Demonic Activity in God’s Judgments

Transcript

GR 2015
10/01/2017
Demonic Activity in God’s Judgment
Revelation 9:1-11
Gil Rugh

We’re studying the Book of Revelation, in your bibles and if you turn to Revelation chapter 9. We’re moving along in our study of the Book of Revelation. It is in many ways an unpleasant book. We see catastrophes, destruction and death, laid out in the earth’s future like never seen before. It’s a book written, to the churches remember, so it’s for our benefit for us to learn. Much of it is about a period of time, which we will not be part of and yet it’s important for us to understand what is going to take place and it gives us better insight and understanding.

We looked at a verse in Romans chapter 2. We talked about the fact that those who don’t turn to God and the salvation He has provided, they are simply storing up wrath for themselves in the day of wrath. Sometimes it’s hard for us to appreciate the seriousness of sin and the necessity of coming to salvation in Jesus Christ, the provision God has made for each and for everyone.

The Book of Revelation is unfolding the fact that the world is moving toward destruction! The world is moving toward judgment! Now that’s not the ultimate end. The last chapter is great! It’s about salvation and redemption and a world that with glory and peace like has never been seen but prior to that there’s great suffering so the Book of Revelation beginning in chapter 6 talks about coming judgment on the earth and we see a series of judgments broken up by what’s sometimes called interludes.

We have a seven-sealed scroll and within this seventh seal everything from Revelation chapter 6 through chapter 22, verse five is contained. Now within that you have the six seals, then the seventh seal then out of that seventh seal comes seven trumpets out of the seventh trumpet comes seven bowls and then we will have the kingdom. All of that’s contained within the seven seals and really the last part of that under the seventh seal. Everything is coming out of that because only the Redeemer, the Lamb of God, Christ had the authority to open the seals because He provided redemption. Without His work on the cross, we could have the judgments recorded but there would be no salvation in judgment. It would be simply pouring out God’s wrath on an unbelieving world but because in mercy and grace He provided a savior, then there is salvation in the ultimate end for those who enter into that salvation will be sharing in the kingdom that Christ will establish. We’ve looked through the first six seals, then we had a break. The first six seals are in chapter 6.

Then chapter 7 was a break. Then chapter 8 we had the seventh seal opened up and out of the seventh seal come seven trumpets. Remember Christ himself opened all seven seals. He’s the only one with authority in heaven or earth to open that seven-sealed scroll that we saw in Revelation chapter 5. Out of that seventh seal come the seven trumpet judgments. Now angels will sound the trumpets, but Christ opened the seal that brings out the judgments, but now it will be seven angels, who have been prepared by God, to sound their trumpets and to being judgment. Through chapter 8, we had four of the trumpets sounded and every time a trumpet was blown by an angel another judgment is poured out on the earth or a portion of the earth.

We came down to the last verse, verse 13 of chapter 8. We are getting a break, a mini break between the fourth and fifth trumpet because in chapter 13 an eagle is seen flying in mid-heaven, between the heavens as we have it and the earth. He is saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!” This threefold woe indicates the seriousness of what is about to take place. There are three trumpets, the fifth trumpet, the sixth trumpet and the seventh trumpet, woe, woe, woe. These judgments will move us to greater severity than we’ve had before and out of the seventh trumpet will come the final series of judgments, the seven bowls, but we will have another interlude or break in the flow of revelation before the effects of the seventh trumpet are poured out and that will be an extensive interlude. We’ll see that when we get to chapter 10.

Verse 13 of chapter 8, this eagle flying in mid-heaven or vulture as it’s translated one time in the Book of Luke, that bird that is drawn to the prey, the carrion. It’s a foreboding of coming destruction like we’ll have in chapter 19 with Armageddon where the birds of the air are invited to come and feast on the flesh of all the dead bodies, so here this eagle or vulture flies announcing the terrible judgments about to come. A reminder that the dead bodies will be everywhere.

