We're continuing in these lessons
to look at the seventh seal, the opening of the seventh seal,
which began back in chapter eight and verse one. The seven seals
of God's judgment that take place as the new covenant, New Testament
age begins and progresses through up to the second coming of Christ.
The Lamb is the only one worthy to open these seals. No man is
worthy. No man, no mere man knows the
contents of this book, this seven seal book, Only Christ. And it's
the seven seal book, remember, of God's purpose, God's plan. And you know, one of the things
that that really seals in our minds is that the things that
are going on are always God working all things after the counsel
of his own will. Nothing we read is conditioned
on man and nothing we read has anything to do with any kind
of contingency plan. or God's plan B. God doesn't
have a plan B. Plan A always works with God.
He works all things after the counsel of his own will. So we've
covered the first six seals. Here's the seventh seal. Last
week we went over the first two. Well, this seventh seal contains
seven trumpets of judgment. Last week we went over the first
two. And this week we're going to cover the rest of chapter
8 beginning at verse 10 where it speaks of, look at it, and
the third angel sounded. This is the third trumpet judgment. And remember these first four
trumpets in chapter 8, they are preparatory to the final three
trumpets which reveals what we would call the greatest time
of tribulation for the church here on earth. Satan attacking
the church, his false preachers, and even false governments attacking
the true church and the true gospel of God's grace, man by
nature hates the gospel of grace. And we read that in so many passages,
that's why Christ spoke of the persecution that would go on
in the last days. He talked about the light, him
being the light, the gospel of God's grace being the light.
And he said, man by nature hates the light because it exposes
his deeds as being evil. So here's this third angel sounding
the trumpet, and what it describes, look here, he says, and there
fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, And
it fell upon the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains
of waters." So this trumpet judgment here describes destruction of
what we could say fresh inland waters. We've already talked
about judgment upon the sea. This is the destruction of all
the waters that quench the thirst, our physical thirst, of man. And some people say, well, it
could describe pollution, whatever. But here's the point, and here's
where our minds need to go on these judgments. There is a terrible
spiritual connection here that we need to see that's connected
to these physical events. All the physical events that
might take place, or that will take place rather, in the destruction
of physical things are really indicative of a greater spiritual
problem. And look at it again, this great
star fell from heaven. And he's talking about destruction
of these inland waters. Well, the first thing we need
to understand is one of the most common symbols or types of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel of his grace is that he is the
water of life for his people. In other words, Christ is the
only one who can quench our spiritual thirst. That's why he said, blessed
are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be filled. So don't just relegate this to
the physical. There is a physical issue here. There is a physical truth that
is taught here. But it's indicative of a greater
spiritual destruction of man because he's left thirsty without
anything to quench his thirst. False religion won't do it. Materialism
won't do it. It won't fill his hunger, his
spiritual hunger, his spiritual thirst. Christ is the water of
life for all his people. And I've got a list of scriptures
there, and I'm sure you're very familiar with most of them. Remember
he talked to the woman at the well and he talked about living
water, fountains of living water. Christ is the fountain. of eternal
life. He sends the Holy Spirit in the
preaching of the gospel bringing the pure water of truth of how
God justifies the ungodly through the blood and the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, that's why he said that
in Matthew chapter 5, I believe it's verse 6, blessed are they
who hunger and thirst after what? Righteousness. And that's what
man hungers and thirsts after. You know, the whole issue of
religion The whole issue of the gospel is how can a sinner be
righteous with God? And people today, going to churches
today, what are they doing? They're hungering and thirsting
for righteousness. How can I be right with God or
how can I do what's right before God? And how is that thirst going
to be quenched, you see? And you've got to ask yourself
the question, well, wherever you're going to church, is that
thirst going to be quenched? Well, if you're not hearing of
Christ, the water of life, and his righteousness imputed alone
as the only ground of salvation, that thirst is not going to be
quenched. And one thing we need to understand,
you can have a temporary fix in false religion. You can be
satisfied for a while, but it won't last. It won't last. The false preachers in Matthew
7, Lord, Lord, haven't we preached in your name? Haven't we done
many wonderful works, you see? They were satisfied, but then
they found out that it didn't quench that spiritual thirst
at all. So this is the issue. Now, look at verse 10 again.
