Evangelists They're going to be immune.
Now there could be some practical reasons. These events could be happening in a part of the world. Where these 144,000 Jews are not. But you've got to be careful when you begin to apply reason to miracles. You can try to end up looking like you're explaining a miracle away.
Well, the point of a miracle is that it goes beyond reason. but it doesn't go without truth. which is very rational. You're listening to Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville.
Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Revelation. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Revelation chapter 9. As he begins his message, demonic scourges. Revelation chapter 9, demonic scourges is the title of the message.
Verses one through three in our reading of the scripture. Revelation chapter 9, first three verses. Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like s like the smoke of a great furnace.
So the sun and the air were darkened Because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth and And to them was given power. as the scorpions of the earth have power. Pitt keeps popping out on that one. The abuso in the Greek, the abyss.
As we know it. the prison house for demonic spirits. The really bad ones, apparently. We are now coming to The f Fifth. Of seven trumpet blasts.
And we were told in the last verse of the last chapter that these three trumpets would be the trumpet wolves. They would be worse than The first four And that is because these are unleashing demonic spirits into the world.
Now, I started. more additional demonic spirits. I started to entitle this Morning's consideration: demons are real.
Well, that we know, but this is going to get uglier than ever before because these are going to. uh allow humans to scourge other humans beyond anything that has been seen. Looking back at Ephesians, many years written before the Revelation, Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus: For we do not wrestle against Flesh and blood. But against principalities. against powers.
against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual multitudes of wickedness, in heavenly places or spiritual places, Well, it was Pretty bad in the days of Paul. It is the same for us. This demonic activity. and what's coming is going to be, as we would say, off the chart. The revelation of Jesus Christ shows us a demonically destabilized earth.
And Those living during this time that is not here yet, that is coming. Many of them will not admit it. They will be too invested in their own defiance against Christ. to dare consider the truth.
Well, I'll get to later points about the madness of some human beings that we're seeing unlike ever before also. One reason because of media, and the media allows them to communicate with each other and sort of make disciples, and we now have a generation that is infested with insanity. We might say insanity, but really its demonic influence.
Well, I get ahead of myself. We come back to our consideration and well, one other. Disclaimer that I've been trying to communicate as we go through Revelation is: you want the Bible teacher to come up and say, this. Symbol means this. And sometimes we can do that, and we can be pretty much in agreement because we've got some Old Testament.
precedents, but not always. And the revelation leaves we church age Christians speculating about some of the details. But I think most of them get us close. And we use scenarios to establish that these revelations. They're doable.
They are real. It is not sci-fi. These things are going to happen. and is not going to be good and you do not want to be here. There's no such thing as a get out of hell card.
There's only a stay out of hell, card, and if you don't get that right in this life, it's going to be too late. And Revelation is just one of many places in the Bible where God is trying to communicate this to people.
Some believe, like the thieves on the outlaws on the cross. One believed, the other one. He scoffed. And where is he now? Revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ, is not far-fetched.
It is spot-on.
So let's begin to dig into it. Verse 1. Then The fifth angel sounded. And I saw a star falling from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key.
of the bottomless pit, the Abuso, the third trumpet. Had also a star come down, and it was called wormwood. But this star is personified by a pronoun. And I'm going to skip over all the silliness of that insanity that we are experiencing with people in pronouns.
Well, I'll skip over it a little bit. Evidently not all of it. But Uh there is sufficient inherent in man to cause the first four trumpet troubles. the four horsemen that we considered in Revelation chapter 6. The blast of these three trumpets release Even more demonic forces.
and they are going to inflict a lot of damage. The true God is undesirable to those under demonic influence. And these are going to be the victims. Herein, this great tribulation period that comes after the church is raptured. You may have heard someone say.
a lost soul. Who creates God according to their imagination? I think God is.
Well Who cares what you think about God if it contradicts what God has said about Himself and established?
Now this is offensive to some, but it's the truth, and the truth from God offends guilty people. And they will either repent and side with him or double down and side against him. And this is the story of the revelation of Jesus Christ. He says, and I saw a star falling from heaven to the earth.
Now there are two dominant views about The identity of this star. One is that it is a fallen angel because of the operative word. Fallen. But it the fallen can be as though you fall upon the enemy. And the other view is that it is an unfallen angel, this star that is.
Personify with a pronoun. I believe it is an unfallen angel. I believe that because when we get to chapter twenty, we will find that an angel will throw Satan into the bottomless pit.
Well, before he throws them into the lake of fire about a thousand years later, let's pick it up. Revelation 20. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven. having the key to the bottomless pit. and a great chain in his hand.
