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The End of the Captivity to Sin and Satan, Part 8

  • | Chris McCann
  • Audio: Length: 53:35 Size: 9.2 MB

Let us turn to Isaiah 14. We read in Isaiah 14:11:

Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

This chapter is dealing with the fall of Babylon, the fall, historically, of the king of Babylon, and it relates. It is a picture. Remember that God called this a proverb in Isaiah 14:4:

That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon…

“Proverb” is another name for “parable,” so this has a spiritual meaning. This is picturing what happened on May 21 when Babylon fell and was taken over by Christ and when He commanded the captives to be free.

So it says in Isaiah 14:12-13:

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God…

We can compare 2 Thessalonians 2:4 with this statement and the next couple of verses and you will see that, yes, the “man of sin” is Satan himself who took his seat “in the temple” and ruled like a king. To be seated in the Bible indicates that one is ruling. Satan did this very proudly. As King Nebuchadnezzar typified him who was extremely arrogant and proud, Satan, too, ruled with great pride; but now, he has fallen.

Then we read in Isaiah 14:13-14:

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Here we see the great heights of his pride for him to dare to be like God, for him to desire to be worshipped as God is worshipped; and this is why this is so hard on Satan.

As God is opening up the Bible, what is now being seen and what we are learning is that Satan is now as weak as anyone else. His kingdom has been taken and all of his spiritual bondservants have been released. They are free. A great number of 200 million have been loosed and set free from the kingdom of darkness.

But God has warned Satan and us, anyone who in their pride would exalt themselves high up, “Beware, because I will bring you low.” This is the time that God is bringing Satan low.

Then we read in Isaiah 14:15-17:

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man…

Satan is typified by the king of Babylon, a man. It continues:

Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

He was just like Pharaoh. The bondage in Egypt and the bondage in Babylon overlap in the way that God views them. In many ways, they are synonymous. Pharaoh said, “Who is Jehovah, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?” And just as Pharaoh would not let the people go, the king of Babylon would not let his prisoners go. No; he had taken them. But at the end of that 70-year period, it was the time of release.

We read next in Isaiah 14:18-20:

All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial…

This is speaking of Satan. For all intents and purposes, his rule is finished. He is being punished. At least as the beast, he is dead. And he is not to be buried, but it is not as if we could. How could we bury a spirit being? This is really a clue to help us understand something.

We were thinking that God would open up the ground and bring up the unsaved dead and their remains and scatter them all over the earth in full view of everyone, and we realized that this would be a shameful thing. This was correct; but, of course, this did not happen.

What did happen is that Satan himself – in his fall as the king of Babylon – is now likened to dead kings, and his carcass is exposed. It is lying out in the open for all to see; and so it is God’s plan at this time that Satan be shamed and exposed.

Even earlier where we read in Isaiah 14:11:

Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

The “worm” has to do with shame.

So here is the king of Babylon and his body is exposed. Worms are covering him. This is an ugly sight and a very shameful thing, and yet this is all spiritual.

We cannot see an angel, that I know of. They are spirit beings. Yet God is speaking of Satan and saying that he is dead but not buried. I think we can learn from this to look again at some of those other passages where we thought that the actual physical bodies of unsaved people would be exposed and shamed.

Since Satan is a spirit being and we, obviously, cannot see his body, one thing that we can learn right now is that this does mean that God could be viewing unsaved man at this time, in one way or another, as being exposed and, also, as being shamed; because, again, this would be a spiritual thing, just as this is with Satan.

So we saw statements indicating that after seventy years Babylon falls. Again, Revelation 18:2 says:

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen…

And we read in Revelation 14:7-8:

Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Wherever we see that Babylon is fallen, we can think May 21. This will help when we read the rest of the information that follows. This will help us to see what is going on now.

So Babylon falls and the king of Babylon is punished. This is what God said about the Babylonian king. The king of Babylon, who happened to be Belshazzar at that time, was slain that very night when the Medes and the Persians took the kingdom. This is one thing, and then Isaiah 14 tells us that he is weak, he is likened to being dead, a rotting carcass that is exposed to the sun.

