Revelation 8-9 — Chuck Smith

Well, let's turn in our Bibles to the book of Revelation, chapter 8, as we continue our journey through the scriptures, coming down the home stretch here in the book of Revelation. And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of a half hour.

I heard a fellow try and prove that there would be no women in heaven using this verse. I accused him of false doctrine. Silence can be a very awesome thing. I waited for about 15 seconds. It seemed pretty long, didn't it?

Can you imagine a half hour of silence? It sort of is portending these judgments that are coming, these awesome judgments that are going to be coming here in chapter 8. And just one of these things where during this time of silence, I'm sure there will be a lot of just things that are going on in our minds of the judgments of God upon the earth for those who have rejected Jesus Christ and have chosen to live after the flesh.

After this, he said, I saw the seven angels which stood before God and to them were given seven trumpets. Now Gabriel, when he announced himself, said, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God. So we know that Gabriel is one of these seven angels.

In one of the Apocrypha books, Ezra, he does list what he calls seven archangels, Michael and Gabriel and Raphael, and they give the other names of the other angels. We're not certain of that, but we do know of Gabriel, one of the presence angels.

They're in the presence of God and given these trumpets and are about to sound the seven trumpets, which will bring really a group of judgments upon the earth corresponding with the trumpet sounding. Another angel came and stood at the altar having a golden censer.

And there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne. It is interesting that our prayers unto God are likened unto sweet smelling incense before the throne.

So that in the Old Testament, you remember there was the altar of incense in the tabernacle. When Moses was commanded of the Lord to build the tabernacle, given the dimensions and the furnishings and all.

He was commanded to make sure that you do it as you have been directed. The Lord more or less gave the plans to Moses and he gave them to these skillful men who God had given abilities to, to put these things together.

But the command was make sure you do it according to the instructions. For the tabernacle was a model of what heaven is like. So if you are interested in sort of what heaven is going to be like, you can look at the tabernacle and there in the tabernacle, it is a model of heaven.

And we know that in the tabernacle, they had the different furnishings. One of them was the altar of incense, taking coals from the altar and going in before the altar of incense with their little censers and offering these sweet smelling fragrance.

And of course, the incense itself was especially compounded and God, when he gave them the instructions of compounding it, he said that you weren't to compound it for any other use. This was to be exclusive for the worship of God.

But the prayers of the saints were represented by this incense, the sweet smelling savor before God. Interesting how that God treasures your prayers. They come up before God as sweet smelling incense.

And we find that in many places in the scriptures. But here in heaven now, this is not in the tabernacle, but he speaks up in heaven there. They have the altar with their golden censers and much incense that they should offer it with the prayers of all of the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne.

We sing, let our prayers rise as incense, and they do when we pray. It's just something that God enjoys, the sweetness of the prayers of his people. The smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.

And the angel took the censer, filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth. And there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and earthquake. And the seven angels, which had the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound.

Now, I would encourage you to sort of study these chapters that deal with the heavenly scene. We will be there. And you might as well acquaint yourself with a little bit of what's going on. So that it won't take you by surprise.

You won't look like some country bumpkin in the first time in this city, like, ooh, whoa, whoa, you know, and they'll all know that you didn't do your homework. So just study it over. And when you get there and these things begin to happen, you say, oh, you know, watch those guys over there.

They're going to, you know, and you'll know what's going on because you've done your homework and you've studied the events that are going to transpire there in heaven. Now the first angel sounded and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood.

They were cast upon the earth. And a third part of the trees were burnt up and all of the green grass was burnt up. So we can see that the results of these judgments will be against really the earth. And of course, they have their effect upon men who are upon the earth.

But a third part of the trees and all of the green grass burnt up with the first trumpet. The second angel sounded. And as it were, a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea. And the third part of the sea became blood.

A third part of the creatures which were in the sea that had life died. And a third part of the ships were destroyed. It's interesting when we get to the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth trumpet.

The effects and the results are very similar to the vials of God's wrath that will be poured out in chapter 16. Whereas here in chapter 8 with the trumpets, the third part of the sea becoming blood and so forth.

In Revelation 16, when the vials of God's wrath are poured out, and the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man and every living soul died in the sea. Now here with the trumpet, it's one third that is turned to blood and one third die.

But in the final pouring out of the vials of God's wrath, the sea itself turns to blood and all of the life forms within the sea die. In verse 10, the third angel sounded. There fell a great star from heaven burning as it were a lamp.

