God has sent plague after plague
upon the Egyptians, and yet Pharaoh remained adamant against our
God and refused to release the Israelites. The first hardening
of his heart was that which God brought about. For in all of
this, God is working out his goodwill. He is going to bring
Egypt to their knees. He is going to manifest to all
of the Israelites that our God alone has all power over all
things in heaven and in earth. And he will cause the Israelites
to see that the God of Abraham and Isaac and of Jacob is the
faithful God of his people. and the God who is guiding them
through all of these difficulties that they have to experience.
And they will be made to recognize the fact that when they get on
the other side of the Red Sea, it was not at all by their own
works, by their own labor, by their own ingenuity, or by their
own power. They will get to the other side
of the Red Sea, and those who shall enter into the promised
land 40 years later, they will indeed arrive at that promised
destination solely by the goodness of God himself. These plagues
that God is sending to them this evening, we're considering the
eighth one. The Lord willing, next Wednesday night, we'll consider
the plague of darkness, and then we'll get into the final plague,
the death of the firstborn. All of these were geared and
designed to show forth the might of our God. When Pharaoh was
first approached by Aaron and Moses, and they said, thus saith
the God of Israel, let my people go, Pharaoh said, who is the
Lord? I don't even know your Lord.
But I shall let them go. But God is showing forth his
greatness. He has already had Moses say
to Pharaoh, for this same purpose have I raised thee up. You wonder
who put Pharaoh upon the throne of greatness in Egypt? God did. Pharaoh may have imagined that
he was upon his throne of greatness and power, the most powerful
emperor in the world. He may have thought it was because
he had the right pedigree, he's in the right family, he's been
in the right position. But the fact of the matter is,
he is in the position that he's in, solely because of God's design
and God's purpose. God has raised him up and God
is going to show to this vile emperor, this monarch, this hater
of God, the Lord is going to show him who has all power over
all things. It isn't Pharaoh himself. It
is God himself, and when God finishes with him, his lifeless
body will wash up on the shore. The lifeless body of Pharaoh
will wash up on the shore of the Red Sea. There's a noteworthy
passage that I want you to go back and look with me. Right
after the Plague of Lice, you remember the Plague of Lice?
And the Egyptian magicians, you know, they had manifested their
skills and their satanic power in that they had, when Moses
had Aaron cast down the rod, you remember those magicians
of Egypt, they matched that miracle. And then in the first plague
that God sent, the turning of the Nile River into blood, those
magicians were able to dig alongside of the Nile River and water came
to the surface and they were able to change that water to
blood. And then God sent the plague
of frogs, and they were able to duplicate that as well to
some degree. They could bring frogs about. But then God sent lice. All of
the dust of Egypt, that all turned to lice. In fact, I was reading
today that it so covered the altars, the altars where the
Egyptians offered up their sacrifices to their various gods that the
altars were considered filthy, and there could not be any offerings
offered to those false gods while the lice were present. They're
filthy little, very small creatures, but they were everywhere. In
fact, the priests, in order to purify themselves, were shaving
their heads every day and shaving the hair off their bodies, lest
they be defiled by the lice that was everywhere. And these magicians
who had imitated the power of Moses and Aaron with throwing
the rod on the ground, they turned to a serpent. turned the water into blood,
and they brought about the additional frogs. When it came to the lice,
they couldn't duplicate that. Learn this about false prophets.
They're imitators of true prophets. They're imitators of true preachers. In fact, they will so imitate
true preachers of the gospel that to some degree they will
use the same language that we use. They'll use the same words
of the Bible that we use. They'll talk about grace. They'll
talk about Jesus. They'll even talk about the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But by those things, they do
not mean the particular effectual redemption of sinners by the
bloody sacrifice of Christ. And when they talk about grace,
they don't really mean omnipotent grace or sovereign grace or effectual
grace or powerful grace that saves sinners. They mean God's
offer to help people. They're imitators, and these
magicians of Egypt, they were imitators. But when it came to
the lice, that was something they couldn't imitate. And they
made this statement to Pharaoh. Look with me in chapter 8, and
look at verse 18. Chapter 8 and verse 18, and the
magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they
could not. Learn this. God has set a boundary
to evil, and he has set a boundary even to false preachers and false
prophets that they cannot pass. You see, all evil is under the
authority of King Jesus. He who purchased our redemption,
He earned the right to be Lord over all forever. And He is that. He is every man's Lord, whether
every man recognizes that or not. And He's Lord over all the
demons. And He's Lord over the devil.
