In Scott Brown's sermon 'Remember The Signs,' he explores Revelation 9's vivid and symbolic imagery to describe the nature of evil and the devil's influence over the world. The sermon emphasizes that the trumpet blasts signify God's judgment and serve as a wake-up call to recognize spiritual afflictions and demonic activities. Brown highlights the symbolic nature of Revelation, urging listeners to interpret it through the lens of Old Testament scripture rather than contemporary events. The devil, depicted as a fallen star with limited power, is described as a deceiver who harms his own followers, yet is constrained by God's sovereignty. The speaker points out that believers are protected from the devil's wrath and are encouraged to obey the prophecy of Revelation. The sermon also draws parallels between the devil's work and modern cultural movements, warning against being deceived by appearances. Ultimately, Brown calls for compassion towards those who suffer under the devil's influence and urges believers to remain vigilant and faithful.

We'll begin our reading in God's holy and errant, sufficient, sweeter than honey, than the honeycomb, word of truth. We begin in chapter eight, verse 13, which announces the context. And I looked and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven saying with a loud voice, Whoa, whoa, whoa to the inhabitants of the earth because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound. Chapter 9 verse 1. 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 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 to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth had power. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth or any green thing or any tree but only those men who didn't 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. 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. The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like women's hair, and their teeth were like lion's teeth.

And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron. And the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. They had tails like scorpions and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men for five months. And they had as their king over them the angel of the bottomless pit whose name was Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.

One woe is past, behold still two more woes are coming after these things. Verse 13, Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, Release the four angels who were bound at the great river Euphrates. So the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was 200 million and I heard the number of them and thus I saw the horses in the vision those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red hyacinth blue and sulfur yellow and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths for their power is in their mouth and in their tails are like serpents for their tails are like serpents having heads and they with them do they do harm but the rest of mankind who are not killed by these plagues they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Let's pray. Father, you've brought before our eyes a very sobering and difficult passage of Scripture, and we pray now that you would give us wisdom to understand how these things might apply to our own hearts carry us to the place that you've already designed to repent and to find all of our hope in you Amen So please be seated Revelation brings us many signs and symbols figurative language that's meant to actually reveal the power of God, the destruction of evil, and the perfection and the glory of Jesus Christ. And if you want to know what evil is like, Here it is. The two trumpet blasts in this chapter explain what evil is like and by the way you know trumpets by their very nature are startling. These are trumpets.

They're meant to startle us. I'm standing here today to try to startle really by the words of Scripture alone The first three verses in the book of Revelation in chapter 1 show us how to interpret what we have here before us. They are symbols. It's full of symbolic representations. By the way, if you read the authors about this passage of Scripture, almost all of them agree, dispensational, post-millennial, they all have many, many of the same things to say about this passage of scripture they put it in different time frames but they say the same things it's apocalyptic literature it's meant to reveal not to hide there are three cycles of a history in Revelation They're represented by seven seals and then now we're in the seven trumpets and then finally in seven bowls and you interpret all this by looking to the Old Testament not your newspaper because that's where these images are drawn from.

But the focus is Jesus Christ and his glorious reign, his destruction of the devil, he's crushing the head of the serpent in Revelation. And the message is very, very simple every child can understand it Jesus wins and You know we we read many things we listen to podcasts We listen to sermons all week long, many of us. But the point of Revelation is really to call to obedience. At the very end of the book, we are called to obey the prophecy. And in chapter one, it begins with this same appeal, that we would obey the prophecy.

So whenever we go through Revelation we should always be asking, how do I obey this? What implication is there for me to put into practice? In other words, do something with it. You know, we hear so much, do something with it. It's astounding how much I hear and how much I read every week.

And I was just thinking this week how important it is, do something about it. I don't do something about everything that I read, but here we are before this passage. And these images here remind us that we live in a fallen world. Now, we must need to be reminded of this at this church, because here we are. We all need to be reminded what is happening in the world, to see the world through God's eyes.

And I'm here to remind all of us of the works of the devil as are reflected in chapter 9 here. And I'm just assuming that all of us here need a reminder. So I pray that all of us would humble ourselves. I realize also I often live in a very different world, a very different mental world, a very different emotional world. And with this passage, you just have to recognize I've lived in this world of these images.

I'm coming out of a different world in a way. It's so easily connectable to our world and to see the evil in the world and the judgment of God you know rolling across the earth. The devil abusing his own people has been on my mind all week long. This is the world that I've been living in, so please forgive me. This is now our world here.