It fell upon a third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of water. Now in the vials that are poured out in 16 verse 8, and the, your pardon is in 16 verse 4. The third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of water, and they became blood.

So we find that again, the first or the second hits the sea, and the third hits the fresh water supplies of the earth. Can you imagine? No, you can't. What it will be like when a third part, and then of course, all of the rivers in chapter 16 become as blood and you can't drink the water.

We do know that in the plagues in back in Egypt, that the Nile river was turned to blood for a time and the people tried to dig into the sand around the river to get sort of a filter water, but going to be a tough, tough thing.

Verse 12, well, actually verse 10, third angel sounded. There was a great star from heaven burning as it were a lamp, and it fell on a third part of the rivers, fountains of waters. The name of the star is called Wormwood, and a third part of the waters become Wormwood.

That is bitter and not able to drink them. The fourth angel sounded, a third part of the sun was smitten, third part of the moon, a third part of the stars, so that as a third part of them was darkened, the day shown not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

Sort of a dim out where the sun only shines as a third part, and the moon also, and the stars. So trying to sort of imagine what the response and the reaction of the people will be upon the earth with these strange phenomena taking place in the universe.

He said, I beheld and I heard an angel flying through the midst of the heaven, and he says with a loud voice, whoa, whoa, whoa, to the inhabitants of the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels which are yet to sound.

So we have the first four of the trumpets. Now on this fourth one, the angel sounds it, and a third part of the sun is smitten, third part of the moon. It is affecting the solar system. In Revelation 16, 8, the corresponding vial, when the fourth angel pours out his vial upon the sun, power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.

Now this is a dimming of the sun, but on the fourth vial, it would appear that the sun will go into a supernova. Now we understand a little bit about supernovas. We know that when stars are about to go out, that they go into this supernova, and they become intensely bright.

And usually there are supernovas that are visible through telescopes throughout our universe, where stars just sort of, well, have you ever seen when a light bulb is broken, how that when the oxygen hits the filament, it gets real bright before the filament is broken, and then it goes out.

And so with the supernova, the stars get extremely bright, and then they go out. We just can't see them anymore. And so it would seem that in the fourth vial, that the sun turns into a supernova, and power was given him to scorch men with fire.

And men were scorched with great heat. And they blasphemed the name of God, which have power over these plagues, and they repented not to give him glory. As we mentioned this morning, we are surprised always at how hard a man can harden his heart to the things of God.

Here you would think when God is bringing these kind of judgments, that people would be crying out for mercy, that people would be repenting, and calling upon God to have mercy upon them. But instead, their hearts are so hardened, that they actually are blaspheming God, as we will get in the end of the sixth trumpet judgment there in chapter nine.

So going into chapter nine, when the fifth angel sounded, I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. 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 there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, and unto them was given power as a scorpion of the earth. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass or the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

And it was given that they should not kill them, but they should be tormented for five months. The torment is as the torment of a scorpion when he strikes a man. And in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it, desire to die, but death shall flee from them.

And he describes the shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared into battle. Their heads were like crowns of gold, and their faces were as the faces of men, and hair like the hair of a woman, and teeth as the teeth of lions.

And he goes on to describe, and we'll get to that again, but in getting to this description of the fifth trumpet judgment, this key to the bottomless pit, it is really the abuso, the bottomless pit. The Bible speaks about the abuso there.

There is Hades, the abode of the unrighteous dead at the present time. And then there is Tartarus, and we don't have too much knowledge about Tartarus. But then there is this abuso or abyss, and it seems to be a shaft somewhere between the surface of the earth and the heart of the earth.

You remember when Jesus was at Gadara, there was a demon-possessed man. And Luke describes the situation in chapter 8. It said, and when he went forth to land, there met him out of a certain city a man which had devils or possessed with devils for a long time.

And he wore no clothes, and neither did he abide in any house but in the tombs. And when Jesus, he saw Jesus, he cried out and he fell down before him. And with a loud voice, he said, what have I to do with you, Jesus, you son of the God, the Most High?

I beseech you or beg you, torment me not. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man, for oftentimes it had caught him. And he was kept bound with chains and in fetters, and he would break the bands and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.

And Jesus asked him, what is your name? And he said, Legion, because many devils had entered into him and they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. And the word deep there in the Greek is abuso.

So they knew, these demons, that their place of incarceration during the glorious millennial reign of Christ on the earth will be in the abuso. And also we read that Satan will be bound and cast into the abuso for a thousand years that Christ is reigning on the earth.

