[0:00] We'll be in Revelation chapter 9, Revelation chapter 9. We're just making our way through the book of Revelation and so excited as we get there. You know, we are really in the midst of some deep stuff, really just no better way of putting it.
[0:13] We're in some really misunderstood at times, often misunderstood, sometimes seems to be fanciful interpretation of events that are going on. We are in the middle of, or right in the middle of, the blowing of the seven trumpets.
[0:28] By this time in the book of Revelation, we have already seen John on the island of Patmos, the vision of Jesus Christ, the risen Savior, which he received that day.
[0:38] We've read the letters to the seven churches. We have seen the opening of the seven seals. We've seen the picture of God on his throne in heaven. And we've had that seventh seal opened, remembering who is opening them, that is the lamb that was slain, who is Jesus Christ.
[0:54] So he's in control of all these historical events. And he's opened that seventh seal. And when he opened the seventh seal, seven trumpets began to sound, because in that seal were the seven trumpets.
[1:06] So we're in the second round of judgments, if you will. God has begun to waken his world up with the rapture of his church. Revelation 3, after Revelation 3, the church is no more on the face of the earth.
[1:20] We see the church gathered in glory, Revelation 4 and 5. That's an awakening event when the church is immediately raptured. 1 Thessalonians 5 speaks of the calling away of the saints. The calling away, by the way, the literal word there is rapture.
[1:33] So that word is in Scripture. If someone ever tells you the word rapture is not in the Bible anywhere, you say, wait a minute, Paul used it in 1 Thessalonians. So it's there. That word, he called away. The saints will be called away.
[1:45] And that will wake the world up a little bit. And then the events of the opening of the first six seals take place. We see really all chaos breaking loose upon the face of the earth, and men even ascribing this judgment to the Lord God and understanding where it's coming from.
[2:00] Then the seventh seal is opened, and the seven trumpets come. And the first four trumpets really have to do with the earth and the physical things of creation. How everything green was dried up, and green grass at that time, and a third of the seas and a third of the fresh water, and then a third of the sun and the moon and the stars were darkened.
[2:19] And that's got us to Revelation chapter 9, which is really, things are really about to get crazy. They haven't already by the time we get to Revelation chapter 9.
[2:30] Before we read it together, I want you to understand, I always remind you of this. This is not a revelation of things to come, though it does tell us about things to come. It is what? A revelation of Jesus Christ.
[2:45] So when we read these things, let us not get so caught up in the events that are going to happen. Let us not get so caught up. Let us see them in light of what they are telling us about Jesus Christ.
[2:57] And I tell you that because this passage really is going to challenge us if we're not careful. So if you're physically able and desire to do so, I'm going to ask if you'll join with me as we stand together and we read the Word of God together.
[3:07] I'm going to read the entire chapter of Revelation chapter 9 and we'll see what John says to the churches. John writes, Then the fifth angel sounded, that's the fifth trumpet, Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth.
[3:23] And the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up 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.
[3:33] Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them. And 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.
[3:48] And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months. And their torment was like that torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. And in those days men will seek death and will not find it.
[3:59] They will long to die, and death flees from them. 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. They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions.
[4:13] They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots of many horses rushing to battle. They have tails like scorpions and stings, and in their tail is their power to hurt men for five months.
[4:25] They have as king over them the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek his name is Apollyon. The first woe is past. Behold, two woes are still coming after these things.
[4:37] 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, release the four angels who were bound at the great river Euphrates.
[4:48] 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. And the number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million.
[4:59] I heard the number of them. And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them. The riders had breastplates the color of fire and of brimstone. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceeded fire and smoke and brimstone.
[5:14] 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. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm.
[5:28] And the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, listen to this, 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, of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.
[5:41] And they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their immorality, nor of their thefts. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much that you've given us this day. Lord, we rejoice in the opportunity we have together, together to publicly read your word.