It's very important that we know what's going on in the world. And what you have here are pictures of unbelievers who are being punished by their own sins by the devil. The devil hates his own, and he's harming his own. And you've seen that. You see how the devil has harmed you.

And this is such a, these are pictures of people who don't know the comfort of Jesus. They're pictures of people who don't know his kindness. They don't know, they don't have his word to direct them and the devil is whipping them by their own sins. And we'll see that here. And these are, I wish I had time to read Deuteronomy 28.

These are all fulfillments of Deuteronomy 28. It's a very, very long passage. It would take me ten minutes to read it. But what is in Deuteronomy 28 is so vividly pictured here. Now what we find though in the world is that the devil is always depicting himself as an angel of light.

But here you get the real story and we're shown snapshots, one snapshot after another of the underbelly of the dragon. And we're told the truth of the power of evil. John, earlier, John in his epistle said the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And what does it mean? Well, here are the pictures.

This is pictorial theology. These are snapshots, one snapshot after another. It's doctrine in images. This is demonology in pictures. And This pictorial theology was announced at the end of chapter 8 by woes.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. This is urgent gravity that is being communicated here. These repetitions are meant to emphasize the passion and the pathos and the urgency of the situation. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Look at the world.

Look at the world the way that God sees the world and the woes that have fallen upon it. Look at the moral disaster. Look at the frightening judgment. It was C.S. Lewis who said that God whispers to us in our pleasures and he speaks.

He speaks in our conscience but he shouts in our pains and he's shouting here in this passage of scripture. And so you have, whoa, whoa, whoa, to emphasize the gravity and the importance of it. In the same way that you have holy, holy, holy in Isaiah, in the same way in the Gospels you have, truly, truly, I say to you, Simon, Simon, Martha, Martha, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, This is a wake-up call. It's actually designed to be a wake-up call and so it's my job to say this is a wake-up call for us to get our arms wrapped around what he's saying and these rapid-fire pictures and now by the way you have pictures here of the workers of darkness in the world, and de- literally demons. You know, Virtually all the commentators agree about that.

Again, these are pictures of not what they look like, it's what they are like. So get your imagery hat on and consider what he is like. That's what is here. Demons don't have physical shape. Typically, they may take physical shape, but they are spirits, and they're actual tools of the devil.

And here, what is being unmasked is Satan's true character and his effect. These are the pictures that are given to describe him. This is demonology in pictures. It's interesting you find these creatures here and one commentator said that they are imitating creatures. They're imitating the creatures before the throne in Revelation 4 verse 7.

They're mock-ups. So these are signs, these are symbols. Remember the signs, remember the symbols. I don't know if you've read C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and in the silver chair Jill and Eustace are getting ready to go on a journey.

They're gonna go rescue Prince Rillian because he's a captive of the evil emerald witch and he's underground. And so these characters, Jill and Euclid, are getting ready to walk out the door and Aslan says to them something that I think we ought to recognize for this text. But first remember remember remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night and when you wake in the middle of the night and whatever strange things may happen to you let nothing turn your mind from following the signs and secondly I give you a warning here on the mountain I have spoken to you clearly I will not often do so down in Narnia. Here on the mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear.

As you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take care that it does not confuse your mind. And the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the signs and believe the signs.

Nothing else matters so remember the signs look at the signs here they're actually astounding that sign after sign it's like flashpoint snapshot after snapshot I'll give you several of them first air is darkened second locusts are eating people not grass third scorpions are stinging signifying their poison for crowns there's crowns of something light gold signifying a pompous authority. Number five, their faces are faces like men, familiar. And six, they had hair like women's hair. Seventh, their teeth were like lion's teeth. Eight, they had breastplates like breastplates of iron.

Ninth, the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots and mini horses running into battle. Sign after sign, snapshot after snapshot, picture after picture. Ten. They had tails like scorpions and there were stings in their tails. Number eleven, their power was to hurt men five months.

Number 12, they had as a king, they had as king over them and the angel of the bottomless pit whose name in Hebrew was a badin but in Greek his name was Apollyon. Number 13, the hour, the day, and the month, and the year were coming down upon them 14th the they kill a third of mankind 15th They have breastplates of fiery red hyacinth blue and sulfur yellow Number 16 They had the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions and out of their mouths came fire smoke and brimstone Number 17 they were like serpents having heads and with them they do harm Sign after sign picture after picture In rapid fire right before our eyes here this morning why to tell us what Satan is like It's what he is like Now we don't want to overreact or under react to the powers and the principalities and what they're doing among us. But we're given these things that we might not be outwitted by Satan as the apostle Paul told the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 2, 11. He said that he was writing these things so that we would not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs.

