Years ago there was a popular TV show called Gunsmoke. It featured a town in the wild west during a time that we now call the "horse and buggy days." A particular episode featured a con artist who traveled from town to town with a huge rattlesnake in a glass container. He would take bets that no one could place his or her hand against the glass and keep it there when the snake struck. One of the town citizens volunteered and bets were taken. As the man moved his had toward the glass the snake coiled up tighter every second. As soon as the man touched the glass, the snake struck with vengeance. The man immediately jerked his hand away and the con artist collected his bets and moved on to the next town. The con artist knew the glass would hold. He was playing on fear to earn a living. There was nothing to fear but fear itself.

This little story portrays spiritual warfare and the Christian perfectly. The snake is the devil and evil but the glass is Jesus. As long as the Christian stays on the right side of the glass, they have nothing to fear. But extreme danger lies on the other side. Chapter nine describes what it looks like on the other side of the glass. Let's read.

The fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth. The key to the shaft of the abyss was given to him. 2 He opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke came up out of the shaft like smoke from a great furnace so that the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft. 3 Then locusts came out of the smoke on to the earth, and power was given to them like the power that scorpions have on the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green plant, or any tree, but only people who do not have God’s seal on their foreheads. 5 They were not permitted to kill them but were to torment them for five months; their torment is like the torment caused by a scorpion when it strikes a man. 6 In those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them. 7 The appearance of the locusts was like horses equipped for battle. Something like gold crowns was on their heads; their faces were like men’s faces; 8 they had hair like women’s hair; their teeth were like lions’ teeth; 9 they had chests like iron breastplates; the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses rushing into battle; 10 and they had tails with stingers like scorpions, so that with their tails they had the power to harm people for five months. 11 They had as their king the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he has the name Apollyon. 12 The first woe has passed. There are still two more woes to come after this. 13 The sixth angel blew his trumpet. From the four horns of the gold altar that is before God, I heard a voice 14 say to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 So the four angels who were prepared for the hour, day, month, and year were released to kill a third of the human race. 16 The number of mounted troops was 200 million; I heard their number. 17 This is how I saw the horses in my vision: The horsemen had breastplates that were fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow. The heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and from their mouths came fire, smoke, and sulfur. 18 A third of the human race was killed by these three plagues—by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur that came from their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails, which resemble snakes, have heads, and they inflict injury with them. 20 The rest of the people, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands to stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which are not able to see, hear, or walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.

The disasters that are happening in this Scripture passage are not natural disasters. These are demon disasters. There is nothing in all of the history of the human race that can ever compare to the literal terror that these calamities will bring. As we have seen, some of the judgements that God will enact will be focused on wicked people and carried out by demons. But we have reason to rejoice, because God is in complete control and always limits the power of the demonic.

People have always had and will also in the Tribulation, have a chance to choose to repent and turn to God when they are confronted with judgement on their sins. But sadly in the case of the people in this passage they do not turn back to God, because their hearts have been so hardened by sin.

You and I live in the age of grace and if we are ever going to live effective Christian lives, we must keep a balanced understanding of the real but limited power of evil. C.S. Lewis wrote, "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or magician with the same delight" (Screwtape Letters, 3).

Are there not times that we make the claim that "the devil made me do it." By doing this we place too much emphasis on the demonic. Alternatively, there are some of us who see demons as responsible for almost every painful situation in our life. We have seen today in our passage that demons are real. They are powerful. But Christ Jesus is also real and He is ultimately more powerful!

When we put an unhealthy emphasis on demons and Satan we could be tempted to ignore them altogether. This is dangerous because we must always be ready of a satanic influence. The Apostle Peter reminded us about this.

(1 Peter 5:8)

8 Be serious! Be alert! Your adversary the Devil s prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.

James tells us that we can resist the Devil and he will flee from us.

(James 4:7)

7 Therefore, submit to God. But resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.