A great star fell from heaven. Well, you know who that is. That's
Satan. That's talking about Satan. He began as an angel, Lucifer
was his name. That has to do with shining,
has to do with light. And this great star fell from
heaven. Well, we know before the world
was created, Lucifer and the angels that followed him fell. They rebelled against God and
they fell from heaven. Here we see this great star falling
upon the rivers and their source. Satan falling upon the rivers
and their source. And the key to understanding
the identification of this great star is in his name. Look at
verse 11. And the name of the star is called
Wormwood. And the third part of the waters
became Wormwood. Now remember I mentioned last
week about this third part. Now you remember back in Revelation,
what is it, chapter six, it talked about in some of the judgments
that it would only be a fourth part. In other words, it would
start out in a limited capacity, a fourth part, which for the
most part, people don't take notice of, you know, people dying,
destruction, wars, rumors of wars, but then it would increase
to a third part where people would start to take notice and
say, hey, something's wrong, now how can we fix it? And that's
the issue, see, people like when they talk about today, like the
ecological problems we're having. And as I said, now, I'm not saying
we should be ecologically irresponsible, but at the same time, here's
what we have to realize. This earth, this fallen sinful
earth is headed for destruction, folks. And man can't fix it. The only way, the basic problem
of it all is what? Sin. That's right. That's the
basic problem. That's what causes it all. I
mean, it's not just neglect. I mean, there is that, and we
shouldn't be neglectful. We should be responsible citizens.
We should be responsible caregivers and all of that. That's not the
problem. But we can't fix it. And man's efforts in claiming
that he can fix it is what? It's pride. And the thing about
it is, we can't fix any of it. Certainly we can't fix sin. If
we could, Christ would not have had to come and die on the cross,
if we could fix that. So we can't fix any of it. So
here it is, here it is, this Wormwood, he says, Wormwood,
and the third part of the waters became Wormwood, and many men
died of the waters because they were made bitter, poison. Now
this word wormwood is used symbolically in the Old Testament in, I think
it's, I've got here four different ways. First of all, wormwood
was used back in the book of Deuteronomy to describe the idolatry
of Israel. So wormwood has to do with idolatry. What is idolatry? Worshiping
other gods. Worshipping any God or other
gods other than the true and living God, now listen to this,
as he identifies and distinguishes himself in the scriptures. You
know, there's a lot of people say, well, we believe in one
God or we believe in one God in three persons, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity. How does God reveal himself in
his work? He reveals himself in his character,
in his nature, through the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. That's
why Christ said in Matthew chapter 11, no man knoweth the Father
save he to whomsoever the, no man knoweth the Son save he to
whomsoever the Father reveal him, and no man knoweth the Son
save whom the Father reveals. In other words, who is the true
and living God? Well, he's a holy God. He's a
just God. He's a sovereign God. He, he
is in control. I heard a man who claims to be
a Christian stand up on TV and he said, he said, many Christians,
here's what he said. He said, many Christians have
bought into a lie told to them by preachers. And he said, here's
the lie that God is in control. Well, think about that. He's
just denying the God of this book. So whatever he says about
God, it's idolatry. My friend, if God is not in control,
where does that leave us? In a mess, isn't that right?
Without any hope, in despair. And I'll tell you, Satan just
laughs at stuff like that. That's a deception. But how does
God reveal himself in the fullness of his character? As both of
what? A just God and a Savior. Do you know in that one statement,
and I'll never forget when I heard Brother Mahan really preach this
and it got my attention, I wasn't even a believer, but it got my,
Lord used it to get my attention. To figure out, now what does
that mean? You know, I need to know more about that. That encompasses
every attribute of God. a just God and a Savior. Yes,
He's a merciful God. Yes, He's a loving God. Yes,
He's a gracious God. But not at the expense of His
justice. Not at the expense of His truth
and His righteousness. He must be both a just God and
a Savior. And there's only one ground upon
which God can do that, and that's the blood of Jesus Christ. That's
the imputed righteousness of Christ. Any other God is an idol. Any other sets of gods is an
idol. And so that's what Wormwood is.
