December 18

When Men Will Not Repent

Revelation 9 is what happens when God fires a warning shot and men spit back at Him. This chapter is not mystery. It is mercy rejected. Judgment comes, not to confuse, but to force a choice.

A star falls from heaven, and a key is handed to him, the key to the bottomless pit ~Revelation 9:1. God is still in charge. Even hell does not open itself. When that pit cracks open, smoke rolls out and blackens the sky ~Revelation 9:2. That is what sin does when restraint is lifted. It darkens everything it touches.

Out of that smoke come locusts, not chewing fields, but stinging men who do not have the seal of God ~Revelation 9:3–4. This is not random fire. God knows who belongs to Him. Judgment knows where to land.

They torment, but they cannot kill. The pain is so fierce that men beg for death, and death will not come ~Revelation 9:5–6. Sin promised freedom. It delivered a cage. Scripture warned it would. The way that seems right to a man ends in death ~Proverbs 14:12.

These locusts are not loose animals. They have a king, the angel of the bottomless pit, called Destroyer ~Revelation 9:11. Evil may bark loud, but it never owns the ranch. God still holds the deed.

Then the sixth trumpet blows. Four angels are released at the exact hour God set ~Revelation 9:15. No delays. No mercy extensions. Fire, smoke, and brimstone ride through, and a third of mankind falls ~Revelation 9:18. This is not chaos. This is consequence. The wages of sin is death ~Romans 6:23.

And here is the gut punch.

After all of that, men still did not repent ~Revelation 9:20.

They would not turn from worshiping demons and idols. They would not turn from murders, sorceries, sexual immorality, or thefts ~Revelation 9:20–21. God had already drawn the lines. Do not murder ~Deuteronomy 5:17. Do not commit adultery ~Deuteronomy 5:18. Do not steal ~Deuteronomy 5:19. They crossed them anyway, on purpose.

They said they were living for themselves. Scripture says otherwise. Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin ~John 8:34. And what men sacrifice outside of God, they sacrifice to demons ~1 Corinthians 10:20. They thought they were in control. They were owned.

That is why sorcery shows up. They chased power in the spirit world. They thought they could use darkness for their own gain. But the devil never works for anyone. He steals, kills, and destroys ~John 10:10. Those men did not master evil. Evil mastered them.

God warned long before this day. He forbade witchcraft and occult practices ~Deuteronomy 18:9–14. And the warning stands to the end. Those who cling to such things remain outside ~Revelation 22:15. God does not change His verdict.

Revelation 9 shows the real horror. Not that God judges. But that men refuse mercy. They loved darkness more than light ~John 3:19. They would rather burn than bow.

So hear it plain. God is not mocked ~Galatians 6:7. Sin keeps receipts. Be sure your sin will find you out ~Numbers 32:23.

The call is still open. Repent and believe the gospel ~Mark 1:15. Turn from sin. Turn to God. This is the last kindness before the door shuts.

The pit opens.

The trumpet sounds.

And stubborn hearts pay in full.

Choose life while the fire is still warm and the night is not yet finished.

Habakkuk 1:1-3:19
Revelation 9:1-21
Psalm 137:1-9
Proverbs 30:10

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New Testament: Revelation 9:1-21

Summary: The Seven Trumpets

Revelation Chapter 9 – (Useful Bible)

9:1-2 – The devil opens the abyss
9:3-4 – An attack by evil spirits against the world
9:5 – Evil spirits that cause pain like scorpions
9:6 – God’s kindness to people who hate him
9:7-10 – John’s description of the evil spirits
9:11 – Abaddon or Apollyon
9:12 – The final judgement is certain
9:13-14 – Four evil angels at the Euphrates river
9:15 – A great army kills a third of all people
9:16-19 – 200 million soldiers fight a terrible battle
9:20 – A religion that is completely wicked
9:21 – People who have given their lives completely to the devil

Revelation 9:1-10

Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the 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 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. 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 lions’ 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 five months. ~ Revelation 9:1-10

Revelation 9:17

And this is how I saw in my vision the horses and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire, of hyacinth, and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths *came fire and smoke and brimstone. A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire, the smoke, and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm. The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands so as not to worship demons and the idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders, nor of their witchcraft, nor of their sexual immorality, nor of their thefts. ~ Revelation 9:17-21

Man’s stubborn will. “And the rest … yet repented not.” The fatal obstinacy of wicked men, the dreadful hardness of the human heart, sin’s searing of the susceptibilities of the soul,—such is the mournful fact that the text, repeated again in the next verse, as if to summon our special attention, vividly reveals. Implied or stated in it are such truths as these—

I. ALL MEN NEED REPENTANCE. The judgment fell only on some, but all deserved it; all had sinned, and all should have repented. When we see God’s judgment falling on any one, our reflection should be not, “How evil he must have been!” but “How merciful of God to spare me!”

II. GOD PLEADS WITH MEN TO BRING THEM TO REPENTANCE. These judgments of which we read are not God’s primary dealings with men. He does not begin in this manner. There has been much that has preceded this. God has pleaded with men by his Spirit in their consciences. By his goodness, giving them all manner of providential mercies. Then, more especially by his Word, delivered by revelation, through his messengers, etc. And in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, in the message of the gospel. Men always knew that their deeds were evil; the sense of sin was everywhere; and they knew that God would have them repent. And there were some who did, and therefore held aloof from the abominations of the rest. And since Christ has come the Divine pleadings have been more than ever heard. ~ Pulpit

Overview: Revelation 1-11 – Click Here

Grace to You

Hell on Earth

Revelation 9:1–12

Men’s hearts will fail them for fear; they will die of shock. What they take for granted about the stability of the universe is going to come apart.

But what did they do? Well, they abandoned their proper domain. They stepped out of their proper realm. Well, what would it be like? Well, verse 7, it would be like Sodom and Gomorrah. Well, what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah? Homosexuality, where men left their proper realm and domain of relationships with women and went after men. And somehow, there were some angels that left the domain of fallen angels, demons, and entered into another domain. And it says in verse 7, “In the same way like Sodom and Gomorrah” – and the perversion of homosexuality, these demons “indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh.”

You know what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah? Men tried to have sex with angels. Remember that? The angels came and men tried to have sex with them. Do you know what Jude is saying? There was a time when angels, demons, tried to have sex with women. When was that? I believe that’s described in Genesis 6 when the sons of God went after the daughters of men. The result was monsters in the world that God had to drown in a universal flood. And I believe that those are some of the demons that the Lord said of sin so vilely that He put them in the pit.

Click on this Hell on Earth link to listen to this entire message.

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Satanic Slaughter

Revelation 9:13–21