[5:54] And Lord, we pray as we have read it, Lord, that you would give us hearts and minds to understand it. Lord, that you would give us the enlightenment to know all it says about you. And Lord, that it would draw us closer to you. Lord, would you work in each heart and each mind.
[6:07] And Lord, would you conform us more to your image for your glory. And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Revelation chapter 9 really is a powerful chapter.
[6:17] It's a chapter that deals with things which we do not quite often. Hey, that's a pretty cool sound effect, especially in light of the passage that we are looking at. I only hope that the people watching this on live stream got that.
[6:28] That was really good. Revelation 9, I don't know what it is, you know. My wife says, I'm going to go ahead and tell you this. My wife says, Everyone's in trouble when I wear one of two colors. If I wear purple or gold.
[6:41] And for some reason it's more than I put purple on. So hopefully things don't get too out of hand. But Revelation 9 talks about things that we don't talk about a whole lot, really. It talks about things which confound us, and at times it's very confusing to us.
[6:54] But it is something which the Bible speaks of quite often. I actually got into discussion prior to the beginning of our service this morning. Someone asking me questions as it pertained to this. And I said, I'm not going to talk about that right now because that's what I'm going to preach on.
[7:06] So don't look any further into it until we get through with the passage. And there are things which we may not always agree upon, but there are truths here that I want us to take from. And what we see with the sounding of the fifth and the sixth trumpet is really the misery of evil.
[7:23] If you remember when the first four trumpets were sounded, great havoc was really wrought upon the earth. The first trumpet was sounded, and a third of the trees, and a third of the shrubs, and all of the green grass was withered away.
[7:35] It was scorched because of this great star which fell from, really this asteroid, if you will, fell to earth. And then there was something like a burning mountain. We've seen this probably a meteor, fell into the sea with the sounding of the second trumpet, and a third of the seas died.
[7:50] Now that's literally millions and millions and millions of sea creatures. And a third of the ships were destroyed, and we saw how even sea commerce would be disrupted. And then we saw that wormwood fell, and with the sounding of the third trumpet, and a third of the fresh water was polluted.
[8:06] It was that which would kill men because the water is polluted and it's poisoned. And then with the sounding of the fourth trumpet, a third of the sun was dark, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars did not shine. And really that just sets everything in disarray because that affects even the tidal pool and everything else that goes along with that in scientific research.
[8:26] So God is really just calling his world to attention. We looked at last week that the sounding of the trumpets is really the resounding call of God for his people or for the people to repent.
[8:38] It is a sound of warning saying things are not right. Prior to these trumpets being sounded, we have had the 144,000 sealed witnesses based upon our interpretation.
[8:49] And we have to see this and get everything in picture, right? We have to have it in context because if we were to open up Revelation 9 and just read Revelation 9 by itself, we could really misconstrue it and make it say things that it does not say.
[9:01] But prior to this, God has sealed 144,000 Jewish witnesses, people who have come to faith in him during this tribulation time. We've also seen the reality that a number of people are responding.
[9:15] It says these people respond and many of them pay ultimately with their life because the presence of the church is gone. Therefore, the presence of Christ on the earth is gone. And many of them pay ultimately with their life.
[9:26] So I want you to understand, okay? Take this in context. The 144,000 persevere through the tribulation. Okay, things are happening on a worldwide scale, which means that God is not without witness.
[9:41] While all these things are going on, while all things are breaking loose, while everything that man trusts in, in the world structure, either physical or economical, or even as bodies of people, while all these things are being disrupted and crumbling underneath their feet, God has in place 144,000 evangelists who are proclaiming the gospel.
[10:06] This is God in his grace and his mercy calling men to repent. This is not God being a big mean God and judging men. This is judgment coming upon man because of their lack of repentance.
[10:21] And now we see the misery of evil because after that fourth trumpet was sounded, it says that there was an eagle who flew in midheaven and said, woe, woe, woe, because four trumpets have sounded and three are yet to come.
