In the book of Revelation chapter
9, we're continuing as we go through this book verse by verse,
we're looking at this, remember this is the sixth trumpet, the
trumpet judgment, which is the second woe announced over in
Revelation 8, 13. And it's talking about God's
judgment and war on earth. God's judgment and war on earth. and before i get into these last
verses we're going to start at verse seventeen we're picking
up here where where this this has to do with satan and his
ministers and the main thrust of this has to do with satan's
war against christ and the church now it's a war that he cannot
win but it's a war that he thinks he can win and as we go through
this book especially get into chapter eleven We're going to
see that Satan will be allowed by God's sovereign purpose to
what seems to the world to gain a victory, but it's a false victory. It's a temporary triumph for
Satan because when the Lord Christ comes back the second time, Satan
and this whole evil world will be defeated. They'll be made
his footstools, what the scripture says. his footstool, someplace
to rest his feet. That's an emblem of victory,
the victory of Christ. And so as we go through these
things and we see some things that are distressing, we need
to be like the Apostle Paul. Though we're perplexed and distressed,
we're not confused, we're not in despair, we know that our
victory is sure because of what Christ accomplished on the cross
to put away the sins of his people. and to ensure our salvation.
We cannot be lost and there's so many passages of scripture,
there's so many concepts that come forth from the gospel truth
that prove that. It's amazing to me that men and
women could believe that a sinner could be saved and then lost.
But the reason they believe that is because they believe that
salvation is conditioned on them and not on Christ and on him
alone. So, but let me start out here
as we see Satan who's been allowed to come out of this bottomless
pit, which as we've studied is the bottomless pit is the darkness
of this world. That's what the bottom, it's
not a hole in the ground. It's the darkness and deception
of false religion. false peace. It could include
the immorality that pervades the day, but it mainly shows
up in Satan's deception to keep sinners, in his efforts to keep
sinners from seeing, as 2 Corinthians 4 and verses 3 and 4 say, from
seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Satan's
main goal is to keep sinners from salvation. Now we know he
cannot accomplish that when it comes to God's chosen people.
That's why Christ said that in Matthew 24, he said, in the last
days, there'll be some who'll come so close to the truth that
if it were possible, they could deceive the very elect. And it's
not possible. I mean, the elect were deceived
for a time, but we don't end that way because God's going
to bring us to a saving knowledge of Christ. But here he's talking
about Satan waging war mainly on Christ and the church. Now,
a lot of people will read these passages and they'll talk about
war on earth between nations or between men. Well, let's talk
about that just a little bit and I want to show you a little
bit about scriptural interpretation. Let the scripture speak, interpret
scripture with scripture. For example, ask yourself this
question now. Has there ever been a time in
the history of mankind, let's say from the fall of man on,
that there's been peace on earth? Now you think about it. And I
thought about that a lot. And I said, probably you could
say maybe a few days after the flood. You think about it. It wasn't many days after the
flood that there was conflict between Noah and his family.
And that came. You see, conflict, hatred, anger,
war is a consequence of the fall. And Christ said, you remember,
you know, we just come out of the season where people sing
peace on earth and goodwill to men. And that's not talking about
peace among nations and peace among men. That's talking about
peace between God and his people through the blood of Jesus Christ,
having made peace on the cross. reconciled based on his righteousness
imputed that's what that's talking about so in fact uh... when you when you read passages
like that you know peace on earth consider also matthew chapter
ten where christ told his disciples as he sent him out to preach
the gospel he said i didn't come to bring peace on earth he said
i came to bring a sword to put a man at variance with his father
a daughter again And what he's talking about is the conflict
in the gospel. He's not talking about fists
and knives and guns. He's talking about a conflict
among earthly families because one member is brought to faith
in Christ and to submit to him as the only way of salvation
and another believes something else. And that's a conflict. And Christ said there will always
be wars and rumors of wars. It's always been. There's never
been a time that that's not been the case because that's a consequence
of the fall. But at the same time, the scripture
says that we who are the children of God are to be peacemakers.
