I invite you this morning to
turn with me to the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 9. The very name of this book tells
us immediately that this is not made for the
understanding of all men. but is a revelation, an opening
up of God, of the understanding of His elect. And when He speaks
in the book of Revelations, He's not so much speaking to the world
as He is to the seven churches, which represent His whole church
in every age. And we speak, I mean, we're commanded
to speak to the world. But when we speak to the world,
And I don't know who they are, so I speak the same. But when
I speak to the world, I'm speaking a word of warning. And it's the
only warning they're ever going to get. It's a warning to them. And the
very name of this book just tells us immediately that we're reading
something given only to those who are made meat to be partakers
with enlightened saints. And so as we read, we understand
that. And truly, I have not seen or ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him. But God hath revealed them to
us by spirit. The revelation of Jesus Christ
can and is declared to all men, but it's only seen and understood
by God's elect. And so it is With the book of
Revelation of Jesus Christ, when we go into there, men read this
and men hear this and the first thing they'll do is drag out
a chalkboard and they start making graphs and making all kinds of
ridiculous speculations about what this book is saying and
what time it's talking about and what specific period and
dispensation and all of these kinds of nonsense. The book of
Revelation consists of seven visions. If you read through
this book, you'll find that God gives seven visions to the apostle
John. And he gives them to John to
declare to the seven churches, to his church. And he tells him
what's going to take place during this whole gospel age. This is
his subject. He's not talking about anything
else. He's talking about Jesus Christ, his person and work.
And the effects of that person will work on his church from
the time Christ appeared on this earth until he comes again. And
if you'll read those visions and consider those visions in
the light of that. And he tells us what this book
is about. He said this is the revelation
of Jesus Christ. I don't need to look or read
it in any other light than that. That's how I need to go through
and read this book. He showed John what would take
place during this gospel age and he also assured John and
gave him this assurance to transfer to the church, if you will, to
assure us of our victory in Christ no matter what comes our way. Brother Don gave an illustration
one time. He said there was a black janitor
in the in the school and they had some kind of sports gathering,
basketball or something in the gym, and so he couldn't clean
in there. And so he would go sit down on
one of the benches while they played basketball and reading
his Bible. And one day one of the players
came over and everybody knew him, he'd been around the school
forever, and asked him what he was doing. He said, well, I'm
reading the Bible. He said, well, where are you
at? What are you reading in there? He said, I'm reading the book
of Revelation. And he said, well, I've heard a lot of men talk
about that book. He said, what do you believe
it says? And he says, I know what it says. He says, Christ
is going to win. He's going to win the day. He's
the winner. And his church is the winner
in him. Now in chapters 8 through 11, we're dealing with the third
vision given to the apostle John. and assuring us in the midst
of God's judgments upon rebellious men. This is all about God's
judgments. Chapter 8, so on, 8 through 11. And He's assuring us that during
these times, and surely there'll be times of doubt and times of
fear and so on that's going to come our way. But He's assuring
us that Christ hears our prayers, and He intercedes for us in glory,
And he's there to preserve us and protect us from all harm.
He's ordering and arranging everything that's going on, including what's
going on here today. And our subject this morning
is Abaddon, the father of lies. Now, we're told in the first
several verses of a personified star. If you'll read through
those verses, you'll see a star fell. And then he calls it a
person after the, he's describing this star as a person. So it's
a personified star and it fell from heaven onto earth. And the
picture here is, if you will, is of a shooting star. You're
out here at night and you're looking up into the heavens and
every now and then you get a sea wound. And you see this streak,
it just blazes across the sky and all of a sudden it just goes
out. And we're told of this star that
falls, a shooting star. And a picture here is of that. And Jude calls them wandering
stars. Wandering stars to whom is reserved
the blackness of darkness forever. And this describes both Satan
and all his self-transformed ministers. You just picture for
a minute Satan before his fall. Picture him in glory. Strong. Beautiful. Holy. Full of light. Full of light. And then see him
fall like lightning to the earth and leave him behind the traces
of light that he once possessed but now reserved in everlasting
change under darkness under the judgment of that great day. Well,
what's his part in this gospel age? Well, here he's said to
be one of the worst of God's trumpet judgments. One of the
worst. These last three are the worst
of the judgments. In the first several, he talks
to us about disasters and storms and all this kind of thing which
are judgments upon men. Here he's going to talk now about
these last three judgments, and these last three judgments are
far, far worse than the first ones. So God's trumpet judgments
upon men who will not receive the love of the truth that they
might be saved. And here it says he's given the
key to the bottomless pit. Who had the key? Who gave him
the key? How'd he get a key? Hell is reserved for Satan and
his ministers, how did he get a key? Who gave it to him? Well, in Revelation 1.18, our
Lord said, I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am
alive forevermore. Amen. And had the keys of hell
and death. He has the keys. Well, why would
the Lord Jesus Christ give Satan the means to open this bottomless
pit? Why would he do that? Why would
he expose this world to those things? Well, as a judgment. That's why. As a judgment of
men who despise and oppose the gospel of Christ. In 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2, he paints a picture, a grim picture of Satan's influence
over men in this gospel age, and it continually gets worse
and worse and worse. And finally he says, and for
this cause, Because they were deceived by Satan and because
they received not the love of the truth that they might be
saved, he says, and for this cause God shall send them strong
delusion. Who's going to send them? God
is. That they should believe a lie
and be damned. Now I see that all around me.