Secondly, Wormwood was used in the book of Proverbs to describe
the corruption of adultery, spiritual adultery. Now, what is spiritual
adultery? Well, it's courting other ways
of salvation, courting other gods. It's like a person who
says, well, I believe what you're saying, preacher, but I don't
think it's vital. I don't think it's life and death. I can go
other places where other gods, which they don't see as other
gods, are preached. And that's what you don't want
to do. I'm talking about having fellowship with them and going
with them. And then thirdly, Wormwood is
used in several places in Jeremiah and Lamentations to describe
calamity and sorrow, trouble, sorrow. And then fourthly, it's
also used in the book of Amos to describe false judgment, false
judgment. Now, what is false judgment in
our case? It's judging people not by the word of God in the
gospel, but by other ways. The word basically, Wormwood,
refers to bitterness. And what it refers to, as it's
connected with Satan, is his false gospels. Let me just read
you one example. We know about Galatians, where
Paul said, if anybody preaches another gospel. Well, in 2 Corinthians
chapter 11, and I've got this one marked or listed in your
lesson. Listen to this, 2 Corinthians
11, 13, he says, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers,
transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And the
tense of the verb there is a temporary transformation, a temporary change.
In other words, they will change when it's convenient, but they
don't stay there. They have to go back to where
their heart is. It's kind of like this. It's
kind of like a false preacher. Now listen to him. A false preacher
can say the right things at given times, but he won't stay there
because his heart's not there. And look at verse 14 of 2 Corinthians
11, and no marvel for Satan himself. There's the star that fell from
heaven. He's transformed into an angel of light. That's how
Satan works in his deception. He disguises himself with some
truth. Remember, he even quoted scripture.
He quoted what God said to Eve. And listen to this. On the Mount
of Temptation, he quoted scripture to the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
So don't ever think that Satan can't get into pulpits and preach
some right things. And that's why it's impending
upon us in the New Testament age as we draw closer and closer
to the end to be awake and be on our toes, be discerners. And he says in verse 15, therefore
it's no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works.
I heard a preacher say one time, he said, Satan's ministers are
transformed into ministers of righteousness. But here's what
he said. He said, but they preach the righteousness of men, not
the righteousness of Christ. Now, listen to me. They don't
have to transform to preach the righteousness of men. That's
what's natural to them. At times they can say the truth.
They can speak the truth. But again now, they're transformers. I'm not talking about the toys
now. But they can't stay there. They can't stick with it because
their heart's not there. They will get off of that and
get back to the righteousness of men rather than preaching
the righteousness of Christ freely imputed. So that's Wormwood. It's Satan's false gospels. Look
back at Revelation 8. Read it again, he says, the name
of the star, verse 11, is called Wormwood, and the third part
of the waters became Wormwood. What he's talking about is Satan's
false gospels are spreading and they're going to eventually take
over. We talk about the great apostasy to the point that right
before the second coming of Christ, the gospel will be so scarce,
it will seem like it's dead. And that means all of God's elect
have been called into the fold and Christ will come again to
destroy this world. Many men died of the waters,
drinking the water of a false gospel. Now again, don't discount
that there are physical things that are going to be happening
as we draw closer to the earth. It might be poisonous rivers,
it might be stuff like that as we get closer. But that's not
the worst problem. That's what I'm saying. The worst
problem is the spiritual poison of a false gospel, which denies
either the person or the finished work of Christ as that which
alone saves us and recommends us unto God and secures us in
salvation. We'll go to verse 12 now. Well,
let me give you this. In your lesson, I've got a little
contrast to that. which is a historical event that
happened in Exodus 15. You read about that. When Moses
and the children of Israel, they were looking for water and they
came upon a watering hole, I guess it was a pond or a lake or whatever,
and they called it Marah, M-A-R-A-H. Now the word Marah means bitter,
bitter. You remember Naomi? Remember
when she came back to Israel, she said, don't call me Naomi,
call me Mara. Because she was in bitterness,
her husband had died and her family was gone. And she only
had Ruth with her. That watering hole was called
Mara. It was bitter. And remember what God told Moses
to do? You can read about this. He told
him, he said, cut down a tree. Some argue a bush, it doesn't
matter. And throw it into the waters, and because the tree
went into the waters, they became sweet. And the children of Israel,
the Hebrew children, were able to drink. And of course, you
know who that tree symbolizes. That's Christ on the cross. who
Christ entered the bitter waters of sin when he was made flesh
and dwelt among us. He entered the bitter waters
of sin, Marah, when our sins were imputed, charged, accounted
to him, and he suffered and bled and died on the tree, and then
the waters became sweet. That's the gospel of God's grace. Where sin abounded, where we
were drowning in sin like a flood, grace does much more abound.
