Revelation 9 Spiritual War

You're listening to the podcast of the Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak preaches through his series, Thy Kingdom Come, taking us through the book of Revelation. Let's listen in.

Well, good morning, Recast Church. Welcome. I'm Don Filsak. I'm the lead pastor here. I just want to say how glad I am to gather together with God's people on this lovely holiday weekend, and I'm just very grateful that you're here, and really with the purpose of gathering together as God's people, hearing from his word, getting an opportunity to sing praises to him.

I love coming to church, and I want to confess it wasn't always that way. I think that probably in my youth, you know, it was kind of like, what is all of this about, and trying to figure out why in the world this guy talks so much, and things like that, and so I think probably a lot of us can relate to that.

Maybe even in our adulthood, I don't know. But the more that I came to understand that the calling of God is to community, it is to relationship with others, it is not an isolated go-it-alone kind of faith where we're just out there trying to chug and churn out the Christian life on our own, but that we've got others to do life together with.

That's his intention for us. The more that I came to understand that, really, the more that I've valued Sunday mornings in the gathering together of God's people. Also, I just would identify that, I've identified that the gathering of the church is the gathering.

Of the people of God.

There's something that's beautiful about that. And then also I've noticed that in this place we have a common faith, we have a common Lord, a common King, a common purpose to worship Him, and then also equally out in the world, I don't know if you've identified this, but there's an increasing hostility toward that.

Faith.

Have any of you identified that, or feel that maybe increasing, like the temperature's turning.

Up?

I mean, the more that we feel that, the more that we experience that, the more precious it is to gather together as God's people, the more we just recognize and are driven to that need for one another in relationship and in growing.

So I love gathering together. This morning, we're going to be continuing on in the book of Revelation, taking on Revelation chapter 9. And this week is what I would say is potentially one of the most confusing passages in all of Scripture, maybe even the most confusing passage in all of Scripture, when I would suggest to you that when I read it here in just a moment, many of you are just going to be confused, and that's just reality.

When I first read it, I've read it many times, but even just in my preparation, the first time I read it this week for the preparation of this, I had to read it several times just to even kind of get the flow and the feel for what's going on in this, and we're going to see just some bizarre and strange pictures here of things that we just don't relate to on a daily basis at all.

And so that's just the reality in the book of Revelation, that we encounter chapters like this occasionally. And when I read it, again, it's going to be confusing, it's going to be bewildering, and then we're just going to go into worship, and I think that my goal this morning is that we walk away with more clarity on what God desires for us to understand as a result of coming in contact with His Word.

Just because it's confusing does not mean that it is less God's Word, does not mean that it has any less power to transform and change us when we rightly understand it, when we dig in, and when we study.

And a lot of times I would suggest to you, I can see it in my life, at times where I've been lazy, I brush over it, and it's a lot of work sometimes to understand this stuff, would you agree with me on that?

And sometimes it's easier to skip on to the next passage, or to get back in the comfort zone of the Psalms, or get back to whatever your favorite thing is, or the Gospel of John, or some place that things kind of make a little bit more sense to you, or the Epistles is a favorite one, right?

Like to get to the letters that give us instructions for daily life and things like that. But in our text this morning, the symbolism is extremely deep. The image that we're given, that John was given, that he passes on to us is stark, it's very otherworldly, and it's something that doesn't cross over the eons of time to where we live very well.

John has a vision, and remember, visions are much like a dream. The way that this is given to him is impressions. He's seeing stuff and recording what he's seeing for us. Occasionally we'll see that he's actually told some things, like he's given a number, he didn't come up with that number, he didn't count the things that he was seeing, but something occasionally is told to him.

But in our text this morning, he sees beings inflicting suffering on humanity. He sees pain, he sees death, and he sees devastation. What we're seeing in our text this morning is just two of the trumpets, the fifth and the sixth trumpets of judgment are going to blow.

Remember, we've already seen the seven seals, Jesus Christ opening those seals, and with them came devastation and destruction, and now we're into the trumpets, and there's seven trumpets that seven angels are given to blow, and we saw last week four of those.