He's Lord over all principalities and powers. All spiritual evil
forces has a governor over them, and that is our sovereign Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And evil can only go so far as
our governor, as our Savior, as our sovereign has designed. And these imitators, though they
imitated other things that God's preachers did, they couldn't
imitate this. Watch it. So there were lice
upon man and upon beast. Then the magician said unto Pharaoh,
This is the finger of God. And Pharaoh's heart was hardened,
and he hearkened not to his own preachers, to his own magicians. Because they were honest with
him, they said, this is the finger of God. He doesn't say, this
is the hand of God. These magicians don't say, this
is the arm of God. This is just his finger. This
is a power we can't imagine. This is one we can't duplicate. We have no knowledge of this
God, the God of the Hebrews, who apparently has all power
over all things. And all of this dust has turned
to lice and we can't turn any dust to lice. We have reached
the extent of our power. This is a power we're unfamiliar
with. And they were right about that.
And most people have no idea of the awesome power of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Why, He had the power to lay
down His life. And He had the power to take
it up again. And He has the power and He exercises
the power over everyone and over everything. And even in the life
and in the heart and in the mannerisms and in the methods and in the
works of Pharaoh, the Son of God, our Savior, had all power
over him. And he could only do those things
that would suit and fulfill the will of our Savior. Know this, when it comes to evil,
when it comes to the devil, Evil is not independent of God. The devil and the demons do not
work independent of God. That power which evil has, and
evil has powers, no question about that. There's satanic power,
there's demonic power. But that power which they have
is not independent power, it's delegated power from him who
has all power in heaven and in earth. That's our sovereign savior. And he says to evil, as he says
to the oceans, thus far thou shalt go and no further. Wasn't that evident in the life
of Job? take away his cattle, take away
his sheep, take away his family, take away
his health, that's as far as you go. You can't have him. And I tell you, to all of you
who are the people of God, Satan will never have you. Oh, He may be used by God to
humble you, to keep you low before the throne of God. He may bruise you, but soon He
will be bruised under your feet. And our God who chose you unto
salvation before the world began, and who redeemed you by the blood
of His darling Son, and who called you by his effectual grace through
the preaching of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our God will never let the evil one have you. He robbed him. Christ robbed
him of you. Satan held you by his own will,
under his own power, and Christ invaded his kingdom, and he took
you away from the evil one, and you live forever. And he may tempt you and he may
test you, but he can't kill you. He can't take your life. Thus
far shalt thou go and no further. Our Lord has set a limit. Aren't you thankful everything's
under the government of our kind and benevolent and loving Savior? You see, nothing can harm you. Nothing can harm you, nothing
can really hurt you. Our Savior said they may harm your
body, they may hurt your body, but they can't hurt you because
you, you are living soul in Christ Jesus. You have been washed. You have been robed. You are
accepted in the beloved. You are a prince with God. You're
made a king and a priest through the Lord Jesus Christ. And all
the powers of darkness, should they all assault you at the same
time, they cannot conquer you because you're protected by that
one who has all power, even our Lord Jesus Christ. How hard-hearted Pharaoh must
be when even his preachers tell him, this is the finger of God. And still his heart remained
hard against the Lord. So one plague follows another. So finally we get to the one
that we want to look at tonight in chapter 10, and that's the
destructive locusts. You know, in the Middle East,
just reading a little bit about it, about the locusts, that was
one thing that terrified people in the Middle East. because they
could come through, the locusts could come through and destroy
all of their crops. But these locusts that God raised
up, these locusts were a little different. They were more destructive because
the scripture says in verse 14 of chapter 10, very grievous
were they. before them were no such locusts
as they. These are different. These are
different. Neither after them shall be such. The locusts that had invaded
Egypt before and the locusts that would later invade the land
of Egypt afterwards, they were not to be compared with these.