All of these statements are the opposite of what happened at the beginning of the great tribulation when God said of Nebuchadrezzar, “Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant.” God was going to use him and allow him to overrun Judah and to destroy Jerusalem. God used him as His servant due to the fact that His people were unfaithful. This is why God judged them by using Nebuchadrezzar. And there are many other statements in the Bible concerning Satan. He was the beast who was given rule for 42 months. He was given this authority.

So now we know that whenever we see someone having authority for this five-month period, it is not Satan and it is not his kingdom. With this in mind, let us turn to Revelation 9. I will read the first five verses, and then we will back up. Revelation 9:1-5 says:

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power [or authority, Strong’s #1849], as the scorpions of the earth have power [authority #1849]. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

Here, the locusts are given authority. Actually, they are given authority for five months to bring a message; but by reading this, we have no idea what they are bringing. This just says:

…unto them was given power [authority], as the scorpions of the earth have power [authority].

So scorpions have this authority and the locusts have authority like the scorpions. But before we get there, let us back up to verse 1. Revelation 9:1 says again:

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star [aster:G792] fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

This star is Jesus.

Let us look at Revelation 22 to confirm this. This is really the only verse that we need, but we could also look at Numbers 24:17. Revelation 22:16 says:

I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star [aster:G792].

And in Numbers 24:17, it refers to a star and a scepter, “There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel.” Again, this is a prophecy pointing to Christ.

So He is likened here in Revelation 9 to a star that falls from Heaven to the earth, and He has a key that was given Him.

Look at Revelation 1:18:

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

If we read the context here, Christ is clearly the One who has the key.

Then turn over to Revelation 3:7:

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;

This is a quote from Isaiah 22:22.

So Jesus is the One who has the “key of David,” and with this key He can open. We saw that He loosed Satan, and that He also locks because He put Satan there to begin with. He “bound him a thousand years.” And in Revelation 9, there is a key. The star has this key. Christ has the key to open the bottomless pit, and out come locusts on the earth for the five-month period.

So this is the first thing that we need to understand. Jesus is the One. He has all authority. He is God and He has the key. He has the key to the bottomless pit, as we read in Revelation 9:2-3:

And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth…

What really confuses things are these references to a bottomless pit. What is a bottomless pit? We have to be careful because this is found I think seven times in the New Testament, but only in a few of these instances are there two words found for “bottomless pit” as a word translated “bottomless” and another word translated “pit.” Both of these words are found in Revelation 9:1. I will just say that it is the abyss for the word “bottomless,” but it is abussos. This is where we get our English word “abyss” from. This is the word that is translated as “bottomless.” “Pit” is the Greek word phrear. These same two Greek words are found in Revelation 9:1-2; but in other places, you might only find the word abussos or abyss without the word for “pit,” but the one word is still translated as “bottomless pit.” This is what I mean by saying that we have to be a little careful.

In Revelation 9:11, we read:

And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit…

But the Greek word for “pit” is not here, and yet this is still translated as “bottomless pit.”

This bottomless pit is a very mysterious thing, is it not? We just naturally associate this with evil. And look at these locusts. It actually does not say that they come out of the pit. They come out of the smoke “of the pit.” But since the smoke came out of the pit, I think that we can say that they came out of the pit. I do not think that it actually harms anything to say this; but technically, they came out of the smoke of the bottomless pit.

So these locusts have stings like scorpions and they are going about tormenting people for five months. This really sounds bad, and yet who are these locusts? What are they? Who do they represent?

Before we look at them, let us go to Revelation 20. We read this earlier. It says in Revelation 20:1:

And I saw an angel come down from heaven…

An “angel” is a “messenger.” Christ is called the “messenger of the covenant” in the Old Testament. He is “Michael the archangel” or the “chief messenger.” Anyone who brings a message from God can be called an “angel” or aggelos. Many times, we find this translated as “angel,” but this should have been translated as “messenger.”

This did help God to conceal a lot of things. When we read of “seven angels having the seven last plagues” in Revelation 15 or “four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates” that we read about later on in Revelation 9, our minds naturally think of angels or spirit beings.

But how can an angel be bound? How can an angel be bound and thrown into this great river? What would this represent? Well, they are not angels. They are not spirit beings, but we will get to this a little later.