Blessed are the peacemakers. What is that? Matthew 5, 9. For
they shall be called the children of God. Now, I believe the main
thrust of being a peacemaker is preaching the gospel of peace.
preaching the gospel of peace because there's only one way
that a sinner can have peace with God. And that's by God's
sovereign grace based on the blood and righteousness of Jesus
Christ. No other way. And I don't care
how you feel or how things are going for you today, if you're
not washed in the blood of Christ and clothed in his righteousness,
you're at war with God. In fact, Colossians chapter one
describes us by nature that way, that before we were brought into
the kingdom, we were what? Enemies in our minds by wicked
works. And understand, when you read
passages like that, you've got to apply that not just to the
immoral segment of society, but also to the religious segment
who are seeking salvation based on their works. A sinner who's
trying to be saved based on his works, is at war with God. That was a precedent established
back in the garden when Adam and Eve fell and sewed their
fig leaves together. And you see it played out in
Cain, who brought the works of his hands to God, seeking salvation. That's a declaration of war against
the seed of woman, Christ. And Satan has been promoting
that all along. Now, here in Revelation 9 and
passages like that, we see that warfare, and it's a spiritual
warfare, elevated. But now, will there be wars between
nations, between men and women here on earth? Yes. But it always
has been. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
14 says this to the people of God. It says, follow after peace
with all men. Alright? In other words, we're
to be peace promoters. But then it says, and holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord. Now that holiness there
is not just morality. Now should we be moral? Obviously,
yes. There's no argument there. But
the holiness, what he's talking about there is that as we seek
to provoke peace among men here on earth, we're not to do it
at the expense of that which separates us from the world.
That's what holiness is, it's separation. Well, what separates
the people of God from the world mainly? It's the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ, who
Christ is and what he accomplished. And that's what Satan is at war
with. You understand that? You see,
let me just show you some scripture. Turn to 2 Corinthians 10. Now,
when we talk about warfare, you know a lot of people, 2 Corinthians
10, They talk about how it's all
gonna come down to one final conflict, a physical war, and
they call it Armageddon. We'll get to that later on. I've
preached several messages in Armageddon. I've got a lot of
response to it, too. But they call it Armageddon.
Now, what that is is a war between the people of God and Satan's
followers, all right? And it's going to come down to
that, they say. But now, when you talk about our warfare, what
does the scripture say about a believer's warfare? Well, look
at verse 3 of 2 Corinthians 10. He says, for though we walk in
the flesh, that is, in this physical body, in this physical world,
we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,
casting down imaginations. You might have in your concordance
here the word reasonings. What he's talking about is evil
thoughts. and every high thing that exalteth itself against
the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought
to obedience of Christ." The weapons of our warfare are not
guns and knives and airplanes and helicopters. It's the gospel. And the battlefield is the mind,
the heart. And we're never commanded or
given leave to take up arms to promote the gospel. That's not
a Christian thing. That's a Muslim thing. They promote
their false gospel by taking up knives and guns and trying
to force people. You remember the Spanish Inquisition
in the name of Christianity, how they tried to convert people
by torture? That is not Christian at all. It's not even remotely Christian.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Now, that doesn't
mean that a Christian cannot defend themselves. We're not
pacifists. We don't lay down and let people
roll over us. That doesn't mean that a Christian
cannot be a member of a standing army to defend their nation in
a noble cause. But it does mean that in order
to promote the gospel, and that's what this revelation is all about
now, we are not to take up arms to promote the gospel. Now again,
we're to defend ourselves, but let me show you another passage.
Look at Ephesians chapter six. And I want to make that clear.
You know, some people say that because of passages like this
that we're to be pacifist, and that's not true. That is not
true. We're not to be brawlers. We're
not to be war mongers. We're not to engage in war for
selfish and illegal, immoral causes. We're not to do that. But we can defend ourselves with
physical weapons if need be. Defend ourselves and our children,
our communities, if we have to, if we're forced to. But look
at verse 10 of Ephesians 6. Now, what I'm wanting to show
you is the type of warfare on earth that's symbolized in Revelation
9. And look at verse 6, he says,
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power
of his might, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be
able to stand against the wiles of the devil. What are Satan's
weapons? His wiles, his deceptions, his lies. The darkness, you see. Look at verse 12. For we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. And then he lists the
whole armor of God, which is all in the spiritual armor that
a believer has given him by the grace of God. Now, with that
in mind, turn back to Revelation 9. Now, what he's describing
here is Satan's army. And this army is an army of false
preachers preaching a false gospel promoting Satan's lie. Now, is
Satan engaged in any way in physical conflicts in this world? I'm
sure he is. But that's not the war we're
fighting, you see, as a church. We're fighting this warfare.
Look at verse 17. He's talking about these, what
he called up in In verse, what is it? Oh, verse three. These locusts, these scorpions,
that's his army. And he says, this number of them,
he said, I saw the horses, and thus I saw the horses in the
vision. They were riding horses, you see. And he says, and that
was a symbol of power. It's like having a tank in a
physical army. It was a symbol of power. And
he said, in this vision, and them that sat on them having
breastplates of fire, now you know what the breastplate of
fire symbolizes? God's judgment against this world. You say, but now these are being
worn by the locust. Well, God, listen, why is God
bringing all this? God's in control of all this,
folks. Understand that anytime you read
about Satan attacking the church, he's never taking God by surprise. You can't take God by surprise.
