Unwelcome Visitors Rev, 9:1-12
Revelation 9:1-12 · Vern Peterman · Apr 28, 2002
Revelation (2001-03), No. 27
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262242262067

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. I know that after Randy got through reading that that you're thinking that that's describing the local junior high getting out for summer, right? But it isn't. Anyway, we'll be taking a closer look at this passage here. And this is certainly not about any visitors here this morning. So yes, Wayne's right. Please don't mistake what we're saying here. As we look at this, just kind of As always, it's important for us to keep our perspective.

Last week, we finished taking a look at chapter 8. That took us from the second through the fourth trumpets. These are the trumpet judgments. And just to keep ourselves in perspective here, we went through these trumpet judgments here outlined in yellow. And that was the end of chapter eight. And at the end of that, we heard this warning from midheaven. This midheaven is the place of high noon. And there were three more trumpet judgments to come. These are the three woes. In the Greek, these are called...

Are you ready? Oh, never mind. Last week, I guess when I pronounced it, I woke a few people up. Anyway, this is the first of the three To put it quietly. But anyway, there's so much description and detail, and in truth, reading this, this passage seems kind of strange, doesn't it? It's different. There is a difference. You see, in the past we've been through things that are largely physical, aren't they? A lot of physical things happening upon the earth. In this case, there's something physical happening, but what is behind it is very much spiritual.

And in order for us to get the full sense of what's happening, we're going to need to take a topical detour, and we'll get into that in a bit. Let's read the first verse, just to give ourselves a starting point here. Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth, and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. Now here we see all the earlier trumpets have been about something physical, a meteor, a comet, something that is purely physical.

This is different. Each of these trumpet blasts, remember, is a military trumpet. This isn't just making a bunch of music. This is a military trumpet announcement. announcing charge, it's announcing the attack, okay? So each one of these trumpet blasts is not just making a bunch of music up in heaven. Each one of these trumpet blasts is announcing the attack from heaven upon earth. In this case, John is telling us, and he uses a word he's used before, but he's using it in a different way.

This is the Greek word aster, okay? And the rest of the context here, however, makes it clear, unlike what we've seen it used before, where it's actually been something falling out of the heavens that's physical and impacting the Earth, here we've got some strong indicators that what he's referring to is not just an asteroid or a meteor or a comet, but in fact this is a being, a personal being. And some of the indicators that we have are, for example, the use of the personal pronoun, he or him. That's in verses 1 and 2 there, and that implies that this is a personal being.

In the Greek text, the him is actually intensive. In other words, it underscores that it's him, a personal being. It's kind of a double. In English, we try to avoid repetition. In Greek, that's how you know that that's what's being emphasized. So he's emphasizing it.

The other thing, and this kind of indicates it both ways, this star is given a key, and he turns around and uses it. Meteors don't use keys. Meteors aren't given keys. In this case, this star, this him, this he, this personal being, receives a key. A key is an authorization for access, isn't it? It's an ability to access. So this is indeed a personal being we're looking at.

In this particular case, we're going to go through the passage this morning after we've taken a bit of a detour looking at the subject of Satan and demons. And the reason I want us to take a look at that first, kind of on a topical basis, is so as we go into this passage, things will fall into place. It will make sense. Because I'm convinced this personal being that he first refers to here, and we'll see why, This personal being he refers to here is Satan himself.

So, fasten your pew belts, put on your Bible helmets, but I'm not taking you for a ride. You got that? So, let's take a look here. Some biblical truths about angels. All angelic beings were created at once. They don't come about like human beings where it's spread over time. All angelic beings were created at once.

The Job 38 passage here makes it clear that they were created at once and at a time such that they are able to praise and glorify God over the creation that He is making. So this is either prior to or very early in the physical creation. It's clear that they show up at that point in time. Human beings, in contrast, are brought into existence spread over time, aren't we? Instead, here's these angelic beings, all at one instant, being brought into existence.