We also read that the antichrist will come out of the abuso. In Revelation 11, 7, when they shall have finished their testimony, that is the two witnesses, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit or the abuso will make war against them and will overcome them and kill them.

In chapter 17, the Lord said, the beast that you saw, he was, he is not, he shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and he will go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth will wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is.

In Revelation chapter 20, we find then their destiny. And I saw the angel come down from heaven, have a key to 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 he bound him for a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he should not deceive the nations anymore till the thousand years are fulfilled.

And after that, he will be loosed for a little season. So sort of the background or all of the abuso that is described here in chapter nine, the fifth angel sounded, the star falling from heaven unto the earth and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

And he opened the bottomless pit and there arose a smoke out of the pit as of the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit or abyss. And there came out of the smoke, these demonic creatures that looked a little bit, he's trying to describe them now.

And of course, you can imagine how difficult it would be to describe things that are so weird looking. And you only compare them to things that people sort of know a little about. They look a little bit like locusts.

And they have power. They are commanded not to hurt the grass and the green things, which of course the locusts usually attack. But the only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

Now back under the sixth seal, we find God's sealing or fifth seal, 144 ,000 of the Jews. And they are spared many of the judgments of the great tribulation period. And this is one that they are spared.

They are told they're not to torment those who have the seal of God in their foreheads. It was given that they should not kill. But that for five months, that their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man.

Now, probably not many of you have been, you know, stung by a scorpion. It's not a common kind of a thing. We were down in Guatemala, sort of out in a very remote area. And our daughter, Jan, reached into her purse in the morning when she woke up and she screamed.

And so I went in to see what was wrong. And she said, Daddy, you know, something happened in my hand just hurts. And so I took her purse and I put it on the ground and stomped it and then poured out this giant black scorpion.

And of course, put ice on the sting, which sort of numbs it and takes away the pain. But it's a very severe pain. Years ago, I was leading a group of kids. I was directing a camp for the YMCA in near Oracle Junction, Arizona.

And we were in a camp. We called the place Scorpion Gulch because there were so many scorpions there. And I had hiked the kids up to this abandoned mine. And as we were hiking back, I heard this yell back up the trail.

And I went back to see what was going on. And this little kid had not a scorpion, but he had this jumping cactus and it had attached itself to him. And so I carefully flipped it off. And he said, that darn guy, Adam.

And I said, where do you go to Sunday school? He understood that thorns and thistles were a part of the curse as a result of Adam. But it's not, I doubt if very many of you have been stung by a scorpion, but it is not a pleasant thing.

But for five months, they are tormented with the torment as of a scorpion when he strikes a man. And in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it. Shall have a desire to die and death shall flee from them.

Death is a very interesting thing. The separation of our consciousness from our bodies. It's sort of a mystery. It's one of those strange things that we don't fully understand. Death can be a blessing if you are suffering tremendously and there seems to be no help, no cure, no hope.

Death becomes a relief. Can you imagine what it would be like if you were desiring to die, but couldn't? The soul wouldn't leave the body. Maybe you would attempt suicide. Take a gun and put it to your head and pull the trigger and blow your brains out.

But yet you wouldn't die. You'd be in that kind of a condition, but the soul wouldn't leave the body. And you would have that horrible a maimed body now, but the soul wouldn't leave. Men will seek death.

Death will take a holiday and desire to die, but death will flee from them. Now he describes these demonic creatures shaped like a locust, but different for sure. They were like horses prepared unto battle.

On their heads there were crowns like gold. Their faces were as the faces of men. They had hair like the hair of a woman. Their teeth are as lions and their breastplates as it were breastplates of iron.

And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots and many horses running to battle. And they had tails unto scorpions and there were the stingers in their tails and their power was to hurt men for five months.

And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in the Hebrew is Abaddon. In the Greek it is Apollyon. They both mean destroyer. One woe is past. Behold, there are two woes yet to come.

So this fifth trumpet judgment is going to be a miserable experience for those that are on the earth for sure. When these hellish demonic creatures invade the earth, tormenting people, stinging people and as the love song sings, I wouldn't want to be there.

You surely don't want to be here when this takes place, I'll tell you. This sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God. And so again, the altar of the tabernacle, there is the altar before God and the voice said 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 who were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year to slay a third part of men. Now under the fifth trumpet, they would seek to die. They can't. Under the sixth trumpet, they now have these four angels who are there in the river Euphrates are released and they now are destroying men.

In this sixth vial in Revelation 16, he poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates the water thereof was drived up that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast.

And he is again talking about out of the mouth of the false prophet and they are the spirits of devils working miracles which go forth to the kings of the earth and the whole world to gather them to the battle of Armageddon.