So you read about that. All right, let's go to the fourth
trumpet. Chapter eight concludes with the fourth trumpet, and
then we see an introduction to the last three, but look at verse
12. The fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun
was smitten. Now, some people say, well, that's
talking about an eclipse. Well, okay, it could be, maybe
a permanent eclipse, I don't know, but here's the point. I
know this, it's talking about an eclipse of the sun of righteousness,
which is Christ, Malachi chapter 3. In other words, God in his
judgment on this world. Now listen, understand now that
none of this is talking about an ultimate victory for Satan.
And you know, I've talked about that in Matthew 13, where I'm
going through the kingdom parables there. Satan seems to have won
the victory, but his victory is going to be short lived. God
is allowing this to happen. God is purposing this to happen
to bring judgment on the world. The unbelieving, rebellious world. But Satan's victory is short-lived. So he will be enabled to eclipse
the Son of Righteousness, eclipse Christ. To the point where it
almost seemed like there will be no gospel of Christ preached
at all. And that's beginning here, he
says over a third part, the sun, the third part of the moon, what
does the moon do? It reflects the light of the sun, so there'll
be no reflection, there'll be no preaching of the gospel, or
it'll get rare, scarcer and scarcer. And the third part of the stars,
the stars in the book of Revelation, plural, can refer to ministers
of the gospel. And understand that when it calls
ministers of the gospel like me and other stars, it's not
talking about movie stars. It's not talking about celebrities. It's not talking about men gathering
a filing from it's simply we're preaching the light of Christ
period. You know, we're like signposts,
you know, John the Baptist. I'm a voice in the wilderness,
see? So when it calls me a star, it's
not like what people think of stars today. It's just simply
we preach the gospel, the seven stars and the candlestick, all
that. So in other words, what he's
saying here is, all right, If we think of these things merely
in terms of the physical, we're going to miss the point. We're
going to miss the lesson. All right? But we don't deny
that there'll be physical manifestations of the judgment of God at all. So understand that. The point
is the spiritual lesson, and that is here the light of the
sun, the moon, and the stars will grow dimmer and dimmer and
dimmer. And what he says here, look at verse 12, so as the third
part of them was darkened and the day shone not, Christ is
the day star, you see, for a third part of it and the night likewise. There'll be no light during the
day, no light during the night. The judgment of God. Now Christ
himself spoke of this in Matthew 24 when he was talking about
the end. He described events occurring during the last stage
up to his second coming. And again, these manifestations. But what he's talking about,
you read about it in the lesson too, the light's going to get
dimmer and dimmer and dimmer and dimmer. You know, Paul wrote
to the Philippian church. about how we, who preach and
believe this gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ,
that we shine as lights in a dark world. And that's a privilege,
isn't it? And we know the only difference
between us and those who perish in their ignorance and deception
is the grace of God. Isn't that right? I heard, you know, anytime we
do have some act of violence or destruction
come upon Earth, whether it's a natural disaster like a hurricane
or an earthquake or something like that, or anytime you have
an act of disaster like what happened in Paris or what happened
in 9-1-1 in our own country, you always have a segment of
preachers, false preachers now, who come on and they talk about
God's judgment on those people or on that people, you know,
as if we don't deserve the same thing. But we do. And Christ taught that. Remember
Luke 13? He talked about a natural disaster that happened, the tower
at Siloam that fell. He talked about an act of violence
when Pilate sent those soldiers down to kill those people who
were going to the altar. And then he said, do you think
that those people were greater sinners than us? Then talking
about the people there. And that's what people say. Like
I remember when Hurricane Katrina came through New Orleans, you
know, a lot of preachers, well, that's sinful city of New Orleans,
but you know, God got them. Let me tell you something. How
are we to think about things like that? Here's how we're to
think about it. It's only by the grace and mercy of God that
doesn't come on us. And that's it. That's it. What are those things to do to
God's people? They're to cause us to repent.
