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The t n y s n a b d t , a m a s o t m s o t h o s o o o t h o e o t e n l e o o o o l l l l l l l l l l l l l l Now, in Revelation chapter 9, we continue with God pouring out His wrath with these trumpet judgments. We saw the first four trumpets in Revelation chapter 8. In Revelation chapter 9, we start out with the sounding of the fifth trumpet. The Bible says in verse number 1, And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. So we see that the star is referred to as a hymn here. And it says, And he opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And of course, hell is often referred to as the bottomless pit. Hell is also often referred to as a furnace of fire. And it says that the angel that has the key to the bottomless pit, he opens the bottomless pit, and smoke arises out of the pit, and the sun and the air are darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. It says in verse 3, And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, and unto them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their forts. So these locusts, instead of eating up all the greenery, as locusts often do in the Bible. And locusts is never something that's a positive thing in the Bible. Even in the United States, there have been plagues of locusts that have happened in the past, going back hundreds of years, where locusts would come in and they would eat up all the plants. They would eat up all the crops. And it was devastating to people, you know, because they plant these crops, they're looking forward to the harvest, and then the locusts will come in. And a locust is basically a migrating grasshopper that flies. These grasshoppers would come in and just eat up all the plant life and just leave nothing behind. And it was devastating to farmers and to people who lived in that area. In the Bible, there are similar things where locusts come in and eat the greenery. But these locusts that come out of hell or out of the bottomless pit are different in that they're not going to touch any green thing. They're not touching the grass. They're not touching the trees. They're only there to hurt the men that have not the seal of God in their foreheads, referring to the fact that in chapter 7, the 144,000 received that seal in their foreheads that would cause them to be immune from God's wrath being poured out. So everyone except for the 144,000 of the children of Israel that we talked about back in chapter 7 is being tormented and plagued by these horrible locusts whose sole purpose is to do nothing but to hurt human beings. Look if you would at verse number 5, and to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months, and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he strike at the man. Now I've never been struck by a scorpion. Who here has been struck by a scorpion? Has anybody? You know, in Arizona, yeah, a lot of people have been struck by scorpions. I know my son Solomon at one point was stung by a scorpion, and he was in a lot of pain. And if you've never been struck by one, you can look up and do some reading about it. It's very painful. It's tormenting, especially when you see just how many of these locusts there are and how they're going to spend five months tormenting men. You say, well, how bad is it going to be? How painful are these scorpion-like wounds going to be? Well, look what it says in verse number 6. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. So just so that there's no question about how painful this is going to be when these locusts are tormenting them, the Bible says it will be so painful that people will be wishing that they were dead. They'll be in so much pain and agony and burning from these scorpion-like wounds that they're receiving from the locusts that they are going to just wish that they would die just to have relief from the pain. That's what's going to be going through their minds. Look at verse 7. He gives us a description of the locusts. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle. Now, why would they be like horses prepared unto battle? Well, horses throughout history have sometimes worn battle armor or some kind of a shielding of their bodies. Let's keep reading and we'll get into more of that. It says that they were like horses prepared unto battle, and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold. Not a literal crown of gold, but it's as it were crowns like gold. So basically the shapes of their heads will have some kind of a maybe pointy structure toward the top of their head that's like unto a crown of gold. Their faces were as the faces of men. So they do not have the faces of men, but their faces are similar to the faces of men. And the Bible says they had hair as the hair of women, obviously referring to long hair. Because the Bible clearly teaches in 1 Corinthians 11 that it's a shame for a man to have long hair, but that a woman's hair is her glory. So these locusts have hair like unto women. Their teeth were like the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates referring to, I believe, you know, a very strong exoskeleton because they are locusts. And it says they had breastplates as it were breastplates of iron. And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. So imagine the terrifying sight of a swarm of these locusts coming to you. The sound of their wings, these locusts are beating their wings and it sounds like horses running to battle. Now, look, I've heard some pretty loud insect noises in my life. I remember when I was in Illinois, sometimes the insects would be so loud. It just blew my mind when it was really muggy and warm outside on a really humid day. Boy, those insects would go nuts and it was a very loud sound. But you know what? It didn't sound like horses and chariots running to battle. These locusts are going to be coming in such quantities and with such force that the sound of their coming will be like the sound of chariots and horses running to battle. And