But what we're going to catch is a glimpse here in this fifth and sixth seal, we get a glimpse of what the demonic realm would do to humanity if they were released to accomplish their will, if they were released to do what they would desire.

I have some strong reasons to believe that what we're seeing here in this text as we read it, and I'm setting the stage for you just because we're going to read this text here in a moment, what we're seeing is a descriptive, picturesque imagery of demonic hosts that have every desire to take down the image of God wherever it is found, and where on this planet do you find the image of God in humanity, in us?

Yes, we are created in the image of God, from the vilest of sinners, from the most evil among us, they still bear the image of God, and the demons would desire to completely mar, completely misshape, completely destroy, annihilate, or corrupt the image of God.

And therefore, humanity. But let me remind you of the words of John, John who wrote the book of Revelation, remember that we've got some context to the author here, we've got some knowledge about him, because you can go back to his gospel, or you can read what he had to say about the apocalypse, or you can read what he said in his letters, the very same author that wrote Revelation chapter 9, also wrote this in the fourth verse of his fourth chapter of 1 John in his letter to the church.

And he said this, greater is he who is in you, than he who is in the world. Greater is he that lives inside of believers, to the church, he says, greater is he who is in you, than he who is in the world.

And who is he talking about in that context, who is he saying is in the world? Satan, the evil one. The one who resides in us, the spirit that is alive in believers is greater, is stronger, is more powerful, and that's something that I think we need to remember as we dig into a passage like this.

There are indeed real spiritual forces, real evil spiritual forces, but they are not in control. They cannot do whatever they want. But they do have a destructive desire to entangle you and me. So let's open our Bibles to Revelation chapter 9.

If you don't have a Bible on your lap so you can't follow along, just raise your hand, and Mark's got some Bibles back here, he'd love to get one in your hands. But we do desire for everybody to have a copy of the word of God.

You can take that one with you, by the way, if you don't have a Bible, take one with you. We desire for everybody to have a copy of God's word that they can read at home or hear. But follow along, Revelation chapter 9.

Please remember that this is God's word for us. If it's confusing, we're going to try to make it clear throughout the morning here. But this is what God desires for you and I to hear this morning. Revelation 9.

And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth. And he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.

Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth. And they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green plant or any tree. But only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

They were allowed to torment them for five months But not to kill them and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone and in those days people will seek Death and will not find it.

They will long to die, but death will flee from them in Appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold. Their faces were like human faces their hair like women's hair their teeth like lion's teeth.

They had breastplates like breastplates of iron and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses running into battle. They have tails and stings like scorpions and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails.

They have a king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek He is called Apollyon. The first woe is past. Behold two woes are still to come then the sixth angel blew his trumpet and I heard a voice from the four Horns of the golden altar before God saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet.

Release the four angels who are bound at the River Euphrates. So the four angels who had been prepared for the hour the day the month and the year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand.

I heard their number and this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them. They wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur. And the heads of their horses were like lions heads and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths by these three plagues.

A third of mankind was killed by the fire and Smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths for the power of the horses is in their mouth and in their tails for their tails. Are like serpents with heads and by means of them they wound the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues.

Did not repent of the works of their hands. Nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood which cannot see or hear. Nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or.

Their thefts.

Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning father. It's hard to read those last two verses.

To.

Endure The difficulties of that end day and then to see people unwilling to repent and unwilling to turn from their wickedness and their evil. And father I'm reminded of how often it is that I need to repent how often it is that I need to turn from The wickedness.

That's in my own heart how often I need to turn to you moment by moment and day by day. I rejoice and I thank you for repentance. I thank you for repentance that many in this room have experienced where they have turned away from their sin and run to you for Protection protection from themselves protected protection from the world protection from the evil one and the effects of sin.

And father our only hope that we will not face this judgment and this Justice upon this earth and this these final calls to repentance that we already have we've already repented before you we have come to you and we have We have accepted the blood of Christ as the covering for our sins.

