Now this lesson's entitled, this
is part two of last week, is Satan and His Preachers, picking
up at verse five. And what he's talking about,
let's just read the first four verses. It says, the fifth angel
sounded. I saw a star fall from heaven
unto the earth. I believe he's talking about
Satan there, falling from heaven. under the earth, and to him was
given the key of the bottomless pit." In other words, Satan doesn't
have that key. It was given to him by a sovereign
God as a judgment upon this earth, the bottomless pit being this
dark world, the darkness of this world. He opened the bottomless
pit and there arose a smoke out of the pit. Smoke is deception,
that which clouds the vision as the smoke of a great furnace,
the furnace being the fire of the wrath of God. The sun and
the air were darkened. The sun, that's a picture of
Christ, the son of righteousness. The air is the life that he gives. In other words, we see Satan's
goal is to cloud the issue of the glorious truth of Christ
and him crucified, the gospel. uh... probably referenced uh...
second corinthians chapter four throughout these two lessons
more than any other verse you know verse three talks about
if our gospel be hid it's hid to them that are lost in whom
the god of this world have blinded the minds of them which believe
not lest the light of the glorious gospel of christ should shine
unto them and that's what you see here in in these symbols
satan with the smoke clouding the sun and the air And he says,
they were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit, that
smoke being his deception. Verse three, there came out of
the smoke locusts upon the earth. These locusts are symbols of
the ministers of Satan, false gospel preachers, false preachers
of a false gospel. and they're like locusts because
locusts, in that culture, locusts, it was an agricultural economy
and locusts would come along every so often and they would
destroy their whole way of life. They'd destroy all the crops,
leave nothing but devastation. And that's why they're symbolized,
why false preachers who preach a false gospel that devastates
the souls of men and women are compared to locusts He says in
verse three, unto them was given power as the scorpions of the
earth have power. You know, a scorpion kills by
the sting of its tail. And it was commanded, verse four,
that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any
green thing, neither any tree. That's symbolic of the people
of God who are sealed in their minds and their hearts by the
Holy Spirit. In other words, when we see the
whole realm of Satan's deception, covering their world, deceiving
the nations. We have the assurance that we're
safe in Christ. First of all, Satan, who is the
accuser of the brethren, his charges against us will not stick. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? We're clothed in the righteousness
of Christ and cannot be condemned. We're justified in him. he took
our sins and paid the debt in full so satan's charges cannot
stick so we're free from condemnation there's therefore no condemnation
of them which are in Christ but we're also free from satan's
deceptions as concerning the gospel concerning the way God
saves sinners because as second corinthians four six says God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We've been brought by the power
of the Holy Spirit to believe in and follow the Lord Jesus
Christ as the Lord our righteousness and therefore Satan cannot deceive
us in that way. Now we might have some other
problems in other areas that we have to be continually taught.
But in the gospel, in how God justifies the ungodly, we're
clear on that issue. Because that's the heart of the
gospel, how a holy God can be just and justify the ungodly.
So Satan cannot hurt the grass of the earth, the green thing,
the tree, those are all symbols of things that have life. And
they mean things and the application is spiritual life. And he says
it here, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their
foreheads. Now that tells us, you see, look
at the way this verse is set up because it's really important
that it shows us how we're to understand the book of Revelation.
Read verse four again. It was commanded them that they
should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green
thing, neither any tree. Now, what's he talking about
with grass and green things and trees? And a lot of people will
talk about ecology and things like that. Well, we can talk
about ecology and we can talk about being responsible to take
care of the place we live, all of that. Okay. That's not what
this is teaching. How do you know? But he can't
hurt the earth. I mean, he cannot hurt the green
thing, the grass, the green thing, and the tree. He can only hurt
those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. There's the key. In other words,
what he's talking about is hurting people here. Satan cannot hurt
the people of God in this sense. Now we can go to other scriptures
and talk about other things about Satan attacking, Satan opposing,
Satan being used as an instrument of chastisement even. Look at
Job, all of that. But what he's talking about here
is eternal death and destruction. That's part of this woe back
up in verse 13 of chapter 8. That angel flying through the
midst of heaven crying, woe, woe, woe. Now what he's, he's
pronouncing the end of all things in the death and destruction
of the ungodly and how Satan is used as an instrument of judgment
against those who will not flee to Christ. And what he's saying
that this is, this is a power that's given to Satan. His power
is limited by the Lord. God, you see, Satan is not the
equal counterpart to God. That's not what he is, as some
people kind of indicate that. Oh no. Satan is on God's leash,
as one preacher said. And that's true. So he can hurt
all those who have not fled to Christ, but those who have the
seal of God in their foreheads, that's the elect of God. Remember Christ said in Matthew
24, he said that Satan's deception would be so close to the truth