[10:34] And the three repetitions, the thrice repeated woe, is really a woe for each of the three to come. That seventh trumpet, which we have not got to yet, there's an interlude between them.
[10:45] There's this space. We'll see that next week. That seventh trumpet contains really the full measure of God's wrath in the seven bowls. But we're getting ahead of ourselves because the first two woes of the latter part of the trumpet are what we read about in Revelation 9.
[10:59] And it is really this misery of evil. It is things coming upon man which they know nothing of. It is things coming upon man which man would rather not think of. Number one, we see here in the misery of evil, we see the reality of the demonic presence.
[11:15] The reality of the demonic presence. If we were to take ourselves back a number of years and we were to go back to London, England and we were to go back to say the year 1666, we would be sitting in one of the most tragic times in human history.
[11:29] Times that really are unparalleled. It is the breakout of the bubonic plague and that time we would really be at the height of it. And what we would find in London at that time is that the College of Physicians had determined that the cause for the bubonic plague was fresh air.
[11:45] That clean air is what was making everyone sick. So the College of Physicians had ordered that men would go out during the day and sound off guns in the city to bust away the clean air.
[11:57] And people were so convinced that it was clean air that they would go into their houses, they would stop their chimneys and they would light fires and their houses would fill a smoke and they would always breathe in all this smoke thinking that it was the clean air that was making them sick.
[12:10] This is why that Ring Around the Rosie song is really not that good. Ring Around the Rosie Pocket Full of Posey. Why? Because that makes the dead smell better. Ashes to ashes we all fall down because they would literally eat ashes to try to overcome the effect of clean air.
[12:24] Now we understand that the bubonic plague came because of a microscopic organism, a bacteria, and it was being spread from individual to individual and being spread through mice and things like that. It was a really finite, unseen thing which was causing them problems.
[12:39] But if we were to tell them that, you would say, you are wrong. Even the physicians are in agreement. Some of us are saying, well, it sounds a little bit like modern day events. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun.
[12:50] By the way, just thought I'd throw that in there for you, okay? There's nothing new under the sun. All these things, what has been is still to come and we see these things. But what we see is they say, no, no, no, it has nothing to do with this thing.
[13:01] We can't see. It is definitely the clean air, so we're trying to drive the clean air away from us. The reality is that man lives in even a more tragic set of circumstances in that they do not acknowledge something that is present.
[13:16] And that present is the very real presence of demonic forces. It scares us. It wigs us out. We think it's fun in games.
[13:27] This is why we have things like Ouija boards and all these other games in which we deal with the dark side. And friend, I mean, you may think I'm fanatical, but that's okay because as someone once told me, I'd rather be crazy for Jesus than be crazy without him.
[13:41] And you may think I'm a little bit overboard, but you haven't seen some of the things I have seen because if you had, you would stay away from these things. There are things that I have not allowed our children to be around as long as they were under the control of our household.
[13:53] And if they make that choice when they leave us, then that's their choice. And we had very full convictions because I have been in the very presence of those who dealt with these things. And they decided to delve into darkness and what happened when darkness decided to wake up and overtook them and things that I really don't want to get into the picture of describing to you.
[14:13] But friend, when we mess around with demonic forces, we're messing with something that is real. It is not fun and games. It is not something to play around with. This is why scripture is so very clear to say to flee all of these things, to get rid of these things.
[14:28] And what happens in Revelation 9 is that which has always been begins to show itself. It begins to reveal itself. And we see the reality that is in existence today because of the way the text puts it.
[14:40] Look at what it says. Then the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star. Now I read from the New American Standard Bible. Not many of you read from the NASB. Some of you do, but I do like the way the NASB has worded this.
[14:53] Some other translations kind of word it in a present tense, but this wording is actually in the original language in the past tense, in the past active tense, which means it has happened and it's still happening, right?
[15:07] So it says, then the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star from heaven. This is where the NASB says it. Which had fallen to the earth. Some translations say which fell to the earth.