We just get a little mini glimpse as we’ve seen some of the tragedies that have come in parts of the world, earthquakes in Mexico, hurricanes in portion of our country and related connected areas and we get overwhelmed. You know just watching a little bit of the news this week and talking about the situation in a small area like Puerto Rico. You think well a big country like the United States we just go in and fix it. I’m not getting into whether they…..but the fact is it’s almost overwhelming and to get it resolved, to get water to people. I saw one newscaster standing in the water there and he says this is putrid water, it stinks and people are beginning to use it because it’s all they have and concern about a plague developing out of that then one thing to another and it’s just a little area. We’re talking about huge parts of the world being overwhelmed in judgment.

What we’re seeing in this period of time is God’s wrath poured out on sin. People are not serious about sin. God is serious about sin and He is someday going to manifest His wrath and anger toward an unbelieving world. You’ll note these woes are pronounced on “those” in verse 13 “who dwell on the earth.” We’ve mentioned that’s a repeated expression in the Book of Revelation to describe unbelievers who belong to this earth and are connected to this earth. They have no heavenly life, they have no heavenly citizenship, so when you see those who dwell on the earth--it started back in chapter 3 verse 10 and mentioned in chapter 6 verse 10, it’ll be mentioned down in chapter 11 verse 10 twice and we move on, and we’ll pick them up as we go.

Keep in mind those who dwell on the earth, those who dwell on the earth, this is their home, this is their life, this is where they live and where they invest themselves. Now God’s judgment is poured out on an unbelieving world and it’s poured out with a fury that will end up destroying most of the earth and most of its people. As I keep reminding you, Jesus said if He did not bring it to an end after seven years, there wouldn’t be left alive a person on the face of the earth. You can see if you just watch in many areas today how quickly things get overwhelming and it builds so we have the trumpet judgments, we’re in the midst of those, four of them are done.

We’ve announced the woes so we begin chapter 9. Chapter 9 is interesting not only in moving along the judgments but chapter 9 brings it with more clarity now, the involvement of demons in God’s judgment on an unbelieving world. The demons are angels who followed Satan in his rebellion against God. We’ll talk more about that when we get to chapter 12 of Revelation and a whole host of angels rebelled with Satan and lost their position in heaven but still remained powerful spirit beings and they are at work today in the world. The Bible says we are involved in a spiritual warfare and battle. When you get involved in things, we forget the activity of demons. We come in chapter 9 to demons becoming directly involved in the suffering of people on the earth.

Come back to the Book of Daniel if you would, Daniel chapter 10. Periodically in the Old Testament, we get a little window that you almost could say you could peek into the spirit world but you don’t get a lot of information there. We get more like in Job, the first 2 chapters about Satan and other passages, but basically there’s not a lot given. When Christ came to earth, the first time there was a manifestation of demonic activity that would make clear His power and authority in dealing with demons, but then it still goes on but it’s not as visible. But the demonic world is a very real world. How many demons are there? Hundreds of millions, billions, I don’t know. It could make up one third of the original angels that God created. They are well organized, even to this day, under the authority of Satan, who is called the god (small g) of this world.

Daniel chapter 10 just gives us a little touch of what is going on. The chapter opens up, in the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel. Verse 2, “in those days, I Daniel, had been mourning for three weeks. I didn’t eat any tasty food, meat, wine” and so on; I didn’t—three weeks. I mean when Daniel went to prayer about something he was serious. You see why Daniel got answers. Three weeks cutting himself off from the things, that would distract. Obviously, he ate and drank enough to sustain himself but he was focused on coming before God.

Then a heavenly angel appears to Daniel in response to his prayer and down in verse 10. “Then behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. He said to me, ‘O Daniel, man of high esteem . . .’” the remarkable position of Daniel. He’s known in heaven as a man highly honored . . “understand the words that I am about to tell you and stand upright for I have been sent to you’ and when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. Then he said to me, ‘Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words’ but note this, ‘But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; . . . .’” Now here we have an angel sent from the presence of God to bring Daniel an answer to his prayer but for three weeks, he was not able to get into the kingdom of Persia (which was now ruling the area) to bring the answer to Daniel’s prayer because the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me.

