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[0:00] Revelation chapter 9. This book of Revelation, where God is revealing, He is uncovering, He is unveiling the things which must soon take place.

[0:22] The book both begins and ends with that phrase. These things must soon take place. These are not in the far distant future. These are things that apply soon.

[0:37] So as we come to chapter 9 of Revelation, the intensity of judgment escalates.

[0:50] It is as if God is turning up the notch. And as we look at chapter 9 here, I think you'll discover that there's something behind the scenes going on that is quite frightening.

[1:09] And it also gives us, I think, an impression of how to look at what we've read before. We've kind of wondered, is this symbolic? Is this literal? What's going on here?

[1:19] Clearly we see in chapter 9, there is symbolic images going on, very unnatural things happening that are meant to be disturbing and frightening.

[1:37] Okay? So you ready? You want to hear it? So if you're able, please stand as I read from Revelation chapter 9. Actually, just to pick up the context, let's start with verse 6 of chapter 8.

[1:54] Let's just do the trumpets. Revelation 8 verse 6. Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them. The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire mixed with blood.

[2:10] And these were thrown upon the earth, and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. A second angel blew his trumpet, and something, something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.

[2:32] A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch.

[2:47] And it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the stars, wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water because it had been made bitter.

[3:04] The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise, a third of the night.

[3:24] Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead. Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth at the blast of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow.

[3:48] And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and a star, I saw a star falling from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.

[4:02] He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke, like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.

[4:17] Then from the smoke came locusts of the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

[4:39] They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them. And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.

[4:52] And in those days, people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.

[5:03] In appearance, the locusts were like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold. Their faces were like human faces.

[5:16] Their hair like women's hair and their teeth like lion's teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron. And the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.

[5:33] They had tails and stings like scorpions and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails. They have a king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit.

[5:50] His name in Hebrew is Abaddon. And in Greek, his name called Apollyon. The first woe has passed.

[6:01] Behold, look out, two woes are yet to come. When the sixth angel blew his trumpet, I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.

[6:27] So the four angels who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year were released to kill a third of mankind.

[6:39] The number of the mounted troops was twice 10,000 times 10,000. I heard their number. And this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who wrote upon them.

[6:54] They wore breastplates like the color of fire and sapphire and sulfur. And the heads of the horses were like lion's heads.

[7:07] And fire and smoke and sulfur came from their mouths. By these three plagues, a third of mankind was killed by the fire and the smoke and the sulfur coming out of their mouths.

[7:22] For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails are like serpents with heads and by means of them they wound.

[7:37] The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshipping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood which cannot see or hear or walk nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

[8:09] So reads the word. Let us pray. Our Father who art in heaven cause your name to be set apart. Cause your kingdom to come.

[8:22] Cause your will to be done. Give us this day the bread that we need. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

[8:32] Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Please be seated. So we read this chapter and it seems shocking at the end that after all of this stuff going on those who survive will not repent.

[9:02] Why is repentance so hard for us? Why do we not want to repent?

[9:12] We're born with that by the way right? After all the pain death judgment people still will not repent.

[9:24] Is it because we're just stubborn willful hardened yeah yeah in a word proud pride pride pride is a very hard barrier to overcome!

[9:41] will not come to God the scripture tells us that God opposes the proud which means he fights against proud people he resists pride pride doesn't go very far with God on the other hand he gives grace to the humble love so it's interesting how do we respond to God determines how he will respond back to us the sin of pride is one of the things God hates most it goes before destruction it brings on the fall pride can be our very undoing pride I read is like a beard yeah it just keeps growing unless you shave it pride is like a story

