Simple Faith

Bill Henry: God is going to rain His wrath down on earth one day, and we'll take a look at some of the events of that terrible time next on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry.

Guest (Male): Imagine the sun and the seas turning red, catastrophic natural disasters, major disruptions to the earth's ecosystem. Actually, that's what the Bible says is going to happen, and the Bible's success rate at predicting future events is absolutely and unequivocally 100%.

It's with that in mind that we turn to Revelation chapter nine today on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry. Pastor Bill serves as pastor at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Let's join him now for today's edition of Simple Faith and a look at Revelation chapter nine.

Bill Henry: Revelation 9:1. "Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth, and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like a smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the pit, locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power. 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. And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months.

And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days, men will seek death and will not find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them. And the shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle, and on their heads were crowns of something like gold. And their faces were like the faces of men. And their hair like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the wings of chariots with horses running into battle. They had tails like scorpions and their stings in their tails, and their power was to hurt men five months. And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in the Greek, his name is Apollyon. One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things."

So you'll remember the seventh seal on the scroll was opened, and basically, that seal contained seven trumpet judgments. Years ago, I was on a missions trip to Russia, and I got this little thing—I think they called it a Papushka doll, if I remember. It was like the little egg, and you pop the egg open, and there's another egg inside that, and then you pop that open, and there's another egg and another and another. That's almost what's happening here. We got to the last one of the seals, and now all of a sudden, there are these seven trumpets that are being judged upon the earth.

Last week we went over four of the trumpets, and it's interesting to note that at the end of the last chapter there in verse 13, we read this. It says, "And I looked and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven saying with a loud voice, 'Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth because the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound.'" So it was already bad. It was already, I would say, horrific, but now it's going to get even worse, these last three woes. And there's more stuff to come after that as well.

But we come into the fifth trumpet sounding. Look at verse one. "Then the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth." Now, what's interesting is back in chapter eight, we saw the second angel sounded, and it was something like a great mountain that was burning that was thrown into the sea. Then the third trumpet, if you remember, there was a great star that fell from heaven burning like a torch. Now, these were two things. They're described as things.

Yet notice this star that has fallen from heaven to earth. Look at verse one as it continues. "To him was given the key to the bottomless pit." So all of a sudden, we see a personal pronoun used—him. Most of your Bible commentators that I read believe that this is most likely a reference to Satan. Now, there are a couple that I respect, too, and they say there probably wasn't Satan, that it was one of his top angels that fell with him, kind of like there's Gabriel and there's Michael, that Satan has his top angels too.

But what's interesting is how similar our text is. If you'll turn with me to Isaiah chapter 14, as a scripture written about Satan, Lucifer. Isaiah chapter 14, we'll be looking at verses 12 through 15, and notice how similar the description is here to what we're reading. Isaiah 14:12. "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer." Lucifer there in the Hebrew literally means shining one, day or morning star. "Son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the pit."

Now look back here at chapter nine, verse one, and look towards the end of verse one. It says, "To him is given the key to the bottomless pit." And notice, Satan, the shining star, falls from heaven. We see that at the beginning of this verse. This was a star that fell down from heaven. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. Now, bottomless pit there—in the Old King James it reads abyss, literally in the Greek it is abussos. Basically, it's a compartment in what we would call hell or Hades.

Now, we read of several different compartments in hell or Hades. If you'll remember when Jesus spoke of Lazarus and the rich man, and Lazarus died and he went to Hades, but he went to the portion or the compartment, we could say, that was called Abraham's Bosom. And then the rich man died, and he didn't go to Abraham's Bosom, but he went across a great divide that no one could cross, basically where he was suffering, he was thirsting, and all these things. And so there were two compartments, and even if you count the great divide, some say that's probably the bottomless pit.

An interesting another reference to this is here when we see bottomless pit or abyss or abussos. If you'll remember when Jesus came with his disciples across the sea and they came into the graveyard, and they were approached by the man who was possessed by the legion. Remember? The legion of demons. And when realizing Jesus was going to cast them out, he said this: "Don't send us to the abusso. Don't send us to the abyss." And you can kind of almost say that he was basically saying, "Before our time, let us be free for a while longer."

So there will be one day when these demons will be thrown into the abusso or the abyss, which he has the key here now. So instead, the Lord let these demons go into the pigs. Remember? The swine, and then they dove over the cliff. And we remember here in the Bible it's the first time that deviled ham was mentioned there. I know, that's pretty bad. Sorry.