So again, similar things, the sixth trumpet, the sixth vial have to do with the river Euphrates and with these demonic creatures. As someone said, all hell is going to be turned loose on the earth. Now here in the sixth trumpet, the four angels were loosed which were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year to slay a third part of men.

So fierce, God has them incarcerated. God has them restrained. They're in the abuso. They will be turned loose at this time on the earth and they slay one third of the earth's population. Now back in the fifth chapter, the sixth chapter, as they begin to open the seals, we read that during that period of time and judgment, one fourth of the earth's population will be destroyed.

Here now, one third of the earth's population being destroyed. So that you can see how great will be the bloodshed, how great will be the judgments of God as the earth's population will be decimated during this time of God's wrath and God's judgment.

To survive will take some kind of a miracle. Yet there will be those who will survive this period. They will be brought before Christ when he returns and they will stand before him as their judge and it will be determined which of them will be allowed to enter into the kingdom that Jesus will establish God's kingdom and which will be at that time consigned to the judgment in hell.

So that's yet future when Christ returns. But here the number of the army of the horsemen were 200 ,000 ,000 or 200 million. And I heard the number of them, he said. And I saw the horses in vision and them that sat on them, they had breastplates of fire and janketh and brimstone and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lion and out of their mouth issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

And by these three was a third part of men killed by the fire, the smoke, the brimstone which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth and with their tails for they had two, they had heads and with them they do hurt or tails were like serpents and they had heads and with them they do hurt.

And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, notice, they repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship devils and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood which neither can see nor hear nor walk.

Neither repented they of their murders or of their sorceries nor of their fornication nor of their thefts. The hardness of man's heart against God. Here in the midst of God's judgment rather than repenting, rather than calling upon God for forgiveness they only harden their hearts.

They will not repent. They will not turn from their worship of devils and their idols of gold and silver and brass. We are living in a world today basically that has turned its back against God. You and I are in a very select minority.

Those who really truly believe the Bible, who believe in Jesus Christ, who have committed your life to follow Jesus Christ. We're not the majority, not by a long shot. We are a minority. But it is important that we keep firm in our faith in the Lord.

Jesus questioned when I return to the earth will I find faith? The Bible tells us that evil days are going to get worse and worse. Jesus said unless those days be shortened no flesh would remain upon the earth but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

We are moving into a period of time in history and a period of time in the United States where the leadership is opposed to the things of God. Right now in the Senate they are considering a bill that they call the hate crimes bill.

It is already past the house. This hate crimes bill is so designed as to protect homosexuals, pedophiles and all forms of perverted behavior and if you dare speak out against these issues you can be arrested and be fined and this is being considered right now by the Senate and we need to pray that it will not pass or at least take up an offering to bail me out of jail because you've got to be true to the word of God.

And so we just but it's amazing. We sing America, America God shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood but that isn't the America we're living in today. We're living in a nation that has turned its back against God.

A nation where children are segregated and oftentimes punished for their belief in the Lord. And where there is that deliberate attempt to destroy their faith. As the Bible said in the last days, perilous times shall come and we are living in those perilous times.

Those who are devoted to the evil are very strong and when God's judgment comes rather than repenting the rest that are not killed by these plagues will not repent of the works of their hands that they should not worship devils.

Idols of gold and silver and brass and stone. Neither did they repent of their murders nor of their drug abuse nor of their fornication nor of their thefts. So it paints a very very dark period of history that is soon to come upon the world.

Right now the only thing that is holding back this tide of evil from engulfing the world is the church. The true church of Jesus Christ. You, the body of Christ. As long as we're here God will hold back the judgment that will come upon the earth.

Once he removes the church then the judgment of God will come. Sort of like with the Lord when he stopped with Abraham and told Abraham that they were on their way down to Sodom to destroy it because of the wickedness.

And Abraham said shall not the Lord of the earth be just? What if there are 50 righteous men in Sodom? Would you destroy the righteous with the wicked? Abraham was saying Lord that wouldn't be fair to destroy the righteous with the wicked.

Shouldn't you be just? The Lord said if there are 50 righteous men we will spare the city. Abraham began to sort of dicker with the Lord and say well what if there's just 40 righteous? He finally got down to just 10 righteous and the Lord said I'll spare the city for 10 righteous.

The Lord you remember came down to the city. The men of the city when they saw the angels going into Lot's house they came and demanded that Lot send the angels out that they might have sexual relationships with them.