[10:45] I read this week story about a minister a boy scout and a computer whiz they were the only passengers on a small plane the pilot came back to the cabin and said that the plane was going down but there were only three parachutes for the four people on the plane the pilot said I should have one of the parachutes because I have a wife and three children so he took one and jumped the computer whiz says I should have one of the parachutes because I'm the smartest man in the world and everyone needs me so he took one and jumped the minister turned to the boy scout and said with a sad smile you are young and I have lived a rich life so you take the remaining parachute and I'll go down with the plane oh good for the minister the boy scout said relax reverend the smartest man in the world just picked up my knapsack and jumped out pride before the fall revelation nine we see what's called the fifth and sixth trumpets they're also called woes warnings because in these two next judgments we see in revelation nine the intensity of judgment is is heightened so in this book of revelation as I said

[12:22] God is revealing to us things he's he's uncovering things behind the scenes he's showing us what's really going on that we don't see with our physical eyes he is revealing and he is showing things that must soon take place so these opening of the seals and playing of the trumpets I believe are things that have been occurring and are recurring throughout church history from the time of Christ till the end we've seen in the seven seals we saw in chapter six the four horsemen right they go out these are the same tragedies of the four horsemen that Jesus described in Matthew 24 that he described as just the beginning of birth pains not the end at all the wars rumors of wars the famines plagues those things go on throughout history in the fifth as he opened the fifth seal then we kind of we go from heaven we go from earth to heaven we see a scene in heaven where the souls of those who have been killed for Christ are there under the altar of God and they're crying out how long how long until we are avenged how long until justice comes how long will evil triumph how long oh God will you let this go on and will you come and make it right how long and the answer they get is until the very last martyr who has been planned is killed

[14:01] God has a set number of martyrs and then we see the sixth seal open and it's like the end the sun is dark and the moon turns to blood the stars fall from the sky the sky is peeled back like a scroll mountains and islands flee away it's the end it sure looks like the end and in fact I think it is a preview kind of I think the seals are kind of this from Jesus time to the end is kind of a long view kind of a quick long view of what it will be like all the way till the end and then the end will come with a bang sudden and then we see the final seal opened at the beginning of chapter 8 where now he's opened the scroll now all seven seals have been opened and now the scroll can finally be seen the scroll the big drama of the scroll the what will happen in the future what will the end be like finally we will see and so revelation starts with the opening of that seal and silence all of the worship all of the praise all of the noise all of the judgments that have gone on suddenly come to a ceasing halt as now the lamb has opened the scroll and we're ready to see what will happen what happens as we see that the trumpets are introduced and then we see something very symbolically significant happen as the angel takes he goes to the altar of incense and he pulls incense out and then he adds the prayers of the saints interesting prayers of the saints are added to the incense and then he takes that and then he takes fire from the altar and he adds the fire to the prayers and the incense and then he takes all of that here comes the throne ready and he casts it to the earth see good form see last week I tried left handed and

[16:07] I made fun of people so cast it to the earth it's like what does prayer what does incense and prayer and fire have to do with judgment well fire get that that's judgment picture but incense that's that's the picture of prayer before God the the incense going up to God and so the prayer and the incense so why is prayer part of judgment because we remember those those souls who are under the altar have been praying when how long when will you do justice so their prayers are taken and their prayers are answered now the prayers of the suffering throughout all the ages are answered definitively the prayers of pain the prayers of waiting the prayers of endurance the prayers of how long the prayers of why are answered definitively

[17:11] God says now it's enough you've suffered long enough and evil will stop which opens us to then the trumpets so we see restrained judgments right in the trumpets they're restrained they're not full yet it's not complete it's just a third of things a third of the earth a third of the sea a third of the water right so a third of the light so it's just it's big but it's not complete it's still restrained God is judging but he's not pouring it all out so it's restrained why is he restraining it it gives people the opportunity to repent why else it gives people time opportunity no one will be able to say to the father you didn't give me an opportunity you didn't give me time you didn't give me warning no one will be able to say that and we ask the question as these trumpet judgments go where you see a you see blood coming to earth right you see it's kind of like the old egyptian plagues the water turning the blood and the sea turning the blood there's a mountain of fire there's a star falling are these literal are they symbolic a great mountain how does a great mountain fall on the sea and affect all the rivers and the streams and all we're in a book with a ton of symbolism