So father from that place I pray that we would rejoice and exalt all the more as we see these devastating cycles of judgment coming in that great Tribulation that is coming for this world father. We we rejoice that we are not under that wrath.

But we are those who whose wrath has been paid for.

By your son.

So father let our rejoicing be all the more even as in anguish. We consider the pain and the suffering of those around us who our image bears. That father we would we would that you would light us on fire for your kingdom.

That we would be ignited by this study through the book of Revelations to sharing the gospel that we might sit see some saved as a result of Encountering this judgment that is to come father that some would be rescued by.

The words of truth brought to them through our mouths. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. You're gonna be seated. Yeah, and thanks to Dave and the team for leading us this morning. I just love it how often the words just really match the the message and he works at that and I just am really grateful For that this morning.

Um, keep your Bibles open to Revelation chapter 9 get as comfortable as possible as we walk through this text. Remember, there's more coffee juice doughnuts. While supplies last there remember restrooms.

We ask that you use the ones out the door to the right. Men's upstairs women's downstairs. Save these for the kids ministry down here. And let's jump in To this crazy and wild text that has had so many multiple different avenues of interpretation.

So you're gonna get to hear one of them this morning. We saw the last the first four trumpets last week. I'm just to reiterate where we're coming from. They had the devastation of the plant life. One-third of the plant life destroyed one-third of the aquatic life of the earth.

Destroyed one-third of all ocean going or sea going vessels destroyed. The darkening of the celestial objects and one-third of the fresh water being made deadly and bitter. So that's where we start from.

So we start from a really rough spot in history to begin with and then it's just gonna progressively Spiral out of control from there. These last three of the trumpets are referred to as the three woes.

You saw heard the angel at the end of the text last week say whoa, whoa, whoa. To those who remain on the earth after though those first trumpets had blown. But chapter 9 takes a turn. Interestingly the guy who divided up the chapters Back in the Middle Ages found this content to be different enough from the other trumpets that he gave it its own chapter.

He could have lumped it all together because hey, we're just going right on with the trumpets, right? But I find it funny because we head right off the bat. In verse 1 the fifth trumpet is blown and another star from falls from the sky.

So why not include this with the previous ones, right? Because if you remember correctly if you were to look back and just scan over the previous chapter. The second and the third trumpet were blown and it started the same way something fell into as fell out of the sky with one of them.

There was a huge object that fell on the oceans out of the sky and in the other one a star fell on the rivers. And springs of fresh water causing it to become bitter. So we might expect you know when you hear another star falling from the sky here at the start of our chapter.

Is this one the lakes in the ponds? You know the I mean the first star fell in the sky and landed on the ocean. The second fell on the rivers in the and the front in the fresh water. So is this where's this one falling right?

Is this one? I'm kind of the not so good water or whatever. But instead right off the bat we see at the start of this chapter that instead this star is shown to be a being. Well, you suddenly recognize that we might be looking at something figurative and I want to clarify that in ancient Hebrew and ancient Greek culture they had this in common.

They were they considered symbolically the stars to be angels and so. They would often use the stars and metaphor for angelic beings and that's exactly what I believe. We're looking at here. And this one is a fallen star.

He has fallen and he has granted a key to the bottomless pit now. You guys are all well-versed in the bottomless pit, right? Like, you know exactly what that means. I mean you've studied that. And probably not and we're gonna get there in a second.

But some has speculated that this fallen star might be Satan himself and that's quite possible. He's not given a name in this text, but he is indeed a fallen angel who's granted significant authority.

He's given a key to this place known as the bottomless pit. But I'm quite sure that this fallen star is indeed a fallen angel. Who in the end is going to be released to bring pain and torture to those who have followed Satan and his rebellion against?

Their creator against humans who have followed Satan in their rebellion against our Creator and I just want to point out that when it talks about when You think in terms of who we follow and who we don't follow.

In his book on the bondage of the the bondage of the will by Martin Luther not Martin Luther King. Not Martin Luther King jr. But Martin Luther the father of the modern Reformation. He made an interesting statement.