[15:18] And that's not necessarily a bad translation. I'm not telling you, say, well, get rid of that Bible. That Bible is wrong. I'm not saying that, but I want us to understand what it says in its original language. It literally reads, which had already fallen and is currently in the position of the earth.
[15:33] I saw a star which had fallen to the earth and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. So now this star is so different than the stars we are introduced to in other places of the book of Revelation in that this star is given a personal pronoun.
[15:46] It is called a hymn. It is referred to in a personal pronoun and it is actually referred to it quite often in this passage. And the reason that we need to understand that what John is seeing is he sees a star which had already fallen because Jesus himself says, I saw Satan fall from heaven to earth and he fell like a star.
[16:03] The book of Ezekiel tells us that Satan was cast out of heaven and a star falls to earth. It is my understanding and interpretation of this passage that what John is seeing is Satan himself.
[16:14] And where does he see him? He sees him on earth. Something that has already happened. Something that has already taken place. Jesus testified to that when he was talking to his disciples that he was present in heaven and he watched Lucifer being cast out of heaven to the earth as a star falls from heaven to the earth.
[16:31] This is Satan himself which he sees and it says and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. Something else you need to understand about the bottomless pit. Scripture speaks of this quite often. As a matter of fact we go back to the time of Jesus because we believe what Jesus said, right?
[16:46] You don't always have to believe what a man said but you can always believe what Jesus said and you can always believe what happens when Jesus was talking. One thing that we acknowledge with Jesus is that Jesus met a lot of demoniac forces or demon forces and those demons would often talk to him.
[17:00] One of the great encounters he had is when he went to the man on the other side of the sea and he met the man that had a legion of demons in him. Remember that? This man walked up to him and Jesus says what are your names?
[17:10] And the man speaks but it's not the man and the demon said our name is legion for we are many and Jesus was getting ready to cast the demons out of the man. This is the man that lived among the tombs was unclothed and would break the chains because he had a legion of demons in him.
[17:24] This is when he cast him into the swine. Remember? And the hogs ran and the pigs ran down and they asked him to leave. He said you need to get out of here. Do you remember what the demon says? The demon, the legion of the demon said do not cast us into the pit.
[17:36] Do not cast us into the pit. They asked Jesus for permission to go somewhere else. That's pretty cool by the way. I mean it's just a whole other level and Jesus is like okay you can go to those pigs over there. So they acknowledge the reality of the pit.
[17:48] We see this over and over again in scripture and the pit is a place of existence. It is a place a bottomless pit. This is not the lake of fire. This is not shield. This is not hell. This is none of those things.
[17:59] It is a place of reservation for demons who have left their proper place. As a matter of fact I'll blow your mind just a little bit more. You're going to leave here with so many questions and that is so good.
[18:10] First Peter says that when Jesus was on the cross and when he was in the tomb he went to the spirits that were in the pit that were reserved because they left their proper domain and he proclaimed the gospel to them.
[18:23] He ascended into the lower parts of the earth and went to the pit and proclaimed the gospel. It says that they were those angels who left their proper abode. Some of you are like man I'm not ever going to hear this guy again he is crazy.
[18:34] Well let's continue if you want to think I'm crazy let's continue going on because it's so good. Where did they leave that proper abode? Remember in the days of Noah? Remember in the days of Noah where it says the sons of God came and looked upon the daughters of men and they began to try to intermarry with them?
[18:50] I want to tell you a little secret here. The sons of God is only used in scripture to refer to angels. See Satan's scheme is this. Satan says I want to disrupt what God is doing. Follow with me.
[19:01] This isn't too fanciful. This isn't too crazy. Satan's in heaven. He looks upon God on the throne and says I want to be on the throne and God says you can't be on my throne and cast him out. So Satan says okay well I'll disrupt what you're doing.