So we read in Revelation 20:1-2:

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon…

Let us stop a second. Here is Christ, this messenger who is coming down from Heaven. He is the One who has “the key of the bottomless pit.” In this case, He is going to open this, but He also has “a great chain.”

Maybe we could think of this like an anchor that is found on a huge ship. They drop the anchor and this big chain comes out of the ship and it is a huge chain. Here, Christ has a chain and He lays hold of the devil.

Look at Matthew 14:3:

For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife.

This is the same word for “laid hold on.” This is like being arrested. The police will lay hold on a criminal. They tell them to put their hands behind their back and they put the handcuffs on. Then they take them to jail.

Christ is laying hold of the devil and He has this great chain. What do we think that He is going to do with this chain? He is going to bind him with this chain.

So we read again in Revelation 20:2:

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

He ties him up. He is really a prisoner in many ways.

We also find this word “bound” in Revelation 9, which speaks of the “four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.” This is a word that is also used of Lazarus when he came forth out of the grave “bound hand and foot with graveclothes.” This is a word that has to do with being restricted or with being arrested.

Then we read in Revelation 20:3:

And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up…

It is like He tells him to get in there. Then He has the key and he shuts him up. Then it says that He:

…set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

What is in view is that he is grabbed, chained, thrown into a bottomless prison or pit, and he is locked up. This is for a “thousand years” and this goes from the cross in 33 A.D. We know that this is the date because Jesus says in Matthew 12, “Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house,” and Satan would certainly qualify here, “and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.”

So He bound him at the cross, but not for a literal thousand years. This actually turned out to be 1,955 years. So he was bound until May 21, 1988, which was the end of the church age.

Then what happened? Jesus said that “he must be loosed a little season”; and so it is as if He comes back with the key and He opens up the bottomless pit. Then there Satan goes, and what does He do?

Look at Revelation 11:7:

And when they shall have finished their testimony…

This is a reference to the true believers throughout the church age. They finished their testimony on May 21, 1988.

It continues:

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit…

This is only the Greek word abussos. “Bottomless pit” is not actually in the Greek.

It continues:

…the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

This word “overcome” is important. This is the same word for “victory” that is used with the seven angels who had gotten “victory over the beast.” But who got victory over the beast?

It says in Revelation 20:4:

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads…

These are “the souls of them” who were saved throughout the church age.

Why did they not worship the beast? They did not worship the beast because “the beast” is Satan’s name for the 23-year great tribulation period. Their testimony was finished; it was ended.

Of course, many of these had already died hundreds of years ago. Some, very few, made this transition from the church age into the time of great tribulation. But, for the most part, they did not worship the beast.

Then who got “victory over the beast,” as it says in Revelation 15? It was those who were “clothed in pure and white linen.” Then we find in Revelation 7 that “a great multitude” shows up in Heaven “clothed with white robes.” These are the ones who got the victory. These are the ones who “overcame…by the blood of the Lamb,” by Christ’s power. They are the ones who are in view in Revelation 15.

But going back to Revelation 11:7, we read:

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit…

He did not waste any time. As soon as he was loosed, he immediately went into the church to take his seat as the “man of sin.” This was because of his pride.

He was not interested in haunted houses so much. Maybe some of the fallen demons have done a little of this, like the banging of doors in some house somewhere to give it a reputation of being haunted and that there are spirits there. But, primarily, Satan is concerned about being like God, which was what it was all about in the Garden of Eden, and with being worshipped as God.

So he went straight for the churches after ascending out of the bottomless pit, and then it continues on to say that he shall:

…make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

He was victorious then, but he was not victorious this past May 21, 2011. He was only victorious on May 21, 1988.

Understanding that Babylon is now punished, that the king of Babylon is dead, helps us to realize that he no longer has authority. What authority did the king of Babylon have after Cyrus took the kingdom? He had none. The king was put to death that very night. He was given no authority after that.

So Christ has all authority now; and when we read that the beast overcame the two witnesses, this happened 23 years ago. But we are not going to get into Revelation 11 at this time.

Let us go back to Revelation 9. The star has the key, and then we read in Revelation 9:2-3 again:

And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given [authority], as the scorpions of the earth have [authority].

