I'm gonna read the first woe
down to, I think it's verse 12 and then deal with those and
then go down and read the next verses and deal with them instead
of reading the whole chapter at a time. 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, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 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 they should
be tormented five months. And their torment was as the
torment of a scorpion when he striketh a man. And in those
days shall men seek death and shall not find him, and shall
desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And the shapes
of the locusts were like unto horses, prepared unto battle.
And on their head, as it were, were crowns of gold, and their
faces were as the faces of men, and they had hair as the hair
of a woman, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they
had breastplates, as it were, breastplates of iron, and the
sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses
running to battle. And they had tails like unto
scorpions, there were stings in their tails, and their power
was to hurt men five months. They had a king over them, which
is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew
tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. Now let me stress this. And we read a very vivid things
here tonight. We've been reading very vivid
things. But I can't stress enough that we're looking at symbols.
We're looking at pictures. And you'll see the things and
then describe what they're like. They're just pictures. They're
meant to convey certain things to our minds. Not literal things. It's like a picture. It's like
a symbol. Our flag symbolizes America. Ever You know, states got a seal
and it symbolizes that nation, it represents that nation. When
you look at it, you see that picture of that and you automatically
think, well that's our flag or that's the flag of the state
or whatever. Well that's the way these are.
They're symbols, they symbolize something. And I also need to
stress over and over that this is the condition of the world.
and the church while it was in the world from the first coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ until the second coming of our Lord
and the final judgment. And if you look at your concordance
and look up some of these images here, you'll see that the Old
Testament, Daniel and Ezekiel particularly, have a lot of this
symbolism in them and a lot of these very same things in them
that's mentioned here in the book of Revelation. And remember
this also, that there are seven sections and they run parallel
to one another. One just runs right alongside
one another. And so here we have the fifth
and sixth seal. We dealt with the first four
seals last week. Let's look at the fifth trumpet
tonight, and then the sixth trumpet in a few minutes. Look at that
fifth trumpet there in verse one. Now the fifth angel sounded,
remember they all had trumpets, these seven angels had seven
trumpets. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall
from heaven under the earth, and to him was given the key
of the bottomless pit. John saw a star fall from heaven. Now remember that they said there's
three wolves. These next three angels, where
they blow their trumpets, they all have a wolf. But she, he
said, I saw a star fall from heaven. Who do you think this
star is? Who do you think this star is?
I believe our Lord told us who this star is in Luke 18. Look with me, oh excuse me, Luke
chapter 10 in verse 18. Our Lord told us who this star
was. And I'll show you who this star is that fell. Luke 10, 18. You know, and it fell from heaven
to earth. Now our Lord has sent out 70
men to preach, and they return saying with joy, the Lord the
devil's even subject unto us through thy name. And he said
here in verse 18, he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning
fall from heaven. So this is the star that fell
from heaven. And he was cast down to the earth. And I can show you that in Isaiah
14. Let's look at Isaiah 14 together.
Isaiah 14, look here. This is Satan cast down. This is, because he's the destroyer. He's the one called the destroyer.
And look here in Isaiah 14. This is the devil's position
now. He's on the earth, he was cast
out of heaven. And he rebelled against God.
Lost his position, lost his splendor, lost his power except to do evil
and do wickedness. But it said here, look at, start
with me in verse nine. Hell from beneath is moved for
thee to meet thee at thy coming. It stirs up the dead for thee,
even all the chief forms of the earth. It hath raised up from
their thrones all the kings of the nations. All that speak and
say unto thee, Art thou also become as weak as we? Art thou
become like unto us? Thy pulp is brought down to the
grave, and the noise of thy vows. The worm is spread unto thee,
and the worms cover thee. Hath thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer? And Lucifer means day star. Lucifer
means bright, and as he was a bright star in God's kingdom up there
in heaven, he said, O Lucifer, son of morning, halt thou cast
down to the ground, which did 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, I will set 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. Yet thou
shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. And
they that set thee shall say narrowly unto thee, consider,
is this the man that made the earth to tremble and did shake
kingdoms? So this is Satan cast down. This is him, that star that he
saw fall, that was the devil, that was the devil. And then
it says here, and also in the first verse, and to him was given
the key of the bottomless pit. He has the key to the bottomless
pit. And he receives the power to open the gates of hell and
let the demons out. That's what this is all about
here. He's letting a bunch of demons out of here, a bunch of
devils out of here. It's called hell, it's called
the abyss, called the final judgment, called the lake of fire, and
a lot of different places. You know, there's a bunch of
demons. When he cast out that legion out of, that legion of
devils out of legion, and he asked him, what is the legion?