[19:12] God fashions man puts him in the garden he forms a woman puts him beside man and Satan says I'm going to disrupt that so he comes and he tempts the woman and the man is present and we have what we call the fall and God redeems him. I mean God created this sacrifice and he skinned this animal and he clothed them and he put them out but he redeemed them he shed blood from them and Satan's like well okay so I want to disrupt it again so he disrupts it because a third of the host of heaven was cast out with him so it says I'll tell you what we'll do we'll intermarry with these women and we'll make this a mixed race right we'll kind of we'll pollute the race of humanity and then we have the days of Noah because God preserves them through water righteous Noah and eight others right and Satan's just like man I just I can't get to him and he does all these things but what we see there are those who are reserved in a pit they're locked in chains and they're present it says this star which fell from heaven is there too now let's go just a little bit further to the presence because as we read on in the six cilis sounded it says that one speaks from the golden horns of the altar and says release the angels that are bound by the great river Euphrates friend do you understand that nowhere in scripture does it say that holy angels are ever bound nowhere in scriptures are holy angels ever bound because why would God tie up or bind a perfect holy angel that is doing exactly what he told him to do these are demonic angels angels doesn't always mean something it's not cherubim floating around right it's not that demonic beings that are imprisoned by the great river Euphrates understanding the presence of dark forces scripture also says that there are certain nations that have very present demonic forces over them
[20:51] Daniel says he was opposed by the demonic forces of Babylon we understand these things the great river Euphrates we take days to go into what he's talking about here these regions of this area what we see and all of this thing and I'm not trying to make this great sermon of demons Tony Evans has got a great series the good the bad and the ugly on the presence of demons and it's worth listening to and I'm not trying to get there but what I want you to see from this passage this passage definitively tells us that there is a real presence of demonic activity on the earth we wage war not against flesh and blood but against what the powers and principalities of the air and the spiritual forces of darkness and the reason we need to know this friend listen to me as believers in Jesus Christ I think at times we do not prepare ourselves enough for the battle because we don't even want to acknowledge there is a battle this is why Paul says to put on the full armor of God so that you may be able to oppose you don't want to put on the full armor of God to oppose someone else so that you can oppose
[21:55] Satan and his demons when he comes against you we fall because we do not acknowledge the reality of the threat and John says they're here they're there look they're here they're present some are bound here some are bound here Satan is there but they are there so what we see is this misery because there's a day coming and here's the trumpet sounds where God releases his restraint and they begin to have their way let us not think that it's all fanciful imagination but rather let us understand the reality here number two we not only see the reality of demonic presence number two we see the recognition of divine power the recognition of divine power because we do not want to give Satan too much control we do not want to give Satan too much control we do not want to give him so much authority that it scares us because the Bible tells us that greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world and we understand this we see the recognition of divine power because it says that he saw a star which had been cast out of heaven to the earth that star being Satan and I love this and the keys to the bottomless pit were given to him now this is so good because you need to understand this if Satan is the prince of the fallen angels and he is it gives us this great picture and we know that these are demons and I'm not going to get into all the descriptive work of them but it says that they came upon the earth like locusts and John's favorite word in this chapter is like like like like and it had a face like this and it had armor like this and it had a head like that and it had like this these are not literal scorpions these are not literal locusts these are not literal anything
[23:28] John was just trying to describe what he saw and really what this is is almost inexplainable because it's the release of demonic forces manifesting themselves upon mankind that which is often hidden beginning to be manifested but in the middle of all that we recognize that God is still in control because though Satan is on the earth he has to ask for the keys to the bottomless pit he has to be given the keys to the bottomless pit think about these these are the angels that were cast out of heaven with him these are the angels that are on his side these are those who have been bound in the bottomless pit Satan can't get his own army together until somebody gives him the key now that's good news you say well who had to give him the key well that's pretty easy to describe because Jesus Christ came out of death hell and the grave and he held what the keys to hell and the keys to death because he gave the keys to heaven to the church right we can open up heaven to the unbeliever but he alone can open that up so he has to give this star the key he has to give this one the key who has the name
[24:29] Abaddon and Apollyon which literally means destruction he had to give him the key but John says that they are like locusts now a swarm of locusts does just horrific things as a matter of fact you can look throughout history and see how locust swarms come and they fall upon a piece of land and they literally will leave this beautiful lush land and they will leave it as a desert desolate place and there will be nothing left behind and they eat what?