it says here that they had breastplates like breastplates of iron. Well think about this. Bugs have an exoskeleton, don't they? Which could be characterized as a breastplate. Many bugs have such a strong exoskeleton that they're very difficult to crush and probably all of us have had that bug that just wouldn't die and you're stomping on it, it just does not die. Well these particular locusts, you're not going to be able to step on them and kill them, I don't believe, because this exoskeleton that is similar to iron is not going to be stomped by your foot and your little pair of shoes is not going to destroy these things. So you say, well if these locusts come around me, you know, I'm just going to step on them. Well hopefully everybody here is saved tonight and so you're not even going to face any of this anyway because this is after the rapture has already taken place with the opening of the sixth seal. But for those that are unsaved, when these things come, they're not going to be simply stepped on. They're just going to keep on coming. They're not going to die that easily. And it says in verse number 10, they had tails like unto scorpions and there were stings in their tails and their power was to hurt men five months. 150 days, using the Bible's reckoning, of torment from these scorpions and people will wish that they were dead. It's going to be horrible. Look at verse 11, and they had a king over them which is the angel of the bottomless pit whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. Now I want to spend some time on this verse because so many people have mistakenly been taught that Apollyon is the devil. Who's ever heard that before? Apollyon is Satan. And Pilgrim's Progress is a great example. Book written by a Baptist preacher hundreds of years ago and in the book Apollyon is Satan. Well first of all, Pilgrim's Progress also teaches that a person can lose their salvation. So that book is filled with false doctrine and that's why we shouldn't get our doctrines from man and from man's books and from man's commentaries but we should use the Bible itself to give us our doctrine because I'm going to prove to you beyond a shadow of a doubt right now that Abaddon or Apollyon is not Satan. And anybody who's saying that Apollyon or Abaddon is Satan just doesn't know their Bible. It's that simple. Let me give you just several reasons why Abaddon or Apollyon cannot be Satan. Number one, he has a completely different name. Now the Bible tells us over and over again in the book of Revelation when it refers to Satan he's always clear. He says the great dragon was cast out which is the devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world. The serpent which is the devil which is Satan which is the dragon. God over and over again is very clear in the book of Revelation when he's talking about the devil and the Bible consistently calls him the serpent, the dragon, Satan, the devil, Lucifer but never do we see him called either Abaddon or Apollyon. And later I'm going to get into more about the Hebrew word Abaddon and the Greek word Apollyon there. But first of all it's a different name. Second of all this is the wrong timing. Satan does not fall from heaven at the sounding of the fifth trumpet because if you remember the Bible is clear in Daniel chapter 12 verse number 1 that Michael the archangel will fight against the devil, he'll stand up for his people and then after that there will be a time of trouble such as was not since the beginning of the world. So basically Michael cast the dragon out of heaven which we read about in Revelation 12, that takes place before the tribulation takes place. So Satan is cast out of heaven before the tribulation, not at the fifth trumpet of the wrath of God. There's nothing in the Bible that would indicate this timing for Satan's fall from heaven. So first of all they have different names, second of all it's a totally different timing. Number 3, go if you would to Revelation 20. In Revelation 20 we see this same angel of the bottomless pit because remember it says in Revelation 9-11 they had a king over them which is the angel of the bottomless pit whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. So according to Revelation 9-11 Apollyon is the angel of the bottomless pit. He is also the king over the locusts that are from hell and he also had the key of the bottomless pit to open hell and let the locusts out. Now go to Revelation 20. Now review back to chapter 1. Didn't Jesus say that he had the key of hell? Jesus Christ said I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore and he said I have the keys of hell and of death. So wouldn't it make sense that if Jesus has the key to hell or to the bottomless pit that he would give it to his angel to open and that he wouldn't turn it over to Satan? Oh here's Satan, here's the keys man. Take the keys to the car buddy, take it out for a spin. You know God's not going to give something that he has the keys to, he's not going to turn that over to Satan. He can turn it over to one of his servants which Abaddon or Apollyon is one of his servants. He's an angel from heaven that has the key to the bottomless pit. Now let me prove it to you. If Apollyon is Satan as these false stories have told us, then how does it make sense that in Revelation 20 the angel of the bottomless pit casts Satan into hell? I mean is this Satan casting himself into hell? That makes no sense, does it? Look at Revelation 20 verse 1. And I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand and he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years should be fulfilled and on and on. So look, who is the one who has the power to basically lock Satan into hell? To grab Satan, bind him up, throw him into hell? Okay, that's Abaddon, that's Apollyon, that's the angel of the bottomless pit. And let me say this, he's greater in power and might than Satan is, is he not? Because he's able to bind Satan. He's able to throw Satan in and lock him up. So this Abaddon or Apollyon