He had a legion of devils in him. When our Lord cast them
out, you know what they said to him? Oh Jesus, thou son of
God, thou most holy one, torment us not before our time. Don't
put us in hell. Don't put us in that bottomless
pit. That's what he said. Please don't put us in that bottomless
pit. And that's what they asked him.
Don't put us in that pit. Don't torment us. Don't put us
down there. And I'll tell you what, by opening
this bottomless pit, look what it said in verse two. And he
opened the bottomless pit, and there arose 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 by opening this
bottomless pit, it means that he incites evil. I mean, he wants
to fill the world with demons to influence men, to operate
in the world of men. And you find it many times in
the scriptures where people were possessed of the devil. You say,
you reckon people are possessed of the devil now? Without a shadow
of a doubt. There's lots of people still
possessed of the devil. You ever seen anybody walking
around talking to themselves? Serial killers? People that don't have no morality
whatsoever? Sociopaths? Psychopaths? And I can certainly mention others.
I'm pretty sure I know some people that personally, I believe they're
demon possessed because of the way they treat everybody else.
Can't treat their mother right, can't treat their dad right,
can't treat their children right, can't treat anybody right. Cuss,
cuss, cuss, cuss, cuss. Mean, ill, hateful, awful. And I tell you, he fills the
world with demons to influence it and to operate. And that's
what Paul told Timothy. He said, be patient unto all
men. Perventure, God will grant them repentance. For that the
devil, remember this, the devil takes them captive at his will.
And you sometimes wonder what you do. The devil, the devil
has a lot of power in this world, but he don't have no, he has
to answer to God. But God gave him the key to this
bottomless pit. And it's like that strong man
armed. You remember that story, that thing in the strong man
that's armed, as long as he has his goods under his influence,
they're all right. Until a strong man armed comes. And that strongman arm comes
and spoils his goods and takes from him his goods. And the goods
that he takes from him is us. He's a strongman armed in what
he uses as lies and deception and false doctrine, self-righteousness,
self-confidence, self-reliance, free will religion, Arminianism,
he uses all those things. And he comes along and uses all
those things, and we get religion, we get his courses, and we buy
his Bibles, and we get feeling pretty good about ourselves.
And then here comes, we feeling good, and then God comes along,
and he comes in there and spares that devil and takes us away
from him. And I'm certainly glad he did. Huh? You say, well, I mean, why in
the world didn't we have any interest in God until a certain
day? Because the devil had influence over us. And I tell you that strong man
armed, I tell you it takes a stronger man armed, and that Lord Jesus
is the strongest man armed. And once he went in there and
spoiled his goods, opened up his lies and made us see the
truth, opened up our minds and understanding so we could understand
clearly who we were and what we was until God saved us. And then it says there in verse
two, and he opened that bottomless pit and there rose the 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. Everybody knows what smoke coming up means and water
coming out of a furnace. And that smoke was so great and
so dense that you couldn't see the sun and the air was darkened
by reason of it. Now what does he mean this great
smoke coming out like a furnace? Well, smoke creates darkness. Smoke creates confusion. And
he uses the smoke of deception. The smoke of delusion. The smoke
of sin. Sorrow. And it brings such darkness
that men can't see the light. They can't see Christ. They can't
see the light of the world. This darkness brings degradation. It brings immorality. In fact,
it brings amorality. And the smoke is constantly,
constantly, and this is the bottomless pit, constantly belched out of
hell. This is where this is coming
from. Coming right out of the hell itself. And it broughts
out the sun, and the air is darkened. The air is poisoned. And what
this is telling us is that dark days, dark times, spiritual darkness,
moral darkness, And I tell you what, as far as I'm concerned,
it's awful dark right now to me. Terribly dark to me. I think the air has already been
poisoned enough. Men are against men, and women
are against women, and you can't hardly say certain things without
being ostracized, and put out of business, and tell you to
shut up, and trying to put churches out of business. Tell them where
they can go, and when they can, and when they can't. And I tell
you, spiritual darkness, oh my soul, spiritual darkness is on
this world. Oh, it's awful, the spiritual
darkness. Horrible. And I'll tell you, God's the
only one that can do anything about it. And I know it troubles
us, but here's the thing about it, it doesn't trouble God. I thought we could just really
believe that God's behind all this, that this is Christ opening
these seals, that it's Christ sending these angels, it's Christ
that's causing them to blow the trumpet, it's Christ that's causing
these things to happen. And there's more on darkness.