And, part of that is, as a consequence, we have no evidence from Scripture that there's little baby angels. They look really cute in the drawings. The artwork looks really adorable. But, as far as we can tell from Scripture, there ain't no such thing. Now, it also indicates they're neither male nor female. Those few indications that we have seem to be male, but their gender doesn't seem to be the point. A couple indications we have, for instance, here's the angels Michael and Gabriel. Masculine names. Sorry, Monica and Tess. It appears to be masculine wherever we have an indication.

Angels are created holy initially, at that time they were created holy, but they appear early in the creation to have been given a time window during which they could make a choice to stand against the Lord and with Satan. They, like man, appear to have been given that time window fairly early, because we see evidence of that early even in the third chapter of Genesis. Their choice, however, appears to be individually made in order to stand against the Lord. For us, there was a choice made as a representative. Some would use the word as our federal head in Adam. That's not apparently the case with the angels. They individually have a chance to take a stand one way or the other.

Now, one-third of the angels chose against God, and the other two-thirds chose to stand with God. That comes out of Revelation 12, as we'll be studying in some weeks ahead here. Those who decided with the Lord will have their eternal destiny, and those who decided against the Lord will have their eternal destiny as well. And then those angels who chose to stand against God and with Satan were sentenced.

That's one thing. They had their wills and eternal destinies fixed and determined. Fixed and determined at that time. We're not given any indication that these angels have now or will have a power to reverse their eternal destiny. Interesting. We're in a different spot, aren't we?

But these angels, it appears, once they were made their choice, once they took that choice, that's it. They were stuck in it, they were frozen in that position. Unlike ourselves, the angels appear, once they have fallen, they appear not to have any means of salvation made available to them. Peter writes to us and he talks about, even into the salvation that we have, even into such things the angels long to look. They think that's fascinating because they don't have that made available to them. Isn't that amazing? But we do. What a phenomenal thing that we have made available to us. The salvation that is unique and marvelous.

The angels have not been given that opportunity from anything that we can read in scripture. There are some other truths that come out of scripture about angels. Angels are. Angels are not omnipresent. They are limited beings in space. They can't just be everywhere, all the time, at any time. They are specifically limited beings, like us and unlike God.

Then, angels are powerful and mighty, but they are not omnipotent. As we've seen through this book already, and will continue to see as the chapters unfold here, Angels carry out things that indicate that they have tremendous power granted to them, in certain instances. And we see these angels, they do something that impacts the entire earth, the act of one angel. So they are given tremendous powers. But it appears in every case to be something that they are authorized to do, and empowered specifically to do. They cannot, of their own wills, do anything and everything they wish. Those who have been created, they're not only not omnipotent, not all-powerful, they're also not omniscient.

They don't know everything. They don't know everything of what is going to happen. We have a lot of instances in scripture that angels have intelligence, but they are limited in what they know. They are limited in what they know about what is going to go on. The angels do not know when Christ will return.

Is that interesting? They don't know. They haven't a clue. There's no indication that they know that piece of information. The angels who sided with Satan are limited in what they understand. They understand some things, but there's still a great many things they don't know and don't understand and cannot tell anybody.

Angels aren't divine, which is why we're not to worship them. One of the things we're going to be seeing throughout the book of Revelation as we continue, there are two instances where John, in seeing an angel, begins to bow down and worship. In both instances, without delay, the angels say, don't worship me, worship God. That's very interesting in terms of the angel mania that has gone on.

Have you noticed that? There's been a lot of attention drawn to angels Nancy and I had even seen a TV special where they just showed all these people with all sorts of massive amounts of angel statues, people with angel rites, they had names to the angels they were connected with.

Scripture knows none of that. Scripture knows none of that. Worshipping an angel is something that we know clearly from Scripture a godly angel would refuse. Absolutely and instantly. So any angel that is receiving worship, we know it's not on God's side. Real clear.

Something else, 2 Corinthians 3.18 says we are to behold Christ. Behold Christ, and focus our attention on Him.