He said the human will was like a donkey. Okay, are we stubborn? Where's he gonna go with us? The human will is like a donkey it is either ridden by God or it is written ridden by Satan and Things really are just it makes us uncomfortable to draw black-and-white conclusions like that.

Does that make anybody uncomfortable to think that everybody that you ever encounter is being driven by one of two forces? Everybody you encounter is being ridden so to speak by either God or ridden by the devil.

And at the same time that I believe is a very accurate picture of the world according to scripture according to scripture not according to my my thoughts or the way that I feel about it because man if you go With the way I feel or the way that you feel how many of you know?

You've met some pretty nice non-christians some pretty nice people who you would say man. They don't look like they're driven by Satan at all. They look like they're driven by really good motives. I mean sure they're not in the kingdom yet, but I mean Don give us a break.

Martin Luther give us a break, right? Are you sure of this but I believe that that is the case and that's why we see these stark Contrasts between those who are sealed and those who are not in passages like this where we might be very uncomfortable with the judgment going down the way that it does.

It goes down along lines of those who follow Satan and those who follow God those who have run to God for protection. And those who are literally running after Satan. The bottomless pit. Isn't something I remember discussing a lot in Sunday school class any of you have a Sunday school class about the bottomless pit.

Probably not and so we don't have a whole lot of reference for that and even if if you've Not been around the church very often. Then you're kind of curious about this if you've been around the church for a while.

You still probably don't know much about it because you haven't heard it talked about that much. But it's actually mentioned in multiple passages and I'll give you a couple of them in 2nd Peter 2 verse 4 Peter speaks of God locking away fallen angels in this place and he says hell.

It's translated hell to await their final judgment. But that word is the same Greek word that's used here in our text for bottomless pit. The word the word hell. Translated there in 2nd Peter probably is not not super great.

It probably should just translate it straight up bottomless pit and In the indication in 2nd Peter is that there are some angels some fallen angels who already currently are locked away. And not all of them are locked away, but there are some who are well further.

We actually recognize that Jesus had the power to lock them away. It's very abundantly clear in another passage where this place is mentioned. Luke 8 31 says this. Or I'm not gonna quote it, but Jesus was having a chat.

He's having a little talk with a horde of a legion of demons. Just kind of chatting with them while they resided in an individual. Occupying a man on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee and they began to beg him to not cast them into the.

Abyss.

Abyss and bottomless pit the word in Greek is Tartarus for bottomless pit abyss their synonyms in Greek. They both mean a place with no bottom. The word abyss by the way that we we have in English is it's just straight straight.

Transliteration straight over into Greek. It's the Greek word almost exactly as you would pronounce it in Greek abyss. And that's a synonym for the bottomless pit. So you have an encounter between Jesus and demons and they're saying please please don't cast us into the abyss.

They recognize it as a place of punishment a place where that he could indeed send them there right then and there and they Probably even recognize that some of their Compatriots some of their cohorts are already they're suffering even now awaiting a final judgment.

But the reason I'm saying any of this is to help you understand that I'm not leaping to the conclusion that what would Likely come out of this bottomless pit is demonic. Scripture throughout from beginning to end indicates that this is a place of demonic bondage demonic Punishment or discipline and that's where that's why when the bottomless pit is open.

What do we expect to come out of it? Well, we'd expect demons to come out of it. Now the reason I'm bringing all that up is some of it has have interpreted these critters. We're gonna see here in a moment as literal a literal locust horde or a you know horse scorpion woman things.

Okay.

I mean what what are these things that women's hair and the face of men and the Stinger and all that stuff like what is all of that about and we're gonna get there but some have interpreted it as literal and I am just not gonna go there because what I what I believe we're actually seeing from evidence throughout the flow and scope of scripture is demonic.

This fallen star has an interest in releasing mayhem on the earth. And he opens the shaft to the bottomless pit and smoke like a huge furnace darkens the sky again. A picture of the of the doom and the destruction that is in that place and from the smoke.

He sees the locusts. Now locust locusts is even you ever seen a locust. I mean, it's not a grasshopper. It's a different. It's a different kind. It's a relative to a grasshopper. So you've seen raise your hand if you've seen a grasshopper.