Now obviously this wasn’t a physical man because an angel comes from heaven, a physical man can’t stand in his way. He usually doesn’t even see him. The prince of the kingdom of Persia is a demonic being who has authority over the realm of Persia. Satan has a well-organized system, in other passages of scripture that we don’t have time to look into, but Satan rules with demons organized under him. Here you have a demon who has power and authority over the kingdom of Persia. Now you note Satan fell, we’ll talk about this in chapter 12 of Revelation, when he sinned. He lost his position in heaven but he is still recognized as having authority and power and that is respected so even though the prince of the kingdom of Persia, this demonic being is a fallen angel, he still is recognized as having authority. The angel who came with a message did not have authority to overrule him and come in.

What did he have to do, verse 13 “. . . then behold Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.” Well, we’ve been told there is “one king” here, verse one, “Cyrus, king of Persia” but here are kings of Persia. These demonic rulers in the realm of Persia wouldn’t allow him access. He had to call on a more powerful, more authoritative angel, Michael, one of the chief princes among the angels who could exercise the authority and he could come. That just is a little picture into what goes on. It just causes us to realize that the nations of the world are organized under Satan’s authority with demonic beings in charge of them and it’s a well-organized system.

You say, “well I have a lot of questions about that,” yeah but God doesn’t answer all those questions but He does give us insight into what is going on. You know you hear people make jokes about Satan and make fun of—this is serious business. It involves you and me, we’ll talk more about this as we move along but the demons are real, they are involved in the world today, they are involved in all the activity of nations today. Ultimately, God is sovereign over it all but there’s great power in Satan’s hands and the demons who serve him as he has his will carried out. The whole world lies in the evil one John tells us in his epistle.

So come back to the Book of Revelation. As I mentioned during Christ’s earthly ministry the presence of demons, their ability to cause sickness and various activities were displayed in open ways that people recognized so Christ could display that He had greater power. We won’t go there but if you read Matthew chapter 12 verses 28 and 29, Christ makes the point of the demonstration of His authority over the demons. Revelation 9 brings us to an open display of the activity of the demons in the world.

This fifth trumpet that’s going to sound gets quite a bit of attention. The first 11 verses of chapter 9 are dealing with this one trumpet. We moved rather quickly through the first four trumpets, 12 verses and we covered four trumpets. Now it’s going to take 11 verses to cover one trumpet. Sometimes we have a summary, here we have more elaboration. The fifth angel sounded. Remember we’ve already had the announcement from heaven. This is a woe. It’s going to carry things to a greater degree of suffering. The fifth angel sounded, I saw a star from heaven, which had fallen to the earth, and the key to the bottomless pit was given to him. He opened the bottomless pit.

You know we see things in science fiction and movies they make and all of this and we think—some people think well the bible picked up that kind of stuff too from its day. It just goes the other way around. This stuff is drawn out as Satan works in his world. A star from heaven is not a literal star. The context makes clear this star represents an angel. An angel has a key; it’s given to him so we know we’re talking about a personal being, he comes from heaven but is an angel. An angel has authority to open the bottomless pit for a certain purpose. Some see this angel opening the pit as being the devil because he is fallen from heaven. We’ll talk more about that in chapter 12 as well and then in chapter 12 verse nine of Revelation he’ll be cast down to the earth but that’s not what this is talking about, this is an angel who comes down to the earth with a specific purpose. I take it; it is one of God’s angels sent on a mission.

Come over to chapter 20. This event will be later obviously but you see in chapter 20 verse one. “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss, which is the bottomless pit, and he has a great chain.” So I take it, it’s the same angel. In chapter 20, he’ll be used to confine Satan in that abyss but here he is coming down to release certain demonic beings who have been confined in the bottomless pit so the key of the bottomless pit was given to him.