[18:46] I was going to try to go for symbol or something like that and we see from chapter 9 yeah these are not natural things he's describing these are grotesque images and so I think it's very likely that the star falling is not a star but an angel stars stand for angels in revelation mountains stand for kings a great mountain falls down maybe it's the end of a kingdom we've seen that throughout history kingdoms come and go kings come and go entire nations come and go this is perhaps this repeated cycle of judgments going on over and over and over until God says now the bowls now the completion these are warning as Jesus called them birth pangs not yet the end but warnings so now we come to 813 which tells us okay here's a separation now we have the four just like in the seals we have the four horsemen and then kind of a separation of the next two here again with the trumpets we have the four trumpets right in a row boom boom boom quick description of one or two verses now we come to the next two which verse 13 tells us they're separated these become woes these become more intense the judgment escalates the notch goes up because now in chapter 9 we have the whole chapter devoted to simply two judgments each being about 10 or 11 verses each so much more detail much more intensity and as we read it you read it and kind of go whoa what is that locusts serpents scorpions

[20:54] I've seen locusts they have never looked like that so here come the woes so chapter 9 we get the 5th and 6th trumpet which are also the 1st and 2nd woes so verses 1 through 12 in chapter 9 we see first the the 5th trumpet blows and we see what I'm going to call John sees a demonic army inflicting torment on unsealed people they're described as locusts but they're not really locusts they come from the abyss the place of demons this is a demonic army that inflicts torment 5 month torment on people but only the people that have not been sealed on their forehead by God not people unprotected by God so let's see in three parts here it talks about their beginning place their abyss and then we see in verses 3 to 6 their aim what are they all about and then he finishes in verses 7 to 10 with their appearance so their abyss where do they come from we first see in verse 1 a star falls from heaven a star falls from heaven we begin to see as I mentioned before there's something else going on here something demonic there's an abyss there's a star falling from heaven is that a fallen angel remember stars stand for angels in revelation stars also stand for men in chapter 12 the 12 stars stand for the 12 tribes so stars can mean different things it's not just one thing is this a fallen angel is this the same as what's described in verse 11 as the king the angel of the abyss remember when it says angel an angel can be good or bad what we call angels good angels right

[23:02] God serving angels and then demons we call demons but those are fallen angels those are angelic beings who rebel against God like Satan okay so they're similar they're angelic they're supernatural beings so who is this star fallen from heaven interesting when we get to chapter 12 in revelation it talks about when Jesus ascends into heaven right after that there's war in heaven Michael and his angels against the dragon the serpent of old right Satan and his angels and what happens Michael throws out the dragon and his angels the dragon is cast down to earth and he takes with his tail a third of the stars demonic okay so this could be here this fifth trumpet could be the fall of

[24:06] Satan or it could be another demon that's fallen what he does is he's given a key and he opens could even be a good angel I suppose he opens the pit opens the abyss he opens the bottomless shaft so what's the abyss I said earlier that it's the place of demons yeah remember Jesus used to frighten demons right he'd go out and they'd be like whoa you know and in Luke chapter 8 one of the demons that faced Jesus said please do not cast me into the abyss let me go into the pigs please don't Jesus he recognized Jesus had the authority to lock him up seal him up so it's a place of demons and so now the demons these demons who have been locked into this bottomless pit this abyss are now released now allowed to go so what happens what do they do we see verse 3 well verse 2 when they come out we see smoke comes out smoke is always the sign of judgment smoke like a great furnace the sun and the air were darkened okay that's a demonic image of darkness with the smoke of the shaft verse 3 then from the smoke came locusts of the earth and they were given power like the power of scorpions they were told not to harm the grass of the earth or the green plant or the tree by the way that's what normal locusts go for normal locusts devour they devour green things right and every once in a while you get a swarm of locusts

