think it refers to the unbelievable number of them that are loosed. In the Middle East, locusts are known to swarm, not by the hundreds / thousands / millions…but by the billions, and they are known to be so large at times that they have actually darkened the skies. The Bible says that Satan was thrown out of heaven when he rebelled, along w/ 1/3 of the angels (fallen angels). Back in Rev. 5 we saw that just the angel choir alone in heaven is over 100 million strong! And that’s just the choir!!
And 1/3rd of them fell, and the most of them, the worst of them, will be loosed upon the earth for the first time, and will on that day pour out like a dark cloud of bats from a cave…to terrorize the earth. They are hellish, diabolical, fiendish…they are direct from hell, they are infernal!
2. Intolerable
4-6
v. 10 We cannot begin to imagine the physical pain that these demons will bring upon people. “torment” = the strongest word we have for torturous pain.
The strongest human instinct we have is self-preservation, but v. 6 says those on earth will desire to die, and will attempt suicide, and will be unable to do so…unable to escape the torment. Those left on the earth during the tribulation will not be able to pull the dirt over their faces!
Time out! The world has such a warped view of Satan. The Devil and his forces have always desired to torment people…that is their primary goal, to do evil! Why is it that so many people have the mistaken idea that Satan is their “bro” and God is their enemy?
For 5 months of the tribulation Satan and his demons will have free reign to do what they so want to do to everyone…torment them with pain and suffering…physical torment, emotional and psychological torment! And Satan, that crafty Devil, tempts us w/ sin which looks so alluring and so inviting, when he knows full well the end of that sin will bring grief and sorrow, pain and torment to our lives!
Ill.—sheep at slaughterhouse -- to get sheep to go up the ramp to where they are killed, they place a goat on the ramp, trained to climb the ramp…and the sheep follow that goat / when the goat gets to the top he is let thru a gate, and his life is spared, but the sheep are turned the other way and are killed!
If we could hear that goat somehow…I believe he’d be laughing, as he does this task time after time every day.
Young people, listen, Satan will tempt you to do wrong, and he’ll make it look so alluring, and so promising, but when you’re lying face down in your own vomit, or staring at a hospital ceiling, or worse, if your life is snuffed out, don’t expect any sympathy from the devil…the old goat will do nothing but laugh at you! His desire is to bring pain…for he knows that sin bringeth forth death / the soul that sinneth, it shall die / the wages of sin is death. Satan knows that lust, when conceived, brings forth sin, and death…the most powerful form of LSD: Lust-Sin-Death!
These demons are infernal, intolerable…
3. Irresistible
v. 7a
v. 9 They will be irresistible in the sense of “unstoppable”…like charging steeds, conquering everyone in their path. Resistance will be futile! There will be no escape!
4. Invincible
7b Crowns— this signifies that they are in full control, they are ruling the world, just like they’ve always wanted…the very reason they were thrown out of the kingdom of God! They are the gods / the kings of this world!
Gay rights crowd will be here, and they will have their chance to follow their kings / new age crowd / pro abortion crowd / and the Islamic terrorists, among many others, will be here, and will have their chance to follow their kings…the only problem is, they will quickly learn that their king’s desire all along was their destruction.
And all of those crowds just mentioned are basically saying the same thing right now: “if we could just get rid of those Christians / get those right wing fundamentalists out of power / conservative, Bible literalists / fanatics out of the way, the world would be a better place.”
I hereby serve notice by way of reminder that at the rapture…they’re gonna get their wish! Those of us who have been saved will be ushered out, and the tribulation of horrors we’re reading about will be ushered in upon them! I take no joy in serving that notice…we love them, and want them to be saved and avoid the wrath to come!
But for those who do not believe there will be an invasion from hell that will be infernal, intolerable, irresistible, invincible…
5. Intelligent
7b “faces of men”—speaks of intelligence…they are highly organized, extremely intelligent beings. They are not just wild animals, but will have the gift of reason, and intelligence above our own!
6. Insidious
v. 8 “hair of women” = represents beauty. They may appear at first glance to be alluring and attractive. The Bible talks about “seducing spirits”, referring to demons! But if you’re not saved, and you’re left behind at the rapture, when you see this long-haired beauty coming your way, you’d better look beyond the mascara and the curls…
end of v. 8 says they have “teeth as lions”!
Their real desire is to attack and devour!
That’s how insidious these demons are…and that’s how Satan is today…TV and billboards glamorize sin, but don’t show you the end of that road, which is misery!
Satan is disguised as an angel of light, but he truly is the demon of darkness, a roaming lion seeking to devour…and the end is death!
So, they are insidious…
7. Indivisible
v. 11 This is not the devil, this is a demon leader…a chief demon who leads the invasion from hell on earth. Both terms mean “destruction.”
This general leads the rank and file in an organized destruction of those left behind in the tribulation.
What would the world be like if every prison opened its doors, and released every single prisoner? With no police force?!
America alone has approx. 2 million behind bars…one in every 125 American men is incarcerated. Worldwide estimates are astounding!
What if at 8 p.m. tonite, every rapist, cut-throat, child molester, and thief were released? You wouldn’t leave your home, you would barricade yourself in and take up arms! And yet that is nothing like the Invasion from Hell which will occur during the tribulation. The demons of ch. 9 are not humans, they’re super-humans! / in-human!!
“You’re trying to scare me!”
“Uhuh!”
Fear of hell and judgment are not a bad reason to get saved at all!
I’d rather scare you into heaven than lull you into hell!
If you’re not saved, you’d better get saved!
If you’re not saved, you ought to be scared!
The worst is yet to come…you don’t want to be here…
…the good news is: you don’t have to be!
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[link also leads to the rest of the 60 Sermon Revelation Series]
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/InvasionFromHell.html