Now I don’t know, people who choose to write commentaries on Revelation but don’t believe, they somehow think if you take this literally, it’s silly. Do you really think a demon; a spirit being could be put in a bottomless pit? How can you have a pit that has no bottom and how could you have a key to lock up an angel and I don’t understand their problem. We’re human beings, and we’ve come up with devices that we can lock people in a cage and turn the key and they can’t get out and now as though God couldn’t come up with a spiritual cage that has a spiritual key that confines spiritual beings. I don’t know what their problem is. I just take it as what it says they’re confined. There’s a lid on this pit, describe it as a shaft going down, there’s no bottom under the pit, under the shaft but it has a lid on it.

He comes down to the earth and maybe the abyss is in, some people think, the heart of the earth. Could that be bottomless? I don’t know. You know we don’t have the answer to everything. I can go as far as the scripture does.
There is a holding place for demonic beings, not all of them. Some demons are free to go around and about, we’ll make note of something of that in a moment. Others are confined. What makes the difference? God’s decision. He decided to confine some angels for a time for His purposes and allow others to go about doing Satan’s work. We saw the demons free to act in Jesus’ day causing various kinds of problems so this angel opens the bottomless pit. The bottomless pit is the abyss. The word, “abyss” is used nine times in the New Testament; seven of them are in the Book of Revelation so we’ll be talking about the abyss.

Let’s go to one of the two references outside of Revelation. Come over to the Book of Luke, the Gospel of Luke chapter 8. This is during Christ’s earthly ministry. Luke chapter 8 and verse 26 gives the context, He comes into the land of the Gerasenes and was met by a man, who was possessed with demons, in verse 27 so here you see everybody realizes these are demons, there’s a clarity in their presence. The demons know who Jesus is, verse 28. “Seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him, and said in a loud voice, ‘What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me.’” The demons recognize the ultimate final authority that Jesus Christ had. He is the Son of the Most High God. He has authority over them. He could consign them to torment. Jesus asked them in verse 30, “What’s your name? And they said, “Legion” for we’re many.”

Here we find something about spirit beings. Many of them can inhabit one body of an individual. He says, “we’re Legion, we’re many and we live in this human body of this man.” No wonder his life is torn apart. Now note verse 31 this is key. “They were imploring Him not to command them to go away into the, abyss, the bottomless pit.” They recognize He has authority to confine them in the bottomless pit, the abyss. They didn’t want to lose the freedom they have so they are cast into the swine. Evidently, demons like this want to inhabit something. The swine run down into the sea and are drown.

What happens after that we’re not told but here you see the demons recognize the place of the abyss and they could be confined there? The abyss is not hell because when we get to Revelation chapter 20 Satan will be confined in the abyss then later sentenced to hell, which is eternal, but the abyss is a holding place for demonic beings.

Okay, come back to Revelation, chapter 9, so this angel comes down, unlocks, the lid is taken off the abyss and smoke went up from the pit, verse two of Revelation 9, “like the smoke of a great furnace; the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit so the air is filled with smoke.” It’s like the smoke of a furnace. Just an aside, the comparative words, “as” and “like” are used in chapter 9 of the Book of Revelation more than any other chapter of the bible. There’s a comparison here as John has to describe this, it’s like this, it’s as this, I mean how do you describe demonic beings in the spirit world, have to describe them and connect them to something that we can identify with. They’re like this, it’s as this so went up like the smoke of a great furnace and there is so much of it, it blackens the sky, darkens the sun, the air is darkened by the smoke of the pit. It’s an awesome scene.

You can tell it’s a foreboding of what’s coming out of this pit and the judgment that will come. Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth. Now locusts are used in the bible as instruments of judgment. Remember in Egypt, one of the plagues was what? It was this huge swarm of locusts coming in. They’re so destructive they eat everything; they are a picture of judgment.

The Book of Joel, the prophet Joel is about the Day of the Lord and it starts out in chapter 1 by talking about a coming locust plague where one kind of locust will be followed by another kind of locust bringing their destruction. Then Joel goes on to talk about the coming Day of the Lord and the darkness of the day, the destruction and there’s never been a day like it and so on. The locusts are connected with judgment and if you look up in all the ways you can look up today, they’ll tell you about what were the largest swarms of locusts recorded and you know these things can be huge. They’re millions and millions of locusts and the destruction they did and they can just come in and decimate a country.