[26:00] I was just reading about them fascinating creatures every once in a while they swarm and they just they can devastate a whole community they can devastate a whole nation Ethiopia recently had locusts just come and devour everything which leads to famine right but these locusts are not regular locusts these are told to oh don't don't eat greenery no go torment people weird don't harm the vegetation no you're to devour something else you're to devour people's minds to harm people that are unsealed we saw remember back in chapter 7 we saw that before God was releasing judgment he first the angel came with the seal of God and sealed the servants of God they were called the 144,000 they were sealed so that when God's wrath came it would not affect the people of God who were on earth so here they're protected but nobody else is protected if you have

[27:08] God's protection you're fine if you have the Holy Spirit by the way that's the seal if you have the Holy Spirit you're protected you can be harassed you can be deceived but you cannot be tormented by the evil as greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world you can not listen to the one who's in you and listen and be deceived bring your own arm but you cannot be controlled or tormented or that's for people who are unsealed to torment for five months interesting it's described as a five it's like the scorpion sting right it doesn't kill you but it's extremely painful should have my daughter talk about scorpion stings oh that one's not as bad dad oh the little one you gotta watch that torment but not kill so the torment is mental emotional spiritual because he describes in verse six that in those days people will seek death and not find it they will long for death but death will flee from them

[28:22] I don't know what that means does that mean they try to kill themselves and are unsuccessful could be does it mean that they're just tormented they think they're gonna die from this and they don't I don't know it just means man they're gonna be tormented and death would be better you kind of picture Job here Job felt like that you know it'd be better to die better not to have been born than deal with what I'm dealing you know he was tormented right a brutal harassment of the soul leads to despair so how do they look he holds off till verse seven to describe how they look in appearance he says what they look like and notice the repeated word like like like like in other words this isn't literal this is what I think they look like I'm giving you my best description just in the words I have so verse seven in appearance they were like horses locusts now they're horses in appearance they're like horses prepared for battle on their heads are what look like crowns of gold yeah if you zoom in locusts are pretty small so these must have been big for

[29:44] John to see the detail of their faces and everything obviously they're not normal locusts but a regular locusts they have little horns on their head could look crown like so but again these aren't locusts so it's something like a crown on their head which means they will have success their faces are like human faces that's weird now if you look up a locusts they don't look human at all but the ones that John saw were human like in other words a face of intelligence not mere insect here their hair like women's hair I don't know what that means I don't know long flowing hair I made the mistake in the morning of saying women's hair on their bodies and they're like my wife is like what I meant women's hair long flowing but not on the head but on the yeah never mind and then

[30:46] I told you why did I do that so okay keep bringing it up just get yourself in bigger trouble teeth like lion's teeth fierce have you ever seen lion's teeth up close yeah it probably wouldn't be good breastplates like breastplates like breastplates of iron the noise of their wings like the noise of many chariots rushing into battle so kind of a battle image going on here they have tails and stings like scorpions right so what's their appearance their appearance is unnatural it's unearthly it's bizarre are they locusts or horses what do they have tails what kind of creature is this and don't by the way picture modern warfare this is not some super attack helicopter okay this is demonic they're army like human like lion like war like the overall impression a cruel ruthless terrifying attack their king in fact is called

[32:09] Abaddon or Apollyon which in both languages means the destroyer interesting I looked that up in Hebrew and it's the same description of the angel of death back in Exodus chapter 12 remember the last plague kill the firstborn what do the Israelites do they put a mark over their right over their house with blood of the lamb and the and the Abaddon the destroying one will pass over that house and not kill destroyer whoever this king is he's been around a while that guy or being so the judgment escalates so let me bring this home a little bit so it talks about judgment on those who are unprotected are you protected are you protected do you know you're protected do you have the seal of God you have the Holy

[33:11] Spirit do you know that or are you vulnerable to torment that's beyond description I do not believe in any way this is far in the future this is going on now every generation so Jesus said interesting back in Luke chapter 10 Jesus said to the 72 disciples he sent them out to preach they come back they said oh we had such success Lord even the spirits were subject to us Lord and Jesus response to them is this Luke describes the 72 returned with joy saying Lord even the demons are subject to us in your name he said to them I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven same thing going on here