Everybody out here is not playing games. In fact, I think you'll
find that most, if you go into these churches, I don't care
what the name is on the door, you go into them, most of those
folks that you're going to find in there are sincere. But they're
sincerely wrong. They're deceived. My dad was
sincere. He was my dad. I grew up with
him. I know how sincere he was. But he was sincerely wrong. And as Satan opens the pit, He
describes here a thick, vile smoke that pollutes the air.
And then out of that smoke arises a great swarm of spiritual locusts. They just fill the earth. Just
fill the earth. And these locusts, I believe,
represent all of organized false religion. Baptist, Methodist,
Church of Christ, Catholics, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Reformed,
you name it. The list just goes on and on
and on. Independence of all kinds. All free will works religion.
All legalism. All self-righteous religion.
All spiritualism. All ceremonialism. All fleshly
religion. We're told of men who creep in
unawares and draw away disciples after themselves, teaching perverse
things and teaching heresies and all of this type of thing.
This is not what he's talking about here. What he's talking
about here is a swarm, something, a plague that fills the earth. And he tells you where they come
from. They come out of that vile, polluting
smoke that arised out of hell under Satan's supervision. And
here it is. He's describing for us, during
this gospel age, all organized false religion. Not just in our
age. We see it in a great way in our
age. But it has bloomed up in the
past in the way of Catholicism. It's bloomed up in the past in
many forms over the ages. But today, I see it as never
before. Worldwide. I mean, it's not just
taken over in our country. This thing is worldwide, everywhere
you look. The overwhelming multitudes of
religion today are not angels of light. You can't find any
light. They'll talk about you, and they'll
talk about your family, and they'll talk pleasant things to you,
and peaceful things to you, and alluring things to you, but they
won't tell you, they won't give you any light. They won't give
you any light. The light of God, the light of Christ, the light
of salvation is not there. It's not there. They're not angels
of light. They're spiritual and satanic
lopists, and their sin of God is a judgment against this unbelieving
world. I was told this when I was raised
in the Nazarene religion, and probably nobody in here knows
what that is, but I do. It's just legalism and self-righteousness. And we were taught that false
religion, whatever they call false religion, was Satan getting
the upper hand on God. Well, false religion is not Satan
getting the upper hand on God, but rather the carrying out of
God's judgment upon this unbelieving world. That's what it is. Nothing
happens in this world that's not permitted and purposed of
God. Nothing. Good or bad. Not going to happen. But it happens And it's sent
upon those who will not bow to the king. Now, let me tell you
something. Men are not aware that God's
judgment is upon them. I lived my life, many, many years,
not understanding that the judgment of God was upon me, the wrath
of God was upon me. I didn't understand that. I didn't
understand anything at all about the fall or about sin. But yet
thousands upon thousands of men die under the plague, not understanding
that this is the judgment of God. And when it comes, like
Katrina did, and comes in there and sweeps into New Orleans and
kills men and maims men and destroys their homes and things, the first
thing they'll tell you on the news is, don't listen to anybody
that tells you this is of God. Well, what kind of God do you
got? He don't order storms. He don't run things. He's not God then, is he? There's a statement given to
us in Proverbs chapter 30 about these locusts in verse 27. It
may be a familiar verse to you. I've heard it quoted many times.
But it says the locusts have no king. Yet, they go forth, all of them,
by bands. Well, these spiritual locusts
have no visible king. You go out here and see the locusts,
there's no king. There's no, you know, ants will
have a queen and so on. Locusts don't have a king. They're
all the same. They all look alike. Nobody's
running the show. They're not following anybody.