He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and he cast him into the bottomless pit. pause there and I hope he landed on his head. Coming back to this, and shut him up and set a seal on him.
so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But After these things, he must be released for a little while. A lot of theology packed into that. We'll get to it in about ten weeks or so. But right now, the point is you have this angel that grabs hold of Satan himself and throws him into this pit.
That's the angel who is the warden over this pit in chapter 20, and therefore I take it to be here also in chapter 9. I'm not alone, as I mentioned. It's debatable. You won't be off either way too much. No great doctrine will be lost if you take the opposing view.
Just don't make up anything goofy.
Well, no, it's a Smurf actually doing it. I mean, it gets a little crazy. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit.
So You remember when Jesus was dealing with the The maniac of Gadara, who was infested with demons, and they appealed to him not to throw them into the abuso, the abyss. And they asked to go into the pigs. And Christ said, Fine. Same thing. And they did.
Well, the responsibility was not on Christ to tell them what destruction awaited them. And so there we have an indication that Demons are intelligent. They're aware of what Scripture has to say, they are not invincible. Increased evil. Will be released upon a Christ-hating world, and that will unfold as we move through the Revelation, especially when we get to chapters 12 and 13.
God is allowing evil permission so that it can show itself To that tribulation generation, because that's what it's going to take to reach some people. The preaching of truth from pulpits and from kitchens and living rooms and wherever we find ourselves will stop working eventually. And God will elevate or intensify His reach for lost souls, and again, we know it as the Great Tribulation period. Of course, I'm speaking in such a way, or attempting to, so that if you're not familiar with these things, I'm giving you, trying to weave in some background information.
Now, evil has no long-term loyalty and therefore no loyalty. and it turns on its duped population. And we'll get that in the latter well, that the sixth trumpet. which is the second part of this chapter. This chapter has trumpets six And five and six.
We don't get to the seventh trumpet until we get to chapter 11. There's another delay when God will say, Well, here's what's going on with the believers and evil during this period. John uh mentions the abyss seven times in Revelation. always referring to it as the prison house of demons and the hoards of demons. It is the s in the spiritual realm.
Peter said, For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus is the Greek word, translated hell, the underworld, accurately so, and delivered them into chains of darkness. to be reserved for judgment.
Well, they're going to be part of judgment. These that are coming out like locusts are being used by God. And I think my take on this is that these particular demons will be helping Antichrist. Against his opponents, and he will have opposition, and he's going to put it all down. He's that little horn that just takes over everything.
Revelation chapter 11. We read when they finish their testimony, that is the two witnesses that God sends. The beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.
Well, what we're taking out of it this morning is that bottomless pit is producing evil atop of evil. And my understanding is I don't want to keep saying, and there are others. I don't have an Elijah complex with the prophet struggle. Lord, I'm the only one that hasn't bowed the knee to bow. I don't want the Lord pulling me to the side and let me tell you something, buster, and then clean my clock.
I don't have that view, but I don't want to keep putting these disclaimers out either.
So, suffice it to say, there are other men as wise as me.
So, well almost. Anyway. Uh this uh Revelation 11 is an indication that Antichrist starts out as an Antichrist, but he becomes worse. He is by chapter 11 referred to as a beast now. He's not even human in his behavior.
And he's totally energized by Satan at some point. He evolves. And he will survive, incidentally, and this is probably when it begins. Yeah, I think it's a very good idea. And re-emerge as the world's final Gentile ruler, and they're going to love him so much.
Revelation thirteen And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world marveled, and followed the beast. clicking their little heels with their shiny buckles, all the way through. And we, the believers, we won't be here, but the believers who will be here, they will oppose these things. And their pay, except for the Jewish believers. Verse 2.
Then he opened the bottom of his pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. and the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. This is um So we know when I mentioned Antichrist doesn't come out as evil as he is going to be. This allows him to enter into this sinister covenant with Israel that he's going to break, and he knows he's going to break it. But I believe he breaks it when he really turns, when Satan really gets hold of him.
Satan's going to love this guy. He's gonna say, you know, he gets everything the the way I want it. to be. Revelation seventeen, verse eight. speaking to John, giving him the revelation and some information about what he is seeing.
He says, For the beast that you saw, was and is not and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition, which is hell.
Now when he says He is not. He wasn't alive in John's Day. He says that the beast you saw and is not and will.
So it's a future thing. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel. whose names are not written in the book of life. from the foundation of the world. When they see the bees that was and is not and yet is.
Well, because the beast will be you could almost say Satan incarnate. He will be that much under, willfully so, the power of. all evil from hell.
Well, coming back to this segment, what John is seeing is coming out of this pit. He says smoke arose out of the pit like smoke of a great furnace.
Well, smoke in Scripture often symbolizes anger.
Well, there's going to be wrath. They're going to be enraged creatures. And from this point forward, the prison house of these spiritual beings becomes increasingly prominent in the Revelation. And where it says, So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. This atmospheric contamination.