[34:13] I saw Satan fall from heaven I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven behold I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions did he mean physical ones no demonic ones and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you boy that sounds like Revelation chapter 9 if you are sealed and protected if you're mine you're protected against the serpents and the scorpions and the demonic hordes that doesn't mean you go seek and try to fight them you don't have to worry about them nevertheless do not rejoice that the spirits are subject to you but rejoice that your names are written in heaven in that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said I thank you Father Lord of heaven and earth that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children yes father for such was your gracious will all things have been handed over to me said

[35:22] Jesus by my father and no one knows who the son is except the father and who the father is except the son and anyone to whom the son reveals it in other words it's in Jesus hands whether you will know the father and the son which are you Jesus said I praise you that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent are you the wise and intelligent of the world is this faith thing this Jesus thing too come on you're too wise for that you're too intelligent for that or are you able to see who Christ is so the first woe is past woe woe woe behold right he says behold remember what that means behold look look look or look out because here comes the next woe you think that's bad let's see trumpet number seven so we come to verse 12 the first woe is past behold two more woes are still to come verse 13 then the sixth angel blew!

[36:43] his trumpet and what happens he's going to describe a huge cavalry demonic I keep saying it wrong Delinda's not here to correct me James okay James cavalry I always say cavalry it's cavalry okay horse army but what they really are is a demonic invasion so we had demonic army earlier now we have a demonic invasion that doesn't just torment but now kills now kills by plagues that come from the mouth and from the tail which is actually the head of a serpent so therefore from the mouth of the serpent the mouth that kills which I think is deception so again three parts their aim what are they doing now they're on a mission to kill their appearance we'll look at that and then their effect verses 20 21 so what's the result of all this what impact did they make so we're shown this demonic invasion their aim verses 13 to 15 we read he hears the voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God so in other words in the midst of the right before God is that altar and there's a voice that comes from that is that the prayers of the saints is that one of the four creatures is that just

[38:10] Jesus is that the lamb we don't know but a voice comes and says release the four angels who are bound okay these aren't good angels these are bound angels in other words they're four demons and they've been bound there for a long time verse 15 they have they have been prepared for the hour the day the month and the year they won't be released one minute before God says go now if this is happening periodically what I envision is they're let go and then okay Michael go round them up round them up bring them back okay we'll let them go next phase or maybe they're they were released to kill a third of mankind so the the judgments turned up from pain to death they are standing or bound at the river Euphrates now we still have the river Euphrates it's one of the original four rivers of the garden of Eden so we know the garden

[39:17] Eden somewhere down there you can't see it because it's guarded by a seraphim who's in another dimension and never mind we'll talk about that later but the Euphrates what's the Euphrates what's the significance of the Euphrates huge river okay great goes through Babylon got it but to Abraham God described I'm going to give you this land and he described the eastern boundary as the Euphrates that's the very edge of the promised land that's the edge of that land that symbolizes heaven and safety and security and blessing beyond that that's where the Babylonians come from that's where the Assyrians come from that's where that's where Persia comes from that's where all those invaders come to take your land and take you away and by the way when do those invaders come to Israel Babylon Assyria Medo-Persia when do all of them come against Israel when Israel has been disobedient they've been worshipping other gods okay release the kraken

[40:27] James gave me that wasn't that James did you say kraken oh is it William Neeson I heard it this morning I thought it was funny alright no something worse than the kraken release the four so then he describes what they look like in verse 16 so he says first their number their number of mounted troops by the way it's four angels he hears four angels what does he see he sees horses we see this over and over again in the book of revelation he hears 144 thousand what he sees is innumerable numbers in heaven right he hears lion of Judah what he sees is lamb slaying so revelation is doing this all time it's giving us different viewpoints hear what he hears but what he sees what's behind the scenes is not what we think see we think lion who had victory he came as a lamb he's still the lion in fact we're seeing lion things going on now but although he's still called the lamb so just you know we've got these different things going on so here again so now what does he hear he hears this incalculable number this myriads of myriads now you could you could times myriad times myriad times two times ten and come up with something like 200 million but that's probably not what John meant he just meant myriads of double that no ten times that that's what I saw

