We are going through the book of Revelation, and I invite you to turn to chapter 9, Revelation chapter 9. This is a series we’ve been in for many months, and for those of you who haven’t been with us, you can always download the sermons in the past from gty.org, if that would help you catch up. Otherwise, you’re going to have to accept the fact that we’re jumping in midstream, here, a little bit. But I think the text itself will speak in a powerful way. And I say that because this has to be one of the most sobering passages of Scripture, certainly in the New Testament; for that matter, all of Scripture. It is a breathtaking look at a level of divine vengeance that is beyond anything we have seen yet in the book of Revelation; and we have seen a lot about divine judgment, but this exceeds everything that we have seen.

So just to set the stage a little bit, as we approach this ninth chapter, we remember that the book of Revelation is a series of prophetic visions given to the apostle John at the end of the first century and written down for our blessing and edification. This book of Revelation takes us back to take us forward. It is back to the future. Most of the book of Revelation is looking at events that have not yet happened. The first three chapters look at the life of the church and the church age, and then in chapters 4 and 5 the church has been raptured and taken to heaven. That event has not happened yet. But once it does happen and the church is removed, all hell breaks loose on earth in a period called the Tribulation. This is where final judgment is meted out by God. That runs from chapter 6 all the way to chapter 19, where you have the return of Christ, and He comes back to earth, sets up His kingdom for a thousand years in chapter 20, and then in chapters 21 and 22, He creates the new heaven and the new earth, which is the eternal state. So that’s the flow of the book.

As we come to chapter 9, we are in the time of Tribulation, the seven-year period after the church is taken out of the world and judgment begins to fall. The judgments flow out of a series of sevens. There are seven seals that are opened, there are seven trumpets that are blown, and seven bowls that are poured out; and they, basically, accumulate the final judgments of God during that period of time.

Now we’ve gone through the seven seals, we’re looking at the seventh seal, and out of the seventh seal come seven trumpets, angels blowing trumpets announcing judgment. We’ve already seen the first four in chapter 8. You can look at the first of the trumpets in verse 7 of chapter 8, and it has to do with hail and fire mixed with blood, thrown to the earth. A third of the earth burned up, a third of the trees burned up, all the green grass burned up. That’s the vision of what is to come.

The second angel sounds, and you have a great mountain burning with fire, some kind of body from the sky, thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea becomes blood, a third of the creatures in the sea and had life died, a third of the ships are destroyed. The tsunami would be incomprehensible, with some asteroid or meteor flying out of the sky and hitting the sea.

The third angel sounds in verse 10. A great star, again, falling from heaven, burning like a torch, and it does damage to a third of the rivers and the springs of water. It poisons everything. Verse 11, many die from that.

The fourth angel sounds. A third of the sun, a third of the moon, a third of the stars were struck. A third of them would be darkened, the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way. So the earth is struck with this rapid-fire series of trumpet blasts that begin in the middle of the seven-year period and fill up the final three and a half years.

Now we come to verse 1 of chapter 9 and the fifth angel. But we have an introduction to that in verse 13. So go back to verse 13 of chapter 8: “Then I looked,” John says, “and heard an eagle flying in midheaven, saying with a loud voice, ‘Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth.’” “To those who dwell on the earth” is a technical phrase for the unbelievers in the world. It’s used about a half a dozen times in the book of Revelation. So “woe,” meaning judgment coming to those who dwell on the earth, unbelievers, “because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!” Three more trumpets, and out of the seventh trumpet come seven rapid-fire bowl judgments that happen at the end of that three-and-a-half years in a matter of weeks and days.

But looking for a moment at verse 13, “An eagle flying in midheaven, saying with a loud voice.” Now, eagles can’t speak, so this is an unusual eagle—it can speak. Not sure how to say any more than what Scripture says, but this is to indicate to us that a message will be given to the earth which everyone can see and everyone can hear, and this is a message of judgment indicated by the three woes which mark each of the three final trumpets. Eagles are strong birds of prey. They are birds, obviously, who do violent damage to whatever it is that they seek out, and that’s the picture here. This is an emblem of violence, doing harm. In fact, in Hosea chapter 8, verse 1, it speaks of an enemy like an eagle who comes with the force and power and rapacious intent of that bird of prey.