So you need to understand what he is like, and that's what we have here. So you have these startling trumpets, and the first four trumpets announce the judgment of God upon the natural world. And then these final three woes, particularly these two, number five and six, speak of spiritual afflictions as a result of the hundreds of millions of people on the earth that are in rebellion against God. These are pictures of demonic activity. And I take this that these are also pictures of the hundreds of millions of people on the earth that are in rebellion against God.

These are pictures of demonic activity and I take this that these are also pictures of the hundreds of millions of earth who are being affected by demonic activity and false doctrine and immorality and theft and all the things that are mentioned at the end of this chapter. So the angels blow these fifth and sixth trumpets and the demonic powers are unleashed. And what you see here and we'll go through this, you see the pressures of evil on the psyche, the pressures of evil on the body, on the emotions, and you see how you see how evil the devil is and how he treats his own you remember when you used to walk with the devil how did he treat you how did you feel what did he do to you what did he do to your emotions What did he do to your emotions? What did he do to your relationships? What did he do?

What did he do? He is a destroyer. So you see this passage, I have it broken up into three sections. First of all the satanic delusions from the bottomless pit and then secondly the demonic forces coming across the river and then finally the unrepentant ignoring their troubles and they just continue on. This is the most heartbreaking conclusion of this sixth trumpet.

So let's move into this text here. You have these satanic delusions that are flowing out of the bottomless pit in verses 1 through 12. And this is the first woe. And notice the devil is given a key to the bottomless pit. Now how do we know it's the devil?

Well, we learn here that a star has fallen from heaven. I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. Now, this verse should help us maybe forever understand how symbolical the book of Revelation. These are symbols.

It's a star. Well is it a star? No. It's a person. Just read the end of the sentence.

It's a hymn. It's a person. The star is a person. And in Revelation, stars and earthquakes and all kinds of things are personalities and they are events. They are symbolic of other things.

And this verse 1 is such a beautiful picture of that. So this is not a physical star. It has being. It is given to him and God is granting him freedom. This is personality, not astronomy.

And the war and that he was given this key and this is something that is true about the world that you live in. God has given the devil freedom to run throughout the earth and destroy his own. We see this in a sermon that Paul and Barnabas were speaking to a crowd in Lystra in Acts chapter 14 beginning in verse 15 and they were urging the people there to turn to God and They're urging them to turn to the God and and and they say of God who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. God allows the nations to walk in their own ways. God allows it.

It is Him who is causing this thing to happen. It means that God is in control. It means that the destruction of the devil is always limited. It means that the devil is constrained. He cannot get to you any way he wants.

He will be thrown in the lake of fire until then he has some liberal freedom, but he's not really free. He's chained. And God is using this struggle with sin that we would glorify God. This is what happened with Job. When the devil wanted to harm Job, The devil wanted to prove that Job did not love God, that he only loved him because he was rich.

And God said, go ahead, we'll see, we'll see. As it turns out, God, Job did love God, not for his riches. So the star has personality and you find this same language all over the Bible in Isaiah chapter 14 verse 12 you find that Satan is also a star. You are fallen from heaven, son of the morning, you who weaken the nations." He's weakening the nations. The work of the devil is always a weakening of nations.

We see it today, don't we? Look at what the devil is doing to weaken our own nation here on July 4th. This is the work of the devil. It's the weakening of the American population through sin is astounding and I know it's taking our breath away. And you have this angel of the bottomless pit.

The bottomless pit I think is symbolism. It's a symbol of confinement. It's a place that God is constraining the devil. Is it a physical location? Maybe it is, but the language of prophetic literature Make me think that maybe it is maybe it isn't I wouldn't be dogmatic really about it After the final judgment, you know, they're thrown into the lake of fire.

Do you think it's a real lake? It might be There's so much symbolism already. We've seen that this star is actually a person. So what's the lake? What's the bottomless pit?

Well these are realities whether they're physical or not. I could argue that they are physical and spiritual at the same time. But whatever it is, there's this place of confinement of the devil. The devil is confined. He's chained.