[42:13] I don't know what they're just all over the place just like the angels in heaven that worship God myriads and myriads right so will be this judgment coming to earth just a flood an unimaginable force and as he describes the appearance of them once again he piles up these hideous metaphors right verse 17 and this is how I saw the horses this is what I saw I heard now I see their horses and it's in my vision by the way so in other words I'm describing with symbols they wore breastplates the color now the colors these are weird colors color of fire ever heard of color of fire color of sulfur you ever heard of that sulfur color like a pale yellow color of sapphire apparently bluish so it's kind of a red blue not red white blue red blue and yellow the heads of the horses were like lion's heads the fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths fire sulfur also known as brimstone fire and brimstone we've heard of that before in the

[43:35] Bible way back way back fire and brimstone that's judgment but this has fire smoke and brimstone came out of their mouths verse 18 by these three plagues a third of mankind was killed by fire by smoke and sulfur or brimstone coming out of their mouths so again we get these metaphors these hideous you know what are we to think when we hear these images well we think of something once again fierce lion-like dreadful destructive fire and sulfur and completely unnatural unearthly the plagues come from the mouth why is that and even as he says in verse 19 the power is in their mouths and their tails so it's not just the mouth but listen to how he describes the tail the tail what's the tail it's not a normal tail it's like a serpent it's a serpent head it's like Medusa right but in the tail so in other words strikes by the mouth strikes by the mouth what's the mouth what's the mouth the dragon is called in chapter 12 he's called the dragon he's called the serpent so these creatures are serpent-like he's called the dragon the serpent he's called satan he's called the devil and he's called one who deceives the whole world

[45:05] Jesus said that satan is the father of lies he's the murderer from the beginning how does he murder well he murders actually by lying how did he kill Adam and Eve by lying to them by deceiving them so these will I think the killing I don't think we're talking about physical death I think we're talking about a different death entirely I think we're talking about a death by deception a death of spiritual life a death of spiritual hope a death of spiritual sensitivity every time we sin right we experience death a spiritual kind of death remember death means separation from God right when Adam and Eve sinned they didn't die physically but they died suddenly they're hiding from God right death is a separation eternal death is an eternal separation from God this death is a separating

[46:11] God is removing himself from these people further and further that's what I think is going on here so what's the effect verse 20 21 you would expect right after all the tormenting the judgment the death the despair the hopelessness the pain you'd expect a change and yet what we read is the rest of mankind who were not killed in other words who survived but who survived these plagues did not repent now he describes not just that they didn't repent but what they didn't repent of and this is significant what didn't they repent of they didn't repent of the works of their hands or the worship right so their works and their worship he describes their worship he did not give up worshipping what demons and idols by the way both

[47:17] New Testament and Old Testament talks about worship of demons and when you are involved in idol worship you are involved in demon worship demons use idols so they they where did go they did not give up worship idols and demons now they're man made excuse me man made things gold silver bronze those are the more expensive ones and then for the average person you got stone and wood right which either way even if they're gold ones they still can't see or hear or walk and then he says they don't repent of their works either the works of murder and sorcery immorality and theft all those four works actually go with idol worship sorcery being witchcraft being potions being anything of that kind the word being pharmacy pharmacy so drug related so you make potions somebody joked that our virus is a potion this morning

