OCT 15 2023 | The Seven Trumpets of Revelation S1E2 | The Fifth Trumpet

Sea Change Church · The Seven Trumpets of Revelation S1E2 · "The Fifth Trumpet" · October 15, 2023
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

We're gonna read through right now, and we are, uh, in the, uh, book of Revelation in, uh, season three. We're at episode two, the fifth angel sounding a trumpet fall along, if you would. The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the abyss.

When you open the abyss, smoke rose from it, like smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and the sky were darkened by the smoke from the abyss and out of the smoke. Locust came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but those people who did not have the seal of God on their forehead, they were not allowed to kill them, but only torture them for five months.

And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion. When it strikes during those days, people will seek death, but they will not be able to find it. They will long to die, but death will allude them. The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle on their heads. They wore something like crowns of gold. Their faces resembled human faces.

Their hair was like women's hair, and their teeth were like lion's teeth. They had breastplates like the breastplates of iron. And the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. They had tails and stingers like scorpions, and in their tails, they had power to torment people.

For five months they had over them as king. The angel of the abyss whose name in Hebrew is a baton, and in Greek is a polyon. That means the destroyer, the first woe is passed. The two other woes are yet to come. You're gonna see that, uh, we've provided you, and we're gonna put this online as well. Um, a, uh, really cool cartoon. I think it's from the Bible project, uh, that you'll have in your hands.

We've been giving you that you can download it as well. It breaks up the entire book of revelation into a cartoon. It makes it real a lot easier. Not really easy to understand, but a lot easier. So that's for you to go home and to check out when you're at home. If you, um, found last week that it was a lot of information in your eye, uh, your eyelids were peeled back, that's gonna happen.

When you get into the book of Revelation, it's like that. I want to encourage you study along. If you want to know the scripture, uh, you know, this is the place where we kind of set the ball on the tee. But when you go home and in your own study, as you read and, and dig deeper, you're gonna find out more. But that tool that I just gave you is an incredible tool that breaks it down.

And so if I get boring today, it's really fun to look at and, uh, it'll take your interest away until I'm done. Just kidding. Uh, interesting timing to start a revelation series, right? Uh, Israel being attacked from not all sides, but from two sides at the moment. Uh, yesterday, an eclipse. Did you notice that? Uh, sun turns dark, moon turns red. I, I'm just saying I'm not, don't shoot the messenger.

I'm just saying it's an interesting time to start and, uh, all eyes are on God's holy land right now. Right? And, uh, there is a spirit of fear that is going out. I believe it's a demonic assignment that it's going out. And Satan has all those little minions going around who will ever receive the fear of the world. He will give you as much as you want.

There's two types of fear in the Bible. There's the fear of the world, and then there's the fear, which is a reverence for God. It's not fear, like the fear of the world, where you're terrified, afraid. It is the fear and a reverence. And we are called to live in the latter, not the former. And so the key word for today, I have a key word.

I want you to write it on your notes. It's in your notes, but you can circle it as well. The key word is sovereignty. If you don't know that word, it means God is sovereign. It means God is overseeing over all things. God is in control. God is in charge. Nothing gets by him, nothing surprises him. All things work together for good, for those that are called by God according to his purposes.

And God is the master and, and controller of every event, every time, every season of life. The Bible is clear about that sovereignty. Living in a world where people are in panic, there's a lot of panic, a lot of fear. And as believers, we have an anchor, which is the word of God, which tells us God is in charge. And by faith we believe that.

So I wanna just start, if you are been whooped up into that, that frenzy of the world, that Jesus says, when you see these things take heart, look up for the day of redemption is near, or he says, don't be alarmed, which is a command if you found yourself. And it's a temptation to move into that. I wanna encourage you to reject that, to reject that temptation and believe in God's sovereignty and faith, knowing that he is in charge and that he loves you.