Because God is using these to teach us a spiritual lesson. Destructive locusts. Most of the time in the Bible,
locusts are set by God as a judgment upon people. He even threatened
them with the judgment of locusts. These creatures, like all creatures,
are at the beck and call of our God. He can, as it says in 2
Chronicles 7, verse 13, He can command the locusts to devour
the land. Listen, our God controls even
the insects. Even those locusts that rose
up in Egypt. and the locus that God would
use from time to time to punish the Israelites. They're all under
his sovereign authority. There's nothing. He reigns among
the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth
and none can stay his hand or say unto our God, what doest
thou? And even the insects obey his
will. This is our God. We bow down
and worship him. We adore him. He has all power
over all things in heaven and in earth. In Joel chapter two,
locusts are called his army, God's army. You can read in Joel
chapter one in verse four, the Lord talked about sending the
locusts to devour the vegetation of Israel if they were disobedient. We had the time we could look
in Deuteronomy, like in Deuteronomy chapter 28. Chapter 28 of the
book of Deuteronomy, God promises blessings to those who obey and
curses to those who disobey. And when you get down to the
curses of those who disobey, God said he'll send locusts to
devour their crops and strip the fruit off the trees. They
all do His will. And I'll tell you, children of
God, rejoice. Throughout this world, all the
things are at work in this vast world of ours. And throughout
all of God's creation, our Lord Jesus Christ governs over everything
big and everything little. There is nothing that is out
from under His sovereign authority, and we rejoice in that. Now,
I want you to look with me in the book of Revelation. We're
talking about destructive locusts. But there's a spiritual lesson
for us here, and I hope that the Lord will enable us to see
this. Destructive locusts, Revelation
chapter 9. Here's the first woe that God
sends, the first of three. This is one of the trumpet judgments
you remember in our study. of the book of Revelation, the
trumpet judgments were to warn. Trumpets warn. In the book of
Ezekiel, the Lord talks about the faithful messenger of the
gospel warns. He sounds a faithful note on
the trumpet. True preachers of the gospel,
we warn of coming judgment and we sound loudly the note of jubilee,
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We sound forth the trumpet
note. Good news of salvation in Christ
Jesus. Good news! Everything God demanded
of His people, He sent His Son to fully accomplish those demands
and satisfy divine justice. There's the gospel trumpet, but
there are also trumpet judgments. And God's sending a trumpet judgment
here sounds forth the first woe. Are you there? Revelation chapter
nine. Look at verse one. And the fifth
angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth. Now this star that falls from
heaven to the earth, our Lord Jesus has already mentioned in
the gospels that he saw this star fall. He mentions it in
Luke chapter 10 and verse 18. when the 70 disciples come back
from preaching, going out two by two, 35 couples, 35 dual preachers
going forth. And they had the ability to cast
out demons and to do various miracles. They came back kind
of high-fiving one another, rejoicing that they had power even over
the demons of hell. And Christ said to them, I saw
Satan fall from heaven. I saw that star fall. Because
you see, he was there. He was there. He was the one who created all
of the angelic hosts. And he's the one who according
to his eternal purpose, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the
Son of God was there when they ordained that this one Lucifer,
angel of the morning, a light of the morning, that he would
fall into rebellion and thus fulfill the purpose of God throughout
the ages. And then God would finally at
last cast him into the lake of fire. Christ said there in Luke
chapter 10 and verse 18, I saw him fall. I saw him fall as lightning
from the sky. And now John says, In this vision
that God gives him, he said, I saw a star fall from heaven. When did he fall? When he rebelled
against God. When he decided he'd be greater
than the Son of God. He coveted the position that
the Son of God as the man Christ Jesus would have. And he was
angry with God. And he rebelled. He was like
a star who fell from heaven to the earth. He fell because he
was booted out. And to him was given the key
of the bottomless pit. Watch the language. He didn't
have the key until he was given to him. Because you see, in the
beginning of the book of Revelation in chapter 1, the keys of death
and hell, who do they belong to? They don't belong to Satan. The keys of death and hell belong
to the Son of God. He merited the right to govern
and have the keys to the whole universe, to all of creation. Who has the keys? The owner has
the keys. And Christ is the owner of all
things. And he gave to this fiend of
hell the key of the bottomless pit. This is the pit where the
fallen angels were imprisoned. They dragged their chains of
bondage And to Satan was given the key of the bottomless pit.
