Revelation Chapter 9 Verse 1

• John says that he saw a star “fallen from heaven.”  That word fallen in the Greek is “pipto” and it is in a tense that would suggest that that John did not watch the star fall, but it was already fallen.  So what or who is this star?  Many believe (and given the context here I certainly agree) that this is Lucifer.
• Literally, the name Lucifer means “brightness,” and his countenance, his brightness is compared to the “morning star” in Isaiah 14 and it was Jesus who described to His disciples in Luke Chapter 10, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.”  And so this star is the master of puppets himself, the hater of God, the murderer of men…and as this trumpet blasts…he comes tearing out the gates…
• The picture I get in my head is from that movie Shrek Forever After…the fourth and final Shrek movie…remember the scene where Rumpelstilskin had presented the Oger For a Day contract to Shrek and as Shrek put pen to paper you saw Rumpelstilskin change into this kind of beast as he gritted his teeth chanting “sign it, sign it…?”  Well I don’t know why but that is kind of the picture I get here in my mind’s eye of Lucifer looking up at the angel about to sound and he is just tweaking, eager to hear the sweet music of heaven signaling terror upon the men of the earth, and then the angel sounds…
• And Lucifer tears off…where’s he going?  He’s heading to the bottomless pit.  Now the bottomless pit is literally in the Greek the “pit of the abyss” which we know from other parts in the Bible such as Luke 8:31 and Jude 1:6 was a holding place, a prison of sorts for a special class of demons.  Demons?  Oh yea, demons.
• When Lucifer fell from heaven, Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28 and Revelation 12 tell us one-third of the angels went with him and where did they go?  To earth!  And what do we call fallen angels, demons.  So yes, there are demons here on earth, today, possessing people, influencing people and even man running the world system…the prince of the power of the air, the god of this age commands them and they make the world go round…homes…don’t be deceived.
• I wanna show you something…look at this picture…you get the full quantity of it…but add quality and look what you see…don’t be deceived!  The enemy roams about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour…and he’s taken a look at you…did you know that?  He’s had thousands of years to study your type…
• We watch youtube videos and we read blogs all about how clandestine secret societies lurk behind the scenes orchestrating world events and circumstances and the bloggers and the videographers tells us that this is a group of men…come on man, that’s like trying to understand a plant by studying its leaves…the power behind anyone involved in culture, societal or global manipulation…is the shining one himself and his minions. 
• John wrote in 1 John 5:19, “the entire world is under the sway of the evil one,” and so don’t buy it that this president or this entertainer or this historical figure embody some elite group that somehow is able to coordinate all of world history and world domination…open your eyes man…it is exactly as the Bible says, that Lucifer and his minions have lulled mankind into a sleep and are in control…that is why John would write, “don’t love this stuff…lest you sleep yourself.”
• And the worst of the worst, the demons that even the demons don’t want to be around have been reserved in this abyss, waiting for this trumpet and now Lucifer races to release his highest ranking minions.

Chapter 9 Verse 2

• Isn’t that just typical?  Man doesn’t that ring perfectly true as to how the devil works?  Smoke and darkness?  Sucking the air out of your life?  He deceives man…smoke rises when you are toying with sin and you’re blinded by it…no one sees, God doesn’t see, I’m not hurting anyone…all lies man…you don’t know the depth and reach of your sin…it reaches all the way into eternity.  It crushes your connection with Christ.  It stomps out your ability and even your desire to be intimate with God.  It tears in two your contract with your children, to be a good father, to be a good husband, to be a good mother…a good wife…a good friend.
• This is the devil’s design man!  God’s plan for you is peace, hope, love and life but the enemy’s plan for you is blindness…putting out the light of knowledge and truth and promoting ignorance and error…
• And then the sun is darkened…you just kind-of get dark man…dull, or bitter…apathetic to the things of God…and the air even is affected.  You know when you suffocate they say there is a period of absolute euphoria…and sin, the Bible says, is pleasurable for a time…but then you die!  That euphoric feeling is oxygen not making it to your brain man and then you die!  Your walk, your witness, your ministry, your love relationship and intimacy with the Lord…casualties…man just like this scene here…you gotta quit the sin man, trust in the Lord, live after Him lest the smoke rise, the sun be turned to darkness and you get choked out by the weakest being every created…