We have a couple things that we're gonna set up before we get to two main points today. Couple things that we have mentioned. We have a fallen star. We have an abyss. Okay, so who's the fallen star? What's going on with this abyss? We know that we are in the, um, second set of the trumpets. You're gonna have to go back and study.

It's also on the, the sheet that I handed out. You're gonna see the trumpets are broken up into four, uh, or to two sets. You have four trumpets. At below you have a, a, a, a climactic, uh, the climate is affected, the sun is darkened. That does it. The, the, um, the, the sea is affected, it's climate based. And then now you have some demons that are being released. Uh, in the, in the second set, which are called the three woes, the final three, there's seven trumpets. The first four are blown. The second group, which is three trumpets, are called the woes. And before I told you last week, an angel came out before this fifth trumpet blows. Angel comes out and he says, whoa, whoa, woe for the three trumpets that are about to be sounded, we're in the fifth trumpet and we're seeing that there is a release, a demonic release that is happening. Well, the first thing that we're gonna see is that there's a fallen star.

Go to verse uh, one, the fifth angel sounded his trumpet. And I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. A lot of conjecture about who the star is, is the star. A spirit of fear is the star. A person is the star. Whatever the star could be, I believe that the majority of of conservative, uh, biblical thinkers believe that that star is Satan, Satan himself.

And the reason being for that is there's many times where Satan is called a star. Uh, so I put here in your notes, the angel of the abyss is identified with Satan himself depicting his role as a destroyer and the opponent of God's people. And purposes. One of the things you'll see in Luke 10 18, Jesus says this, and I remember Jesus saying this. He said, um, Jesus replied, I saw Satan fall like what?

Like a lightning from heaven that Satan is seen as falling from heaven. Satan is also seen as like a star falling from heaven. He falls from heaven As you, if you were to Google search of a star falling from heaven in the Bible, you will see that it oftentimes it relates to Satan. So we believe that this is actually Satan himself and that he is here and he is now given the keys to the abyss, which means he is getting control of something that he didn't have.

Now, what is the abyss? As we look in the aby abyss, go to verse two. It says, the abyss is a place where demons are held in captivity. Verse two, when he opened the abyss, smoke rose from it, like smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and the sky were darkened by the smoke from the abyss. Now, that could be symbolic or not, but we know the abyss is the place where the demons asked Jesus not to send them. Remember, Jesus was walking in the uh, and met a man who was, who was filled with demons, a legion, a thousand demons. And they said to him, they begged him, please do not what, send us into the abyss.

Send us into the pigs. We don't want to go to the abyss. And under the abyss is a place where demons are sent and there are demons that are allowed to be on the earth. We know that. We see that in scripture, but it seems that there's a whole bunch that fell with Satan at the beginning of, uh, of time when he fell, and that we're locked into this abyss.

And Jesus has the power and Jesus has the keys to the abyss. And he controls that. What we see here, that Satan is now given authority. He has given the keys to the abyss. Now what did Peter get? Peter, get the keys to the abyss. No, Peter, Peter got the keys to the kingdom of heaven. And then speaking about his church, he says, you will be part of a church.

And upon that, that church, I will, I it says upon that name, the name of Jesus, uh, I will build my church. And so Peter and ourselves have the keys to heaven. God has given us keys to release. But Jesus was holding these keys. And now during the revelation period, Satan has given the keys. And so Satan goes to this place. We don't know where, where it is.

I was listening to Chuck Smith this week from Calvary Chapel, great Bible teacher. And he believes that it is in the center of the earth. And many people, especially in the Middle Ages, believe it's in the center of the earth, the earth. And it very possibly could be, I don't know, I don't wanna have any conjecture, but it is a place and it is a spiritual place, but it also seems to be a physical place because when the smoke rises, it affects the earth. So there is a physical component to it, but this is the place where they are kept. So the two things, we have a fallen star and we have an abyss.