That's why he said, except you repent, you'll likewise perish.
Unless we have Christ in the grace of God, which we don't
deserve and haven't earned, we'd perish too. So always remember
that. Well, look at the last verse,
verse 13. Now this is an introduction to the last three trumpets. And
those last three trumpets that go from chapter 9 to chapter
11 are the worst and speak of the tribulation. He says, I beheld
and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven. Now, some
translators say this is not an angelic being, but it's an eagle,
actually, a bird of prey. But let me tell you something
now. I want you to understand this.
You know, when anybody gets up and says, well, the Greek scholars
say, or the Hebrew scholars say, you need to understand that Greek
and Hebrew scholars do not always agree. I mean, smart ones. They
don't always agree. Well, what are we to believe
about this? Is it an angel? Is it an eagle? I believe it's
an angel, but I don't care. It's a message from God sent
in some way. Now that's what we need to be
concerned. What's the message of this? Whoever brings it What's
the message, all right? And here's what he says with
a loud voice. Woe, woe, woe. What is woe? That's a statement
of despair, trouble, sorrow. You know that. Woe unto you.
Woe unto me. Woe is me. Remember Isaiah? He
saw the Lord high and lifted up and he said, woe is me. I'm
undone. If I have to deal with a holy
God upon anything in me or of me or from me, Whoa. I'm in trouble. I'm in despair. I have no hope. And that's why,
that's why we need Christ, you see. Well, here's three woes. There's three trumpet woes coming.
That's what it is. And he says it's to the inhabitants
of the earth. Now in the book of Revelation
and throughout scripture, mainly, especially in prophecy, earthlings,
earth dwellers, those who dwell on the earth, Inhabitors of the
earth refer to lost people, refer to people who do not know and
believe in Christ. Now, it's not that we who are
saved that we're not born and live in the earth, we do, but
we're not citizens of the world. So the inhabitants of the earth
are those who are so connected to the earth that they have no
thoughts or desires toward the heavenly, toward the spiritual,
toward Christ. So even though we're in the world,
Christ said of his disciples, we're not of the world, we're
citizens of a heavenly kingdom. as believers in the Lord Jesus
Christ so these woes will not come upon the people of God and
you'll see that when we get into the three last trumpets because
remember he says he says that it's gone this these woes these
judgments are going to hurt everybody except those who are sealed in
their foreheads that's the people of God who believe in Christ
who have the mind of Christ who are washed in his blood and clothed
in his righteousness So here's the three woes to the inhabitants
of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of
the three angels which are yet to sound. So here it comes. But here's the upside. And I
got this in your lesson to conclude it. We're safe and secure because
of the grace of God in Christ. And then these manifestations
of God's judgment, remember this, they're never to make us proud
or self-righteous as if we didn't deserve. Listen, understand this,
if God ever gave me, you, or any of us what we deserve and
what we've earned, it would be eternal destruction. We're recipients
of the grace and mercy of God. We're mercy beggars. An old elder
up at 13th Street used to say that all the time, Brother Cecil
Rudd. We're mercy beggars. And you know what, we never stop
being mercy beggars. And then we need to pray that
God will keep us diligent, keep us awake and aware so that we
won't be deceived or deceive ourselves. All right.