And that's why our Lord said, if the light be in you, If the
light in you be darkness, how great is that darkness? And then this power is given
to the devil. Oh my. Now like I told you, you
go through the scriptures and he can't do anything without
God's permission. And you'll find him one of these
days, you'll find him when we get in chapter 20, where he's
bound up, chained up, And God himself drops him in that bottomless
pit and stops it up where he can't get back out. So I tell you what, we know the
end. We see what's going on right now, but we know the end. And
this power is given to the devil, but he can't do anything without
God's permission. And this trumpet that sounded,
an awful trumpet, great, great warning. And I tell you, when
God turns the devil loose, Now listen to what I'm telling you,
when God turns the devil loose and have his way with the nation. You know there's nations where
they won't even allow religion. Russia, they wouldn't let you
have a Bible in Russia. Not that way now. They said God
didn't exist. China, they don't want you in
the Bible over there. I met some missionaries, they
said if they caught him down in Vietnam with the Bible, they'd
put him in jail, and if they was Americans, they might let
him go home, and then again, they might not. Oh, I tell you,
you let, you let devil have his way with the nation, and what's
gonna happen to that nation? All nations that forget God,
the scripture said, they shall be turned into hell. And what is he, what would he,
what would happen if he turns him loose on the people? What if he turned them loose
on the people? He said, these folks want to
believe a lie. He said, I'll tell you what I'll
do, I'll send them a strong delusion that they should believe that
lie and be damned. They want to be deceived, I'll
just let them be deceived. I'll let the devil get in the
pulpit and I'll let the devil get up there and preach to them.
I'll let somebody that don't know God from a goat, I'll let
him get up and preach to them. And then what if he turns him
loose on a person, on an individual? God only knows what they'd do.
Huh? Oh Judas, he was warned, our
Lord warned Judas. And then there was Demas. He
traveled with the Apostle Paul. And he said, Demas hath forsaken
us, having loved this present evil world. And there's Esau,
who sold his birthright for a bowl of pottage. What would make a
man sell his birthright? And then there's Pharaoh. Who
is the Lord that I should obey? He knows now who the Lord is.
He knows who's got the power now. Oh my. One thing I don't want to do,
listen. I don't want to go toe-to-toe with Satan or nobody else and
I'll tell you why. He's had 6,000 years experience
and he was thought he was deceived enough in himself and his own
power and his own abilities. He was deluded enough in himself,
Satan was, that he thought he could take on the Son of God
and whip him. And he thought when they got
him on the cross, said, we're done with him once and for all. But he was certainly fooled when
Christ come out of that tomb and went to heaven and sets at
the right hand of God. But I tell you, it wasn't because
for not trying. You see over there, we'll get
over there, Revelation 14, and that dragon sits there waiting
for that man child to be born so he could grab him and destroy
him. And I tell you, this is, and
God uses these things to cause men to repent. uses them to cause
men to repent. Down in verse 21 it says, neither
repented they, but some men would repent. Then let's look at these
locusts. And there came out of the smoke,
out of that belching coming up out of hell, there's come out
of that smoke, out of that great, great bottomless pit, locusts
upon the earth. And under them was given power
as the scorpions of the earth. Now locusts, we know that a locust
destroys vegetation. But this locust here don't destroy
vegetation. And we know a scorpion, if he
bites you, it hurts you very, very much. Down in Mexico, especially
down in Chiapas where Milton was, they said always take your
shoes out and shake them out. And if you boots on, whatever
you got, shake them out, because you might stick your foot in
there. scorpion in there and if he stings you, you're going
to be sick. So we always did. Always did. And look what happened. So they, and these scorpions
and this locust, it was commanded. Now notice this, it was commanded
that they should not hurt the earth. Who told them not to hurt
the earth? The devil sure didn't tell them,
don't go down there and hurt the earth. And then it was commanded
that they should not hurt the earth, neither the grass or the
earth. And that's all the locust does. Neither any green thing
nor any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of
God. If you don't have the seal of
God, he's going to get you. And to them it was given that
they should not kill them, but they should torment them five
months, and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion. And you know, this plague of
locusts is hard for us to grasp. Hard for us to grasp. You remember
when Moses sent that plague of locusts on Egypt. It lasted for a week. When they
got through there wasn't a leaf left on the tree, wasn't no grass
for the cattle to eat, wasn't anything. But these locusts don't
do that. They're not doing that. And if
these earthly locusts come and they just devastate property,
devastate the earth, devastate vegetation. Just how more terrible
are these symbolic locusts who's coming down here to torment men?