And that's the message that is communicated here. Now, while we're doing this little treatise in pictures of demons and demonology, I'm going to give you six characteristics of the devil very quickly. First, the devil is often in disguise. 2 Corinthians 11, 14. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

You must understand that. Some of the best looking, best sounding, most riveting things are from the devil he disguises himself as an angel of light he will move your emotions like no one else people think when their emotions are moved something good has happened think again He disguises himself as an angel of light. Secondly, he's a thief. John 10 10. The thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy.

But I came that they might have life and that might have it more abundantly, have it abundantly. He's a thief. He wants to steal from you and he'll steal from you every way he can. He's the great kleptomaniac. Third, he's the father of all lies, John 844.

Fifth, he's crafty. Second Corinthians 11, 3, 3, and 4. But I fear lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Number 5, he is looking for you. He's looking for you.

First Peter 5, 8, your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Number six, he was disarmed at the cross. John 12, 31, Now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. From the time of the resurrection, the devil has been constrained like no other time.

And he knows that his days are numbered, he knows that his work will come to an end. And how should Christians think about the devil? What should we be thinking? I'm gonna give you five thoughts very quickly. I think they're embedded, many of these thoughts are embedded in this text.

First, believers are not trapped by the devil. Believers are not trapped by the devil. 1st Corinthians 10 13, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure. You're not trapped by the devil.

He'll never be trapped by the devil. You might be trapped by your own lusts, but not by the devil. Second, believers are protected from the devil. In 1st John 5, 18 and 19, he's speaking of those who are born of God. We know that whoever is born of God does not sin and he but he who has been born of God keeps himself and the wicked one does not touch him.

We know that we are of God and the whole world lies in the sway of the wicked one There's a there's a protection and it's communicated right here in this text third the Lord upholds His own in an evil world The Lord is praying for his children. This is brought out so beautifully in the Lord Jesus Christ's words to Peter himself in Luke 22, 31, and 32. He says, Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail." The Lord upholds. He promises to uphold.

And he's praying for his children from heaven. Fourth, we're instructed for what to do in an evil world. Put on the full armor of God, Ephesians 6, 11, and 12. You know, we sing that song with the line, no power of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from his hand. We should not be afraid of the devil.

Fifth, his days are numbered, he will be crushed. In chapter 16, verse 20 in Revelation, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet so also resistance neutralizes him James 4 7 tells us that we need not to be victims of the devil and his schemes. He tells us resist the devil and he will flee from you. Resist the devil. What does that mean?

It means that you resist everything that contradicts truth. You resist every godless thing and you turn in the other direction. But notice who is being afflicted in Revelation 9. Only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. This is God's protection.

This this this hail of wrath from the devil is not falling upon believers. It's falling on those who do not have the seal of God. It's falling on those who do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. It's falling on those whose lives have not been changed. It's falling upon those who are still shrugging their shoulders at God and saying, I don't really, I can't relate to this.

It's only falling on them And this is the protection that God has. And that's why it says, He is given a key. He does not take the key. He's given the key. He is subservient.

He's on a chain. And he can only go so far. And in the meantime, God is destroying the works of the devil. Now it says in verse 2 that these forces of darkness were released from the bottomless pit and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace." So he opens the abyss and this place where the demons are confined and there's some kind of releasing And of course, this is a warning to repent. When you see the works of the devil, it's a warning.

When you see these kinds of things happening around you, it's an impulse to repent. And you see the impact in verses 2 through 6. You see the smoke coming out of the earth and all these these powers of scorpions and things like that. You know I I take these as symbolic. They They're delusions, darkenings, smoke screens.

You know, in the garden it was Eve's delusions, her delusionary thoughts that something was better out there than God. She didn't think God was good, so she wanted something better than God. These are delusions. These are the smoke screens of the devil. He's blowing smoke.

William Hendrickson, the commentator, says it like this. This is the smoke of deception and delusion, of sin and sorrow, of moral darkness and degradation that is constantly pouring out of hell. It never works when you turn away from God. All you get is smoke and stings of scorpions in your life. Now you children, here listen to this.

This is really important. You know the Bible says honor your father and mother. And if you do, your days will be long and it'll go well with you. Well guess what, you know what that means? If you don't honor your father and mother, it won't go well with you.

You'll have smoke and delusions. Your head will bang against the wall over and over again if you don't honor your father and mother. It's just the way the world's wired. You can't escape that. This is the smoke and the delusion of the devil.

You know, children are deluded to think that if they find themselves and do what they want everything will be right. Not true. That's how you destroy yourself. So these are powerful locusts. Look in verse 3.