is the angel of the bottomless pit and he casts out Satan. Hey, can Satan cast out Satan? No. So therefore the angel of the bottomless pit or Apollyon is not Satan. So number one, they have totally different names. Number two, totally the wrong timing for Satan to be cast out of heaven. Number three, Apollyon is the one who binds Satan, therefore he cannot be Satan. And number four, Satan is not a king of the bottomless pit. He does not rule in hell. You know, there's a false doctrine out there among Satanists that says this, better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. Who's ever heard that before? You know, it's better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven. No, let me tell you something, Satan worshipers and Satan himself will not rule in hell. You know what they'll do? They'll be tormented in hell along with everyone else. Hell is the place where the devil will suffer and be tormented. Read Isaiah chapter 14. It's his downfall. Hell is not his kingdom. And this idea that the devil's down in hell ruling and reigning, you know, that works great when you're watching Mary Melodies and Porky Pig has horns and a pitchfork and a tail and he's going ah ha ha and he's poking people in the rear end with a pitchfork. You know, that's not reality, my friend. The devil does not rule in hell as Mary Melodies, you know, has taught. The Bible teaches that the devil will be punished in hell. You know who rules over hell? God does. God is the creator of hell and God's lieutenant, God's angel, Abaddon or Apollyon has the key to the bottomless pit, not Satan. Satan's going to be locked up in there and he's dead sure not going to be pulling a key out of his pocket and letting himself out early. He's not going to be let out until God lets him out at the end of the millennium. And so this idea of Satan being a king over the bottomless pit or ruling over hell which comes from believing that Apollyon is Satan is a false doctrine that basically exalts Satan giving him some kind of an authority in hell. You know, let's not give Satan more credit than what he deserves. He is not ruling in hell. He will suffer in hell. In fact, at this point, the devil's never even been to hell because he's not going to be cast out until the beginning of the tribulation and so he's never even been there. Right now he walketh about on this earth as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. But let's go a little deeper now. Let's look at the word Abaddon and the word Apollyon just to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Apollyon is not Satan and just to show you who he really is. Let's look at every time the word Abaddon is used in the Old Testament and let's look at every time the word Apollyon is used in the New Testament. Now of course in your English Bible these words aren't going to show up, but that's why he tells us in the Hebrew it's Abaddon, in the Greek it's Apollyon. Let's look these up and see what this angel Abaddon is associated with. Go back to Job 26, hell is naked before him and destruction hath no covering. Did you get that? The word destruction there in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon in this verse. So that tells us that Abaddon means destruction and what is it associated with? Hell right? Go to Job 28 verse 22 and it says, destruction and death say we have heard the fame thereof with our ears. Go to chapter 31 of Job, Job 31 verse 12. For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction and would root out all my increase. So what has destruction or Abaddon been associated with so far? Hell, death, fire. Getting it? Okay. Go to Psalm 88. The Bible reads in Psalm 88 11, shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave or thy faithfulness in destruction. So look, just as a grave is a place where a dead body is kept, destruction is a place where dead souls are kept, right? Associated with what we saw before, hell, death, fire, the grave. Okay, look at Proverbs 15. Proverbs chapter number 15, look at verse 11 of Proverbs 15, the next mention of Abaddon here. It says, hell and destruction. So do you see the association again? The word destruction there in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon. Hell and destruction are before the Lord. How much more than the hearts of the children of men? And lastly, go to Proverbs 27 verse 20, hell and destruction are never full. So the eyes of man are never satisfied. Now doesn't it make perfect sense then that Abaddon would be the name of the angel of the bottomless pit when the word destruction or the word Abaddon is a word that's always associated with hell, fire, and death? See how simple it is to understand when you look at it in that light? You say, okay, I get it. What about the word Apollyon? Well the word Apollyon is used in the New Testament because remember the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and the New Testament was originally written in Greek? Look at Matthew 7, 13 and think about this in light of all the Old Testament mentions of Abaddon. Matthew 7, 13 says, enter ye in at the straight gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to Apollyon, he's saying, that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at. So look, what's that verse talking about? People going to hell, right? He says many people, the majority, the broad way leads to hell. It leads to destruction. Remember over and over again. And look, you don't have to go back to the Hebrew and Greek to figure this out because you could have just looked at all those Old Testament verses where it said destruction in hell, destruction in hell, destruction in fire, destruction in hell, destruction in death and note that when the Bible says here that the broad way leads to destruction, you know he's talking about the broad way leads unto hell, my friend, because he said that them which believe not, the Bible says he afterward destroyed them that believed not. He said fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body