And what did he do with the key? Verse two, he opened the bottomless
pit. And there arose a smoke out of
the pit as the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the
air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there
came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth. And unto them
was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power. When
Satan opened the pit with the key, there arose a smoke out
of the pit. What does smoke do? Well, smoke covers light. And this has always been Satan's
desire, is to hide the light. Hold your place here and go to
2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. He would
keep the gospel of God's grace away from sinners. Now he can't
keep it away from the elect of God. He cannot hinder the workings
of sovereign, omnipotent grace, but he would keep people in the
darkness of religious era, the smoke, the smoke of religious
era that hides the light. Here in 2 Corinthians chapter
four, look at verse three. But if our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world
has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light."
That which he wants to do is not keep people from being religious. That's okay. And I wrote an article
about that, I think, in this past Sunday's bulletin. He doesn't
mind if you're religious. He's religious Himself. He doesn't
even mind if you carry a Bible, as long as you don't have any
understanding what the Bible is all about. But He will keep the world in
religious darkness. He blinds the mind of them which
believe not. Why does He do that? Lest the
light The smoke of false religion is designed to hide the light,
to keep the light out, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ. What a description of the gospel
of Christ! It's the light! that has entered
into our darkened hearts and minds and has illuminated us. The Lord has illuminated us.
The light, the light of the world, Christ has shined in our hearts. That's the reason we believe.
That's the reason we see who God is. That's the reason we
see what we are. That's the reason we see and
rejoice in the bloody sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. The
light, the light of the gospel of grace has shined in our darkened
hearts and our hearts aren't dark anymore. We see the light. But you see Satan with the reprobate, he keeps them in darkness. And
the most powerful tool he has is the smoke of false religion. And you know, and I know, scores
of people, they're in the smoke, in the darkness of false religion. And they can't see the light. Satan has blinded their minds. Read the rest of it. Lest the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves because of the light. We preach
the light, but I can't shine into somebody's heart. I can
try to get in your ears. I can try to get in your mind,
but I can't get in your heart. We preach Christ Jesus the Lord.
He is the light. And we say we're just servants
for Jesus' sake. That which you need is that which
I need and you who are watching is what you need is for God to
send the light of the glorious gospel into the heart. That's when people will believe You can't twist their arms and
make them believe. You can't back them in a corner
and force them to make some kind of profession of faith. If I help you to tie the knot
of your conversion, then somebody else can help you untie the knot. But if the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ Jesus ever shines in the heart, with that brilliant
light. If God the spirit ever says like
you did in the first creation, let there be light. Light will
shine and all the darkness of hell itself can't extinguish
the light. Cause he says in verse six, for
God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shine
in our hearts. That's the grace of God at work
in us. It's that light shining in the
heart. To give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God. Where do we see that? In the
face of our Lord Jesus Christ. So go back to Revelation chapter
nine. The smoke. The smoke out of the
pit as the smoke of a great furnace. It's designed, the satanic design
is to darken the mind and the heart to keep the light out. It let religion in. Let morality
in. but keep the light out. Now,
to be sure, he can't conquer. He can't conquer Christ Jesus.
When our Lord shines forth the light of the gospel, that light
will shine. It will illuminate. But you see,
this passage of scripture, the smoke that is hiding the light
is for those non-elect, the non-elect. Look at verse three. There came
out of the smoke locusts upon the earth. Who are these locusts?
The destructive locusts. Who are they? Well, they're not
those little creatures that covered the land of Egypt that ate up
all the greenery and all the herbs and all the fruit. These are false preachers. These are the servants of Satan. Because look at verse four, and
it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of
the earth. These are different kind of locusts.
They're even more destructive because they're not after the
herbs of the world, the trees and the fruit. In fact, it says,
"...not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing,
neither any tree. But only those men which have
not the seal of God in their foreheads." Who has the seal of God in their
foreheads, in their minds, in their hearts? That's the elect
of God. We were sealed by God the Father
in covenant grace. We were sealed by the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ when He redeemed us, put our sins away,
brought in everlasting righteousness. We were sealed by that Holy Spirit
of promise when the gospel of our Lord Jesus was sealed to
the heart. You see, the seal of God's elect,
and this seal is an indication of ownership. God owns us. It's a seal of protection, protected
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a seal of preservation.