[24:56] green things but what I love about this is excuse me is that God limits their activity because God says you can't touch anything green and he also limits who they can touch he says we'll get to this in just a minute he says you can only touch me and you can torment me but you can't kill them you can't kill them they're limited they're worth the demonic activity is limited God says you can't kill them and you can only do it for five months now five months is the lifespan of a locust it is from like March to September so that's about what you get or some of you count I think it's May to September you can count it up whatever it is okay it's five months they die in September let's put it that way but so they have a five month lifespan and what God is doing what he's showing us here is Satan can't get them until they give them the keys they can't do anything but what I tell them to do and they can only harm man but they can't kill man as a matter of fact it says the misery is so much that man will seek death and for the first time in history man is not fleeing from death man is running to death and death evades them they won't be able to die because God says nope not yet not going to let it not going to happen and the whole time this is going on the 144,000 are still preaching the 144,000 are still proclaiming forgiveness in Jesus Christ the 144,000 are declaring the gospel and God is in control as a matter of fact it says with the four angels that are bound beside the great river of Euphrates
[26:11] I know I'm talking fast I want to get this in it's Father's Day I want you to enjoy your day it says that they were preserved for this hour this day this month and this year God had a specific time down to the very hour when they would be released all I want you to see in this is that the demonic activity is real it is present misery is wreaking havoc on the earth but in the middle of all this God is still in control you can't do this you can't do that you have to stop here you can't go until I tell you you can go and you can only kill with the sixth trumpet you can only kill a third of mankind now a third of mankind coupled with the fourth of mankind that was killed because of the destruction of the first of the six cells that were open leads to about half of the world's population dying in a very short period of time and if the world's population is seven billion people you're looking at about three and a half billion people dead in about three and a half years that's phenomenal and God says here's the limit this is as far as you can go you have to stop here
[27:11] God is in control number three what I want you to see is the reassurance of complete protection because we don't want to leave here shaking and doubting the reassurance of complete protection demonic activity is real divine power is there but what I want you to see is his protection is complete because when he sounds the fifth trumpet and the keys to the bottomless pit are given to the star and the star opens a pit and a swarm comes out this swarm of demons comes out and all this stuff starts breaking loose it says that you can only harm the men who do not have the seal of God on their forehead we'll find out later in the book of Revelation that seal is the name of God written across their forehead he says you can't touch them that's 144,000 that's those who responded to the gospel what I want you to see they weren't tormented they weren't discomforted they weren't messed with nothing touched them because God says my protection is over them leave them alone friend this is how we fight the battle against the very present reality the forces of darkness is you walk around because truly greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world and we can walk in the midst of darkness and we can walk in the midst of this activity we can walk in the midst of all these things and still rest assured in the divine protection that rests upon us
[28:23] I mean it is a complete protection I have literally been and this is not just a fanciful testimony time this is just a reality time I have been in the present a number of times of things that I would call otherworldliness things that people that would be and we don't want to get too detailed here because you may think I'm a little bit nuts that we're not speaking of themselves in no time did I ever feel like that I was scared or did I ever feel like I was afraid because I knew the reality that he who was protecting me was greater than he who was opposing me there have been times in the ministry there have been times in personal circumstances where my wife thought I was nuts and she would say I don't know about that because you know some of the people out there are a little crazy and well I'm a little crazy too but there are some little people that are just a little beyond a touch of crazy right and people who would threaten me and people who would say different things against me but here's what we need to know God is a God of complete protection he is the one who says that you have a day that you are appointed to die it is appointed unto man once to die and after this judgment I have a day of appointments and until that day of appointment is there