This is, as I've said before, God is not some kind of a cosmic
chess player up there making his move, and Satan makes his
counter move, and then you got, he's got a, no, this is all according
to the plan and purpose of God. Where is this vision coming from?
It's coming from the seven-sealed book revealed by the Lamb who's
worthy. The seven-sealed book is the
plan and purpose of God. It's like I told you the story
about the fellow who asked about, you know, he called and said,
I don't believe predestination. And I said, well, you don't believe
the Bible then. I said, that's where the word comes from. He
said, well, he said, I don't, I've never read it. And I said,
well, I asked him, I said, do you believe the book of Revelation?
He said, every word of it. And I said, do you believe those
are things that might come about or things that will come about
no matter what? He said, I believe they'll come
about no matter what. I said, well, that's predestination.
He said, well, I can't understand all that. And I said, well, join
the club. We're human. It's not that we can understand
all of God's workings, but we know this. We quote this verse
all the time, Romans 8, 28. All things work together for
good to them that love God, who are the called according to his
purpose. Now, how in the world can that happen? Because God's
the one who's working all things after the counsel of his own
will. So these breastplates of fire represent God's judgment
against the evil unbelieving world. Satan and his agents and
his ministers are the unwitting agents of God's judgment. against
this world. It falls into the category of,
for example, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, where it's, I think
it's verse 10, it may be verse 11, I can't remember which verse,
but he talks about that God will send them strong delusion that
they should believe a lie. That's God's judgment against
the stubborn unbelief of sinners. And understand now, when I say
that, I'm not saying it with pride, because I know, and you
know this too, that if it weren't for the grace of God in our lives,
where would we be? I mean, I didn't, when the Lord
saved Saul of Tarsus, as Brother Mahan used to say, he wasn't,
Saul wasn't on his way to a prayer meeting, was he? He wasn't seeking
the Lord. He was, and I feel the same way
about myself. You know, when the Lord stopped
me and got my attention, I really, what I was trying to do, my goal
was to prove a gospel preacher wrong. from the Bible. That's what I was trying to do.
And then I found out that what he was preaching was in the Bible.
And the Lord got my attention that way. But look here. This is the judgment of God against
this world. And these breastplates of fire.
That's what it is. It's the fire of God's judgment. Look back at verse 17. He uses
these stones. for symbols, Jasonth. Jasonth, they say, was a dull
and dark blue stone, and later on it's identified as smoke.
Brimstone, you know what brimstone is, that fire and brimstone fell
upon Sodom. This is God's judgment against
sin. This is justice in action. And every time I see things like
this, when I see God's justice in action, you know what it brings
my mind to? I thank God that his justice
against me fell on my surety, my redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ
on that cross. But these that justice is falling
on here, they have no redeemer. They have no surety. They have
no substitute. You see, and that brimstone,
it says in verse 17, the heads of the horses were as the heads
of lions. You remember how Christ talked
about Satan as being a roaring lion? You see, this is to devour. I think about Genesis chapter
four there in that verse where the Lord told Cain, if you do
well, you shall be accepted. Of course, doing well means bringing
the lamb. Most people don't understand
that, but that's what it is. Do what Abel did, bring the blood
of the lamb, that's Christ. And he said, but if you don't,
sin is at the door. And the picture there is like
a wild animal, like a lion, ready to pounce. In other words, if
you don't have Christ, sin will do you in. It will finish you. And here it is. These horses
that had heads like a lion, out of their mouths issued fire and
smoke and brimstone. That's that Jason, that fire
and that smoke. That's what it's identified as.
And it's the smoke of deception. It's the smoke of a false gospel. And so when we look at Satan
as the lion trying to devour, then run to Christ as the lion
of the tribe of Judah. And look at verse 18, by these
three was the third part of men killed. Now we've talked about
the fourth part and the third part. This is the point in time
in the last days when men and women began to recognize because
of this ever-spreading destruction and judgment that something's
wrong. Something's happening here. The
fourth part people didn't really worry about too much, you know.
They didn't talk about the eve of destruction and things. But
when the third part comes along, that's the point in time where
people start taking notice. Hey, there's something wrong
with our world. And remember, we talked about a while ago,
and I've mentioned this before, man's pride in that area is shown
forth in two ways. Number one, man thinks he can
destroy this world. Let me tell you something, he
cannot do it. God created this world, and God's the one that's
gonna destroy it. Man can't do it. Secondly, man
thinks he can fix it, and he can't. I don't care how green
you go, you're not going to fix it. And again, I'm not saying
that we should be environmentally irresponsible or anything like
that, but I'm telling you, we can't fix it. This world is doomed. And I'm
not just being a doomsday preacher. That's what the scripture says.