Let me just get you engaged here for a second now raise your hand if you've seen a locust. Okay, a handful of us have actually seen a locust. Okay, so This is different and you look at it. Oh, it's just kind of cute.

Oh, it's just not that bad, right? I mean if you're into bugs if some of you are freaked out just by looking at that picture alone. But you know, it's just a bug right? So you don't have any response to this picture like they would have in ancient times.

It's hard for me to draw you into the word locust in ancient times. Because this right here this critter right here could destroy your family line. Like it could destroy everyone, you know as family line quickly.

Because of the sheer numbers of them the hordes of them that would ravage Throughout the Middle East and still do sometimes to this day. We have pesticides. We have ways of controlling their population and doing things like that in modern times but I'm telling you what there are records of.

Estimates of these guys these critters coming into a location a hundred feet wide and four miles long the the type of the scope of a cloud of these things coming in to a location and just Devastating just mowing down every piece of vegetation.

Available and you think okay. What could we like in this to what could we draw down into our current experience? You know, maybe have you ever been afraid of a tornado? Any of you ever seen a tornado a handful of us have seen a tornado?

I've seen one when I was a little kid a terrifying thought, you know that a tornado might strike our community or something. And maybe you know, I mean when you hear about it, it's it's devastating, you know, 20 30 people dead from a tornado.

It's it's terrible. It's devastating to a community. And what do they do? They wake up the next morning. They cut down all the branches they begin the process of rebuilding. What do you do when a horde of locusts comes into a community in ancient times?

You die.

Everybody if it devastates the crops to such a degree that you have nothing to plant next year. Think about how your dependence is on the things that grow in the ground and You have to have enough grain to plant next year in order to survive and this is devastating so I'm saying any of all of this to point to just the the word locust brought fear to the mind of the ancient listener and of course We know that that that in Egypt one of the ten plagues was a plague of locusts, right?

So you can kind of understand the plague feel to it and again I don't even think a tornado has the impact of. Quite brings us to that place where they would have feared this thing. The Prophet Joel Spoke significantly about locusts as an end time judgment on the world end times judgment and I believe that this this vision that we encounter here in John in part is a Fulfillment a prediction of the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel.

Even though these are not normal locusts, it still ties that point of future reference to locusts in the end times coming together. These locusts though are given power like the power of scorpions. What's the power of a scorpion?

Pain. Pain is the power of the scorpion there there these these locusts are not permitted to have any further impact on the vegetation. We would expect okay locust horde. There's going to be famine. There's going to be starvation, but that's not the point of this horde.

They are not to harm any of the vegetation. They are not permitted to but instead They are permitted to harm.

People.

But not all people look at verse 4 not all People verse 4 they were not told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree. But only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

Those who have been sealed by God on their foreheads are immune to this attack. Remember who was sealed on their forehead? You're gonna go and who is this? Is this this all believers? I believe that the the church has been raptured to this point but there has been a hundred and forty four a figurative number of a perfect spiritual number of Jews a large number of Jews have have come to faith in Christ during this time and they were spoken of as having been sealed on their forehead.

An imagery of the Holy Spirit resting in them much like the Holy Spirit is said to seal us today and so these are these are believers who are test testifying and they are protected from the attack of these scorpion locusts horse things.

These demonic locusts have no power to harm God's chosen people. So ironically the demon look the demon locusts only have the power to harm those Who have followed their ways and have actually given them control?

Think about that Satan would love to win you and I over would love to win our world over with promises of good things. Only to destroy us in the darkness. That's the way of Satan. The ones who will worship him will suffer the most.

The ones who he can win over to his team will be the ones that he would love to perpetually. Cause pain to and destruction and isn't that the way we see sin work today? Isn't it the the allure of sin that ultimately leads to the most devastating impact in our lives?

The thing the things that Satan would promise us as good. It's it's gonna be okay. It's gonna be fine. Just a little bit of this on the side and eventually it owns us and will it would indeed destroy us.