One last point from here, angels have an angelic spirit body that allows them to have appearance in a bodily form. We've seen various instances of that. Some of them that you can think of is, here's the angels appear to Abraham about the angel that appeared to Mary, to Daniel. We can find instances of that in scripture. Angels can take on a bodily form.

And something on the backside of that that's interesting, the angels that have fallen appear to be fearful of not having a body in which to dwell. That's very fascinating. The ones that follow God do not seem to have that fear. Now, here's a fascinating question. How many angels are there?

We get some different figures from different parts of scripture, different numbers, but probably the best summary, because these kind of focus on particular instances, particular situations, the best summary is what we get out of Hebrews 12.22, innumerable hosts. Now, I'm quite sure that the Lord knows the number. But from our standpoint, from a human standpoint, that's not a figure we've been given. And Hebrews describes it as innumerable, a huge number, one you and I wouldn't begin to, once looking at them, to say, hey, let's start counting.

Okay? We wouldn't want to put our time to it. Now, one of the things I kind of sent out some notice on is Satan's position and his condition. Okay? Now thankfully in this church, we teach and have taught for many years about a believer's position and a believer's condition. And that's something we ought to keep teaching about. But what I want to touch on this morning, Satan has a position and a condition. We have a position and a condition and we need to know about that, because we not only have the new nature that God has brought about in those who believe, but we also have this thing called the flesh. Therefore, we can have a position and a condition while we're here on planet Earth that can be either in agreement or not.

Satan is a bit of a different creature. His position and his condition are fixed. They're the same. He does not have two natures. Everywhere scripture talks about Satan, It talks about his inherent characteristic being a liar and a murderer and a deceiver from the beginning. You see that? Therefore, what Scripture describes is basically three falls. The first fall has already taken place. He said, and this is referred to in a couple of Old Testament passages, he said, I will. He made five statements. I will, I will, I will. And his statements of I will put him in a position of saying, I want to be in the place of God.

For that, God said, alright, you no longer have the exalted position that you have had, and now you have fallen. Satan then had a condition and a position that were fallen, but the condition and the position were the same. His destiny at that point in time was fixed. Again, there's no evidence that Satan or the angels that fell with him have any chance to reverse that. That's amazing. The Lord put us in the position of having a means of salvation. Of God making that available. That is phenomenal. But now, what we're going to see, and we're not there yet, there are two more falls for Satan. The next fall is going to occur We're going to see it in Revelation chapter 12.

He is going to, unlike the position he had, like you read in Job chapters 1 and 2, where he will access heaven and say, God, I want to go and attack this Job guy and you won't let me touch his body. I want permission. That access that he had, as we read about in Job 1 and 2, will be denied. he's going to be cast out, he will no longer have access to make any appeal to heaven.

Because a part of his access to heaven is requests for God to carry out certain things. The other half of his access is making accusations against the saints. One of his names, as we'll see in a minute here, is an accuser. He goes to God and makes accusations to God about you and me. those who have put their trust in Christ, he makes accusations. God's answer in every case is, all I see is Jesus. See that? But he still wants to have access. That access is going to be denied.

The next fall will take place at the end, after this time of imprisonment during what we call the millennium. His next and last fall will be at the end. He will be cast eternally and irreversibly in the lake of fire. And that will be his last and final fall.

He has, however, in all those instances only one position and one condition. The only thing that changes is his domain. See that? The only thing that changes is his domain. Where can he go? And it shrinks. And it shrinks. Until finally at the end, he has one domain and that's Lake of Fire. Okay.

Now, let's take a look at the categories of angels that fell with him. Remember we said one-third of the angels, and we'll study that more in detail, one-third of the angels fell with him, decided to side with Satan and be a part of his hierarchy, and to side against God. Of those, there are two categories. Category one of these angels, these unhindered fallen angels, are basically confined to earth in terms of their nativity.