Now the locusts have been interpreted as all kinds of things. The Turks, the Roman Catholic popes, the Romans, you know, all kinds of things. Maybe it's all of those things. Here's what we know for sure though, okay? Hang your hat on this.

This language comes out of the Old Testament. It comes out of the plagues of Egypt and it comes out of the locust plague in Joel. That's where it comes out of. So we should think about why. What was all this about?

Why did God punish the Egyptians? Why did you have these terrible plagues that came on the Egyptians. You know why? God wanted to turn them around to repent and they would not repent. God gave Pharaoh opportunity after opportunity with various plagues and he would not repent.

That's the purpose of the trouble in the world. God has actually released the devil into the world so that there would be trouble, so that sinners would repent. There would be so much pain from sin that people would say, I can't take it anymore. I want God. I'm not gonna live my own way anymore.

I'm done with me. I'm done with them. I want God That's what the plagues of Egypt were all about That's what the locust plague in Joel was about that you might return because he's compassionate Because he's slow to anger and he says rend your hearts not your garments Don't make it an outward thing from your heart turn to the Lord So the interpretation of this goes right back to the Old Testament, as we've seen many times. Joel, at the end, he says, tell your children about it. In Joel 2, 1 and 2, tell your children about it.

Tell your children how harmful the devil is tell your children to turn tell your children that God is merciful Tell your children how wonderful he is. That's what should fill your home. What's filling your home? Well that's what should fill your home is just how good it is. Hendrickson again under the symbolism of the locust plague John describes the powers and influences of hell operating in the hearts and the lives of wicked men.

And these again are just pictures of how the devil is such a thief. He robs you of your joy, he robs you of your love. And God takes you in a completely different direction. The sun and the air were darkened. That's so amazing because of the smoke from the pit.

This is what Satan is like. He's blowing smoke at you. He's trying to deceive. He's a deceiver. He's a liar from the beginning.

And so he's always blowing smoke. Interesting the vegetation is protected here That's not normal. Here they're attacking the men, the unbelieving, only the unbelieving men are affected. And these powers of hell are very personal. They go after men and of course women.

Notice there in verse 5, they're tormenting, they're not killing. We get to the killing in the next trumpet. But in this they're just tormenting and they're not killing. And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. So the permissive will of God limits Satan's activities on the earth.

And this torment was to last five months. That's another image of limitation. It's not forever. There are these horrible seasons of torment, and it's like the sting of a scorpion. I was reading about the sting of the scorpions that are found in the Middle East, and they actually almost mimic what you see in demon possession.

The symptoms. It's really terrifying. The vomiting, the fear, the terror, the twitching, the things that you find in demon possession, the loathing of life. I don't know what percentage the impulse to commit suicide has been over the last year, but it's skyrocketed. The murder rates in the major liberal cities have skyrocketed hundreds and hundreds of percentage points.

This is a picture of what we're reading about here. The locusts are eating up every nourishing thing. They're biting the people. They're stinging. It's just terrible.

Men would rather die than endure it in verse six. In those days men will seek death and will not find it. They'll desire to die and death will flee from them. I think this is a picture of psychological torment that people feel, the emotional collapse, the extreme despair, the pains and the pressures of life they get to you. And if your heart is not buoyed up by God, if it's not guarded by God, If God is not leading you through the trial you will collapse you will collapse just like this when in these psychological Torments that are pictured here on the on the one hand the spirit the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness.

That's what you get from God. That's what he gives. But what you get from the devil is torment. You get alcoholism. You get trying to satisfy your longings with your friends, with your travels, or with your pleasures.

But none of it ever works at all. Okay, go finish your bucket list. Okay, now what? None of it matters at all. And for many, the only rational solution to ease the pain is suicide.

You know, I was in Job, reading Job over the last month. This just shook me. Job 36 13. But the hypocrites in heart store up wrath. They do not cry for help when he binds them." In other words, they don't turn to God when there's trouble.

They die in their youth and their life ends among the perverted persons. How terrifying is that? It's a picture of the person who won't repent and they end up as the perverted persons because the things that happened to them in the world turned them away from God and not toward him. Now look at the description to the locusts. The shape of the locust was like horses.

This is in verse 7. Now notice they have an air of authority. Now this is a picture of the way the devil is working in the world, okay? The authority on their heads were crowns of something like gold. Their familiarity, their faces were like the faces of men.

Their beauty, they had hair like women's hair. Now, I'm not sure what this means. You know, you have a face like a man and hair like a woman. Is this a transgendered society? Is this a turning away from 1 Corinthians 11?