I believe, again, I guard against sci-fi interpretation, these are realistic things taking place. There are some precedents for them, and they are now supercharged. The damage they do, I believe, will be through people. Through human beings, with these demonic hordes behind the scenes. Verse 3.
Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth, And to them was given power as scorpions of the earth have power.
So this in this smoke, sort of this picture of them pouring out. In their anger. The Old Testament, when it speaks of the locust hordes, it often applies it to invading armies. You get that in Jeremiah 51 and Nahem 3. He continues in verse 3, And to them was given power.
Unprecedented. Spiritual influence. And AI and the internet are making, are facilitating these things. It is the Tower of Babel rebuilt. wherein mankind, opposed to God, can collaborate in their opposition to God.
And that's going, the tower is rebuilt. He when John says, as scorpions of the earth have power, to inflict pain. Many will be able to interpret these realities as they're living through them. far better than we can. Verse four.
They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth or any green thing. or any tree. But only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
Well, of course, you could butcher that versus, well, just wear a green shirt and you'll be fine. And of course that's not the meaning. But they ought to keep off the grass. Typically Locusts eat vegetation, real locusts. I mean, you know, they They're not gonna order a burger.
when they come. Actually, it's kind of a twist here, right? Militant environmentalists. They don't harm the grass, but they do harm people. Uh just a little bonus for you.
This deviation in diet that we're reading about here. to me indicates that the creatures are not literal or actual locus. It's a moniker given to them that characterizes much about their behavior. But there's a lot that belongs to their behavior that doesn't have anything to do with being a locust inside of the hordes that are coming. They have a hateful hunger for inflicting pain, and were it not restrained by God, they would kill.
Well, in the sixth trumpet, those four fallen angels up from the Euphrates they will kill. But we've not, it has the tribulation has not yet progressed to that point or devolved, however, you want to. Say it. God will limit the scourge in both cases, but here He's limiting it. To the infliction of pain, but only those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
Well, we know that from previous verses, chapter 7, that these are the 100. And 44,000 Jewish Evangelists They're going to be immune.
Now there could be some practical reasons. These events could be happening in a part of the world. where these 144,000 Jews are not. But you've got to be careful when you begin to apply reason to miracles. You can try to end up looking like you're explaining a miracle away.
Well, the point of a miracle is that it goes beyond reason. But it doesn't go without truth. Which is very rational.
So the 144 Uh w will Make converts. That's what their role will be, which is an indicator, it's sort of a a hidden indicator that there's no church. If the church were still here saving souls, you wouldn't need the 144,000. The church could do it. Jew and Gentile Christians could do it, but the church is not here.
She's in she's removed.
So imagine at this time, this future time in history.
Someone going to one of these 100 44,000 Jews. If they are in the theater of this these events and saying How come you're immune to this?
Well, they could open their Bible and say this is prophetic. These are the tools they will have available to them to reach souls.
Souls that come to Christ in tribulation looking at the revelation, it's not because they just stumbled into salvation and conversion. There will be people that use the Bible in the Great Tribulation to point out Only the true God could call this so far in advance with such minute detail. That we're living through, not us. We've got our share, we are living through some of it. But they will, of course.
Uh all the lines will connect. Going through the Great Tribulation period. Verse 5 now. We'll come back to the 144,000 in latter chapters. We'll find out that they're virgins, for example, and they're a different class of people.
Verse 5. And they were not given authority to kill them. Neither of the locusts were not given authority to kill the 144,000 or anybody else. But to torment them for five months, not the 144 again. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man.
Well, another feature that is lacking in locusts as we know them today. How are they going to scourge people? They're going to inject, they're going to get venom into them.
Something's going to be put into them.
Now I'm going to ease, roll these out and come back to them. Germ warfare. There are options here.
Well, do you know there is a such thing as microscopic animals? I didn't say viruses, they're that too. but microscopic animals. and some of them look like manatees. I mean, I'm just saying these are scenarios.
Don't go acting like, ooh, this is so far-fetched, this is sci-fi. No, it's not. We're right at the precipice of these things. Viruses, biochemical warfare. Neurotoxins being injected.
designed Bye. Human beings highly demonically influenced. And Delivered by drones. And I get to that because we have, you know, you have to say, at some point, John is going to tell us, these things made a lot of noise. and they could fly.
This has been Cross-Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston. This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation, but if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand. Just visit us online at crossreferenceradio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings. While you're there, you can also find links to follow our program on your favorite podcast app, as well as links to get connected with us on Facebook and YouTube.
There's also an interviews tab where you can learn more about Pastor Rick's heart for ministry.
Well, we hope you'll join us next time here on Cross Reference Radio. Yeah.