They've been kept in these bonds, and the only evidence that we have that these beings actually have some time of release is this chapter we're reading about right here. And we'll see that a little more in a minute. They are, with restraints, permitted to go out for five months and torment All the other scriptural indications are that they are kept in total darkness all the time.

How would you like that? I recall some years ago going into a cavern up in Oregon, and one of the things they did, just so you get a sense of it, is just turn all the lights off. And it was amazing how dark it is. And that's the description. Total darkness. And utter darkness. that they're kept in ordinarily.

Now, for this short five-month period of time, they get some release, and we'll see how and why and under what conditions. Now, a key point in this, and it also helps explain why is this passage spelled out the way it is, the relationship of these fallen angels, these demons, to Satan. He's called the Prince or the Ruler or even the king of the fallen angels, these demons. In the reverse, these demons are called the ministers or ambassadors of Satan. Several passages confirm this relationship here. That's established, and then what we see in this passage we're looking at, that's being carried out. We'll look at that in more detail in a minute.

Satan has various names that he has been called, and none of them are particularly positive, they're all negative names. Names like Father of Lies, Murderer, Ruler of this World, Prince of the Power of the Air, Dragon. Sometimes in Revelation we'll see several names listed all in one place as if to make sure you've got the identity down. Make sure you've got it straight. And in this one instance here we see Apollyon or Abaddon and that is he's the destroyer. And we'll get into that in a bit here. The truth is, if you look, you could find more names than what I've listed. I just ran out of room.

So if you wanted to look up some additional names for Satan, that's fine. He has other ones. I would hate to go around with that many names. But it's also because he's got so many devious and evil attributes. So the multiple names fit. Okay. Having gotten the big picture about angels, let's take a look into the passage then, okay? Take a look, starting with verse 1 again, just to keep our orientation here.

Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth, and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

Now there are several reasons, and I believe it's on your handout as well, why I believe this star that he refers to in the earlier verses in this Apollyon or Abaddon of Revelation 9-11 are Satan and are one and the same. Angels are sometimes called stars in scripture, and we see that in the Job 38 passage. Satan is referred to as a star elsewhere and described as falling from heaven.

In a couple of passages, this understanding fits with this passage we're looking at here. Furthermore, in verse 11, we have this reference to Abaddon and Apollyon. As destroyer, it only makes sense if this same star is being referred to in these earlier verses here. Then in Revelation 20, verse 1, we have an interesting contrast. We have another account Here's now 11 chapters later, here in Revelation 20, where the angel opens the abyss, but he comes from heaven.

This being isn't quite in the same category, the star we're reading about in this chapter. And this angel opens the pit, but he is not identified as the destroyer. He's not identified as Abaddon and Apollyon. Though the action is similar, He's also not described as a fallen star.

So there are several things here that identify it. One more. We saw in a previous overhead there are numerous scriptures that show that Satan is the ruler of the demons and the demons serve him. This star who is fallen, who is named the destroyer, opening the abyss, once having been given permission, fits with Satan being the identity here. Now, something else. These first two verses describe Satan as opening the bottomless pit. In the Greek, this pit is Abyssos. Abyssos. I don't think you want to go there, by the way. Once this pit is open, we see the word smoke used three times. The smoke comes out of the pit, and John compares it to the smoke just bellowing out of a great, huge furnace.

Here's this word Megas again. This is Kamanu Megales, he describes it. This huge furnace. Here's this word great again. So this is massive. This thing is huge. And it's amazing. Here's another case where John is impressed by the immensity of what he sees. This is a global scale. This is a huge, monstrous event taking place. Not some little tiny thing.

Now, this word here for the for the abyss or the bottomless pit. Here, this Greek word is abyssos. It's a combination of two parts here. It's a-boussos, and it means no depth. And it doesn't mean it's shallow like a piece of paper. It means that the depth is just undeterminable. It goes down and down and down. It is deep, deep, deep, deep.