that if it were possible he could deceive the very elect, but it's
not possible, how do we know? Right here. He cannot hurt those
who have the seal of God in their foreheads, the forehead meaning
the mind, which is in the way of thinking back then, and should
be today, is the heart. It's not just a mental thing
now. The mind, the affections, and the will. So there, that
sets it up. Now look at verse five. Here's
the next part of this, Satan and his preachers. He says, and
to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that
they should be tormented five months. Now he's talking about
those who have been sealed in their foreheads, those who are
the true children of God. And it says that they cannot
kill the people of God, these false preachers, these false
ministers of Satan, but they can torment them He says, for
five months, and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion
when he striketh a man. This torment, now the word torment
there, I think, opens up what he's talking about. Because the
word torment here, and understand now what, you know, Satan is
always, through his ministers, trying to interject false gospels
into the church. And that is a torment to the
people of God. In fact, to me, that's the worst trial we have
to go through, I believe, no matter what we go through. But
that word torment here is an interesting word. What it talks
about, it's like a touchstone, the word torment. It's like a
touchstone that they use to rub gold and silver up against. And
that's what this is, it's like a rubbing against. In other words,
he cannot shoot his poison into us because we have the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God, but he can rub up against
us. And what happens, this touchstone,
they rubbed it up against gold and silver to make sure that
the gold was true gold and the silver was true silver. So what
you have here is a test of the faith of the people of God. You
see, again, Satan's goal is to keep men and women in darkness
concerning the glory of God in Christ, the gospel. But during
this time of tribulation, the greatest torment to the people
of God will be Satan's attempt to spread his false gospels,
to infiltrate the true church where the gospel is preached.
And how does Satan do that? He does it by feeding the natural
man's self-righteousness, self-love, his pride. And the only remedy
is the grace of God in Christ. And he tells us here, look at
verse five again. To them it was given that they
should not kill them, but they should be tormented five months.
Why five months? Well, number one, five months
indicates this is a temporary thing, a short period of time.
Remember Christ said, except those days be shortened. So it's
a limited period of time. This is not forever and ever.
Secondly, most scholars think that this is the actual lifespan
of an actual locust, the insect. And so what it's saying there
is that their lifespan is short, they're going to be destroyed.
But I got to thinking about this. That number five in the Bible
is the number of grace. You know, the number four is
the number of the earth, north, south, east, west, all the elements
of the earth, four, plus one, five, that's the earth plus Christ. God, Christ is the salvation
of his people and five is the number of grace. In the book
of Revelation and in other passages where you see measurements of
the temple, measurements of the city, it's always in multiples
of five. indicating a covenant relationship,
the covenant of grace, that's what it means. And what this,
I believe, is teaching is this, this time of torment, this time
of destruction of the world, this time of testing, It is a
time of death and destruction for the ungodly, but it is also
a time of grace for the people of God, even in our testing,
because as Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1.7, it says that the trial of
our faith is more precious than gold that perisheth, though it
be tried with fire, might be found unto the praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. And I think there's
a real connection there. Going through the trials, it
may not be pleasant, but as Hebrews 12 teaches us, afterward it's
going to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Well,
the only remedy, the only protection that we have from Satan's deceptions
is the glory of God in Christ, is the power of God unto salvation,
the gospel. Look at verse six. He said, and
in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it and
shall desire to die and death shall flee from them. What he's
describing there is the hopelessness that men and women who are deceived
by Satan will eventually come to during this period of time.
I believe it's a time where you'll see more and more humanism, more
and more atheism, agnosticism, more and more despair. Eventually,
not all now, we know that false assurance can, in some cases,
remain unto the judgment. Just think about Matthew 7, Lord,
Lord, have we not preached in your name? But generally speaking,
you're going to see a despair, an attitude of despair and defeat
that which causes men and women to wish for death and they can't
find it and the reason what he's saying they can't find it there
will be death but man by nature will some way in some fashion
think that death is better than what he has here on earth and
he's going to find out that death is not the remedy and what the
issue is here is this it's just teaching us this there is absolutely
no hope no peace no real happiness, no contentment, no fulfillment
without Christ, without the gospel of salvation to the glory of
God's grace in Christ. There's the only fulfillment.
You know, often when I read passages like this, when it talks about
the despair and the defeat of the natural man, and you know,
when you study literature in school, you see a lot of that. In philosophies, you see men
and women who are just so negative. They're so defeatist, I guess
is the best word. And I often think about Ecclesiastes
3, that verse in Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 3 is the passage
that says, for everything there is a time, there is a season.