And God has been holding the demons back. Luke 8 31 says, in the account of Jesus, casting out the demons from man into the herd of pigs, that Jesus beg the demons begged Jesus not to order them to go into the abyss. So one of the things is we see the abyss now opened. I think it's probably true that we don't want the abyss opened. I I, I think it's a thing you don't want to mess with. Um, but for some reason God opens, uh, allows the abyss to be open and it is opened by Satan. So, uh, this is how this passage and what we're gonna read next is framed up.

You have a new character on the scene, actually not a new character, but Satan is allowed in. He's allowed to show up. He is given keys that he formally didn't have, didn't have them, was given them. This is gonna be important in a moment when we look at the limitations of the demonic and he's given these keys and then he's given the ability to release the demonic forces and they go out and start to torment human kind.

And so there's two main points that I have today. The first one is this, angels have assignments and demons, demons have limits. Where'd you get that from? Angels have assignments and demons have limits. Get into that. Number two, God's people have a protector. Two things. Now this is gonna, this, this is gonna shape the way you live, the way that you process what's happening in the world right now.

What is happening in the world right now is heavy. Not sure it's World War II heavy yet, but it's heavy. Um, there's a lot going on in all. There is not a headline that is not focused on what's happening. These two principles, if you want to adopt them into the way that you live, a faith-based life of joy, peace, grace, and love and hope in Christ, who is your sovereign protector will change the way you live.

You're gonna live in fear or you can live in fear and reverence of the Lord. Who is your protector? So the first one is angels have assignments, demons have limits. And number two, God's people have a protector. Let's look at angels have limits, angels have assignments and demons have limits. Verse one, the fifth angel sounded his trumpet. Now I was reading, I wanna stop right there when I read.

All of a sudden I've been asking God what I want to give people something that changes their lives. I don't wanna give you a bunch of information. There's a bunch of information and we can do conjecture. I got 25 minutes, 30 minutes tops to, to share something that changes your life. I wanna change your life on Tuesday. I wanna change your life on Wednesday.

And I was asking the Lord, show me something that I've not seen before. That is a message I can give to God's people. To give them grace, to give them mercy to live. And this is what came out to me. Something I, I mean you, it would be so easy to miss. But the Spirit just spoke to me and he said, my angels have assignments and so do my people.

He said, all the angels that you see are just waiting. Every time you see 'em in scripture, they're hanging out, they're waiting, they're waiting. Lord, when they're asking questions, when is my time? They're constantly on assignment. We see that there is this, each angel in the book of Revelation has an assignment to which they are aware and to which they're obedient to.

This is so easy to miss each angel in the book of Revelations. That is one of God's angels have an assignment to which they are aware and obedient to. I wanna say angels don't sit around asking, what's my purpose? Oh, what's the goal of my life? What's my purpose? Angels sit around waiting for a call from God in a moment to go do what God tells them to do in that moment. And in that moment, when they fulfill that pur the the assignment, their purpose is fulfilled.

We have so many believers that are waiting around to get to some magical place, some greener pasture. You're gonna write your book, you're gonna get a bigger house, you're gonna have the job that you want, you're gonna have this thing. And all the time God has these assignments for us. He has these assignments and we're not even aware of these assignments.

And so the first thing that I felt like God said to me, which is just a unique point that really spoke to my heart, is are you on assignment or are oftentimes we just asleep. You see God has an assignment every single day. He has an assignment that he's waiting to use you. And I want to give you a Ephesians two 10 as part of that.

You can write that down. It's not in your notes. For we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which were prepared in advance for us to do. I I wanna encourage you to get on assignment. I wanna encourage you to be aware. I want as you drive, say God, what have you got for me today? God gimme a divine appointment. I had 10 men. We were up in big bear. Uh, yesterday we were hiking. We spent three days, two nights, 29 degrees.

Very cold. I hate, I hate it, I hate camping, but I still did it. Um, we hiked to the top of Bertha Peak and as we got there, there was a man and his family and he was a believer, began to pray and prophesy over us. He didn't even know he was prophesying, but he began to say things over us in our group. And he said, you got this many men come up here.