So this is a warning from God, and the fact that it’s “an eagle” that is depicted here indicates it’s a warning of judgment. The fact that it’s “in midheaven” means to say that it’s not so far up you can’t see it; it’s not so close not everyone sees it. It’s in a place where the world will see and hear. And the announcement will come “to those who dwell on the earth,” as I said. Those are those people who are marked out as rejecters of the gospel. The warning is a mercy—God again warning people to turn, to repent, to believe, to be saved before the next wave of horrific judgment.

God always warns. In fact, there are at least six hundred warnings in Scripture about hell, just hell. God warns. And this is the rising crescendo of judgments on the earth that is about to come, the worst the world has ever known, and God in mercy gives people an opportunity to respond.

Now remember, at the same time, the gospel is being preached, people are being converted out of every tongue and tribe and people and nation, as we saw earlier. The Jewish people will come to faith in their Messiah. The gospel will be preached by 144,000 Jewish missionaries; by the two witnesses (we’ll learn more about them in chapter 11); by an angel flying in midheaven; and all the believers who come to faith will be spreading the gospel. They will be martyred. The Antichrist will kill Jews and Gentile Christians in his reign of terror. So you have the reign of terror going on, by the Antichrist against those who are believers, and you have God’s reign of terror going on in the world against those who are unbelievers.

So with that as a bit of an introduction, let’s look at the fifth trumpet, the fifth trumpet, chapter 9, verse 1. “Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him.” Now, we need to stop there and get our bearings a bit.

The fifth angel sounded, one of those special angels mentioned back in chapter 8, verse 2, who stand in the presence of God. We call them a “presence angel,” an angel whose responsibility is to stand close to God, and at the appropriate moment, to make an announcement about coming judgment.

And when this angel sounds his trumpet, John says, in seeing this vision, “I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth.” Now, we’ve seen stars falling already. Back in chapter 6, we saw some stars falling. In chapter 8, verse 8 and verse 10, the second angel and the third angel, as I just mentioned—some heavenly bodies come out of the sky and crash into the earth. So we’ve seen actual falling stars or astral bodies colliding with the earth.

This is something different. This is “a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth.” This is one that had already fallen. The language here is important. This is a star that had already fallen. That’s the intent of the Greek structure.

So this is a fallen star. What would that be? What is a fallen star? Well, it’s a person here, because it says, “The key of the bottomless pit was given to him,” and, “he opened the bottomless pit.” So the star is a person.

And who is a star? Who is a fallen star who is a person? None other than Lucifer and Satan, the day star, the son of the morning. His fall is described in Isaiah chapter 14. He was, basically, cast out of the presence of God, and in Revelation 12 it says with a third of the angels, a third of the angels, which would be millions of demons who entered into his rebellion. So we see, then, that you have a different kind of star. This is a person who had already fallen, who is now, basically, coming to the earth, thrown to the earth.

You might say this is Satan’s second fall. The first time he fell, he was thrown out of heaven in terms of having any part of righteous life, any part of worship before God. But God allowed him access. We know that because in Revelation 12 it says he goes before the throne of God day and night, accusing the brethren. You have an illustration of that in the case of Job. So, though he has fallen in the sense that he has been booted out of heaven, he no longer can be a part of the holy angels and the holiness that is present there, but somehow he has an access to appeal to God. And he does that relentlessly, trying to get God to condemn believers for their unfaithfulness. But this is what he does all the time.

But he’s going to have a second fall—turn to chapter 12—and his second fall is going to take place during the time of Tribulation, and it’s mentioned in chapter 12, verse 7. John sees another vision: “And there [is] war in heaven, [and] Michael”—the archangel—“and his angels [are] waging war with the dragon . . . and his angels”—demons and holy angels having some kind of war in heaven. And “the dragon”—Satan—“and his angels . . . were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.”

So during this time of Tribulation, Great Tribulation, the Day of the Lord, Satan will lose his access to heaven. He has had whatever the access is that allows him to accuse believers before God unsuccessfully. He has done that throughout redemptive history since his first fall, and the creation of man and man’s fall. He has been “the accuser of [the] brethren.”