This is interesting because this is like a parallel. Satan was bound. Then he was loosed for a little season and given authority. But now there is another group who is bound and, also, they are given authority.

Why did I say that Satan was bound? Go back to Revelation 20. We know that Satan was put into a bottomless pit. Look at Revelation 20:7:

And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

The bottomless pit, for all intents and purposes, was a prison. This is why Christ had a great chain, why He laid hold on him, why He put him in this bottomless pit, and then why He locked it. He kept him in prison. He was sill active in many ways, but he could not completely do what he had always desired to do, not until recently in our day.

We see the affects of his loosing on the world and on the church. It has been horrible. There is horrible stuff every day as we read the newspaper. In prior times, yes, people were sinners and evil was still in the world, but never like this, never like this.

But the important thing is that the locusts come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit and the bottomless pit is a prison. And in Acts 16, there was a great earthquake that loosed the foundations of the prison and opened up all of the doors to where the prisoners could have gone free.

On May 21, this was the day that was the end of the 70 years. It was the return of the captivity of the people of God. It was the last day of the Jubilee, which is a feast that declares “liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” It was a feast that declared liberty to all of the bondmen and bondwomen. It was a great day of freedom.

The locusts come out of the smoke of a prison. They are coming out and in what kind of numbers? I remember checking this out before, but I do not have the exact figures now. What I read is that locusts swarm in tens or hundreds of millions.

So these locusts are coming out of a prison that was just simply a holding place. It was a holding place. This is the way to look at this. Satan was bound, and yet this did not seem to harm him. The Bible says that it was like a “deadly wound,” but it was healed because he was released in order to wreak havoc. And these locusts are also released in order to wreak havoc on the earth.

The only difference is that these locusts are the true believers. These locusts are the elect people of God who were held in spiritual captivity to sin and to Satan. And Revelation 9 has everything to do with May 21 because it is referring to five months, and here we are, from May 21 to October 21; and so these locusts come forth out of prison and yet they are coming with authority “as the scorpions of the earth have [authority].”

This is difficult to understand. How can the locusts be true believers when they are coming like scorpions?

Go to Luke 10. This is where Christ sends forth the seventy “two and two.” Then it says in Luke 10:17-20:

And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power [authority] to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

So the scorpions are identified with the kingdom of Satan. They are identified as spirit beings. This would be the fallen angels. As they did their work in churches and congregations, they set up tares throughout the church age in order to bring false gospels and false teachings.

But how do we understand that the locusts have a sting like a scorpion? It is because they are coming as scorpions, and the key word is “as.” They are not scorpions.

Go back to Revelation 9 again. It says in Revelation 9:3:

as the scorpions of the earth have [authority].

Then we read at the end of Revelation 9:5:

…and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

Also, we read in Revelation 9:10:

And they had tails like unto scorpions…

This says “like unto,” so there is a similarity. They are coming as these emissaries of a false gospel. But how could believers come “like unto” something that is identified with lies and with the kingdom of darkness and with Satan?

The answer comes when we realize that there is a multitude of false gospels out there and many variations of this theme. There are the Seventh-Day Adventists. There are churches whose people fall over backwards. They speak in tongues. There are the freewill gospels. There is the Catholic Church that thinks that its pope speaks for God.

We can look at all of this and it is varied and very different from one to another. This is as the Bible says, “Her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.” This is true of all of the different religions, but this is primarily true of the gospels that are out there. They are very different, but there is one thing that every one of them has in common. The common denominator is that they all lack power to save.

No one will be saved by going to the Pentecostal Church and speaking in tongues and falling over backwards. No one is going to be saved in the Catholic Church, because they do not have the Bible as the authority of the Word of God.

Actually, no one will become saved today in any church, because the church age is over; and every church is in the same position and condition before God. God removed the light of the Gospel from them. They have no ability or power to save anymore, and this is the one common denominator amongst all false gospels that are in the world. When we get right down to the bare bones, to the essence of all of this, none of them can save, not one.

So the locusts are coming as scorpions. They are “like unto scorpions.” And what are we saying? What are the true believers saying? We are saying that the day of salvation is done. God freed all of His people. There is no more salvation for anyone who is not now saved; and yet, of course, there is hope.