Here they go. They go in bands and yet they
all go together. And they all seem to go to the
same place. And they all seem to do the same damage. But they
had no king. But they do have a king. They
do have a king. And Christ is that king. They
actually have two kings. And Christ is the superior of
the two. First and foremost, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who has all power in heaven and earth. He rules
and orders all things, and he orders those locusts just like
he did in Egypt. He sent the locusts. Moses went
down and warned him, you know, if you don't let my people go,
God's going to send locusts. Well, I ain't letting your people
go. Okay. And God sent the locusts. And he provided the wind to carry
them there, and he sent them there, and he let them do their
damage, and then he took them away. So first and foremost,
their king is the Lord Jesus Christ. Even so, these spiritual locusts
that are now unloosed by Satan upon this world are unloosed
according to the purpose of God. But under the real king is another
king, and he's the king that opened the pit. And before their
conversion, now we're talking about organized false religion,
okay? And before the conversion of
the Ephesians and before our conversion, this is true of us
also. Who do we follow? Now if you
ask me, I tell you I'm doing what I want to do. I don't have
a king. I do what I want to do. That's exactly what I was talking
about. If you go out there and talk to anybody out here, they'll
tell you the same thing. They're doing exactly what they
want to do. No. No, they're not. They're walking
according to the course of this world. Now listen. According
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now worketh
in the children of disobedience. That's the king. But they can't
see him. And men can't see him, but they
do have a king. And he's invisible. And they're
doing exactly what he wants them to do. And at the same time,
they're doing exactly what they want to do. And they're deceived. They're deceived. So when Solomon
said the locusts had no king, he's saying they had no visible
king. And this, I'm sure, is why Satan's work is called in
the Scripture the mystery of iniquity. It's a mysterious working. A mysterious working. And this
is what Paul calls it in 2 Thessalonians 2 saying, telling us that the
mystery of iniquity doth already work. It's already working. Satan's
influence on the world was working in the days of Paul. It was working
in the days of John. John was exiled to an island.
It was working. And it's working now. But it's
a mystery. Men don't see it. They don't
understand it. It sounds like an old proverb
to them or something. If they actually believed that
Satan had that kind of power to influence every fallen man
and get him to follow and do exactly what he wanted him to
do, they'd be running somewhere. to hear the truth. They don't
believe it. They don't see it, and they don't
understand it. And I'll tell you something else,
nobody's talking about it. Just a handful. How does this power work? Well,
it works through deception and lies. Paul said, If our gospel
be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of
this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not. lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ should shine unto them. It works in half-truths,
partial truths, and outright lies. It convinces men that they
have a free will. Now listen to me. You have a
will. I have a will. And we exercise
that will. We exercise that will every day.
But your will is not free. That's where the controversy
comes in. Your will is not free. It's in bondage to a depraved
nature. In Romans 7, Paul was talking
about a spiritual warfare going on within him, and he said, what
I would do, what I will do, I do not. What I don't want to do,
that's what I do. That's your will. Your will's
in bondage to a depraved nature. It's not free. Are you saying
God saves men apart from their will? No. I'm saying God makes
men willing in the day of his power. That's what I'm saying. But men don't have a free will.
But that's what Satan convinces them. You have a free will. You
can save yourself anytime you want to. Anytime you want to. I worked on a construction site
on the University of Kentucky. We were doing a biomed center. And it was about, I don't know,
eight or 10 stories tall. And we had one of these old construction
elevators. And if you've never been on one
of them, you just hadn't lived. It's just a chain link cage.
And you get on there, and it's got a pulley and this old cable
that they probably used 500 times. And it goes up there and wraps
around this little shaft, got an electric motor, and they hit
a button. And this thing's doing this. And up you go, you know,
and jerking. And a guy told me, he was, of
course, just joking, but he told me, he said, If the elevator
falls, he said, just before you hit the ground, he said, jump
up. Well, that's what men believe about free will. If things turn,
if things go south, just before I hit, I'm gonna jump. No, no
you're not. You will fall right into hell. Our will is in bondage. It's
in bondage to a depraved Listen to how God, let God be true and
let me be a liar and everybody else be a liar. Let's just see
what God has to say about it. And He said this, there's none
that understandeth. They read, but there's none that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. None. The way of truth they have
not known. Men say, I know the truth. No,
what God says, God said the way of truth they've not known. And
there's no fear of God before their eyes. They think they're
angels, got halos, draw pictures of it, make statues of it. God
said the poison of ash is under your lips. You want to make a
statue of man, make a statue of a snake. That's man. That's man. You know, when God
pictured the God-man and his salvation, what did he put on
that shield? He even put up a beautiful picture
of a man on that shield. He took that serpent of fire
that was raining down on men, and that's how he represented
men on that shield. Christ being made sin for us. way of truth they've not known,
destruction and misery are in their ways, none righteous, none
good, no, not one. And I'm telling you this, there's
no such thing as free will. And the will is a product of
the mind and heart, and out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, and so on. Secondly, they convince men that
God's willing to compromise. If you do the best you can do.