Chapter 9 Verses 3 – 4

• I thought we were talking demons here…we are, John just sees what he sees.  Remember the demons entered the pigs in Luke Chapter 8 and so understand John is seeing the physical manifestation of a spiritual power.  And even today we see the physical manifestation of demonic powers…broken marriages, disputes in the church, murders, fornication, homosexuality…even pride and sinful anger…all fueled by these suckers that just hang out waiting to rip you off…
• Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the very real entities of principalitites and powers, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  And notice, in the Great Tribulation, the wrestling is over man…its outright annialation now…the fallen angels are no longer restrained by the power of the Holy Spirit…the church is gone man…and so they strike, full frontal assault…and John says their power was like that of scorpions…
• According to the Mayo Clinic, the sting of the bark scorpion can cause intense pain, uncontrolled muscle twitching and thrashing, unusual and unnatural head, neck and eye movements, drooling, sweating, restlessness, rapid breathing and weakness.  Imagine the scene when all the world, (less those sealed with the seal of God), all the world is affected in this way….worse than I Am Legend man. 
• Imagine you’re the one not yet hit right, and you’re in your house.  Doors locked and you’re looking out the window and you see all your neighbors…maybe you’re at work and hundreds of folks out in the street…thrashing about, eyes rolling, drooling, screaming…cars crashing…this is horrifying…
• But notice God’s grace and divine power…those that are sealed…unharmed.  Man that is the testimony of a Christian even in the day that we live today.  Ephesians 1:13-14 tell us that those that have placed all of their trust in Jesus…born again by the Spirit of the living God…alive in the eternal and powerful in the spirit…sealed.  All this junk, all this torment, all this sin and demonic activity…we take no part.  We stand apart from it…that’s called sanctification and you better believe that these 12,000 are the whole time calling men to repentance and testifying of Jesus Christ!
• You see our role is not to blend in…is not to pamper sin…it is not to calmly sit while the boat sinks…NO!  Rock the boat man!  Stand in the gap for folks…call them to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and in doing so you might just save them from this type of horrible scene even in their life today…and not the least but certainly sure…you will please the One who gave His all for you…that is enough in and of itself!

Chapter 9 Verses 5 – 6

• Five months this goes on…and the crazy thing here is that John says that death will flee from them…they’ll want to die, but death will pheugo in the Greek…literally, death will hide from them.  So odd.  And the word here for death in the Greek is very specific…it is thanatos which literally translated is to die with the expectation of hell…man…there are no unbelievers now…see what I’m saying…and truly we see the root of unbelief…its rejection of God.  These folks simply reject Jesus Christ…it’s not that they don’t believe He is who He said He is…they just don’t care…man that’s the sad state of the world at this point, with all of the things going down just as they are described in the Bible, undeniably in the eyes of everyone…and yet they reject Him.
• So many say, “I believe.”  And I’m like, “big whoop.”  I’m sorry to offend but I’m trying to make my point very clear.  Satan himself, the hater of God, the murderer of God’s people, the thief that stole God’s son and many other sons and daughters by way of sin…man he believes more than anyone who has ever made that confession…but James hooks us up with some truth in James 2:14 when he said, “What good is it, my fellow believers, if someone says he has belief but his life tells a different story?  Can that type of belief save?  No, no, no belief without works, without a life lived out in accordance with that belief…is not belief at all…its cotton candy.”  (my paraphrase)
• We have weakened Christianity in this country to the point that millions have been taught that if they simply believe that God is and that Jesus is then that is faith…man that is fact!  Faith is action.  Faith is trust!  Faith is love!  Faith is obedience!  Look, I’ll show you…turn to Hebrews Chapter 3.  The author says in verse 18, “God swore by the blood of His Son that all will not go to heaven, but only those who obey.”  Man that sounds so legalistic right…well read the next verse.  Verse 19, “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief!”  There it is…there is the connection man!  If you REALLY believe, in Biblical terms believe…then you will follow Him man!
• Jesus said this is the will and the work of God, that you would believe in the Son whom He has sent!  That’s it man…not believe with your brain…believe with your heart because the heart drives the hands and the feet!  The heart controls the mouth!  The heart endures the pain and the suffering when following Jesus is hard…man the brain is almost a hindrance!   Computing and balancing and logicizing!  Faith man…is a matter of the heart!  And Jesus said, when the Son of Man returns, will He find any faithful…yes…the answer is yes…because I know at least this one lives for the applause of One…I don’t seek man’s approval, I want it…but I don’t seek it…what I seek is the Lord’s approval…that is faith man…that is to believe.
• These folks believe with their heads, even with their eyes yet they for five months hope to die and hope for hell…crazy!  But death hides.  Just like in Jeremiah 8.  Death resemblance everywhere as men will be choosing death…but actual physical death…not there…eww the scene must be so gruesome.  Even the locusts themselves are gruesome!

Revelation Chapter 9 Verses 7 – 11

• Now what’s interesting here is that Proverbs 30:27 says clearly that the locusts have no king…and so these are something else.  Something shockingly dreadful…and from John’s description…hideous…because notice, these do have a king…the angel of the abyss, Abaddon, Apollyon…Lucifer is their king…and their command…torture.  That’s his command for you today, resist him man.  Turn from sin and turn to the One who came that you might have life and have life abundant!  That you might live forever in peace that passes all understanding…how can we continue to choose sin and bow down to the commander of the bugs?  I just don’t get it.  Seems so simple…but so many are on their faces in front of Abaddon, sacrificing their families and their lives and their kids and their friends even to Apollyon…man it’s the same now as it was in the days of the Abraham and Jacob…

Chapter 9 Verse 12

• Today, unlike these folks, today could be your last woe.  Today could be the last time you offer your prayers to the king of the bottomless pit…not these folks, they’re stuck.  Two more trumpet blasts coming…but not you, you have the opportunity to call out to God, accept the Holy Spirit above your own spirit man and come alive to the things of God!