We should always have hope because we still do not know the heart of man. We do not know what God did prior to May 21. We do not know whom He may have saved. Maybe a particular individual is just not displaying any kind of fruit right now. This is possible. We do not know how this works, so we keep praying for our families and for our friends and for everyone whom we have been praying for that God might save them. Even saying this, we have to be careful. But we can pray that having had mercy prior to May 21, may He still have mercy; that is, may the evidence of the work of salvation begin to be seen in their lives.

But, now, we are bringing a message that this is finished. This is all done. It has been completed. There is no more salvation. There is no new salvation now. This has already been worked out and God has already freed all of His elect people.

This message is like what a scorpion brings, because their message is one of no salvation also. This is what God is saying. The locusts, which are the great multitude of the elect, are given this authority by God.

Then we read in Revelation 9:4:

And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

In other words, do not be concerned. If you are one of God’s people, if you have been chosen before the foundation of the world, anyone can still have great hope that He did save you. Of course, He did if anyone is one of these; but there is still hope that anyone could be one of them.

So we tell people that what God is doing now is not designed to shoot arrows at them. It is designed to shoot arrows at Satan and to shoot arrows at the kingdom of Babylon, which is Satan’s kingdom – but not at them.

This is why we can reassure people that, yes, this is a horrible time because there is no salvation; however, God may have saved them or He may have saved their one-year old or their two-year old. There is still hope and this is what Revelation 9:4 is telling us. Judgment Day is designed for those “which have not the seal of God,” the unsaved people.

Then we read in Revelation 9:5:

And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

Again, as this information goes out there into the world more and more, number one, this is a torment to Satan and the fallen angels. They are the ones who said to Jesus when they were inside the man who had legion, “Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?” They definitely knew that they were to be tormented, and they can be tormented. Now, it begins with Satan. He is their king.

Following this, I am sure that this information will be picked up in the churches and be a source of trouble to them and they will be tormented. Maybe this is how they will receive more stripes. They will have more information about this than people in the world. The people of the world will most likely not hear this as much, and they will have less torment.

Then we read in Revelation 9:6:

And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

This is speaking of these days. Men will seek death at this time, and we have always had a correct understanding of this. This is not physical death that they seek. We have seen the papers and people are still dying. People are still committing suicide. These things have not been hindered at all. Physical death is still everywhere in the world. But spiritually, again, this goes back to the completion of God’s salvation plan.

We can look at this two ways. We can look at this as being very negative. God is not saving anyone anymore. Our task is finished. We can feel cast down about all of this, or we can look at this differently. There are no more prisoners, as we know that God emptied Egypt of all Jews and that there was not one single Jew remaining in Egypt when they came out. There was no need for anyone to go back to Egypt in order to try to find more Jews. They had all gone. They all came out at once. The positive is that this is something to be greatly thankful for. We need to recognize that God has done a wonderful work in saving His people.

Let us go to Romans 6:3-5:

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism…

This is the spiritual baptism by the Holy Ghost or salvation. It continues:

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death…

And Revelation 9:6 said:

And in those days shall men seek death…

This is the death that comes in Christ. This is the death that is identified with Him in salvation. It continues:

…and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death…

That death in Christ:

…shall flee from them.

They cannot get this now.

When the rich man was in torment, there was “a great gulf fixed.” Abraham’s answer was that this was impossible. No longer could water be brought to the unsaved. No more could Lazarus, that messenger, be sent with even the slightest drop of water, because it was all said and done.

Likewise today, we cannot send the Gospel in order for people to hear it and become saved. This is just not possible. We can share the Bible with people. We can speak with them about these things, but we have to be honest with them. We have to be honest, and yet we can also encourage people by saying, “Look; you might be one of those whom God saved prior to shutting the door to Heaven on May 21. You could have been one. We do not know.” This is the hope.

Revelation 9:7-9 then lists various characteristics of these locusts, but we will not get into each one right now. Then we read in Revelation 9:10-11:

And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power [authority] was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit…

This is referring to the “[messenger] of the bottomless pit.” Who do we keep seeing opening doors and closing doors with this key? We see Christ. He is the Messenger of God who locks up people and who looses people. And He loosed all of these locusts and He is the King over them.