So here, the locusts come out but they’re not normal locusts as the description goes on to say. They’re not going to hurt the vegetation; they’re not going to impact the vegetation. We’ve had judgments on the vegetation but the locusts aren’t here so you can see they’re not locusts as we would think of them and the description makes that clear but they’re bringing devastating destruction and suffering, so out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth. “Power was given them.” Now I want you to note and you can mark in your bible as we go through that God is sovereign here. We saw at the end of verse nine that the angel from heaven had the key to the bottomless pit given to him. Now verse three, “power was given them.” When we get to verse five, they were not permitted to do something, so you see the emphasis through here, God is sovereign in this. The demons haven’t taken over and yet the demons are having an impact everywhere because God has determined to turn them loose, and again it won’t be in a disorderly way because we’ll see when we get down to verse 11 they have a king, so you see the structure in the demonic world.

Several years ago, we were going out to Marilyn’s sister’s place in southern California. She wasn’t there, she came back here to stay at our place. She had some people stay in her home there in southern California. When they left, they put their garbage in the trash bin and closed the lid. Mistake! We come down the driveway and you can see two ribbons going up to the trash bin, up the side of the trash bin and in and you know they were just like two ribbon lines. You come down and you go and look, and it was this large line of ants coming up the driveway here, over the trash bin and you watched and one line in perfect order is going in and up and down, another line is coming out of the trash bin going just as orderly. I just thought, “how do these dumb ants know to keep in line?” It’s not just there are ants everywhere, everybody’s in order.

Well, at any rate I think of that when I see here. Here the demons come out and you have them their locust kind of appearance but there’s complete order here. This is an army with a king prepared for battle, battle against human beings. Their attack will be humans, not vegetation or something like that, so out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth; power was given to them as the scorpions of the earth have power. The scorpions are noted for their ability to inflict such painful stings that cause suffering.

Now their power is limited, look at verse four. They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth nor any green thing nor any tree, so you can see these are not locusts like plagued Egypt or would come as judgments. They’re coming to bring judgment like locust do but they’re totally different in their focus. They don’t hurt any of the vegetation, only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads so now we see these are directed toward unbelievers and God has made restrictions as He did in the plagues in Egypt.

Remember in the days of Moses they brought suffering on the Egyptians, boils or whatever but the Israelites weren’t affected. Now you note these have been sealed out so the 144,000 were sealed in chapter 7 so you see how that interlude prepared the way for these coming judgments now. They began to be focused on unbelievers but those that God has sealed and we went back in the Book of Ezekiel when we were in chapter 7, remember. There was a similar situation before God brought destruction on the Jews, He sealed the faithful that would be spared the judgment so here that’s the picture. They are going to bring great suffering but they cannot attack any of those that have been sealed by God, particularly the 144,000 for sure because that’s the point of the sealing, part of it in chapter 7.

Now there’s a further limitation. Think, “well the demons are set loose; boy there’s going to be carnage.” Nobody is going to die. Well what’s so bad? They’re going to suffer so greatly they’ll wish they could die but part of the punishment being meted out by these demons under the authority of God is they will inflict such pain on people, people will long for death and yet they can’t die. Look at verse five. They were not permitted to kill anyone so on these they’re attacking, they can’t inflict at all those that are sealed but even those they attack, the unbelievers, they’re not allowed to kill them.

Remember when Job, was being attacked by Satan, in Job 2 when God gave Satan permission, to take away his health and you begin to get some idea of the power of demons. They have power over weather, they have power to move armies, they have power to take health. That doesn’t mean everybody who gets sick it’s caused by a demon obviously but Job’s boils covered his body. His own wife said you ought to just curse God and die. So here they were not permitted to kill anyone but to torment for five months and interesting in the picture we have of locusts here, the locust season would be about five months. May, June, July, August, September so when the swarms of locust swept in it was in those five-month periods so here for five months the demons are going through the world inflicting great pain and suffering.