The word is therefore translated bottomless or the idea of abyss, where it's by itself. The word pair is used in Revelation, a phraar is a pit. So when they're put together, that phraar in Abbasoth is a bottomless pit. The pit that goes down, down, down, down, down, without any apparent human limit. Now, that's what he describes these locusts coming out of. This bottomless, immense, monstrous pit with this massive huge column of smoke bellowing out of it. That's what he describes. Now, there's something in John's language that I'd like for you to consider. He may well be referring to literal smoke, but there's a possibility, and I would allow latitude in his figurative language for this much.

It's possible, since locusts, when they make these huge swarms, It appears like a big billow of smoke. And here's some for instances inside. Now these take place over in Africa. This is what it looks like when the locusts take over. It looks like a bunch of smoke.

And what is amazing is that scientists have estimated based on the size of it, because they can actually see these locust swarms from satellites. They can see them from space, they're that big. Based on the mass that they've seen and going on the ground and measuring the density, they estimate hundreds of millions of locusts in one swarm. Huge, massive clouds. And what's interesting, and we'll get into this in a bit, these locusts have about a five-month lifespan. Is it possible that what John is describing as smoke is really the mass characteristic of this huge cloud of locusts?

Could be, I think. His language, I think, would allow that. Be that as it may, one of the things that's apparent, just like he describes, it darkens the sun. These are all pictures taken at midday. And it definitely darkens things. What's interesting is today's modern cameras with the autofocus have a real hard time figuring out what to focus on. You've got just thousands of locusts close, far away, It doesn't know what to focus on, so even getting a good picture is tough.

Now, let's take a look at verse 4. But they were told, these are the locusts now, told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. And in those days men will seek death and will not find it, and they will long to die, and death flees from them."

Now what we see is these are not your typical locusts. Right? These are not your typical locusts. They've been released from this pit. This pit, as has been elsewhere described in scripture, this pit is the place of holding for these category of angels who have decided to stand against the Lord. And so here we have this pit, this massive, massive horde of demonic creatures. And they are given permission to embody themselves as these locusts, as we'll see described in more detail in a minute.

But they are given certain limitations. Let's look at these limitations here. These demonic hordes are not allowed to hurt what things? The grass of the earth. Now, that's atypical of a locust, right? First thing that locusts want to do on planet earth in a normal sense, like the pictures we saw, they want to eat up everything that's green. Instead, these are said, no, you may not. You cannot. They're not to touch any greens or any tree.

And furthermore, they are forbidden to attack any of the earthlings with the seal of God on the forehead. Remember, we looked in chapter 7, and we're going to see again in chapter 14, this 144,000 are one group we specifically know about have the seal of God. There may be others that we haven't had described for us, and that's fine. But specifically, we know the 144,000 have the seal of God, and these beings are prohibited from attacking.

They're not allowed to kill anyone. They're limited in that respect, and not allowed to torment beyond the five months. Not beyond that period of time. So they're given specific, deliberate limitations. They're not allowed to go beyond that. So this demonic horde, this group of angels, is allowed to be embodied, but given limitations. given limitations as to time and extent of what they can do. Now, here's one point to ponder.

What do you think that the average earthling is going to think when he looks and sees this group with the seal of God on their forehead and they are not getting tormented? What do you think their response is going to be? Jealousy? Rage? I don't think they're going to like it. I think they're going to say, hey, wait a minute, how come I get to go through all this horrible, terrible torture, and you're fine? What's the matter? I suspect they're not going to like it.

Interestingly here, the locust-like demon horde is not permitted to kill anyone. There may be many who wish to die, but apparently are prevented from doing so. You see that in there? Many of the judgments in the tribulation period kill a great many people. This is the exception. Cause great torment, they're told, but don't kill anyone. Don't kill anyone.

But we also read many of the people there will have a death wish. Oh, I wish that I could die and end this torment. We have one written instance back in about the time this was written. There were several Roman soldiers that got stung by desert scorpions in Egypt. And Roman soldiers were taught to be tough. And these Roman soldiers came totally unglued, writhing on the sand. They couldn't stand the pain.