Huh? And John here describes the power
and influences of hell operating in the hearts of men, in the
hearts of this world and all the wicked men that's in it.
And these locusts are not allowed to hurt the vegetation, nor those
who are sealed. If a man's been sealed of God,
he can't touch him. Can't touch him. And they're not allowed to kill.
They have a fixed time to work. It said a month. It said five
months in one verse, and then down there later it says another.
It says again, five months. These men shall torment him for
five months. And they have a fixed time to
work that five months. Now let's look at their description.
Look at the description of them. These things were so awful. And
they had the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses. So that
tells you it's not a locust like you and I know. They're like
a big horse. They're like a horse. When you
look at them you see the shape of a horse. And that horse is
prepared to battle. He's got armor on. He's got all
this armor and stuff on. And on their heads were, as it
were, crowns of gold. And that says, as it were crowns
of gold. That means it wasn't real gold,
it looked like gold. And it said on the gold. Satan
ain't got no gold. He's just a deceiver. He makes
gold, he makes the false look like it's real. And he said,
as it were gold. And then they had faces as men. Their faces were like men. They're
big like a horse. crowns on their head, as it were,
of gold. And their faces were like men.
And those men's faces were set to destroy, and meant only to
destroy. And so she goes on to tell you
here that these fellas had long hair like a woman. Fair, nice,
had their hair fixed up nice and beautiful. But then their
teeth were as a line, and then you find the line in the scriptures.
He's always devouring. Satan goes about as a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour. And he has these sharp teeth.
He comes to devour people, to destroy people. And look what
they got on their, and then they had on breastplates. Look in
verse nine. Had on breastplates, as it were, breastplates of iron. They seeming like they were invincible. They could never be hurt. Never
be hurt. These are and these are just
pictures like I told you here you thought this locust coming
out of there and with And then but he said he's a horse Got
a face like a man hair like a woman teeth like a lion He means and
he got on ropes breastplate solid iron you ain't gonna hurt him
I So he's out to destroy. That's what our Lord says, that
the thief cometh not, but to steal, kill, and destroy. And then it says there in verse
nine, And they had on these breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron,
and the sound of their wings. Now locusts have wings, and he
said, here are the sounds of their wings. These evidently
had wings. And the sounds of their wings
were sounding like a bunch of horses running. That's what he
said. When they were running, they
sounded like a bunch of horses running, a whole herd of horses
running as hard as they could with chariots going to battle. Who are they battling? They're
battling the world. They're battling everything that's
right and just and true and trying to destroy everything they can
in their path. I wonder, I just wonder. Here we are, we're a handful
of people here tonight. Most congregations don't have
a Sunday evening service anymore. And out of all the people, just
in this county, just in this county, I wonder how many people
don't know God and don't care if they know God. Don't care. They don't want you
to talk about Him. They don't want to hear about
Him. They want to go on happy with their lives. You know why? Because Satan is destroying them. Destroying them with self-deception.
Self-delusion. They're in darkness. They love
their darkness. Our Lord said that they love
darkness. And they said that smoke comes
out of there and it darkens everything. They love darkness. Can't you
see that? No, I can't see through this
fog. I can't see through this smoke.
And the only way to get that smoke cleared off is God come
by the Holy Spirit and run it away and drive it away. and bring
you to the light. And then it says there in verse
10, and they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their
tail. I mean, they caused men to, they
caused great pain and anguish to men, great pain and anguish. And listen again, and it says,
their power to hurt men was five months. Twice, it says, five
months. And then it told us back up there
in verse six, in those days, and I mean this
happens, this happening from the first coming of Christ till
His second coming, things like this. He just showed us things
that happened. And in those days shall men seek death and shall
not find it. shall desire to die and death
shall flee from them. God won't even let them die.