We're sealed by the Holy Spirit of truth. So this smoke and these destructive
locusts, these false preachers, they can't harm those who have
the seal of God in their foreheads. The 144,000 that are spoken of
earlier in the book of the Revelation. The chosen of God from every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. But let's continue with these
Destructive locust, verse five, and to them it was given that they should not kill them.
That's God's business. Eternal damnation is what God
brings about. But that they should be tormented
five months, which is the average lifespan of locusts that destroy
vegetation. But what I take this to mean
is for a certain period of time. And I'm totally against date
setting as far as when our Lord Jesus is coming back. Sunday
morning I'm going to be preaching on the second coming of Christ
from Zechariah chapter 14. But I will say this. This age
in which we're living, I sure do see a lot of smoke, don't
you? There are a lot of destructive
locusts out here. And they just, they swarm everywhere. Wherever you go, you see these
destructive locusts. who are imitators of God's servants
in that they, to a degree, use the same kind of words we use.
And they'll come forth carrying the Bible, imitators. But they're controlled by that
star that fell from heaven, even Lucifer himself. And watch this, it says in the
end of verse five, Their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, deadly. That's the thing about false
preachers. Hey, Jim, you say a lot about
false preachers and false prophets. Our Lord did read again in Matthew
7, didn't he, Brandon? He said that in Matthew 7, beware
of false prophets. That's right, isn't it, Ron?
Our Lord voiced, He spoke loudly against false prophets. He said to the Pharisees, He
said, you're of your father, the devil. That's exactly right. their destructive locus that
he has released from the pit, and they clout the issue. Smoke. Smoke. Keep people in the dark. They're like a scorpion when
he strikes a man. They're deadly. Because their
message is deadly. Message of free willism, hear
me now, that's a deadly message. That your will makes the difference,
that's deadly. That's poison. The poison of
a scorpion is in their tail, it will say a little bit later
in this context. And in those days, look at verse
six, and in those days shall men seek death and shall not
find it and shall desire to die and death shall flee from them.
In other words, there's no real joy or happiness or life in this
freewill works message. There's no happiness. It's a
false happiness. And you want to know about these
locusts? Look at verse seven. And the shapes of these locusts
were like horses prepared unto battle. They go forth, released by Satan
himself. And on their heads were, as it
were, crowns of gold. They're honored by men. Oh, how
great these preachers are. And their faces were like the
faces of men. They show compassion. It's like
one lady told me about her preacher, her pastor. She said, you know,
he's not much of a preacher, but he's a kind pastor. What an awful indictment against
a man. Not much of a preacher, but he's
a kind man. Visits the sick. Why, there are
preachers who go down the hospital halls down here knocking on doors. So full of compassion. Yeah, but they came forth out
of the pit. And verse eight says, they had
hair as the hair of women. They're effeminate. Pretty boys. But their teeth, as the teeth
of lions, they devour. And they had breastplates, as
it were breastplates of iron. Seems like nothing can stop them
or harm them. And the sound of their wings
was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
They're anxious. They're full of zeal. Watch them,
they can get into a town, they can build a church up from nothing
to be a mega church in no time at all. That's what they do. And verse 10 says, and they had
tails like in the scorpions, there were stings in their tails,
and their power was to hurt men five months. And I'll tell you,
they're hurting people all over the world. But they can't hurt God's elect.
They can't harm you. And verse 11 says, they had a
king over them. You read in the book of Proverbs,
as far as the little creatures that eat the greenery, those
locusts that come around, what is it, every seven years or whatever
it is? Proverbs says they don't have a king over them. But these,
destructive locusts, these false preachers, they got a king over
them, which is the angel, the messenger
of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is
Abaddon. And in the Greek tongue, his
name is Apollyon. He's the destroyer. He is the
destroyer. And he's destroying millions
upon millions of people, but he can't destroy God's people. We're safe under the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, one woe is past,
and behold, there come two more woes hereafter. Destructive locusts,
But we have nothing to fear. You see, God has, as far as we're
concerned, He's cleared the air. And we can see. We can see. The smoke is gone. We've been
illuminated. And you've been so enlightened
that when you hear the smoke of false religion, when you see
it, when you hear it, when you hear the words of one of these
destructive locusts, you have been given wisdom enough to know
that's not right. I'm not going to listen to that. Thank God we can tell truth from
error. And we rejoice in the truth. And we thank God that
we're not in error. We believe the truth as it is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Sing a closing song.