Now this is added on to everything else that has gone on. Now you have how many people? We have no idea, hundreds of thousands, millions of people afflicted with this suffering. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. The point is on the suffering. Five months this is going on, this is a plague afflicting humanity for five months and people are undergoing terrible agony. Look at verse six, “in those days, men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, death flees from them.” When demons are given the freedom to cause such great pain among humans not allowing them to die, it’s amazing the suffering that will go on. You say, “well this is terrible, I don’t believe God wants people to suffer.” What do we say? We don’t want to pretend that only certain things are characteristic of God and not others.

He is a God of love and mercy. He demonstrates that in providing redemption for sinners. He’s a God of infinite wrath who hates those who resist and rebel against Him. You don’t want to be God’s enemy. I mean we act like, well that’s…you know…overlook it. He will not overlook it. Even when judgment doesn’t come, keep in mind it’s being stored up. The ultimate unleashing of it will be the eternal hell. We’ll touch on that in chapter 14 and see the final consignment in chapter 20. It’s serious business; this is not a game with God, He’s not the doting grandfather. I used to tell my dad with the kids, “you spoil them.” “I know I’m their grandfather.” Now I love it. You have to discipline, I have to love them, but God is both. This is serious business. We get all upset when we look at a country like Puerto Rico and the suffering and we get angry at everybody, somebody do something.

When God pours His wrath on the world there will be nothing that can be done. There will be people that will long, “if I could only die.” I’ve been blessed with good health. I had a kidney stone once. I remember being in a hospital, going to the hospital. I don’t like hospitals but I went to the hospital there; we give you morphine. You know all I know about morphine is it’s powerful but you know what? They gave me morphine and it still hurt. More morphine, more morphine, more morphine, well I think we’ve done enough, nah I can do more, more morphine. You know you get to a point you say whatever for relief. These people are far beyond that and they can’t die. Five months of this plaguing the world. All right, not good times.

Now we’re going to describe the locusts and you realize these are not locusts like we know. These unique locusts come in this huge swarm attacking the world. The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. Now it doesn’t say they were horses; you see they are like horses. On their heads appeared to be crowns like gold, their faces were like the faces of men. John is writing under the direction of the Spirit to give you what they connect with humanly we could identify and they are some kind of composite being. They had hair like the hair of women, their teeth were like the teeth of lions, and they had breastplates like breastplates of iron. These are creatures prepared for battle and when demons are turned loose on humans, given the freedom by God to inflict the worst that they can afflict short of having them die, there’s going to be suffering like people don’t know and there is no cure for it. There’s no solution this is demonically called, there’s no shot, there’s no prescription.

We don’t know what’s happened; the world has been overtaken by something we’ve not seen we don’t—and you’ve got this going on with everything else. Who’s going to help if you’ve had billons of people die already, large portions of the world destroyed and now you have this suffering. Horses prepared for battle that have crowns on their head, those are stephanos crowns. Remember you have a stephanos crown and a diadem crown. A diadem is the crown of a ruler a stephanos crown is the crown of a victor. These are those who will be victorious because God has given authority for them to be turned loose, they will have the victory here.

It doesn’t mean God is defeated. His servants are protected, the sealed ones. The rest are at the mercy--you know Satan doesn’t love his followers. He is ready to inflict great suffering on his followers. Don’t get the idea there is some kind of friendship with Satan, no, no, no, no, he doesn’t like you, he delights in your suffering, he delights in your pain, he delights in misery. He is a destroyer, that’s his name; he is a destroyer so here he is and the demons carrying out their work. Teeth like teeth of lions, I mean their tails are like the tails of scorpions, they have the power to inflict pain of all kinds I take it. Satan could afflict Job with boils from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. I mean what do you do, you can’t lay down you can stand up. That’s what happened to Job, here these have pain. What can I do? Some of you have had the kind of pain he says you know I can’t get comfortable, I can’t lay down, and I can’t sit down just pain, pain! Now imagine that on this level. That’s what’s going on, how many millions of people will be affected how many billions of people? We don’t know and they’re not going to die so they will be around to be further afflicted.