Now, it's interesting because this is also the same place, the abusso, the abyss, that Satan will go for a thousand years during the reign of Christ upon the earth. So again, many mentions of this in the Word of God. Now look at verse two. "He opened the bottomless pit." And I again believe it's Satan, but you're free to believe it's another fallen angel. "And smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit."

Now, it's interesting, we may not pay too much attention to what's being said because we have such fantastical things happening. Tell me about the locusts. These are gnarly little buzzers. But let's see something here that we might not notice. Notice that this abusso, this abyss, is a place upon the earth, most likely deep within the earth. Because when it is opened, notice when this bottomless pit is opened, smoke arises out of the pit like a notice it says the smoke of like a great fiery furnace. And so the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke released from it.

So again, this abusso, this compartment, is somewhere under the earth. We don't know where, but I think it's something that's very interesting to note. Because again, we're told that once this is opened, that the whole earth was made darkened because of the smoke released from it.

Now, it's interesting, too. Science tells us that the earth is 3,977 miles thick. So if you start to dig here and try to go straight down, you'll have to go through 3,977 miles of thickness—and I'm just going to say thickness for now, and you'll see why in a few minutes. But it's interesting. I wanted to look up the deepest that human beings were able to drill. And this is what I found. This is from an article. It says the deepest penetration of the earth's surface is the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia at 40,230 feet.

Originally a Soviet project and a source of pride for the USSR, the aim was to drill as deep as possible into the earth's crust. The borehole is nine inches in diameter. The project began in 1965 and was terminated in 1995 when unexpectedly, porous rock and high temperatures at this depth—356 degrees Fahrenheit—made drilling unfeasible.

So I find it interesting that the description here of this bottomless pit is smoke arises out of the pit like a great furnace. And that when they were digging here, they found unexpectedly high temperatures of, I mean, think about 356 degrees. Now, it's interesting too is there are 5,280 feet in a mile. So this means that they drilled down 7.6 miles into the earth. That's how far they penetrated. So that still leaves 3,960-some-odd miles unaccounted for that men have not been able to, women have not been able to explore, to understand.

So again, you go up and you look up pictures of the inner core of the earth, and science tells us that basically there's the lithosphere or the crust, and then the mantle, and then there's the core. And some say, well, there's an outer core and inner core and outer crust, inner crust, and all these different things. Some were even saying that they believe there's more water under the earth than there is in all the oceans of the sea.

But this is all conjecture, but they never say so. It's taught as fact even though they have not observed it because again, out of the 3,960-plus miles, they have not been able to explore. So here's the truth of the matter. What we know biblically is that there is a chamber somewhere under the earth. We don't know where and we don't know how deep, but it is a chamber that there was Abraham's Bosom and there was the other portion. These locusts are going to come up out of this.

Look at verse three. This is what comes out of the pit. "Then out of the smoke, locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power. And 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."

So these are some pretty wicked sounding locusts. Anybody ever see a grasshopper or locust even worse? But remember that since they basically have come up from the pit of hell, these are not your everyday locusts. These are actually some sort of spiritual being, much like let's say we might say an angel or a cherubim or something of that nature. But this is more of hell itself. This is some place that God has locked these creatures up in the abusso, and now they're being unlocked for a time for a specific purpose. And remember that even still, as we'll see, God is the one who dictates what they're going to do with their freedom from the abuss.

Now, it's interesting. We notice that they're commanded not to harm the grass, nor any green thing, or any tree. Now, remember, this is what a normal locust would eat. You see a swarm of locusts coming, guess what? They're going to devour everything—trees, leaves, grass, anything. That's why when you have a plague of locusts, it's so terrible.

But here, they're commanded not to do that. Matter of fact, they're only permitted to not harm the earth at all, but to harm human beings. Notice there with me, though, it's not just any human beings. Look at the end of verse four with me again. "Only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads."

Now, some would say, well, this is probably the 144,000 we read about earlier in Revelation because they were sealed by God, which I believe they're part of this, yes. But I also believe that this includes any believer that is there at the time that is alive that has come to faith during the tribulation. Why do I believe that? Turn with me, please, to Ephesians chapter one. "In Him, you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise."

How many people here have been sealed with the Spirit of God? Amen! All of us have been because we've been sealed with the Spirit of promise. Turn with me to chapter four, please, of Ephesians. Ephesians 4:30. "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."

Now, the reason I bring these scriptures up is because there's no reason to believe that these sealed here within Revelation chapter nine, that their salvation is any different than ours. It's just at a different time. And it's so and again, the Holy Spirit, once someone is born again of the Spirit of God, we are then sealed by the Spirit of God. He comes in and he puts his seal on you and I.