I've been told this. I didn't read this in a book.
I've been told this by preachers from the pulpit. As a young man,
sitting in a congregation just like this, that preacher stood
up and told us if we would do the best we could do, God would
accept it. Ask Cain how that worked for
him. You believe he did the best he
could do, didn't he? He didn't bring the best Godhead
dog or he brought the best he could do and laid it out. And
it was probably something to behold. And God come by and spit
on him. Just totally had no, nothing
for him. Men's minds are blinded by convincing
them that they've got a free will and by convincing them that
God's willing to compromise. And thirdly, that the glory of
God's salvation rests with them. God voted for you. Satan voted
against you. Now you've got the deciding vote.
Really. You think of what's at stake
here with God. The very glory and honor of his
person. He's gonna rest it with you. How ridiculous is that? The glory of God's salvation
rests with man. I've heard things like this from
the folk there. God's only obligated to call
you one time. My friend, God's not obligated
to call you at all. He's not obligated by us to do
anything. Now, he obligates himself by
his own will and purpose to save his elect. And he'll do it honorably. He'll do it justly. He'll do
it righteously. But he's not under any kind of
pressure whatsoever to call us, none whatsoever. If he calls
us, it's according to his sovereign grace, period. And you can go on and on and
on. Rewards in heaven. Degrees of acceptance. Obligating
God by your decisions. Just spiritual locusts rising
up out of the vile fog of the bottomless pit. And the shape
of those locusts, he says, was like unto horses prepared for
battle. Revelation 9-7. Picture, if you
will, organized. Not just a bunch of horses in
a field. but horses ready to go to war. And they've got on
all their war-like rig. And they've got these things
hanging down from them and whatever kind of, they had a type of armor
that they put on these horses. And here's these armed horses.
And back in the old days of the English, and I don't know back
past that, I'm not that well read on history, but they used
those those Clydesdale type horses. I mean, these were monster horses.
Great big feet like this and that big heavy armor on them.
And look at them and they're just everywhere. They're all
around. They're all around. These locusts are like that.
They're intimidating. They're intimidating. They're
organized. They're standing where they can
be seen. And they're fearsome to behold. You know, one of the most convincing
things about false religion before God converted me was their numbers. The first time I ever heard anything
at all about God's sovereignty and the grace of God and all
of those things, the thing that popped in my mind first was all
the numbers who believed differently than what that man was telling
me. It's their intimidation. They're
like horses prepared to go to battle. They stand up on that
hill, intimidated. How could so many people be wrong? How could so many people be deceived? Surely these great denominations
cannot be satanic religions. Surely they can't be. Look at
their numbers. Look at their work. Look at their
success. Yet here they are. And they are
as they are exactly described in the Word of God. Like horses prepared for battle
and on their heads were crowns, listen to this, like gold. They had the glitter of gold.
They had the color of gold, but they didn't have the purity of
it. They had corruptible crowns like gold. And then it says they
had the faces of men. Compassionate men. Sympathetic
men. Men willing to minister to you.
Pray for you and pray with you. They didn't come having the appearance
of a bug. Even though a bug is what they
were. But they didn't come that way. They had faces of men. Compassionate
men. And they had hair as the hair
of women. Alluring. Disarming. Attractive. They're welcomed. Where are they welcomed? You
name it. In the hospitals? Rest homes? Schools? Private residences? But now listen to this. They've
got the teeth of a lion. A lion. The religious laws are
some of the most hurtful and cruel people on earth. You know who crucified Christ?
Religious men. Cruel men were willing to whip
him, mock him, make fun of him, but then turn him loose. But
not the religious. Religious men wanted him crucified. They wanted him out of their
sight and out of this world and out of their ministries forever.