where? In hell. Let's look at another mention of the Greek word Apollyon in the New Testament. Romans 9, 27 is another verse that in the Greek tongue uses the word Apollyon. It says in Romans 9, 22, what if God willing to show his wrath and to make his power known endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? Apollyon in the Greek has to do with wrath of God which obviously hell is the place of God's wrath. Philippians chapter 3 verse 19 talks about people whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly and who glory in their shame, who mind earthly things. When he says their end is destruction, that word there is Apollyon in the Greek. It says in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse number 1, but there were also false prophets also among the people even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bringing upon themselves swift destruction, okay? Again associated with people who are going to hell. A couple of verse later it says their damnation slumbereth not, right? People that are damned to hell, they're going to destruction. They're going to hell, okay? Doesn't this make perfect sense why the name of the angel of the bottomless pit would be Abaddon or Apollyon, okay? Another place is 2 Peter 3.16 where the Bible reads, as also in all his epistles speaking in them of those things in which are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable rest as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction. Here we're talking about people who don't understand the Bible being destroyed because the Bible of course teaches that the saved have the ability to understand the word of God. The unsaved do not have the ability to understand the word of God. So look, is there any doubt in our minds when we look up all the Hebrew mentions of Abaddon, all the Greek mentions of Apollyon, we put them side by side that the word Abaddon or the word Apollyon means destruction and it is always associated with death and hell. And it has a lot to do with hell and fire, okay? Pretty clear, right? Makes sense since he's the angel of the bottomless pit. Now I've seen some people try to claim, well the word Satan means destroyer. And so therefore, you know, if you look up the word Satan it means destroyer and therefore it's the same. But Satan does not mean destroyer at all. The word Satan, whether you look it up in Hebrew or Greek, does not mean destroyer. And really we don't need to go to the Greek or the Hebrew, just our English Bible here, the King James Version, has all the information we need because if I look up all four times that Satan is mentioned in the Old Testament, I mean the word Satan, it's really easy to gather what the definition of the word Satan is. I'm going to show you, it's not destruction or destroyer, it has nothing to do with that. This is the first time the word Satan occurs in the Bible. It says in 1 Chronicles 21, 1, and Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. Now the operative word in that verse is against. Satan means someone who stands against or someone who is an adversary. Then if we go to the next mention of Satan in the Bible, it's in Job chapter 1 and 2, Satan is speaking against Job. And then God says to Satan, you've moved me against him without cause. Look at Zechariah chapter 3, I want you to actually turn to this one. And in Zechariah chapter 3 we see the fourth mention of Satan. I'm going to come back to the third mention, but for now go to Zechariah chapter number 3 and see the fourth mention of the word Satan in the Old Testament. And the Bible says in Zechariah 3, 1, he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. Well, if I'm going somewhere and somebody's resisting me, that means that they're against me and they're pressing against me and they're exerting force against me. You know, I'm trying to go this way, but somebody's resisting me or stopping me from doing so. Well, that's what we see the picture here in Zechariah 3, 1. And if we go back to the third and final mention that I want to show you from the Old Testament of the actual word Satan, I realize that the devil or Satan is mentioned in Genesis 3, Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, but I'm talking about the word Satan. The word Satan is used in four passages. It's used in 1 Chronicles 21, 1, Job chapters 1 and 2, Zechariah 3, verse 1, and then it's also found where I'm about to show you here in Psalm 109, verse 6. And in Psalm 109, verse 6, it says, set thou a wicked man over him and let Satan stand at his right hand. Well, that ties in perfectly with what we saw in Zechariah 3 where Satan stood at the right hand of Joshua the son of Jazadek and resisted him, okay, and pressed against him. If we back up just a few verses in Psalm 109 and start reading in verse number 2, the Bible reads, for the mouth of the wicked, notice the word wicked, and the mouth of the deceitful, notice the word deceitful, are opened against me. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue, notice the word lying. Verse 3, they compass me about also with words of hatred, notice the word hatred, and fought against me without a cause, notice the word fought, for my love there, my adversaries, notice the word adversary, but I give myself unto prayer, they've rewarded me evil for good, notice the word evil, and hatred for my love, set thou a wicked man over him and let Satan stand at his right hand. So he's saying, because my enemies have been deceitful, they've lied, they've been against me, they've been against me, it says twice in verse 2, he says they hated me, they fought me, they were my adversary, they were against me, they were evil, they had hatred, and he said because of that, let Satan be against them. So what do we see here about Satan? The word Satan simply means one that stands against or one that is an adversary of you. One that is in opposition to you. That is what Satan means. The one who is against us or our adversary. That fits in perfectly with the New Testament when