The fact of nature that it's a woman's hair that gives her a sense that she's under authority. One commentator said, well, maybe this is just a picture of the hair is as if putting themselves under the authority of Satan. I don't know. They're terrifying. Their teeth were like lion's teeth.

They're hardened. They have breast plates like iron. They're loud. Their sounds of their wings were like the sound of chariots. They're like horses running into battle.

They're poisonous like scorpions. By the way in Ezekiel 2 verse 6 the people are scorpions. People are scorpions. When you read about scorpions they might not just be literal. Ezekiel 2 6, and you son of man do not be afraid of them nor be afraid of their words though briers and and though though briers and thorns are with you and you dwell among scorpions Do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

You shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious." Here, Ezekiel is picturing the people of God living among scorpions and he's saying don't fear the scorpions, you speak my words. Don't fear their words, don't fear their presence, they're scorpions. The people are scorpions and perhaps they are here in Revelation as well. Again, how do you interpret these things? Go back to your Old Testament.

Ask, is there any clarity that we're given? And I would say the scorpions here in Revelation chapter 9 verse 10 are people in the world. They sting you. They're poisonous and they inflict pain. Their power was to hurt men five months, and they're ruled by a destructive king.

He has a name, a badon, and a Pollyon, which means destroyer. So one of the commentators, Wilcock, said it like this, our interpretation means that whenever unbelievers suffer in this way, all the many shaped ills which torment them and which Even kindly death will not come to relieve chronic hardships, diseases, enmities, insecurities. These ills are the locusts of the trumpet. You know, is it possible that he's talking about explosions and cancers and inflation and pollution and blind politicians and persecutions and all kinds of things, car accidents, is it is it Could it be? Quite most likely it is.

But the devil doesn't afflict those who are sealed. This kind of emotional and psychological suffering does not come upon the people of God. Satan is not stinging God's people. Satan is stinging his own people. He hates all.

You know, people say, well, I'd rather go to hell because all my friends are there. You know, we can be drinking and everything like that. Guess what? People will loathe one another in hell. They will hate one another in hell.

But when you see people, unbelievers who are trapped in their anxieties, when their depressions overwhelm them so badly that they just want to drink it away, or they want to medicate it away with tranquilizers or in all manner of things. This is the devil punishing his own people. When you see children disobeying their parents, it's the devil punishing his own people. Why? So that they might return and so that they might repent.

It's just such sobering and difficult stuff here. And then we turn. We turn the corner to the next trumpet, the sixth trumpet in verse 13. These are demonic forces coming across the river, the river Euphrates, and Gregory Beale, the commentator, he says these are demons commissioned to judge hardened unbelievers by ensuring the final punishment of some through deception until death leaving the deceived remainder unrepentant. I think that's a really good summary of the sixth trumpet.

You have these four angels that are released. By the way there's a difference between the judgments of the fifth trumpet and the sixth. In the fifth trumpet The judgment is torment. In the sixth trumpet, it's death. So that's what's here.

And notice that there's a voice coming from the Golden Altar, verse 13. The six angels sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God. You know we've been talking about this golden altar. It's the altar of incense. The golden altar is the altar of incense where the prayers of the saints are held And the horns were symbolic of the atonement.

Blood was spread on the horns of the authority of God to save sinners through blood sacrifice. And as a result, the Saints have their prayers held in heaven and they pray and Then they're answered on earth. That's the whole picture. We've been talking about the incense such a beautiful picture you're we're back here now at the Golden Altar and you know many who I read suggested that these punishments are answers to the prayers of the Saints to reveal the glory of God to the wicked to show the wicked how unprofitable their ways are and how unrighteous their head the devil is if they want to follow him. And so these release the four angels who are bound at the great River Euphrates.

What's this thing about the Euphrates? The Euphrates in the Bible is almost always depicted as a boundary of protection of Israel, a boundary from encroachment and attack of foreign nations. The most terrifying thing that could happen to Israel is if Sennacherib would cross that river and come down into the Holy Land or Nebuchadnezzar or if those in Nineveh, the brutal warriors of Nineveh would come across the Euphrates. So I think it's a picture of this boundary that's now been encroached and now the flood waters in a sense of the demonic hordes are now coming over the river into the world, into the people of God. Is it literal or geographical?

I think it's figurative. They will come over that river. These are depicted as massive armies and they come with these plagues. So the four angels, verse 15, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. So this is timed by God.