Do you are you getting what I'm saying in that? That's the way that Satan works the torment of these locusts by the way. And I think it's a I can do nothing but just figure it's it's a it's a literal time.

It's limited to five months. We're talking about a seven-year span of tribulation here at the end. About five months. They are able to inflict severe pain like a scorpion sting. This pain is real, even though in a moment, I'm gonna explain.

I don't believe the stingers are real. So there's significant pain involved in this. But I don't think we're talking about literal creatures that you see with your eyes you can see these little bugs running around and they look like scorpions with faces and hair and and crowns on there that would be.

Anybody like everybody should would probably just be a believer at the end of that scenario, right? This is kind of like I mean who's not gonna go? Okay. Either that we got an alien invasion of insects or you know.

Something is gonna have to be explained to the world around us if this is a literal thing that happens. And I don't believe that it is. Do you understand the way that a demonic horde could bring about death and destruction without physically showing up?

We can look at a couple of stories from the Old Testament. I think it's important for us to grab hold of some of these concepts of what does it look like when things are going on. In the spiritual realm in the physical realm, how do those things interplay?

There's there's a reality in throughout the Old Testament where there's stories where we're given a glimpse. We're told what the angels are doing and then we see something kind of subtly different in the world around us.

What's actually happening in the real world? Think about when the angel of death came through Egypt and took the firstborn something spiritually happened the angel of death came through and looked at the doorpost and saw the blood over the People of Israel the Jews and passed over those houses a beautiful picture of salvation because of the blood of the lamb.

Passed over them and and didn't harm them but then harmed the firstborn of the Egyptians. Do you think that the Egyptians heard a knock at the door open it and there was the Grim Reaper standing there?

Do you think they saw something physically manifested? I don't believe that they did but they woke up in the morning and the firstborn died physically of Supernatural causes. How does somebody die physically of supernatural causes?

Well God just takes their life. But we have another illustration another picture here that I think hones that down a little bit the firstborn Died physically of supernatural causes, but then there's the story of this little known account of first Chronicles 21.

Which I'm sure you were just you know, probably camping in first Chronicles this morning. You were you're just studying that I study in that and studying that. Probably not and this is this doesn't again occur in much Sunday school curriculum.

I haven't seen this one but The angel of the Lord is dispatched to judge the Israelites because David took took a census of the people he counted them so that He could know his wealth and his status and how awesome he was despite God saying don't count the people.

I want you to trust in me and instead he's like, well, you know. Maybe I may be a good idea to know how many how awesome I am. And so he began to count to them and in the process of counting them God judged the people and in that passage The the spiritual realm is peeled back for just a moment and David is able to see what's going on and what he pictures what?

He sees in his in his spiritual eyes is an angel with a sword stretched out over the city. Okay, so that's what's going on in the spiritual realm an angel with a sword stretched out across the city. But what's the impact on the city?

And we actually see that in the text of first Chronicles the impact on the city is 70 ,000 people die how.

By disease.

By pestilence, they're not slain by a sword. There's no cuts on their body. There's no no physical damage that occurs to them other than disease. So when an angel is going to war or carrying out the judgment of God in the spiritual realm.

What it most often looks like throughout the Old Testament is disease and plague and that is so. So what would the Israelites have seen on the outside of that judgment people getting sick and dying? What's going on in the spiritual realm?

And then what's going to be going on in our text a horde unleashed amongst humanity and how are they gonna die? What are these stings? What is this pain that they're gonna experience? I believe we're talking about quite straightforward pestilence and plague, but it's got a demonic origin to it and that's that's where I stand on this passage is that we're seeing a Nasty terrible plague that's gonna happen in the end of time.

So.

What will the what will the terrible work of this demonic horde look like in everyday life on the earth during the end of time?

I.

Don't believe people will see locust horses with scorpion tails wearing golden crowns with the faces of humans long flowing hair lion's teeth breastplates of iron. They won't necessarily hear the rush of their wings like chariots rushing into battle.

Now the left-behind series Gets very literal at this point. There's Kirk Cameron making his showing again. Welcome. Glad you're here. And at this point they literally in the book those of you have read it you read it.