Now he no longer has a place in heaven at all. In fact, in verse 9, “The great dragon was thrown down, [who is] the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” And verse 10, it says he is “the accuser of [the] brethren [who] has been thrown down.” So it just keeps repeating that he was thrown down. This is his second fall. The first time he was a fallen angel because of his sin against God, and now he is a doubly fallen angel. He is thrown out of heaven, his access to God is ended, and he literally is thrown to the earth along with his demons.

Now when he arrives on the earth—back to chapter 9—“the key of the bottomless pit was given to him.” That’s what John sees in the vision. His theater of operations is now restricted to the earth. So what you have in the Tribulation is Satan completely focused on the earth, trying his best to overthrow the work and the purposes of God. He and his demons collectively do their damage on earth with no longer any access to heaven, and God allows it. And God allows him to be given the key to the bottomless pit, literally the pit of the abussos, the pit of the abyss, or the shaft of the abyss. The Greek term abussos is used seven times in Revelation. It refers to the abode of demons, the prison of demons, the place where demons are kept in chains in bondage. And by the way, in chapter 20, it tells us that for the thousand-year reign of Christ, Satan and his demons will be bound in this very place. But now Satan is outside, and his demons are outside doing whatever damage they can in the world and continuing to accuse the brethren. But during the Tribulation, all their efforts will be on the earth; heaven will be closed out to them.

Now this pit, we need to understand something about it. God uses this pit, this pit of darkness, this bottomless pit, to incarcerate fallen angels. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 2, and I want you to follow this because this is answering a question that’s very often asked.

Chapter 2 of 2 Peter, verse 4, “If God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment.” So here we find out who these beings are in the pit. They are angels who sinned and were committed to pits of darkness, cast into hell.

The word that Peter uses for “hell” is actually the Greek word Tartarus. It’s only used here, and it’s a Greek word; and to the Greeks, Tartarus described a subterranean place lower than Hades where the most wicked, the most rebellious, the most profane, the worst of the worst of the worst beings were sent to receive the severest punishment. That’s in Greek mythology. Tartarus was the place for the worst of the worst of the worst.

So Peter borrows that word and says God cast angels who sinned into the Tartarus. And then he further describes it as “pits of darkness, reserved for judgment.” This is exactly what you intend to understand from this. This is the lowest of the lowest place anyone, any being, could ever go.

Angels that sinned are not all running loose, then, in the world. Demons are not all running loose in the world. Some of them are not. Some of them are prisoners. Some of them are bound in “pits of darkness” in the deepest torment of hell, hell at its bottom level. They’re there “reserved for judgment,” and their final judgment will be given, as recorded in Revelation chapter 20, when they are forever cast into the lake of fire, the final hell.

But who are these? Who are these angels who sinned? Don’t fallen angels all sin? So who are these angels? Look with me to Jude, that short little book right in front of Revelation. And Jude tells us, verses 6 and 7, “And angels who did not keep their own domain”—some angels, fallen angels obviously, who stepped out of “their own domain,” their own realm. They “abandoned their proper abode.” These are the ones “He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.” So here we know now that the demons that are bound, that are held in the pit of darkness awaiting judgment, are those who kept not their own domain, who abandoned their proper abode. They transferred from the angelic realm into an unacceptable realm.

What does that mean? Well, the next verse would explain it: “Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these [angels, these demons] indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”

Now, you remember Sodom and Gomorrah, back in Genesis 19. What happened? Some holy angels came to visit Lot. These are holy angels. Sodom and Gomorrah were cities completely engulfed in homosexual perversion. When the angels came to Lot’s house, the homosexuals in the city tried to assault them and attack them. This is men, sinful men, going after angels, men going after angels for deviant sexual purposes.

And you remember, God wouldn’t allow it. The angels, obviously, were protected, and Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed in a holocaust of fire and brimstone.

That’s similar to the angels that were sent to the pit, who left their own domain. You can think of it this way. Men of Sodom lusted after angels with perverse sexual lust. But in the case of the angels, the demons, they lusted after women with a perverse lust. On the one hand, you have men lusting after angels; on the other hand, you have angels lusting after women—a deviant sexual perversion.