That's the kind of church as a man that I want to go to. I wanna go to that kind of church. And I've been asking God about, you know, the kind of church we want to have for men and what God's called us to do. And it was just this divine appointment. We prayed over him and his and his wife's face was beaming and his daughter.

And we gave him words of encouragement and we're just up there having a prayer, little prayer festival. God was on the move. The thing is, get on assignment each day. If you were on assignment, your assignment each day will lead you into your purpose, which is to glorify God anyways. And so the first point that I have is Angels have as assignments. And so do you.

The scripture says you have an assignment, you have an assignment this afternoon, it might be go home and rest. It might be, go slow down, put your feet up, rest in me, enjoy your day. It might be sign up for Joe's next trip. It might be contact Pastor Harry. There is an assignment and oftentimes we are not aware, we have a new thing here.

It's called Change the World Tuesdays 'cause on Tuesday staff meeting. So I don't wanna just have staff meeting, I wanna have change the world Tuesday. So we're gonna up that game. So I want us to come now on these meetings when I show up, whenever I show up to somewhere, I want to, I wanna show up saying, God, what's your assignment? God, what do you have?

Like those angels ready to blow those trumpets. As we get to the next trumpet, there's four angels that are being bound up since the, the fall of mankind. They've been bound up and they're just waiting to roll. We see God there and we see that there is these assignments. So that's the first thing. Are you on assignment God has works for you to do.

He's got works for you to do this afternoon. He's got work for you to do all the time. He's just looking for people that want to partner with him. The next thing is demonic limitations. One of the things you see, uh, is that these demons look really powerful and they are. But if you pay attention, you're going to see that there are tons of limitations. Uh, Satan wants to be seen as all powerful, but he's not only God is all powerful.

He wants to be seen as all knowing. We know that Satan was not all knowing because he made a mistake when he crucified Christ. When the scripture says that if the heaven, the powers in the heavenly realms had known what they had done when they crucified Christ, they would've not have crucified the Lord. He got outsmarted out foxed by God.

And so there's this massive show of power. But let me show you some of these limitations. The first one I already mentioned, Satan doesn't have the keys to open anything until God says you can open that door in Revelation later on. It says that Christ has the keys to doors that no one can open. And he has the keys to close doors that no one can close.

But he has given us what the keys to the kingdom of heaven. And so this October, as we begin to harvest our prayers, I wanna challenge you. Look for breakthrough. Do the due diligence to sit with God and say, God, where do I need a breakthrough? Look for scriptures. Begin to look for scripture where God is gonna break through into your life.

I was talking to my mom, godly woman. I love that. I got this incredible mom. And I called her, uh, back in the summer and I had a thing that was going on. I said, mom, I got a issue. I need some counsel. My mom has godly counsel. I said, I said, mom, gimme, I need, I need some wisdom. She goes, okay, this is what she does. She goes, Hey, let's just wait. Let's just wait.

I'm on the phone. I'm over in Israel. Let's just wait. Let's just wait. I said, okay, I'm waiting. I know something's coming. She gotta throw a fastball curve ball, slider. I don't know what's coming, but I know something's coming high and tight. She goes, alright. Uh, she goes, first thing, you need to address this outta your spirit net man, not your inner child. I like what just happened there?

I need to address this outta my spirit, man, not my inner child. Because the child was going, yeah, you're gonna do this. And then she goes, okay, now before you get a strategy, you need to go into the word of God and you read until he gives you three scriptures. He's gonna give you, he give you scriptures. You don't make a decision on this issue until you have three scriptures.

And then you build your strategy off those three scriptures. Is that hot? It's getting hot up in here. So open up your Bible. We see that these demons have demonic limitations and God wants to open up. He gives us, we have the keys to the kingdom. We have the keys to eternity that God has given us. So in October, I'm encouraging you to start seeding the ground with scriptures and prayers for breakthrough. And then we've got fast.