he says, you know, your adversary the devil walketh about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Now look, isn't that very different than destroyer or destruction? Totally different. Adversary or one who stands against or in opposition of is completely different of a definition of the word Satan to the definition of the word Abaddon or Apollyon or destruction. And so look, these people have two completely different names. Apollyon is not Satan. They have two functions. One of them is doing God's will. Let me ask you this. Is it God's will that the people in Revelation 9 be punished and tormented by locusts? I mean God is sending the locusts to torment wicked people. So he's using his guy, Apollyon, to do it. Satan is on the side of the people who are being tormented. Satan is the one that's ruling over the kingdom of the antichrist that's being tormented by these locusts from hell. So it makes no sense on so many different levels to believe that Apollyon is Satan. But there's always going to be somebody who just says, well, you know, Pilgrim's Progress said it, I believe it, and that settles it for me. There's always going to be people who don't care what the truth is and they just love their book or their commentary or their preacher. I frankly just believe what the Bible says and I'm interested in the truth. And I don't see how anybody could still, after hearing what I just explained, believe that Apollyon is Satan. It's a completely different person. Very clear, isn't it? Let's look at something else on these locusts from hell. First of all, I don't want you to forget. Turn to Joel chapter 2. I don't want you to forget that when the bottomless pit was opened, the Bible says that smoke came out of the pit and darkened the sky and the air and the sun. So basically while these locusts come out of the pit, the world's in darkness. Now let me ask you something. If you had to deal with these type of locusts from hell, would you rather do it in the light or the dark? Man alive, good night. Can you imagine these things coming after you in the dark? I mean you'd at least want to see what you're doing, right? Well if we compare the fifth trumpet and the fifth vial, and again, in my chapter 16 sermon, I'm going to prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that the events of the trumpets and vials, even though they're different events, take place in lockstep concurrently. They go first trumpet, first vial, second trumpet, second vial, third trumpet, third vial, fourth trumpet, fourth vial, fifth trumpet, fifth vial, sixth trumpet, fifth vial, and then the seventh trumpet and the seventh vial converge. I'm going to prove that. If you don't believe that, listen to the sermon on Revelation 16 when it comes, and it'll prove that. But if you remember, the events of the fifth vial are darkness upon the face of the earth. Well that matches perfectly with the fifth trumpet where the sun and the air are darkened. So these people, not only are they going to be tormented by these horrible locusts from hell, they're going to be dealing with it in a lot of darkness. It's going to make it a lot harder to defend against these things. Now in Joel chapter 2, we have a passage about the day of the Lord. Now again, before I get into Joel 2, let me emphasize to you that whenever we're dealing with Old Testament passages about end times prophecy or about the second coming of Christ or about the day of Lord, we must always realize that Old Testament prophetic passages about end times Bible prophecy have an application for the immediate future that already happened back then, and they also point toward events of the end times. A lot of people don't understand that. They take passages from the Old Testament and they just want to make them all about end times Bible prophecy 100%. Well you've got to remember, Joel was speaking to specific people back then about things that were in the very near future. Those things already happened. But there's also another application that goes beyond that that ties in with future events of the end of the world spoken of in the New Testament. So for example, I'll prove it to you, look at Joel chapter 2 verse 1, it says, Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. And there are other places that say the day of the Lord is at hand. Well in the New Testament, the Bible says, don't let anybody tell you that the day of Christ is at hand. That day shall not come except the coming of falling away first, the man of sin be revealed. The New Testament clearly teaches that the day of the Lord that comes in the end times with the sun and moon being darkened and the stars falling, you know, that will happen after X, Y, and Z take place first. For example, Matthew 24 says, after the tribulation is when the sun, moon are darkened and the stars fall. But basically, when you look up the term day of the Lord in the Old Testament, he's often talking about a near-term judgment that's about to happen, and he calls that the day of the Lord, but then he also foreshadows, I guess you could call it the big day of the Lord, that's where the sun and moon are darkened and the stars fall, and that is going to be immediately after the tribulation, and that is associated with Christ coming in the clouds. Now, look at Joel chapter 2 and verse 2. It says, a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains, a great people and a strong, there hath not been ever the like, neither shall there be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth, the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness, yea, and nothing shall escape them. So here in Joel 2, God is prophesying destruction upon the children of Israel here, and he's saying that that destruction will come in the form of an invading army. That already happened. That has already been fulfilled, but it also foreshadows future end times events. Let me show you why. Look at verse number 4. He gets into some symbolism and some imagery here that is very similar to Revelation 9 and very similar to these locusts that come out of hell. Look what it says in verse 4. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and as horsemen so shall they rot. Now remember how the locusts had an appearance like on the horses prepared to battle? Look what it says in verse 5, like the noise of chariots on the top of mountains shall they leap. So again, the noise of chariots brought up in Revelation 9. Shall they leap? Now look, do grasshoppers or locusts leap? Of course they do, right? I mean if you look at a grasshopper or a locust, which is a flying grasshopper, don't they make these big giant jumps? They make these great leaping movements. And so it says here, it says, on the tops of the mountains shall they leap like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble. As the strong people said in battle array before their face, the people shall be much pained. All faces shall gather blackness. So look, people are in pain. This army is like unto horses and has a sound like the sound of chariots, identical to what we read about in Revelation 9 in that sense. Verse 7, they shall run like mighty men, they shall climb the wall like men of war, and they shall march every one on his ranks, and they shall not break their ranks, neither shall one thrust another, they shall walk every one in his path. When they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. So here we see, and look, let's apply this to Revelation 9, the locusts, because I believe that's what it's a foreshadowing of. Even though he was dealing with short term events of the book of Joel, of an army coming and invading, a literal army, now we're getting into stuff that doesn't sound like a literal army, because we get into this fact that when this particular army falls on the sword, they're not wounded. Remember that breastplate of iron, that exoskeleton that can't be wounded? And he says that the people are going to be in pain, and it says that they shall climb the wall like men of war, it says they shall leap, and then look at verse 9, they shall run to and fro in the city, they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses, and they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. Now picture locusts. Picture these insects from hell that sting like scorpions, but are like locusts with iron exoskeletons that are tormenting mankind, and picture them running up walls. Can't you picture an insect doing that? Running up a wall, leaping. Look what it says. They're going to enter in at the windows. So it says they're going to go in the cities. So imagine being in the city, and these horrific locusts from hell describe Revelation 9. They're running like men of war. They're running up the walls. They're climbing in the windows. I mean you go in the house, you shut all the doors, I mean they're running, they're coming in the windows, they're coming in through every crevice, man, you better get the weather stripping on your house figured out on that front door, because I mean they're going to come in, they're going to climb in, they're going to enter in like a thief, meaning you're not going to know when they enter in, they're going to come and get you, it's going to be dark, they're going to be crawling all over you, they're going to be biting you, and it's of course the unsaved. I mean this is horrible, isn't it? Look what he says next. The earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble, the sun and moon shall be dark and the stars shall withdraw their shining. Remember? Why is it dark? Because the smoke came out of the pit and darkened up everything. And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army, and on and on, strong is the Lord who executed his word. I just thought that was interesting. I'm not trying to make too big of a deal about that, but Joel 2, pretty interesting how it lines up with a lot of parallels with Revelation 9. It kind of puts a little bit of detail into those locusts, how they're going to be coming through the windows, climbing up the walls, leaping on you. I mean it'll be on the ground, just leap onto you, and then that scorpion tail just comes down and shoots that venom into you, and you wish you were dead, of course speaking to the unsaved. Pretty bad. Woe unto them. That's why that's called the first woe. And it says in verse 12, if you're back in Revelation 9, it says, one woe is past and behold there come two woes more hereafter. One down, two to go. That's a bad outlook for the people upon the earth. Let's look at the sixth angel sounding, the sixth trumpet, verse 13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed which were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year for to slay the third part of men. So when the sixth angel sounds the trumpet, the judgment involves one third of mankind being slaughtered. That's pretty major, isn't it? I mean billions of people on the earth, well when that sixth trumpet sounds, these four angels are going to be loosed from the great river Euphrates and their job is to slaughter one third of mankind. I mean that's pretty serious judgment right there. Now who are these four angels? Well it says they're bound in the great river Euphrates. Well back in Genesis chapter number 2, the Bible talks about the river Euphrates being in the land of Eden there. And if you remember, let's just quickly turn back there to Genesis chapter 3 when man is kicked out of the garden of Eden so that he will not continue to eat of the tree of life. In Genesis 3 verse 24 it says, so he drove out the man and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. So on the east side of the garden of Eden, he puts these four angels to guard the tree of life. He doesn't give a number. He just says, he puts cherubims there, but he says they're facing every way to keep the tree of life with a flaming sword. So basically if this is the tree of life, we could picture one turned this way facing this way with a flaming sword, you know, one facing this way with a flaming sword turned