This is not referring to Satan in any way. Remember that this king is dead. This king, at this point, died. His rule came to an end. It is only Jesus who could be the King over them.

It continues:

…which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon…

“Abaddon” means “destruction.” It continues:

…but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

“Apollyon” means “to destroy.”

So these locusts are going forth and destroying the world in the sense that there is no more saving going on by God.

I just want to quickly look at something else that we can get into next time. In Revelation 9:12, we read:

One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

Some people have thought that the first woe was May 21 and then there would be other stages. No; the next woe is May 21 also.

It will not work when people try to place these woes in some sort of order. These two woes are happening at the same time.

So we read in Revelation 9:12-15:

One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter. And 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 which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels [messengers] which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

Here we see again that they were bound. This is just as Satan was bound. This is the same idea. They were being held back.

We read in Revelation 7:1-3:

And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

The four angels in Revelation 9 are the same as these four angels in Revelation 7. They are holding back the winds until a certain point, until the servants of God have been sealed in the foreheads, which is a figure of speech that indicates salvation. The implication is that this does not happen until all of God’s people have been sealed in their forehead.

We have misread Revelation 7, because this speaks of those in each of the twelve tribes being sealed and of the 144,000. We had associated this sealing with the 144,000 and not with the great multitude; but it does not say this. Actually, it says that the four angels are holding back this destructive force until the servants of God are sealed.

Once the servants of God have been sealed – and I do not see any reason why this would just be referring to the firstfruits and that this has to be referring to all of God’s elect – then the four winds are released. It is then that these angels are released who are bound in a river. Where is the river? “The great river Euphrates” is found in Babylon.

If we go to Joshua 1:4, it says:

From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates…

This is setting the boundary of the kingdom of Israel, the boundary of their inheritance or their land, and this says that it is “unto the great river.” Babylon is in between the Euphrates River and the Tigris River. I think that the Euphrates River does run through Turkey and maybe Syria. But the limitation of the kingdom of Israel was “unto the great river.” It was not in the river, because this would be Babylon’s river.

Just think about this. There are four angels and they are bound in a “great river,” which is in Babylon. “The great river Euphrates” is another way of saying “the great city Babylon.” They are bound there and then Christ is saying to loose them. Then, all of a sudden, we are not reading about four angels anymore. We are reading about 200 million people who are likened to horsemen. These horsemen are coming to slay the third part of men. They are coming with fire, smoke, and brimstone. There is no grace. These 200 million horsemen also have tails. Their tails are not like scorpions, though; they are like serpents.

Is this not interesting? We have locusts coming out of the smoke of a prison, the bottomless pit, and it is like they are loosed. Then we have 200 million horsemen who were bound in a great river, and they are loosed. What the locusts are doing, the horsemen are also doing. This is actually because they are one and the same.

Joseph said something interesting when he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream. There were two different dreams. There was a dream of healthy corn and skinny corn, and there was a dream of fat cows and skinny cows. Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dream is one.” This was because both dreams taught the same thing.

When we are reading Revelation 9, we are reading of the loosing of locusts or that they are coming out of the smoke of the prison. This is saying that if they have been there, they are loosed. Plus we are reading about the loosing of these 200 million who were bound in “the great river Euphrates.”

We will try to pick things up here the next time, but let us close here and have a word of prayer.

Dear Father, we once again thank You for this period of time. We thank You that You have fulfilled Your Word. You heard the groaning of the prisoners and You have come to set the prisoners free. Now this job is done. Father, we thank You for this. May we proceed and go forth and go forward rejoicing, like Jehoshaphat and his army as they went to the battle in the wilderness and yet having no need to fight, no need to take up weapons because the battle was Yours. And this battle is won. All of the enemies are lying dead. Father, we pray that You would help us to live as You would have us to live today and in the following days. We ask for Your blessing upon Family Radio as it goes into the world. May Your people be fed, may Your Word be seen to be triumphant, and may we just simply do Your will as best we can. We pray for everyone here and anyone listening on Paltalk. We ask that You would bless them through Your Word. We pray these things in Christ’s Name. Amen.