It's apparently a very agonizing thing, and that is precisely what they're being given permission to do here. this five-month period of torment will go on and on and on. It's not like, oh well, tonight it's bad, but then it'll go away. No. For five months it will go on and on and on. Just to give you a time reference, if today this had started, given that the Jewish month is 30 days long, it would mean September 25th would be the end of this torment. Okay? That's a long time. This is an awful awful judgment. This is worse than Texas. Sorry about that. Let's take a look here.

Verse 7. The appearance of the locusts was like horses preparing for battle, and on their heads appeared to be crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle. They have tails like scorpions and stings, and their tails is their power to hurt men for five months."

Here's kind of the summary of their appearances. Now, one of the things to look at is, what's John communicating here? In those days, a horse charging at you was one of the most fearful things you could imagine. That was a bad thing, because when that thing hits you, you're going to get bashed on your back and trampled. They have crowns, which is real interesting. These are Stephanas, victor's crowns.

And what that's telling you is, we know these things are evil, What it says is they are victorious in their evil. How about that? Do you like to be around somebody who is victorious in their evil? Who are relentless and constantly win in their evil? That gives you the creeps, doesn't it? That's the character of these beings. They are victorious in their evil. They have faces like the face of men. They show intelligence, but the intelligence is directed towards wickedness. The intelligence is directed towards one thing.

How can I hurt you? They have hair of the hair of women. There is perhaps an attractiveness here. There is something that says, oh, that isn't so bad, until it stings. The next thing. They have teeth like the teeth of lions. There is a viciousness. There is an intent to injure and to rip and to shred.

Breastplates of iron. One of the things that the Roman cavalry horses had was they had breastplates of iron and it made it difficult to do anything to hurt them. They were protected from injury by these breastplates that they had on the front. So if you had a horse charging at you that was a Roman cavalry horse, there wasn't much you could do to try to stop it because it was protected on the front.

Same thing with these. You think These things are going to torture me, and I'm going to try to do something back, but nothing you do back seems to stop them. They're just relentless. They're unstoppable. They're wicked and evil. The sound of their wings was like chariots, noisy in an ominous way. You've been through an experience, maybe trying to sleep, and some noise around you that's loud and difficult.

Ron, our apartment, we really like our apartment. Occasionally we have this alarm clock and it's called a garbage truck, you know, and we hear that outside. And it's real hard to sleep through this thing, okay? It's like that, only it just goes on all the time. You're trying to sleep at night and you've got this noise constantly going. We're not talking something halfway nice like a cricket chirp. This thing is rumbling and constantly making it difficult to sleep. You can't think. These things are horrible.

Then, tails like scorpions, relentless stinging. Notice that the indication isn't that you get stung and then you get five months of reprieve. The indication is you're tormented for five months, unlike a scorpion which can sting you and then it's lost its poison for a time. They keep coming and coming and coming and coming. You want to go out for a walk at night out in the park? Forget it. You want to go camping? Forget that too. Want to just go upside out to your car? Good luck.

It's going to be a tough time. You see the picture here? This is a very difficult time. Now to picture this, here's a scorpion, a grasshopper, a locust, and then here's somebody's kind of artist caricature of what these creatures are like. I'm sure it's hard to put this all together. Imagine the description of what we've got. But let's take a look at verse 11. They have as king over them, and this is something we looked at here, these locusts, these demonic creatures have as king over them the angel of the abyss.

Now don't be fooled by this word angel, right? Because Satan himself comes as an angel of light, right? His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, in Greek the name is Apollyon. Destroyer. That fits with all the other descriptions of Satan. The liar, the murderer, the slanderer, Satan has a hierarchy.

This hierarchy has a time of freedom. This particular part of this hierarchy has a five-month time of freedom, once having been in prison, and that's it. So they're going to go for all their worth. They're going to go for it. Because they know they've got five months. At the outset, they've been told they have five months. So this is Olympic torture. These are beings who are dedicated to go pedal to the metal, to torture people. Verse 12, the first woe is past, behold two woes are still coming after these things. The first woe is past, the five months have ended, uh oh, because what's next?