God won't even let them die. Oh my, making men full of dread,
making men full of hopelessness, making men so miserable that
they can't even live. Oh my. And I tell you when he
does this, this is a picture of hell and the power of darkness
in the souls of men. They're robbed of light. They're
robbed of righteousness. They're robbed of all joy. They're
robbed of all peace. They're robbed of all wisdom
and understanding. And look who their king is. Down
in verse 11. They got a king. These demons
have a king. These locusts, these horses,
these that look like men and wear gold and hair like women. And they had a king over them,
which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew
tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. That means a destroyer. That's
all he can do, is destroy, destroy, destroy, destroy. And he says,
now the first woe, verse 12, the first woe is past, and two
more woes to come. Two more woes to come. Now, let's
look at the next few verses and deal with this sixth trumpet. And the sixth angel, verse 13,
and the sixth angel sounded, blew his trumpet, 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 which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed,
which were prepared. See, these angels was held over
there in Euphrates, and they was held there for an hour a
day, a month, a year for slaying, and they had, things were appointed
to them. And the number of the army of
the horsemen were 200,000,000, and I heard the number thereof. And thus I saw the horses in
division, and then that set on them, having breastplates of
fire, and of Jason's and Brimstone, and the heads of the horses were
as the heads of lions. and out of their mouths issued
fire, and smoke, and brimstone. By these three," what? Fire,
smoke, and brimstone, was the third part of men killed by the
fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out
of their mouth. For their power was in their
mouth, and in their tails. For their tails were like unto
serpents, and had heads, With them they do hurt. And the rest
of the men, which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented
not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship
devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone,
and of wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk, neither
repented they of their murders, or their vernications, or their
fornications, or sorceries, or thefts. So here's this sixth
trumpet. You remember that altar of incense
that was in heaven? It's the same thing, it was in
the golden altar of incense, just like behind the veil in
the tabernacle. Had four horns on it. And he
saw that angel from the four horns off the golden altar before
God. And I tell you what, this trumpet
describes, in this instance here, he's describing war. What war
is like and how bad war is. The same powers of darkness that
we just, turns men into devils. In times of war, he makes men
do some awful, awful things. This is all wars are for. I think it was Sherman that said,
war is hell. And it is, it really is. And
the voice in that golden altar said, Loosen four angels. There's
four angels kept up there in the river Euphrates. And I tell
you, the river Euphrates here represents two great, powerful
kingdoms. Assyria, who was a great, powerful,
powerful ruler of the world at one time, and then Babylon. And
they both represent the world and all the wickedness that the
world can possibly have in any place is Assyria and Babylon. Terribly, terribly wicked places.
And these angels are set loose. And they were evil angels and
they were let loose. These are the same thing as demons.
And they were let loose. And these four angels were loosed
in verse 15. And they were prepared, now there were one of them, there's
four of them, and they got a certain amount of time to do something.
One of them's got an hour, one of them's got a day, one of them's
got a month, and one of them's got a year to slay the third
part of the men of the earth. And he sees the armies, as these
men go out to fight in these armies, and destroy these people
in these armies. And he says the number of the
army, We're 200,000,000. You know how many 100,000,000
is? Let me see. I think it's 200 million. Yep,
200 million. That's a lot of money. That's
a lot of people. You know how many people have been killed
in wars? World War II, I have no idea
how many. World War I, I mean, it was astronomical. Civil War, they had one battle,
one battle at Gettysburg. Over 25,000 Americans were slain
one day, one day on Gettysburg. Left laying there, died. Shot
down, American shooting American. And why is that? The evil angels
come in and cause these wars. And I tell you what, And this
is just symbolic, showing how great an army and all the armies
it's ever been. And these horsemen, they're great
horsemen and horses. They have the same purpose. They're
riding, going forth. And out of their mouth comes
fire and smoke and brimstone. And I tell you, they symbolize
these great, great war machines, tools of war. And they kill one-third
of mankind. And I'd say, I'd say, ever since there's been wars,
I'd say that there's been, we have no idea how many millions
and millions and millions and millions and millions of people's
been killed. We just don't know. We just don't know. But that's
what he's talking about. And here He comes and they come
with this fire, smoke, and brimstone. And by this fire, smoke, and
brimstone, it says there in verse three that these three, by these
three were a third part of the men killed by the fire, and the
smoke, and the brimstone, which is out of their mouths. And I
tell you, our sovereign Lord Jesus, our sovereign Savior, He uses these things. They were
prepared for this. And they can only operate for
a certain amount of time. And that certain amount of time
is from His first coming until His second coming. And all of
these things happen over and over and over again. This is
not going to happen all at one time. This happens over history.