We're gonna give up those things so that we go forward. The demons don't have that luxury. Demons can only do what they're told like they're begging Jesus. Oh, just don't send us into the abyss. Don't send us in. But we come as children of God seeking to partner with God and the things that he already has prepared for us in, in advance.

And God can open up those keys in our lives. I said the demons, locusts seemed all powerful, but they were limited. Go to verse four. The demons were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree. Now you could easily read by that. I think that that okay, fine. I mean we already had that in the la in the first four trumpets, they kind of burned up all the grass.

It looks like some of it's grown back 'cause the grass is back. Remember, it was all burned up in the last trumpet, but now it's back, grass grows back. So there's been a little bit of a time in between there. One of the things you can miss is this, what do locusts use to sustain themselves? What do they eat? Trees, plants, grass. They're being sent to do a work, but they have no sustenance to sustain themselves. You ever seen that before?

That is how it is. That the, the enemy only has so much power. The enemy has a limited amount of power and the power that oftentimes God gives him. And sometimes we give him power ourselves. We give Satan power over us by the things that we believe, by the things that we do. I was reading in Second Timothy today about first and second Timothy.

I read through that this morning. And Paul is saying, these people have given themselves over and they're being, they have great turmoil in their lives because they've given themselves over to these things we see. So in verse four, these locusts, while they seem all powerful, don't be afraid of them. They're gonna run outta steam. Next one, verse five.

The demons were not allowed to kill people, but only to torture them for five months. They were not allowed. You were not allowed to do that. And God will often say, 'cause you know, remember the Satan came and he asked something of, of God to, of God's throne about Peter. And Jesus says, Satan is asked to sift you like wheat. But Jesus says, but I have prayed for you, but I have prayed with you for you. He wants you to be sifted.

I had a pastor, a, a prophet pastor, Bishop, pray over me this summer and gimme some words. He says, Satan is asked to sift you. He said that to me. He says, Satan is asked to sift you, but he said that you're continuing on. Well, he had other words on that, but I'll just leave it at that. And I thought, man, it's true. Satan wants to sift you. He wants to sift your marriage.

I just wants to sift it out. Get all the goodness, take it away, throw it away. He wants to sift you, but he has limitations. And Satan can do nothing that God allows. They were not allowed. And God has a protective, sovereign grace over us. And oftentimes if we decide to stay in righteousness, God will make our paths straight.

There mean just verse after verse about God's protection. Do a Google search on God's protection. Google search God's protection this week. If you have fear, and you will see that the next thing we see in, in Revelation 21 through three, which um, is not in this passage, is that these keys that Satan has, Satan loses his keys.

Now I do that all the time, but in Revelation 21 through three, if you were to go there, it says, an angel came down from heaven having the keys to the abyss, having the keys to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he binds Satan for a thousand years showing that. And then he binds Satan for a thousand years and shows that God's power far exceeds Satan's. What happens is Satan is given these keys for the abyss.

He gets after it. He's all excited. He's releasing scorpions, they're going off, they're doing all their stuff. They're limited because they're gonna run outta sustenance. And then later on in Revelations 20, something happened to Satan's keys 'cause he ain't got the keys no more to the abyss. 'cause now in angel comes down, has a key and a great chain, and he binds up Satan with that chain and locks him up. You see, Satan is not powerful if you have believed the lie that Satan is all powerful, that Satan's in control of everything that's happened in the Earth.

It is not true. God is a sovereign God and they have, um, God has, um, power and sovereignty over that. So those are the two things that I felt were practical that I wanted to give today. I mean, granted, we could go down rabbit trails. There's a lot of YouTube videos. I encourage you to go look at all the different things and you can do that.

But what I wanted to teach was something practical to change your life. Angels have assignments. So do you demons have limitations and God is sovereign over that. And the final thing is this, God's people have a protector. Go to verse four. They were told not to harm the grass of the ground or any plant, but only those who did not have the seal of God upon their foreheads.