[29:27] God is not done with me now when that day of appointment comes I don't care how well protected I think I am if God says today is my day today is my day but until that day he is the day of one who is keeping me we see this with the 144,000 think of this millions and millions it says 200 million demons released on the earth and in the middle of that there's 144,000 witnesses saying trust in Jesus Christ believe in the Lord and be saved 200 million demons who believe in Jesus Christ and tremble but can't touch them because God says nope those are mine friend listen that's not a promise for a future event that's a promise for today's time we walk in darkness we walk at times in circumstances which aren't pleasant but the reality is this God says you are my child I have my hand upon you nothing can touch you unless I allow it to go ask Job when you get to glory and see if that's not true what a beautiful thing it is to see complete protection fourth and finally and I will end here we see the repetition of man's problem the repetition of man's problem man has a problem and I don't care how bad it gets man's problem will always be there you say what do you mean look at how chapter 9 ends and I know I've thrown a lot of information at you all I want you to know is there's coming a day in the future where God lets misery reign unchecked where he says okay that's how you want it let's do it if you want to mess around with darkness let's let it go about and he lets misery go and when he does that man begins to pay the ultimate price there are men who want to die but they can't there are men who don't want to die but they do everything gets breaking loose here and then it says in verse 20 the rest of mankind that is those who did not die those who were not a part of the third of mankind who died the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues the fire, the smoke and the brimstone that came out of the demons the rest of the mankind look at this did not repent of the works of their hands so as not to worship demons and the idols of gold of silver 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 of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts what is he saying the Bible is very clear it says the repetition of man the problem of man is this man rejects God and it doesn't matter how bad it gets man continues to reject God you would think if you look at today's circumstances and you look at the things going on in our historical setting that men would be running to something more stable men would run to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and accept Him as their Savior and He is still drawing people to Himself but the reality is this even in that latter time even in those last days as bad as it gets men still love their sin more than they want to love God men still want to love their idols that is whatever they want to put in the place of God they know that they can't trust in it everything's falling apart but it sure is comfortable because they can take that thing fold it up put it in their pocket and walk home with it and it doesn't really inconvenience them at all and they won't turn away from them men love their sin their immoralities their thefts their murders their sorceries by the way that's sorceries is the word we get pharmaceuticals from it literally means their drug usage men would rather as S.M. Lockridge said in 1980 oh you gotta go listen to that sermon
[32:51] I've told you about it so many times and some of you have maybe listened to the 15 minute clip of That's My King but you need to listen to the 45 minute sermon you say well that's old audio but it's good audio of That's My King in 1980 he said we live in a day when man tries to drink their problems away smoke their problems away or pop the pills to get their problems away but it ain't happening my friend if it was happening in 1980 it's happening in 2020 because man would rather try to take care of it themselves and to surrender their life and give it to the one who's got it all under control doesn't matter how bad it gets man still loves them a whole lot of him and he says I got this I just want to ask you what about you what about you we're not living that time yet we're not living that day yet we don't need to think when things get bad enough I'll turn to God or when things fall apart enough I'll turn to God that's not the call the call of scripture is today is the day of salvation to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior to give him your life completely to surrender your entire life to him to follow him completely and to walk in faithful obedience
[33:56] I don't know where you're at but I know where he's at he's on the throne he's in control and he's in charge of it all and friend he's calling out today we live in a day of grace not a day of judgment but I want you to know that in that last day when God pours out those seven bowls of judgment he is justified because he has given ample opportunity to repent and man will not repent and when judgment comes understand this he is justified he gave more than enough opportunity to repent and man still would rather have it his way let's pray Lord we thank you so much thank you that you've allowed us to gather together Lord we thank you for the privilege of gathering as a body of believers called the church Lord pray that you continue to draw each and every one of us closer to you Lord that you would be glorified and honored and we ask it in Jesus name Amen Amen
[35:35] Thank you.
[36:05] Thank you.
[36:35] Thank you.
[37:05] Thank you.