out, one facing this way with a flaming sword turned out, and one facing this way with a flaming sword turned out. Obviously there are four directions, four compass points, north, south, east, west. So it makes sense that there would be four of the cherubims. Now that was before the flood. After the flood, obviously geography is going to be a little different because the cataclysmic worldwide flood made a lot of changes on this earth. You know, it's probably when the Grand Canyon was formed when you have all these fountains of the deep being broken up and rain and flooding over the highest mountain. That's going to affect the face of the landscape, and so I believe that today the location of the tree of life and the location of where the garden of Eden was is now partially in the bottom of our current Euphrates River. Well in Revelation 9 when we see the sixth angel sound, the four angels are loosed from the bottom of the Euphrates River. They're bound in the river Euphrates. I believe that's the same angels from Genesis 3.24. When we look at chapter 16 about the sixth vial being poured out, it talks about the river Euphrates being dried up at this time. So right now, down in the depths of the Euphrates River, I believe that these four cherry bins are there waiting. Now I'm not going down there and looking for them, but I believe that they're there. They're there and they're ready to slaughter, and you know, there's going to come a time when the sixth trump is blown that they come out of there and they will slaughter one third of the population of the earth. How are they going to do it? Look at the next verse. And the number of the army of the horsemen, verse 16 of chapter 9, were 200,000,000. So these four angels are leading an army of horsemen and that army number is 200,000,000. So these four angels lead 200,000 soldiers in an army that will slay the third part of men or slay one third of the human race. Let's read about the description. And thus I saw, verse 17, the horses in the vision in them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire and of jacinth and brimstone. And the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions, and out of their mouth issued fire and smoke and brimstone. So here we have an army of 200,000,000. These horses have breastplates of fire and of jacinth and brimstone. The heads of the horses, like the heads of lions, out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed. By the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone which issued out of their mouths. So people are going to be burned up and die of smoke inhalation. And it also says, verse 19, for their power is in their mouth and in their tails, for their tails were like unto serpents and had heads and with them they do hurt. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, meaning the other two thirds of people that are still alive after this horrible onslaught of this army of 200,000,000, he says, they did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and of wood, which neither can see nor hear nor walk. Neither repented they of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their fornications nor of their thefts. So this army of horsemen says the horses have breastplates of fire and brimstone, the horses' heads breathe fire and smoke, they have tails like serpents that have heads and do hurt. Now we could just take this for face value and I think that that's a valid interpretation to say, hey, these are horsemen that are riding on these horses that are not like normal horses if they have tails with serpent heads and lion heads and breathing fire, just these horrific creatures. Now in the fifth trumpet judgment we saw horrific creatures from hell, the locusts. And I believe that those are literal locusts, special locusts that dwell in hell that have these scorpion tails and stingers and all this kind of stuff. But I sometimes wonder when I'm reading about the sixth trumpet judgment if perhaps this is some kind of a machine that John is looking at and describing. Because of the fact that, you know, John's speaking in the language of what he's familiar with because John is seeing these things and he's writing down what he sees. When I read this I can't help when I'm thinking about these breastplates and this breathing fire and breathing smoke or the tails that are like heads, you know, whether this could be if somebody's looking at something like a tank. And I'm not saying a tank like we know, but maybe something more serious than that. Some kind of a mechanized force here. Some kind of a machinery or equipment or armor that is spewing out these type of armaments of fire and smoke and brimstone. I'm just throwing that out there. That's another interpretation that people have sometimes looked at this as something along the lines of a tank that he's looking at. But again, I don't want to speculate too much about this. Whatever it is, it's bad. Whatever it is, it's killing a third of the human race. Whatever it is, it's breathing fire and smoke and people are dying from the smoke, they're dying from the fire, they're dying from the brimstone. And you know, isn't it amazing how they're still not repenting of their deeds? People are just as wicked, just as sinful. You know, there are some people just who will never get it, right? I mean, no matter what happens. So again, the goal of God's wrath is not to get people to change their ways because if that's the goal of God pouring out his wrath to reform these people, it's not working because it's not reforming anybody in those last two verses. What it is is it's to punish. You know, a lot of people today, they have a warped view of punishment because today, you know, we talk about the death penalty or talk about different punishments that our government doles out. Usually it's what? Imprisonment. Okay? And they often say that, you know, the only goal of punishing any criminal should be to reform him. And here's what they say, the death penalty, how's that reforming him? He's