When did that happen? Look at 1 Peter chapter 3, 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 18: “Christ . . . died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit.” Just simply saying Christ died, His flesh is buried in the grave prior to the resurrection, but His Spirit is alive.

What did His Spirit do? Verse 19, “in which”—that is, in His Spirit, which, obviously, could never die—“He went and made proclamation”—He announced triumph—“to the spirits now in prison.” Who are the spirits in prison? They are the ones, verse 20, “who . . . were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark.” So these spirits in prison sinned during Noah’s time.

What was their sin? You have to go back to Genesis 6, and we have this bizarre sin described. Just start in verse 1: “It came about”—Genesis 6—“when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them”—now you have the scene setting up—“the sons of God”—meaning angelic beings—“saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves whomever they chose. Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” This was so wicked, so wicked. “The wickedness of man [is] great on the earth . . . every intent of the thought of his heart was only evil.” And then the Lord literally said, “I’ll blot out the entire human race.”

What is this? Apparently an attempt on the part of demons, in some way, to inhabit human bodies and make pregnant women who, basically, were bearing demonic children. This is an attempt to breed a demonic-human, unredeemable kind of race, so corrupt that it was beyond tolerant. And so what did God do? He drowned the whole world—monsters that had to be drowned. The fallen angels are in Tartarus at the bottom of the pit of hell, chained forever because of this particular sin: going after strange flesh.

Now you remember in Luke chapter 8, the demon said to Jesus, “Don’t send us to the pit. Don’t send us to the pit.” The pit is filled up with chained demons, some permanently chained, some temporarily chained. The temporarily chained are going to be released. They’re going to be released. And go back to Revelation 9, and this is where that will happen.

Revelation 9, verse 1, to this fallen angel, this twice-fallen angel who is none other than Satan, “the key of the bottomless pit was given to him.” It belongs to Christ, according to chapter 1, verse 18—He has the keys of death and hell. But temporarily, authority to this fallen angel is given so that he can literally open the pit.

So here you are in the time of Tribulation to come, the Great Tribulation of the Day of the Lord. The fifth trumpet blows, and what happens? Satan takes the key, verse 2, and “[opens] the bottomless pit”—where all of these incarcerated demons are—“and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given to them, as a scorpion of the earth have power. They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them.”

What is this? The world is bad now, it’s bad now, and it’s overrun with demons, but not all of them. In that coming day, Satan will unlock hell, and out of hell will come belching millions of demons, eager to work their evil, to pay God back for their incarceration and torment.

What could you liken this to? John Phillips suggested this: “Picture what the world would be like if we were to open the doors of all penitentiaries on earth and set free the world’s most vicious and violent criminals, giving them full rein to practice their infamies upon mankind. Well,” he writes, “something worse than this lies in store for the world. Satan, cast out of heaven, is now permitted to summon to his aid the most diabolical fiends in the abyss to act as his agents in bringing mankind to the footstool of the beast, the Antichrist.” And it’s pictured as if it was smoke—just literally demons belching out of hell like smoke coming out of a fire pit, “like the smoke of a great furnace,” and just blackening the entire environment. So metaphorically speaking, “the sun and the air [would be] darkened by the smoke of the pit.”

And then the metaphor changes: “[And] out of the smoke come locusts.” So this is not just some kind of external oppression. It is that, but it’s more than that. It’s an attack. It’s an attack by something like locusts. “Out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth.” Now look, the land has already been devastated, the sea has been devastated, the fresh water has been devastated, the sky has been devastated—all physical devastation. This is spiritual devastation, locusts, like the plague in Egypt back in Exodus chapter 10.

Now ordinary locust plagues are a great illustration. The perfect one, obviously, as always in Scripture. But just to give you a little background, in 2020—probably the last major locust plague in Africa, 2020 in Kenya—the count was 80 million locusts per square kilometer, 80 million, 80 million. And 80 million per square kilometer will eat as much grain as 35,000 people could eat in a day. It’s a horrendous assault and attack.