Earlier we were singing from the scriptures, I'm a child of God. Do you know that not all the people of the earth are the children of God? It's weird because even pastors say, "Oh, all the earth, they're all God's children." That is not true. You see, to become a child of God, we must be born again of the Spirit of God and then we're born into children of God. Now, the rest of the earth is still God's creation, and he still loves them so much he gave his only begotten Son. So he still loves them, but they have not become his children. But you and I, once we are born again of the Spirit of God, we're also sealed by the Spirit of God.

That means he comes in and he gives us his deposit, his Holy Spirit. That's what we would call that deposit, that earnest. And he has sealed us. Nothing can snatch us out of his hand. Nothing! What a blessed thing. And so again, these creatures can harm all the rest of the earth, but they cannot harm God's people. I liked one lady pointed out after one of the services earlier. It shows that even when God allows hell to become here on earth, he still controls it. He still holds it back.

Because even look, even when he's allowing them to attack those who aren't believers, look at verse five. "And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man." Anybody here ever been stung by a scorpion? Anybody? Three services and nobody stung by a scorpion? I guess that's good. Oh, somebody over here. Oh, your baby boy? Ooh, see?

Yeah, we lived in, when I was a kid, we lived up in Big Bear for a year. And it's kind of high desert. And all of a sudden we're sitting there watching, I forget, Little House on the Prairie or something, it was in the early 70s. And out of the corner of my eye, I'm laying on the floor and I see something walking across. I look over and it's this scorpion. And we're like, "Whoa, this is in the house!" And it didn't bite anybody or sting anybody, but still, those are nasty-looking little creatures. They got the things and the sting coming back up.

This is what one commentator said about the sting of a scorpion. It has been said that the sting of a scorpion, though seldom fatal, is one of the most painful stings known. The venom seems to set the veins and nervous system on fire, and the effects last for several days. By contrast, the effects of this particular sting will last five months.

So imagine for five months your blood, your nervous system, is like it's on fire. Because look at verse six. "In those days, men will seek death and will not find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them." "I'm trying to catch death, I want to die, I want to die." Death flees from them. The amplified says it this way: "And in those days, people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die to escape the pain but will discover that death evades them."

People will be in so much agony, so much pain for five months, they will want to die but won't be able to. And where it says they'll seek out death, this means they're actually going to try to be killing themselves to get away from this pain. But instead, they're just going to be maimed and they're not going to be killed. Imagine all the different ways people try to kill themselves. Imagine jumping off a cliff and you hit the ground and you're like, "Oh, that didn't work. Everything's broken and it hurts even more than it did before, but I'm still alive." For five months you're going to lay like that.

I mean, this is an extreme picture, but this is kind of what the body will be maimed, the body will be broken, but they won't be able to die. Now what's interesting, and I like to do these little side notes sometimes. This also points out to us another truth. You see, our bodies are only shells, and they can be severely damaged, but that is not the life within us. The life within us is breathed by God in the womb. The baby becomes alive. And by the way, when people say, "Well, it's not a baby till they're born, it's a fetus." Fetus means in the Latin, baby in the womb.

Boom! Okay, now we got that again. God breathes life, right? And so even when our bodies get broken and they get older and things start to not work—anybody say an amen? It's that, it is God has created us this way. And we need to remember that that is not our spirit. It's very important even as we see this. Let me read what one commentator said on this. I just love it.

He said, "The real me is spirit. The body is the instrument that God has given me to where I can express myself. But the body is the medium of expression for me, but the real me is spirit. The real me is not the body; the real me is spirit. Through the body, my spirit can express itself. And that is what God has designed. He has designed the body as the medium by which I can express myself to others, and I can relate to others, and they can relate to me. It is the medium by which we come to know each other and come to appreciate and love each other, this medium of our bodies by which our spirits express themselves to each other.

Now generally," he goes on, "when through age or accident or illness or disease or whatever, generally the body can come to a point where it can no longer fulfill the functions for which God purposed it. When the body can no longer really express me and my spirit, when the body gives me more pain and suffering than joy or pleasure, or when the body is so weak that it can't really express me anymore, then God releases my spirit from this body. And my spirit then moves into my new body, the building of God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

Again, just what a great reminder for us. Because even when the rapture happens, we're changed in the moment, a twinkling of an eye. This corruptible must put on incorruptible. And so I just love the picture that we're shown here. And again, these people, they're going to long for death, but remember, they're going to long for even just separation from their bodies, which isn't the real them, and guess what? They're not going to get that separation.

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill's series in Revelation. It's our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today. If you'd like to share today's message with someone, it's available at our website to either watch or listen, and you can actually download an audio MP3.

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