dead. You know, we've got to reform everybody. But you know what? The Bible teaches justice and punishment. Not just to reform, but to punish. And the Bible teaches that the death penalty is scriptural. It was instituted when Noah got off the ark. It's reiterated all throughout the Bible. It's reiterated even in the New Testament. Okay. And you say, well, how does that reform anybody? No, it punishes. And God here is not trying to reform the earth here. He's not trying to reform mankind. He's going to show up with his armies. He's going to set up his millennial kingdom. He doesn't care whether these people have reformed or not. They're toast. They're getting destroyed. He's not worried about that at all. So God's goal with pouring out his wrath is to take vengeance. You say, is God just this vengeful, vindictive God, just punishing for the sake of punishing and punishing for justice' sake? Yes, he is. Now the Bible tells us not to be vengeful and vindictive because the Bible says unto us, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for vengeance belongeth unto me, saith the Lord. He said, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay. So look, is it our place to take vengeance? But is God righteous to take vengeance? Yeah, vengeance belongs to the Lord. The Lord has every right to be vindictive and vengeful, even though he told us not to be, because that is his place, not our place. And what we're seeing here with these first six trumpets that we've seen is God taking vengeance on a wicked world. And he tells us exactly why he's taking vengeance, why he's so angry, because he tells us what they didn't repent of. And the things that they didn't repent of are the things that he's judging them for. And he's saying, I'm judging them for X, Y, and Z, but even when the judgment came, they did not repent of those things. What are they? Why would God kill the third part of men with fire and smoke and brimstone using this army of 200 million? Why would God send locusts from hell with scorpion-like tales to torture and torment the people that dwell on the earth for five months? What would make God so mad that would cause him to pour out that kind of wrath and judgment? Why would he do it? He said, God, why are you going to do such horrible things in the book of Revelation? But when we see it listed in verse 20 and in verse 21, we can see God's intent was to punish specific things. And he says, even when I punished those specific things, they did not repent of those specific things. What are the specific things that brought on this judgment upon the world? He says they repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship devils. So the first thing that God mentions as being a major sin of mankind that brought on this judgment, he says they're worshiping devils. And he said they're worshiping idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood which neither can see nor hear nor walk. The number one thing he's punishing is worshiping other gods. Do you see that? He's punishing the world for worshiping devils and for worshiping other gods and idols and statues and images. What else is he judging it for? Verse 21 tells us, neither repented, they have their murders. He's judging murder. All the abortion, all the 4,000 babies a day that are butchered and killed in America alone, 4,000 babies a day are murdered and butchered and killed in a painful death. And you say, oh, God doesn't care. God's okay with it. No, God is going to judge that murder. And that's not the only murder that goes on. There are all kinds of other murders that go on in this world. All kinds of other innocent people are being killed. But abortion is a big one, isn't it? He says they didn't repent of their murders nor their sorcery. Sorcery, witchcraft is what he's talking about there. He says nor of their fornication. What's he judging? Look, you can downplay it and say, oh, it's not a big deal if I sleep with my girlfriend before we're married. It's not a big deal if we move in together before we're married. It's not a big deal if I sow my wild oats in my college years and I go to bed with a few different people and test things out and just, you know, get some experience. No, it is a big deal and you ought to be a virgin when you get married and that's what God demands and God's wrath is upon fornication. God is angry with those who have sex outside of marriage because it's fornication, it's wicked and it's listed with sorcery and murder and worshiping other gods. It's a very big sin. And you ought to go to your wedding altar pure having never committed fornication. That's what the Bible demands of you as a Christian. And God's upset about fornication. Very serious sin. And he says nor of their thefts. There's a lot of stealing and robbery that goes on. You know, nobody wants to just work and make their own money and sit down under their own vine and their own fig tree. You know, we've got to lock the doors, we've got to alarm everything, cameras, alarm our vehicles, alarm our houses, we have to guard everything. You know, you can't leave stuff sitting out. You know, if you leave your cell phone sitting around, you leave your wallet sitting around, you leave a bunch of money sitting around, you leave stuff in the front yard. I mean, every day I tell my kids, put your bikes in the backyard because if they leave those bikes in the front yard, they're stolen. Why? Because this world is filled with theft. That's why. Thieves everywhere. Thieves, murderers, drunks, fornicators. God's sick of it. He's going to judge it. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for this chapter, Lord, and man, these are some serious judgments with the fifth and sixth trumpet. Thank God for your grace. Thank God for salvation. Thank God we won't be there for this horrible outpouring of your wrath because, man, I can't even imagine what it would be like. But Father, thank you for your grace and thank you that you've not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.