And right at the end of that little poetic section, it says
something like this. It says, God has said, and it's
not in these words now, I'm paraphrasing. I think it's Ecclesiastes 3.10
or 11 or something like that, you can look it up. But it says,
God has set eternity in man's heart. In other words, here's
man, he has a sense of the eternal. And the proof of that is that
even if you're an atheist, at some point in your life, you've
asked this question, is there life after death? I mean, you
don't, you know, that's what separates man from the animals. You know, dogs and cats, they
don't sit around worrying about what's going to happen after
they die. They don't have that kind of mind. They don't have
that kind of conscience. That's man made in the likeness,
the image of God. And that image has been defiled
by the fall and by sin and by selfishness, but it's still there.
There's the remnant still there. And man wonders about that. You
know, is there life after death? What's going to happen after
I die? Is there a judgment? And his whole life is some way
either going through life denying that so that he won't have to
face it in his mind or trying to fulfill it and he tries to
fill it up with things like false religion. And that's what this
is talking about. Men will seek death, they shall
not find it and shall desire to die and death shall flee from
them. And even religious people who are deceived by Satan, don't
they seek death? as a comfort. I mean, I've heard,
I've had unbelievers tell me that they knew when they died
they were going to go to heaven. They had that assurance. And,
but they're not going to find, they'll find death, but they
think of death as being something pleasant, and it's not going
to be. Because our only hope to find
fulfillment in death is to stand before God washed in the blood
of Christ and clothed in his righteousness. And that's it. So they're not going to find
that. They're going to find nothing but destruction, the end of all
things. Everything that is said in the
rest of this trumpet judgment, this first woe, is a description
in some way of Satan's way of deceiving people. Look at verse
7. He says, the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses
prepared unto battle. They have an appearance of being
valiant warriors ready to conquer. But they're going to be defeated.
That's a deception. That's what this is talking about.
A horse back then was power. A horse back then, I don't want
to get too over over descriptive here but it's, you know, to have
a bunch of horses, a kingdom that had a bunch of horses was
like a country today that had a nuclear arsenal and so that's
what it is, this is all the appearance, what he's describing here is
what Paul described in second Thessalonians 2, it's the lying
wonders and the deception of unrighteousness, the deceitfulness
of unrighteousness, they appear to be conquerors going forth
to conquer but they're going to be defeated. He says, on their
heads were, as it were, crowns like gold. That's a description
of, it's like fool's gold. It gives an appearance and pretense
of great authority, great victory, riches, we've got it all, but
they really have nothing. He says, their faces were as
the faces of men. Now this shows you their appearance
is not, you know, they're not gonna stand, they're not gonna
look like, they're not gonna have horns and fangs. They're
gonna look like men and women just like us, see? And they speak
loudly in that sense of human language that reaches the hearts
of the deceived. It's a deceptive message. All
right, verse eight, he says, and they had hair as the hair
of women. Now, ladies, this is no insult
to you. But what he's emphasizing here
is their appearance, is the appearance of beauty, personality. As I put in the lesson, their
way of worship is one of outward adornment. Their appeal is emotional,
sentimental. And that's what it's talking
about. It's not saying that women are not intelligent or not rational,
but it's saying, as the Bible portrays this as a symbol, that
their appeal is not based on the authority of the word of
God. It's based on emotion and feeling and sentiment. And boy,
doesn't that describe false religion to you? You know, somebody says,
well, I know that's true because I felt it, you know. Well, that's
not the way to understand what's true and false. Now, listen,
there is absolutely nothing wrong with emotion and sentiment if
it's grounded in the truth. Do you understand that? I mean,
you know, I... You know, I get to reading the
scripture and studying, preaching, and I do get emotional when I'm
overwhelmed by the glory of God and what He's done for His people. You know, I can never get away,
and you hear me say this a lot in messages, I can never get
away from the fact that what I have, as far as eternal life
and glory is concerned, that I don't deserve it and I didn't
earn it. In fact, I did the opposite. and do the opposite to earn it
or deserve it. And that's an overwhelming reality. We do get emotional about that.
And there's nothing wrong with the sentimentality of those emotions. But if they're based on a lie,
in other words, if you gauge the truth by the emotion and
the sentiment, that's what he's talking about here. That's the
deception. That may sound beautiful to the
ear, but it's deadly to the soul. I've often said this, there is
a difference between emotionalism and emotion. Emotionalism is
that religion that is judged based upon the emotion. How many
times have you heard people say about a church service, for example,
that they knew that the Holy Spirit was there because of the
emotion? I've heard a lot of that, haven't
you? You can't gauge the presence of the Holy Spirit by an emotional
service. I mean, you all could start getting
up and hollering and hooting and all that. That wouldn't mean
a thing. The only way you can gauge the
presence of the Holy Spirit is this, if God's gospel of grace
in Christ Jesus is being preached. If Christ is being exalted, if
Christ is being worshipped, that's where the Holy Spirit is. That's
right. Emotionalism will not get it.