Now, as we look at these things, we've seen the Lord's use of these creatures. Isn't this fascinating? This is God's judgment, but He has used Satan in the process. He has used these creatures that have been imprisoned in the process to accomplish His purposes. We have seen that the Lord has the ability to place limitations on these creatures. You notice these creatures don't get to do anything they want. They have sinister and evil intent, but they cannot carry that out beyond what the Lord will allow.

That's important for us to remember, isn't it? We can get into situations where we say, oh, heaven's sake, this is terrible! Isn't God in charge? Yes, the Lord is in charge. These beings, and in every other instance, demonstrate God is sovereign. God's in charge of every situation, and this as awful as it is for those upon the earth at that time, is no exception.

We have also seen something else. The Lord deliberately spared those who had the seal. God will appoint instances of those who will be subject to difficulties. At the same time, He will also appoint times for people to be spared. Because He's sovereign. He's in charge. We've also seen that God shows His character of mercy even in the midst of difficult times here.

Even the inability of people to take their own lives is a part of God's mercy. Because here is an instance, if you think about it, God is pressing people against their limits. They're saying, I want to die. And He's saying no. Here's an instance where you want to die and you won't be able to. And I think God puts people in those kinds of restraints, even now, puts people in pressured situations so that we'll turn to Him. Won't people come to a place where they're saying, I'm desperate, I can't die, I don't want to live, I can't stand this torture.

Where can I turn? Can you see it? He's putting them in a situation where if anything, have every opportunity to finally turn to the Lord, to finally recognize their immense and great need for Him. And He has brought about both this terrible difficulty as well as the limitation, you cannot die. He's brought those both about out of mercy.

Because maybe this, after all the things they've seen and done and endured, maybe this will get home to them. Maybe this will finally bring the point to the place where they will understand. Finally bring them to the place where they will see and learn. You know, we get into situations like that.

The Lord allows us to be pressed. The Lord allows us to go through difficulties and trials and struggles. And He allows those for much the same reason, except for one thing. For us who have believed, it's a question of growing. It's a question of beholding Him. Finally, one other thing.

You notice in this and every other passage, believers are not exhorted to fear Satan. Not in the sense of trembling in front of him. Not in the sense of worrying that he's somehow going to get out of control. We don't see that in Scripture. We don't see Scripture telling us to bind him. That's God's business. We don't see scripture telling us to attack him. As a matter of fact, we should be careful of any ministry that puts undue focus on Satan.

Because the scripture makes it clear. The greatest fear that Satan has is that we would behold Christ. Isn't it? That is the greatest fear that Satan has, is that we would behold Christ because As we look at it, the reverse side of that is the greatest desire the Lord has for us is that we would behold Christ. In beholding Him, we will be growing from glory to glory.

And that buys Satan no ground at all. He's desperately afraid that you'll do that, and anxious that you would do anything else. As we look at this passage, we need to not get so focused on certainly what is incredible evil, but to realize that God is sovereign. Realize that the ultimate call of this judgment is to draw people to behold the Lord. And as I see that, it's really an expression of the Lord's desire for us. He desires that we behold Him.

And in truth, we go through a great many things to learn that even more and more, don't we? Let's pray. Lord, we pray that you would keep us from the errors that even now, even before the tribulation, the world is trying to shove off on us where we either ignore the enemy or even get distracted focusing undue attention on angels or on Satan or on his hierarchy. Instead, you've given us every weapon necessary to simply stand on the ground that you have already won. And Lord, because of that victory that you have already accomplished, we pray that we would be drawn to and ever taught to seek, Lord, to behold you and to grow from glory to glory by doing so. And we thank you as we look at this judgment, Lord, that it underscores even more than ever the need for us, Lord, to behold you and to be growing as a result by your doing and by your accomplishment. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.