That's what's happening here. The third part of men killed,
people begin to take notice and they begin to seek solutions.
But by nature, what solutions are they gonna seek? Not the
grace of God in Christ, they're gonna seek other solutions. Some
will be tied to this world, they'll worship this world. Mother Earth,
Mother Nature, Pantheist. Some will seek false religion,
works religion, free willism, anything. But unless the spirit
of God intervenes, What will they do? They'll go on in destruction. And look here, he says in verse
18, he says, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
Interesting, uh, word here in the translation. And I've got
this in your lesson and you, you look at this, uh, the word
mouth translated mouths here. Over in the book of Luke chapter
21, we don't have time to turn there, but you read Luke chapter
21 beginning at verse eight there through 24, and this is listed
in your lesson. It's translated edge in Luke
21, this word mouth. And what it's talking about in
Luke 21 is where the Lord spoke of how Jerusalem would fall by
the edge of the sword. And what he's saying here is
that the power, that sword that they use is their false message. Whatever form it comes in, whether
it's a religious, a political, an economic, or environmental,
it's a false message that leads sinners to a false hope, false
refuge. Whereas in the Lord's case and
His people, He has the two-edged sword that comes out of His mouth,
which is the Word of God. You see the difference there?
So here's Satan and his ministers with their sword, their mouth,
the edge of the sword, spewing forth, attacking with their false
message. But here comes Christ and His
people with the Word of the Lord, the Gospel. how God saves sinners. So that's an interesting thing
there. But look at verse 19, for their power is in their mouth.
That's what he says. That word power there, you know
what it is if we get our English word dynamite from it. Their
power to harm, their power to kill. And in their tails, remember
the scorpion tails, it's a poisonous sting, it's poison. You see,
the word of Christ, the word of God's grace is a life-giving
message in the hands of the Holy Spirit in his invincible grace.
But their word is a poison. Salvation by works is a poison. And look at it, it says, for
their tails were like unto serpents and had heads, and with them
they do hurt. They do hurt. And that's hurt
unto death. Verse 20. And the rest of the
men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not
of the works of their hands." Now remember this is a gradual
thing, this is not total destruction yet, that comes later on. And
so some will be killed, some will be left. Was he talking
about physical death? Talking about both. But he says
those who are left, now this is one of the saddest verses
in the Bible to me. It says, those who were left
who were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the
works of their hands, that they should not worship devils and
idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and of wood,
which neither can see nor hear nor walk. Verse 21, neither repented
they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their
fornication, nor of their thefts. Now that's every kind of evil
that can be found on earth. And what that is, I'll tell you
what, what that is. That's a picture of all of us
by nature. Would you have repented of your
dead works? And I Randy preached on that
last week. Repentance of dead works and idolatry. Uh, you say,
well, what about repentance from immorality? Of course, it's all
included. But it mainly has to do with
repentance of dead works and idolatry. He mentions it here.
You could say, well, he's talking about those who make idols out
of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, that's right.
But always remember this, that an idol begins in the wicked
heart of man. You don't have to necessarily
build it out of stone and wood or whatever to be an idolater. Salvation by the works of man
is idolatry. Salvation by the free will of
man, which there's no such thing, that's idolatry. That's what
it is. You were talking about that last
week. Because it takes a sinner's mind away from Christ, the author
and the finisher, the completer of our faith. The only reason
any of us believe is what? The sovereign mercy of God. That's
it. I didn't believe because I'm
better than you, less stubborn, less obstinate. I believe because
God gave me faith. Faith is the gift of God. But
all of this shows that man left to himself will not repent. You just won't do it. I don't
care how religious you are. I don't care where you grew up.
You grew up on the Bible Belt here in Albany, Georgia. Man
left to himself, religiously or morally, will not repent. Repentance comes. And the judgment
of God will not bring a sinner to repentance. Scripture says
that it's the goodness of God. Romans chapter, I think it's
chapter two. The goodness of God leads sinners to repentance.
Where do we find the goodness of God? You know, we can think
about our lives here on earth and how much the Lord has done
for, you know, we've been so privileged and so blessed. I
told, I was talking about a while ago with Robert, I said, we've
been spoiled, especially in our country, in this area, we've
been spoiled. But you know what? None of that's
a blessing unless it leads us to salvation by the grace of
God in Christ. Ultimately, it'll all be a curse,
won't it? So there's no other way but Christ and him crucified
and risen from the dead. All right.