Verse 10 they “have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is the power to hurt men for five months” so that’s where the focal point is, that kind of pain, like a scorpion injects its poison and it permeates the system. These demonic beings, will people see them? We don’t know. Demonic activity can go on without being seen. Job evidently didn’t see the devil but the results of the activity. The demonic man we read about during Jesus’ earthly ministry, people didn’t see the demons, they saw the effect of the demons in them so not necessarily does it have to say you’re going to see this. This is where these beings come and now the demons have this kind of power and authority and ability and then you come to verse 11. They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has, the name Apollyon and you’ll note both names mean destruction or destroyer whether you name them in Hebrew or you name them in Greek. Here they come out of the abyss and they have a king so there is order in the demonic world, even there, so they don’t just come out and randomly spread out over the world.

There is an orderly attack made and when you talk about here we have--I don’t think this is Satan here. I don’t think he’s introduced in this kind of way but it would be under the authority of Satan that this is carried out because all the demons are under the authority of Satan. He’s directing them so this is a coordinated action, to attack the people of the world, except for those who are sealed by God.

Interesting, you know the demons recognize you belong to God. We’re sealed, 2 Timothy 2:19 “the Lord knows those who are His who have His seal” and you know the devil knows too. The demons know too. You know were not flying under the radar. The demons are well aware of who belongs to God and who does not, knows who is true and who is not. He knows well those who belong to Him and He controls completely and knows who belongs to the Lord and He is limited in what He can do. It doesn’t keep him from attacking. This battle going on, it’s a coordinated battle.

Come over to Ephesians chapter 6. You’re familiar with this passage; we sometimes don’t take it seriously enough. We get a glimpse to help us understand the seriousness of things even with a book like Revelation. Verse 10 of Ephesians 6 says, “finally, be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God,” now note this, “so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.” He is working, he is contriving, and he is planning attacks on you, on each child of God, that’s what He says here. You have to be prepared to stand firm. There hasn’t been--well no you can never attack a believer. Certain things he can’t do but he can assault believers. We know with Peter the night Christ was betrayed before that event when He prophesied His coming crucifixion in Jerusalem. What did he tell the Lord? “Oh, Lord that will never happen to You.” What did Jesus say to him? “Get behind Me, Satan!” Peter was allowing himself to be used as a tool of Satan, become the spokesman for Satan so the devil afflicts and attacks.

Our struggle is “not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers” and here, you see something of the order, “the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies. Therefore, take up the full armor of God that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, stand firm.” Then stand firm and he goes on the elements of the armor we need, to stand firm against the devil. We let down our guard and the devil intrudes himself. There’s a spiritual battle going on. We see the demonic forces turned loose against the world of the unbeliever but you know, we sometimes forget we’re in a spiritual battle now and the devil is watching for weaknesses. Watching where maybe we haven’t put on the full armor. They’re vulnerable there, they’re not ready for us here, we’ll catch them off guard. What’s his purpose? To weaken us, to undermine us, to make us act like Peter, use us as a tool for his own purpose. What did James warn about, about the tongue? He says it’s “set on fire by hell,” be careful you don’t give your tongue to the devil.

Romans 6 we’re to “use the parts of our body as instruments of righteousness, not as instruments of unrighteousness!” The devil, well you know—don’t underestimate him! We don’t have to fear him because John wrote, “the One who dwells in us is greater than the one who dwells in the world” but apart from the power of God and His provision for us--but you know we’re His children but sometimes we don’t pay attention to Him. You know what happens to your kids sometimes, you try to tell them, they don’t listen. A kid that’s little, you tell them don’t touch the stove, it’s hot. You walk out of the room. He’s got to find out for himself, and then he’s crying. I said you should have listened to me. Sometimes we as God’s children are like that; the Lord has to whisper in our ear, you should have listened to Me; you should have done what I told you, you should have put on the full armor. You should have been on the alert!

Come over to 1 Peter chapter 5, you talk about “be on the alert,” look at verse eight, verse six says “humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” They say the devil knows you, he knows me, he’s watching, he knows when we have let down our guard. He knows when we become careless.