But these have the appearance of that, you see, and that's
how people gauge it. But look at verse eight again. They had
the hair as the hair of a woman, of women, and their teeth were
as the teeth of lions, devouring. You know, back in Genesis chapter
four, when the Lord was speaking to Cain, And he told Cain, you
know, Cain, you know, he, you know what happened, you know,
Cain brought the works of his hands to present before God as
his basis of, of acceptance. And God would not accept that.
And God told him, he said, if you do well, you'll be accepted. Well, what is it to do well?
Well, that's already been established. It's to bring before God, the
blood of the lamb, like Abel did. Abel brought the blood of
the lamb. That's Christ. Cain rejected
that for the works of his hands. And so God said, if you do well,
you'll be accepted. You come to me in Christ, you'll
be accepted. But he said, if you refuse, sin
lieth at the door and will overtake you. And the picture is like
a roaring animal, a wild animal like a lion waiting at the door
to devour you. And that's what the picture is
here. You see, they have the appearance of beauty, they have
the appearance of the spirit, as people say, but their teeth
is like lions. It's a false gospel, folks. It
causes sinners to depend upon their works, their will, their
decision, rather than looking to Christ and him alone. And then look at verse nine,
they had breastplates as it were, they had breastplates as it were
breastplates of iron, Breastplate of iron, that's a pretended or
an imagined invincibility. Nothing can touch me, you know.
It reminds me of that preacher up in Akron, Ohio years and years
ago who was describing the crucifixion of Christ and he got real emotional.
I heard it, I saw it on TV, they replayed it. He got real emotional. And he made this statement, he
said, oh, if I could have just been there, I would have whipped
that devil and I would have stopped it. Stop the crucifixion? Thousands of people listen to
that fellow. Like he's invincible. And I thought even back then,
I wasn't even a believer back then, but I said, son, I said
that Satan would twist you up like a pretzel and throw you away in the garbage.
But I didn't know anything about the gospel then, but looking
back on it now, stop the crucifixion? Can you stop salvation as purposed
by God before the foundation of the world? That's a boast,
you see, and that's what this breastplate of iron is. They
offer defense, they offer protection, invincibility, but it won't hold
up. Now this breastplate of iron is in direct opposition to the
breastplate that believers wear. You remember what it is? Ephesians
chapter 6, it's the breastplate of righteousness. We stand before
God clothed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ imputed
to us. Now that is invincibility. That's protection. That's power
right there. That's a defense because nothing
can penetrate what Christ accomplished in his obedience unto death for
his people. No sin can be charged to us,
no attack can be successful against us because we stand before God
in the breastplate of his righteousness and we're fully protected. We
are invincible and it's not because of our power or our will or our
decision, it's because of what Christ did on that cross alone
for his people. And look at it here in verse
9, he says, not only the breastplates of iron, the sound of their wings
was as the sound of chariots of many horses running about.
What that means is it indicates energy, zeal, busyness. But what he's saying is they
make a big noise, a loud noise. Everybody hears them. And they're
all over the place, you see. And they go all over. They're
like the Pharisees. Remember what Christ told the
Pharisees in Matthew 23, 15? You encompass sea and land to gain
one convert. And he said, when you got him,
you make him twofold more the child of hell than you are. You
convert him to your religion, but your religion is death. Because
it's not wrapped up in the person and finished work of Jesus Christ.
It's not wrapped up in his righteousness imputed, but in what you can
do for God. And that's what happens. They
make that big noise. Verse 10. He says they had tails like on
the scorpions and there were stings in their tails and their
power was to hurt men five months. So that's basically just a repetition
to emphasize that Satan's ministers have that deadly poison of a
deadly false gospel and it's deadly doctrines and they will
hurt five months and we've already described that. That's the temporary. Now look at verse 11. This is
the last verse today. They had a king over them which
is the angel of the bottomless pit, that's Satan. He gives him
two names here, whose name is in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon,
or Abaddon, however you want to pronounce it. But in the Greek
tongue, the Greek language, his name is Apollyon. Well, why would
he reveal Satan's name in two languages, Hebrew and Greek?
Well, in the New Testament, that covers the whole world. all without
exception as far as those who are not in Christ. In other words,
this deception is not just to the Jewish nation, it's not just
to the Greek or the Gentiles, you might say, but it's to any
sinner in any nation who is not under the grace of God, under
the protection of the righteousness of God in Christ. And so what
he's saying here is that there's no nationality, ethnicity, physical
borders will give you no protection from this deception of Satan
by his false ministers under their false gospel. Okay.