The demons, when they come in the time of the Great Tribulation, are going to be like a locust plague. Everything is going to fall under their power. These aren’t real insects. John sees insects, but he understands what they signify. These are demons, and we know that because they’re told not to hurt the grass or any green thing or any tree. I mean, that’s what locusts normally do. But these locusts, they’re just going to attack people. They’re going to go after humanity. Which people? The ones ”who do not have the seal of God on their forehead.”

So the church has been raptured, gone to heaven. Tribulation has begun. The world knows it’s the judgment. Back in chapter 6, they say it’s the wrath of the Lamb and the wrath of the Almighty. The gospel is being preached. They’re experiencing horrendous power and restraint and restriction by the Antichrist. They’re feeling the fury of God’s wrath, the collapse of world peace, the devastation of war, natural disasters, famines, plagues, the reign of terror by Antichrist. And all of this is coming with only, I guess you could say, a portion of the demonic force. Then all of a sudden, all hell is unleashed, and they come. And in verse 5 it says, “They were not permitted to kill anyone.” They didn’t come to kill people; they came to torment them.

Demons can be deadly. Satan has the power of death. Satan is a killer. But in this time, they don’t kill anyone. They “torment for five months,” five months. Why? Five months. Well, it’s kind of interesting. That is the normal life of locusts, from May to September. But it also indicates they have a confined time, five months. This is reminiscent of Matthew 24, where Jesus said this very time will be shortened for the sake of the elect. Five months. Also was the duration of the rising floodwaters in the days of Noah.

So they come for this five months, and what do they do? “Torment,” “torment,” “torment,” three times in verse 5—torment, like they tormented the maniac of Gadara, cutting himself and living in the tombs. A whole world full of demon-possessed people, a world of maniacs, and the torment is fierce. It’s likened to the sting of a scorpion, which is one of the worst possible stings, one of the most poisonous, that can dramatically alter behavior. This is to say the worst of all conceivable or inconceivable things, not only the physical punishment going on, but now you have the demons coming out of hell with a fury that has been boiling in them since their incarceration, ready to attack, and they attack the world. It’s so fierce, verse 6 says, “Men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them.” There will be a moratorium on suicide. You can’t kill yourself.

Why would they seek to do that? Because of the horrors. Why wouldn’t they repent? They don’t repent. Go down to verse 20 of chapter 9: “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as to not worship demons.”

Oh, so what’s their response to this demon force? They worship them, and they make idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, but they don’t repent. They’ve been worshiping the environment; now they worship the demons. They’ve been crying to the rocks and the mountains, praying to them; now they bow to the demons who are torturing them. The world will know it’s over—no tomorrow, no hope, not even suicide. The earth has been devastated—the seas, the water, the grass, the trees, the animals, the sky. All hell has broken loose. No good is left, no hope. All we can do is bow the knee to the demons.

The first response, back in chapter 6: “They hid.” Now they want to kill themselves, but they can’t. The dream has died. The dream has died. Whatever dream for a utopia the Antichrist managed to try to sell is gone.

In my commentary I wrote this: “All hope is gone, there will be no tomorrow. The earth people have loved and worshiped will have been utterly devastated. The land ravaged by earthquakes, fires, and volcanoes; the sea filled with putrefying bodies of billions of dead creatures. Much of the freshwater supply turned into bitter poison, the atmosphere polluted with gases and showers of heavenly debris. Then worst of all will come foul smoke from the pit of hell, as the demons are released to spiritually torment wicked people. The dream of a worldwide utopia under the leadership of Antichrist will have died, driven mad by the filth and violence of the demon infestation. People will seek relief in death, only to find that death has taken a holiday. There will be no escape from the agony inflicted by the demons, no escape from divine judgment. All attempts at suicide will fail.” This is horrible. This is a horror movie beyond all horror movies.

And then to heighten the character of these demons, verses 7 to 10 describes them using the locust as kind of a model. Let me tell you more about these demons: “The appearance of the locusts”—these demonic spiritual creatures—“was like horses prepared for battle.” What does he mean by that? That they are warlike, they are defiant, they are armed, they’re powerful, they are bent on destruction.