Our Lord said this about them. He said they devour widows' houses,
spoiling their inheritance. And then if you look at them
as they're represented by their king, this invisible king, which
is Satan, he tells us this, Be sober, be vigilant, because your
adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom
he may devour. They have the teeth. of a lion. And then these locusts have breastplates
of iron. They've got an armor to withstand
the gospel sword. Don't seem possible, though.
But they do. They do. Even as others are brought low
by the gospel, slain by the gospel, brought to their knees, shut
up to Christ. These spiritual locusts repel
even the best swing of the sword. I don't care who you are. I don't
care if you're Henry May and Don Fortner or who you are. Take
your best shot. If God doesn't empower that swing,
it's going to bounce right off of them. They got breastplates
of iron. No matter how much and how well
you speak, they remain as obstinate as they were the first time you
ever talked to them. Some of you got relatives, close
relatives. I do too. I've been talking to
them for 20 years. They're as obstinate right now
as they were the very first time I talked to them. And then look
at this, Revelation 9-9. He tells us here they make a
lot of racket, make a lot of noise. Their wings was as the
sound of chariots running into battle. There's no bigger noise
in this world than false religion. And it's interesting to me that
their noise was caused by beating their wings upon the air. Just beating their wings on the
air. They're not going anywhere. They're not accomplishing anything.
They're just making a lot of noise. Making a lot of noise. And as I researched the locust
noise, I found out that the noise was made to attract a mate. And
the mate responded by snapping their wings, making that noise.
And religious noise is made to attract. Our Lord said, You come to sea
and land to make one proselyte like unto yourself. They are
busy, they are zealous. Paul said to Israel that was
lost, he said, I bear them witness, they have a zeal of God. They're
making all kinds of noise. They want to attract. They want
to beget. But listen to what Paul said.
He said he ministered not as one that beateth the air. He
didn't stand still and make a lot of noise. He did exactly what
God told him to do. Religion comes against anything
and everything. But they don't change anything. Nothing changes. They just make
a lot of noise. And then he tells us this. They
had a sting in their tails. And the stinger back there, like
a scorpion, was not meant to destroy, but to torment. There's not a more tormented
person in all the world. than a man under law conviction
and fear with no effectual cure. He's miserable. He's miserable. Wasn't you miserable when you
called it the sandbox? He was miserable. Miserable. And once bitten by this vile
bug, one is then doomed to suffer until such time that the venom
works its way out. And then John tells us in verse
11 that they had a king over them. See, they did have a king. Which is the angel of the bottomless
pit whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon. And in the
Greek, Apollyon. Now these spiritual locusts had
a king. And the king was Satan. And you think about this just
for a minute. What a woe this is that Satan has unloosed these
spiritual locusts upon the world, upon your children and my children,
upon my neighbors and your neighbors. Loosed them. They're a plague.
They're everywhere. The sky is full. The air is full. Making
noise everywhere. Intimidating men. Everywhere. In the school. You can't get
away from them. And He's done it as a judgment
against those who will not receive the things of the Spirit of God
and the love of the truth that they might be saved. Now let
me close with this, Revelation 9, verse 4. And it was commanded them that
they should not hurt the earth, but only those men, now listen,
which had not the seal of God on them. They can't hurt you. Those locusts
come into Egypt and devoured everything in it. But they didn't
touch Israel. They didn't touch Israel. And
all those plagues that fell upon Egypt destroyed everything in
Egypt. But not in Goshen. Not in Goshen. And their presence
in this world is devastating, their bite is tormenting, and
their swarm is almost universal, but we're plainly told why they're
here. And we're assured that they cannot
do us any harm because God has sealed us. How has He sealed
us? He's sealed us with the Holy
Spirit of promise. And these spiritual locusts can't
take it away. They can't take it away. He says
that we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Now how is a man delivered from
these loathes? Through faith in Christ. That's
it. There's no other way. And once
you understand what's going on in this world, and you understand
what's going on in your own depraved nature, what other hope do you
have? You take the first step, He'll
take the rest. You can't take the first step. There's only one remedy, and
that remedy is Christ. And how are they going to receive
Christ? How are you going to call on Him in whom you have
not believed? And how are you going to believe
in Him of whom you have not heard? And how are you going to hear
without preaching? And how in the world is He going to preach
if God don't send Him? I don't know where these sealed
men are. Do you? I don't have a clue.
Could be there's a few here. Could be. Might be a few down
there where I'm at. I don't know. God raised up a
church there for some reason. It seems like he's raising one
up here. How you gonna hear that preacher? Now that's just how
necessary this ministry is. May God give you the understanding
for what I see.