I remember reading when the Vietnam War and the North Vietnamese battling against like the Americans. They said we try not to take them on “head on.” We usually just follow them and follow them, and follow them, and follow them until they became careless. They became less alert because we hadn’t done anything for a while, then when they became casual, they set aside their stuff and relax, then we attack; it’s how the devil does. He’s like a lion stalking a victim watching. For what? When they’re not prepared. We have to resist him, firm in our faith and know other believers are suffering the same thing. We’re under constant assault to one degree or another. You are especially the object of his attack if you’re a believer in Christ. If you’re not a believer in Christ you belong to him, he delights to cause you problems just because he likes suffering. He causes misery but for God’s people he gets special delight.

What was the battle with Job? Was Job battling a physical affliction? Was Job battling the great suffering of losing all his children at one time? There you saw the devil could cause a storm if God said he could. The devil could cause sickness, the devil could cause the enemy to swoop in and kill and steal. I mean he’s got power we don’t know about; he is an awesome being. Am I afraid of him? No, because 1 John 4:4 says “greater is He who is in you” but do I want to stay alert. You had better stay alert, otherwise you’ll find out he’s made your life a mess. He’s got you doing things you shouldn’t do and you stop and think, what was I thinking? You weren’t thinking biblically! Then you end up what? The devil whispers in your ear, you’ll soon do what he says. You don’t do what God says, well I didn’t put on the armor today, I didn’t think today was going to be that kind of day. Well the devil knows what kind of day it is. He knows if we haven’t put on the armor and all the pieces, He knows where we’re vulnerable. Well boy, I don’t know that makes me uneasy. Well, it should make you uneasy. Get dressed right in the armor, stand firm in your faith and trust the Spirit, submit to Him. We’re good to go.

Second Corinthians chapter 11 and we’re done. I don’t just study revelation and say, “well I’m glad I won’t be here during that demonic time.” You understand the demons are at work today also, this battle’s going on and it’s going to reach a climax. Second Corinthians 11, “I’m jealous for you,” verse two, “with a godly jealously; I betrothed you to one husband that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” and here it’s false teaching. Someone comes and preaches something and well it doesn’t look too bad to me. We’re not alert, we’re not discerning, you accept that beautifully. You come down to verse 13, “such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder Satan disguises himself as an angel of light so don’t be surprised if his servants disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.” I think we ought to be alert we ought to be aware. There’s no excuse for me to be taken in. I don’t have to sin!

One thing, I appreciated one of my professors, who’s now with the Lord, preached here many years ago. I remember he said when I was in bible college, “you never have to sin, you sin when you want to sin. You sin when you choose to sin” and that’s true and all of us know it if you’ve been a believer more than half a day, you know that. When you sin, you decide. It’s like I shouldn’t have that piece of chocolate but I’ll have it. I’m not saying eating chocolate’s sin, that’s just a picture. The sin came as such a delight you decided it’s worth it. I’ll enjoy it and then afterward it’s bitter. Sin is never pleasant in the after taste and the aftermath so it’s true. So part I want to grow so I am constantly, more consistently, where I need to be, as prepared as I need to be. I don’t have any off days in that sense because Satan doesn’t take a day off. His demons are there but praise God the Holy Spirit dwells in us permanently. He’s here 24 hours a day, seven days a week and I submit to Him and draw upon His provision, we’re good to go. Let’s pray together.

Thank You Lord for the provision You’ve made for us in Christ and Lord apart from Him what a terrible situation being Your enemies, cut off from the life that is found only in Christ, being a child of the devil controlled by our own sin, enslaved to a master who would destroy us. Thank You Lord that You were a God of love and mercy. Thank You for the salvation You provided in Christ and You offer as a free gift. I pray for any who are here and Lord You know our hearts. We can look righteous but You’re looking at our hearts, You’re looking at our inner condition. You know those that belong to You that have been sealed as Yours. Father I pray for any who are here who don’t know You. May they come to see themselves as you say they are and place their faith in Christ and may we who have trusted the Savior be careful to be living in the power that You provide day by day. Thank You for the victory that is ours in Christ in whose name we pray. Amen.





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