And Lot pleaded with them not to do it. He offered his daughters instead but they weren't interested in his daughters but with the men that they saw going to his house. The angels then smote the men who were trying to break down the door with blindness.

And in the morning the angels said to Lot get out of here. We cannot destroy the city until you are out. There was only one righteous man Lot. And the Lord said we've got to get you out of here before we destroy the city.

And they let Lot out of the city and then the judgment of God came. Peter in talking about this said that God knows how to deliver the righteous as he makes mention of Lot. But to reserve the ungodly for the day of judgment.

That gives me great comfort. When I read these things that are going to transpire upon the earth I cannot understand why anybody would be so foolish as to want to be here and say well the church will be here.

No the church won't be here and it is the church that is keeping this from happening now. But when the Lord takes the church out then as we said earlier all hell is going to break forth upon the earth in a literal sense.

Now when you get to these things they are so horrible they are so fierce and so devastating. Demonic hordes invading the earth with supernatural powers. The heavens, the sun, the stars and all. The oceans and all of these things they are incomprehensible.

And when we get to the fact here that one third of the remaining people on the earth will be killed by these demonic creatures. I think that the Lord threw in the 10th chapter knowing that at this point you're about to throw up your hands and say whoa you know and this is horrible and just can't take any more of this.

And so he throws in the 10th chapter. In which he describes the glorious coming of Jesus Christ and he isn't through with the tribulation yet but just to keep you from total despair. He throws in this bright chapter 10 of the coming again of the Lord and the declaration that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ.

And so we've gone through some deep water but next week going to be a lot better and you don't want to quit on tonight and because that's on a downer. But next week we get into this glorious chapter 10 and this is a parenthetical area.

In other words we're ceasing from the judgments right now and for the next few chapters he's going to elaborate on certain things. In chapter 10 he's going to elaborate on the coming of Christ. Chapter 11 he's going to tell us about two witnesses that God will send and then on the seventh trumpet again the glorious declaration of the coming of our Lord.

Chapter 12 these personages Israel and Satan and the child and the archangel and then in chapter 13 the antichrist. And these things are all sort of parenthetical giving you now further information on things that have transpired and are transpiring and then he'll finally get back to the judgments of God in chapter 15.

When again we get into the vials of God's wrath chapters 15 and 16 but they as we said correspond with these that we've already looked at. Then chapter 17 the judgment of the false religious system. Chapter 18 the judgment of the commercialism and chapter 19 the glorious coming of the Lord with his church and then the final great white throne judgment of God.

And then on into they lived happily ever after chapter 22 with the Lord in heaven. So it's a great great interesting look into the future and that's what the book of Revelation is all about. Revealing Christ and his place in the future.

Father we thank you that you have given to us instructions of what is going to transpire so that we are warned Lord by you not to be here but to be walking in faith walking in submission serving you Lord with all of our hearts and we pray father tonight that if there be those that are here and this maybe is all new to them they've sort of shunned the book of Revelation thinking that no man could understand.

We pray father that they will have grasped enough truth to know that they want to as Jesus said pray that they'll be accounted worthy to escape the things that are going to come to pass upon the earth and they'll be standing there in the heavenly scene with the church of Jesus Christ.

Lord we do pray that we will be accounted worthy we want to be with you Lord in heaven when these judgments take place upon the earth and we thank you for the promise and the hope that we will. Lord lead us, guide us, use us in these last days as you see fit.

As with Isaiah when he heard you say who will go for me Lord may we respond here am I send me Lord we're available use us as you see fit we ask in Jesus name amen. Shall we stand? The pastors are down here at the front to pray for you tonight who may need or desire prayer maybe that you're not sure that you would be ready for the Lord when he comes for his church the Bible tells us that they that were ready went in the emphasis upon being ready and so we would encourage you to come on down and just ask the Lord to prepare you and your heart for his coming and I don't think we're going to have to wait very long the way the world is going the way things are happening.

I am convinced that the time is very very short and I do believe that we will be seeing a wonderful move of God's spirit in these last I think that God is is not willing that any should perish and he's going to give men one final great witness one final opportunity to get right and then I think he's just going to catch his church home and the whole rest of revelation is just going to start happening and you won't be here by the grace of God and I would encourage you make sure of that make sure of that that you won't be here but will be with the Lord and his church when he comes for us Jesus Jesus Jesus there's just something about that name master savior Jesus like the fragrance after the rain Jesus Jesus Jesus let all heaven and earth proclaim kings and kingdoms shall all pass away but there's something about that name God bless you.