Hour, day, month, and year. God is controlling it all. He's unfolding every second of history, every second of your life, and here he's released at the very moment, but he's actually released to kill a third of mankind. Is it a literal third or not? There's debate over that.

We live in a murderous world where hundreds of millions have been killed. The greatest killer in the world is abortion today. We're killing millions and millions, billions and billions. Not even to count the 60 million that Stalin killed, not to count the hundred million that Mao and the Cultural Revolution killed, not to count the great genocides and the great wars where millions have been killed. So it's quite likely figurative of the warlike constitution of man because of the work of the devil in him.

And there are 200 million. This is, I think this is a it means twice ten thousand thousands upon thousands in other words it's a new it's an innumerable number you have the same number in psalm 68 verse 17 in other words if you want to interpret your New Testament, go back to your Old Testament. Psalm 68 verse 17. The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of thousands. The Lord is among them as in Sinai in the holy place.

It's a picture of multitudes. Is it exactly a hundred million or two hundred million? It's an enumerable number I think. And then there are horsemen. Notice the horsemen.

Look at the colors. Fiery red, hyacinth blue, sulfur yellow. Beautiful colors. He comes as an angel of light powerful mighty you know you look at the way that the devil's philosophies are are communicated in the world through film particularly. Look at the beautiful colors, look at all the beautiful people.

They don't tell you the whole story but they look beautiful on the outside. The horses were like heads of lions. They're terrifying. And out of their mouths come fire and smoke and brimstone. This is what the devil's all about, fire and smoke and brimstone.

He's going to get destroyed by fire and smoke and brimstone. Until then, he's going to keep blowing that on you and on the people of God and on the unbelievers. Thankfully we're protected from that fire and smoke and brimstone, but the people who are unrepentant are not protected from it. And then in the final two verses, verse 20 and 21, is really the interpretive key to the whole passage. The hardened, unrepentant, But the rest of mankind who are not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither hear nor walk, and they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Their world is still their home And their quest for happiness is unceasing. And it will not be fulfilled. Everything is sacrificed. Their assets, their gold, their silver, their identity, their houses, this world is all they want and it's all taken away. They did not repent.

You know there are many sounds of these trumpets, you know how do we think about all this? For me, you know I've spent a week just considering the works of the devil in the world. That's really the world, you know, I've been living in over the last several days. How is it that the smoke and the fire and all these things are coming into the world. What does it look like?

And you know, we see many manifestations of it. You find the LGBTQ movement, we talked about this last week, which is just the death of morality. We've talked about the social justice movement, the death of love in the world. This is the devil punishing his own people. You see the socialistic impulses that are rising in the world.

This is just the death of freedom. You see what you get when you embrace it. You have the environmental movement. It's the death of God, but it's the death of a lot of other things. You know, no more steak for you.

Your food is now gonna be made in a factory from algae. Congratulations. This is what you get. The devil punishes his own people in a lot of different ways And he deceives them in the great movements of the world. You know, we have a whole generation that's embracing Marxism and socialism right now.

The younger generation is far, far more liberal than the older generation. Who is Karl Marx? Who was he? In the book The Devil and Karl Marx, his father said he was governed by a demon. His son called him my dear devil.

His wife called him a wicked knave. Frederick Engels called him a monster of 10, 000 devils. Socialism is a work of the devil. We need to recognize that. In one of Mark's poems, he wrote lots of poems to reveal his heart.

He wrote a poem called The Player. I'll just read you a couple of lines. See the sword, the prince of darkness sold it to me. For he beats the time and gives the signs. Ever more boldly I play the dance of death I must play darkly and my soul resound in the depths of hell.

One of the One of his biographers Robert Payne explains this poem a musician sums up the Prince of Darkness a Lover offers a poison cup to the beloved and both run headlong to their deaths in a satanic rejection of the world Satan is alive but he's not that well because he's chained, but he is definitely alive and he's working through the great movements of the world. It's very interesting. There's this story of Marx's daughter. She was playing a Victorian parlor game with Frederick Ingalls. And it was a game like, you know, what is your favorite motto?

What is your favorite color? And then the question was who do you hate the most? Charles Spurgeon she said. Charles Spurgeon. Marx lived for three decades in London at the end of his life while Spurgeon was preaching.

But this is a work of the devil. Marx writing in the Communist Manifesto, communism abolishes eternal truths, quote unquote. Quote, it abolishes all religion and all morality. In another passage of the Communist Manifesto he says, abolish the family, the bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course. Family ties among the proletarians are torn asunder, their children are transformed into simple articles of commerce and instruments of labor.