This has happened over history. This has happened over and over
and it will happen again, over and over and over. As long as
man's on this earth, he's going to fight. He's gonna fight. He just cannot help it. And what
gets me, and I'll quit preaching and tell you what I think. I'll
give you my opinion. People that's got billions of
dollars already. Got great big factories. Their
factories get kind of slow, and what they do, they'll start a
war somewhere. So they start building war machines. tanks,
guns, bullets, planes, machine guns, building all that stuff,
and sending young men off to war, getting them maimed, shot,
and tore all to pieces, so they can make a dollar and line politicians'
pockets. Now I quit preaching and told
you that. That's my opinion about it. And I really believe that. And I tell you what, they get
up here and they make all that money, And everybody else is
suffering. And I'll tell you, some people
never get over it. Never get over it. Go down to a VA hospital.
Go to Nashville, or go to Murfreesboro, or go to Cincinnati, or go up
in West Virginia. Go any place where there's a
VA hospital. And you can't find a place to
park full of people. And I came back from Vietnam,
I tell you what, I was in Philadelphia Naval Hospital, and they didn't
care a thing about us. And that Philadelphia Naval Hospital
was so full, so full, that they had the men that was on gurneys
and things, they couldn't walk, they had them on gurneys, and
they was up and down the hallways. Didn't even have room for them.
And those guys would race up and down the hallways with one
another on their journey so you could get down the hallway rubbing
against the wall. But every ward on that place was full. And they had padded rooms for
people. And you could look in that padded
room and you'd see men running around just as hard as they could
running into them walls. So you're talking about war machines,
It's war as hell, it really is. And I'll tell you what, and when
our Lord Jesus opens these seals, and He's ruling all things according
to His will, remember He's got the book, He's got the seals. And when He opened that fourth
seal, there was those seven trumpets, seven angels with their seven
trumpets. And now He's opened the sixth seal, the sixth trumpet,
the fifth trumpet, now we got one more trumpet. But our Sovereign
Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ opens the seals and rules everything
according to His will. And I tell you, He's going to
always rule this world. It may trouble us, it may be
against us, it may make our life even feel very, very troubled
at times. But most of the time we're blessed
to enjoy peace, joy, understanding, and rejoicing our Lord Jesus
Christ. But I do know this, that His
will's being carried out no matter where it's at on this earth and
what anybody's doing, Christ sits on His throne and there's
nothing that happens in this world unless He wills for it
to happen. Huh? And when he comes the second
time, oh my, then, until then, plagues after plague after plagues
gonna come down on this earth. And those men, those who repented
not, which weren't killed, it said there in verse 20, which
were not killed by these plagues, Yet repentant not of the worst.
They said, listen, I'm not sorry for what I've done. I'm not sorry
I worship devils. I'm not sorry I worship idols
of gold. I'm not sorry I worship silver and brass and stone and
wood, things that can neither seed nor walk nor hop. And I'm
not gonna repent of my murder, my sorceries, or my fornication
or my thievery. I'm not gonna repent. You think the devil ain't got
power? God turns him loose on a man.
Can't set himself free. Our Father, oh our Lord, I thank
you for this day. Thank you for your great, great,
great, great, great mercy. Thank you for your great, great,
great, great grace. Oh, it's so abundant. You're
so, so wonderful to us, so gracious to us. And you treat us so well, so
good, so kind, so tenderly. And Lord, we hope that we get
some understanding from these things, that these things are
always happening on this earth at any given time. And Lord, we pray that you'd
please protect your people in this world. You told us that
they couldn't touch anybody who had the seal of God in their
forehead. So Lord, we can rest in you when the world's going
to hell, darkness is upon all the thing, we can rest assured,
we find our comfort and assurance not in the world, but in you,
in you and you alone. God bless these dear saints,
I appreciate them, love them, pray your blessings be upon them
for Christ's sake, amen, amen. Well, Lord willing, I'll see
you Wednesday night.