Now, if you go back to verse three, there's a word exia. And uh, in verse three, if you read verse three with me, out of the smoke, the locust came down on the earth and were given power. There's once again that limitation that it says they were given power. That word exia means they don't have a power that comes from them.

Now, that is opposite from God. Why? Because God is self-generating. In fact to be true. God isn't even self-generating his power. He just is power. God doesn't have like a generator that is constantly generating power for eternity. That's all powerful. God just is power. He doesn't need to be given power. He is power. And when we tap into God, we tap into eternal power.

Exia here in verse three means that these demons were given power. They were allowed to do this. And God has Satan on a short chain, as we saw in Revelations chapter 20. I wanna say that our ability to have, um, God's sovereignty protect us over the plans of Satan in our life is, is, is evident all throughout scripture. We know in Revelations 1210 when we get there, there's this powerful verse.

It talks about those that were here during the tribulation. It says they triumphed over him. That's Satan Revelations 1211. They triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much as to shrink back from death. It says, how was Satan overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony?

And how are you saved by faith in Jesus is if we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths, I wanna say vocal, being vocal in your faith is important. And it's especially important as we, as we resist the devil. Why? Because the devil is resisted by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. What's your testimony? Oh, just horrible. Life's the worst.

And sometimes life's hard. I get that. But there's another testimony there that'll rise up. When you get into the word, when you get into prayer, that'll begin to tell you who God is. Where you begin to tell Satan not on my watch. Amen. Today, Jesus Christ is Lord, for now and forever. You haven't come to our Tuesday prayer meeting.

We got a great Tuesday prayer meeting. Cammie from Texas shows up. I love praying with Cammie. Pray like my mom and other people. She said we, I'm sorry, I'm gonna do the Texas access Cammie, I apologize. She says, Satan, we're just gonna bind you today. We're gonna bind you. You're a toothless foe. We're gonna throw you into the pit of hell and you were just gonna rot forever.

You don't have a father. I have a father, but you don't have a father. I was like, yes. Let's rise up. Let's run through a wall. Go Cammie. Let's is one of the people that pray they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. What's your testimony? Are you on assignment? And what's your testimony? Here's the practical takeaway.

This is the practical takeaway as we come in for a landing. We have four that we're gonna be looking at over the four weeks. Um, repent was last week. The next one is prepare. Prepare. We have the holiday seasons coming up, right? I'm looking at a new fake tree. I'm a fake tree guy now. 10 years ago I went fake tree. I just don't like a tree dying in my house. It just makes me sad.

So I want a fake tree. Plastic, fake tree. Except they're like $900 now. No, they're like 400 bucks. Like even the cheap, I can't believe how much a fake tree costs. We're preparing for the holidays, right? You're getting all this prepared. But oftentimes we don't prepare for the thing that matters most. We don't prepare. In Luke 1235 through 36, it says this, be dressed and ready for service.

Keeping your lamps burning like servants, waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet so that when he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the door for him. What I like about that passage and what I like about the angels and what we see in these scriptures is the readiness is a preparedness. There's like an the like the door's gonna open and we are ready.

We're not just waiting, hanging out, they're waiting with preparation. It is so easy to think you're prepared when you're not. And we saw that last week. One of the most prepared countries, if not the most prepared countries in the world was snuck up on, didn't see it coming, didn't see it coming at all. Thought they were prepared, had everything in place that would tell you they were prepared.

But it was holiday and it was Shabbat on top of it being a holiday and like a thief in the night. Lemme just finish with this. We can have our Bible, you can go to Bible study, you can go help orphans and be utterly unprepared. And then there's awareness that comes from regularly asking Jesus. And this is, this is the takeaway, the prescription this week saying to Jesus, what's my assignment today? What's my assignment now?

Alistair Beggs says, I have a 62nd faith. That's as much as I can get through at a time. God, what do you want me to do right now, in this moment right now to be prepared. We want to be a people that are prepared and ready because as the song says, people get ready. Let's a train that's coming. Amen. Stand if you would.