[48:27] I don't think so but it is nevermind what's an idol an idol is an instrument of demons to keep us in the dark to keep us callous from God's warning it's something that you trust in an idol is not just some kind of little figurine you know we see pictures of idols in ancient cultures and they're little figurines they're usually figurines of some kind of God right so they're these kind of grotesque looking things that are yeah go to Corinth you'll see very vivid images of things that you would think we should not see so we think well that's I don't have some little doll thing that was made that I worship and bow down that's silly well what do you have what do you have that you trust in what do you have that you value what do you have what do you put in for meaning in life what gives you meaning in life that's your value that's your idol what do you look to for security and for your identity that's your idol what is it that takes

[49:43] God's place as providing for you security value meaning identity all of that that's your idol it could be your family it could be your job it could be something in church you could value your bible over God it could become an idol you know that oh I just love to study I don't want to relate to God it could be anything it could be a person it could be an idea it could be a career what is it you think that's my hope that's what will make me feel complete that's your idol it's something we create listen to how Habakkuk you read Habakkuk lately say that five times fast and especially say it in Hebrew you gotta spit here's what Habakkuk says in chapter 2 he says what profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it a metal image teacher of lies for its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes a speechless idol the Old

[51:03] Testament always talks about idols as they don't walk they don't talk they don't see you're trusting in that it's absurd it's foolish it's futile in fact it's what Paul describes in Romans chapter 1 he describes how people respond to God how do you respond to God because this chapter is really about how do you respond to God and here we see God actually pouring out judgment and people's response is I'm not going to change me I'm going to be doing what I do I'm not going to give you the benefit so here's how Paul describes it in Romans 1 he talks about the wrath of God he says the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who watch how do they respond to God's revelation they respond by suppressing the truth for what can be known about

[52:10] God for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them you hear what he's saying now he's saying there's no such thing as an atheist or agnostic they can convince themselves that they are atheist or agnostic but God is saying no they know I made it plain to them I showed them the evidence they know they absolutely know they have no in fact he goes on he made it plain because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and his divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since creation of the world in the things which have been made creation there's only one conclusion that's logical and rational and sane so they are without excuse he goes on for although they knew God they knew God they did not honor him as

[53:11] God or give thanks to him but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things or careers or whatever therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves why because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever amen he goes on and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God see the willfulness there oh I just didn't know no they did not see fit to acknowledge God God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness evil covetousness malice they're full of envy murder strife deceit maliciousness they're gossips wait a minute how'd gossip get in that bad list

[54:21] I thought we were just talking about the bad stuff oh I guess gossip's a bad thing too gossip slanders haters of God insolent haughty boastful inventors of evil disobedient to parents foolish faithless heartless ruthless though they know God's righteous decree still today though they know God's righteous decree no matter what they say that those who practice such things deserve to die they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them so where do you stand how have you responded have you accepted the truth and responded to the truth or have you suppressed it just pushed it down notice how God's wrath is described it's not like active coming at you it's he pulls back as you reject him he what he gives you over go do what you want that is true and so we see in revelation 9 the same kind of people he has let them go now he's saying okay now I'm warning you and what will they do by that time they're so hardened because they've given they've been given over they kept not acknowledging they kept suppressing the truth they continued to exchange

[55:56] God and glory for something less but easier and I can create it and I can draft it and I can make it mine and I can talk about it so where do you stand what do you value more than God this is for all of us what do you value more than God we all do this huh this is a natural thing to do it's easy to go there we see it in our advertising we see it in marketing we see it in everything around us all the time there's other things to draw us to answer my problem but they don't answer my problem and make it easier for a while maybe unless it's a scan there's plenty of those around these horrifying metaphors are for us these images of locust and scorpion and serpent and all of this stuff this horrifying metaphor it's for us it's to shock us

[57:13] Christians from our complacency it's to awaken us to help us realize the deceit of the things we invest with value that behind them is a demonic lie let's pray father we have idolatry in our hearts we have it naturally we don't want it but we have it we're easily tempted to seek our meaning and security and value and identity and hopes and dreams and things that we can create and control so god awaken us from our complacency reveal the deception that is in our hearts this we pray in christ's name amen amen Thank you.