You know, this is the same message really, the message of socialism and the destruction of the family, it's the same message of Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter is one of the most well-funded nonprofits in the world today. The biggest, most prominent, most popular corporations have poured hundreds of millions into Black Lives Matter. Bank of America, Nike, Walmart, Google, Amazon, Spotify, Facebook, General Motors, Target, Verizon pumped two billion dollars into Black Lives Matter last year. This is the work of the devil.

This is the work of the devil. You need to understand that what we've just read in Revelation is absolutely manifested in the works of the devil. Today you have the LGBTQ movement and this death of manhood and womanhood, death of morality, really the death of the family. You have this dissatisfaction with your gender, what's called gender dysphoria. You know, dysphoria means dissatisfaction with.

When you hear gender dysphoria, you're talking about people who dislike that God made them a male, or they dislike that God made them a female. It's the opposite of euphoria. Dysphoria is the opposite of euphoria. And you know, I just read this week the Biden administration just announced the State Department is gonna allow people to choose their identity on their passports. It might be confusing for people around but they can choose on their passports a gender, an invented gender that contradicts their biological sex and and you can also add an X if you want to if you are quote-unquote non-binary okay this is the work of the devil in the world The devil is doing all these things to punish his own.

Have you seen the things that have come out in Pride Month? Every major corporation, you know, waving rainbow flags over everything. It's absolutely astounding. And by the way, the Canadian government just decided to extend Pride Month through the whole summer. Okay, not just June, but through the whole summer.

You know, I don't know if you noticed the Disney Pride songs on Spotify. I did. These songs are the anthems of The Disney Princesses and the Disney Princesses. They're celebrating pride particularly the songs of the last 20 years beginning with various films that we're all familiar with. Here's what they say, this these songs are to celebrate the LGBTQ community with this amazing playlist of Disney hits and anthems.

Enjoy Pride Month in style with the Rainbow Disney collection. And what is that Disney collection? Well, here's what the collection tells you. The innuendo that you've heard for many, many years is unmistakable. They are actually connecting the dots of their songs.

At minimum, these song titles that are on the Spotify account, they're just anthems about finding yourself, about being what you want to be. You can be anything what you you want to be. You can break away from these restrictive parents, these people who will tell you nobody can tell you what to do. That's really the the message of them all. Nobody can define you.

You're the only one who can define you. This is the message of almost every Disney anthem in the last 20 years. From the princes and the princesses. Here's some of them. This is me into the unknown.

How far I'll go. A dream is a wish in your heart. Can you feel the love tonight? You've got a friend in me. Rainbow connection.

Life is a highway. These are all songs from really familiar films and Disney is now telling us what they mean And they're telling you that you want a whole new world and it's the devil's world And it's the devil punishing his people and it's it's just it was just staggering to me to see what Disney Was doing But this this pride collection is a collection of songs That Disney is connecting the dots And it's absolutely astounding do not be deceived by Disney Do not be deceived What so ever a man re so so he shall reap and be very very careful their whole message is how far will I go their their whole message is is contrary to God you know this this is moving so rapidly in our culture. There's so many movements that are reflective here. Well there's so much that I really would like to say but I think what's really important is that we understand the thrust of this whole passage of Scripture. It's really designed to show us how harmful the devil is And he does it in many many ways that are culturally beautiful and they're designed to subjugate and to destroy and to sting.

And so that's what we have here. So Remember the signs. Remember what kind of world you're living in. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night and when you wake in the middle of the night and whatever strange things may happen to you let nothing turn your mind from following the signs. You've just seen dozens of snapshots, dozens of signs To help all of us to understand the works of the devil and the really the pain That the unbelievers experience.

What should we do about it? You know think of the pain think of the pain that unbelievers are suffering It's time for us to have more compassion than ever for what this terrible, demonic force is doing to people. And pray for it. Pray and don't be angry with them. But have compassion.

They're being abused by the devil. And then for us to turn, to continue, to turn away from everything that's unprofitable, every godless thing, and make sure we understand what's happening in this world. Revelation 1 3, blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it. Father, we see how kind you are. We see how you protect your people.

We see how you've delivered us from so many harmful things. Lord, oh how kind you are. And so we pray that you would use all these things in our hearts to set no unclean thing before our eyes, to love you with all of our hearts, and also Lord to bring this wonderful word of truth that would help any unbeliever to see what's happening to them so that they could find grace to help in time of need at your throne. Amen.