Their heads literally appear to have “crowns like gold.” The word is stephanos, the crown that a victor, one who triumphs, wears. They win. They triumph in their efforts. And it says, “Their faces were like the faces of men.” This means they are intelligent; they are rational beings. They are extremely intelligent. They have been alive since they were created.

“They [have] hair like . . . women.” Maybe there’s something about them that’s seductive. Jeremiah talks about locusts having bristles. “Their teeth [are] like the teeth of lions.” They are fierce and terrible and devastating.

“They [have] breastplates . . . breastplates of iron.” What does that mean? That they’re invulnerable, that they’re insensitive to any retaliation. “And the sound of their wings [is] like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle.” In other words, they’re going to be everywhere, everywhere. They’re going to be moving fast, inescapable, no place for refuge—fast, mobile. Nothing stops them. They can go anywhere and everywhere. They go through walls and into human bodies.

And verse 10, “They have tails”—again—“like scorpions, and stings; and in their tail is their power to hurt men for five months.” Five months of this would be a horrific amount of time. They have one purpose: hordes of demonic spirits unleashed from hell, millions of them satisfying the demon desire to possess human bodies to work their own wickedness.

And then a final word in verse 11 about them: “They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon.” “The angel of the abyss,” he’s the king. And by the way, Proverbs tells us that “locusts have no king,” Proverbs 30, verse 27, “the locusts have no king.” But these demons do have a king, this angel of the abyss. This isn’t Satan. Satan is the one who had the key that unlocked the abyss. This is some demon that has been put in charge of the abyss, and his name is Destroyer.

So that’s what’s waiting for the world. Not only the physical judgment, but this demonic, hellish invasion: the destroyer and his force. Millions and millions of demons, unrestrained, unrestrained. We have demons in the world today, but they are restrained by the presence of the church and the Holy Spirit and the plan of God. The church is gone by this time, and God is letting the demons that are already circulating in the world have full sway and allowing hell to send millions more to accompany them.

That’s what’s coming, and that’s not even all. Look at verse 12: “The first woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.”

So what kind of response is reasonable? Let me close by having you look at Hebrews 3. The people then don’t repent. So what is the response? Hebrews 3, listen to this, verse 7. Hebrews 3:7, “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, and saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, and said, “They always go astray in their heart, and they did not know My ways”; as I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter My rest.”’” You better enter while you can, because the day can come when you will not be allowed.

Verse 12 continues, “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day,”—this is the responsibility we have to each other—“encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, while it is said, ‘Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.’”

You might think that if you were alive in the time of the Tribulation, you’d respond to the gospel. Israel is indicted here because when God had put Himself on full display, on such a display as the world had never known, God brought to Egypt ten plagues by which He liberated the people, and they went toward the Promised Land, and yet they died in the wilderness. They resisted God. They turned their back on God. They did not honor God. They did not enter into rest.

Today is the day. Today is all you have. There, for some of you here today, may not even be a tomorrow. But while it is day and while you may, don’t harden your heart. Enter into the rest that is provided to all who embrace Christ as Savior and Lord.

Father, Your Word comes to us in power like no other word. No word of man can match the power of the Word of God. And we know it is true, and it bears the imprint of veracity. As it touches our hearts, it has the ring of truth because we know You are the one true God who cannot lie. Your Word is true. And You have offered us the choice between an unbreakable love, as we heard in the song—a love that will not ever let us go, as we sung in the hymn—or wrath that will bring upon those who reject the gospel, hell—and not just hell for five months. That will just be a get-acquainted time for unbelievers and demons to meet each other, because they’ll be spending forever together. Five months is just a taste of the horrors of eternal hell. You have given us the gospel that we might escape the wrath to come.

For those of us who are believers, we are not ordained to wrath, but to eternal life. Lord, I pray for anyone here who has not embraced Christ, to flee the wrath to come. Embrace Christ while it is day, while the opportunity and the invitation is there, before the hard heart takes over and even the person who sees the power of God and sees the wrath of God doesn’t repent, but blasphemes. Lord, do Your work for Your glory in saving sinners, even this morning, we pray.