All right, Revelation chapter
nine. Now, we're continuing to look at the seven trumpets that
are blowing from heaven. And each one of these trumpets,
when they blow, bring a different woe upon the earth. I want to
remind us that these are not events that are going to happen
in the days and moments, hours before Christ returns. These
are events. This is looking, John getting
a revelation of the history of man on earth. These are events
that the Lord has always allowed to happen upon the earth to accomplish
his eternal purpose. And I keep saying that over and
over again. I keep reminding us of this because I don't want
us to look at the book of Revelation as a frightening book. I want
us to look at the book of Revelation for the purpose in which it was
written. which is the same as all scripture to reveal Christ
to us. I want us in these scriptures
to see Christ, our savior, so that we run to him. So we put
our confidence in him. So we find comfort and rest and
assurance in Christ from the scriptures. That's why all scripture
is written to reveal Christ, the savior. Now what we're going
to look at this morning is the woe of false prophets. That is
the woe that is brought up, brought on with the next trumpet sounds.
Verse one of revelation chapter nine and the fifth angel sounded
and I saw a star fall from heaven under the earth and he was given
the key of the bottomless pit. Now this is not a literal star.
This is John speaking figuratively. This star that fell from heaven
represents Satan. You remember Lucifer one time
was a glorious, bright angel, but he tried to take the throne
of God and God cast him out of heaven. Our Lord said that he
saw, he beheld Satan as fall as lightning from heaven. That's
when he was cast out of heaven. And Satan, that bright, bright,
glorious angel, he fell from the light of heaven. He all the
way to the darkness of this bottomless pit. And the Lord gave him the
key to this bottomless pit. Now I'll tell you what that means.
It means Satan has some very real power in this earth. Don't
be too alarmed. Now be wary. He's got very real
power, but don't be too alarmed. The only power Satan has, the
only power anybody has, is the power that God gives him. Satan
does have a lot of power. He is too great of an enemy for
us. But he can never harm anyone
without God's permission. He's on God's leash. He can only
go as far as God allows him to go. That's the lesson we learned
from our brother Job, wasn't it? God said, Satan, have you
considered my servant Job? He's upright, righteous man.
And Satan said, well, he doesn't worship you for nothing. You've
got a hedge around him. I can't touch him. And God said,
all right, you can touch him, but you can only go this far.
He can only go as far as God allowed him. That's the lesson
we learned from Job. And Satan has the key to this
bottomless pit. And when he uses it, opens that
bottomless pit, what he does is he just lets the religion
of hell come out and spread across the earth. Now, that's not going
to be something that happens out there someday right before
the Lord returns, is it? That's always been the case on
earth. Look here at verse two. This is what happens. And he
opened the bottomless pit and there rose a smoke out of the
pit as a smoke of a great furnace and the sun and the air were
darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And the smoke that
comes out of that pit, it's the smoke of false religion. It's
the doctrine of false religion. That smoke is a stench in God's
nostrils. And that smoke deceives men.
You know, this, this smoke is not the gospel, this doctrine
of false prophets and the doctrine of hell that cannot be the gospel.
The gospel is crystal clear. False prophets use this smoke,
the smoke of their doctrine, to cloak what it is that they're
really doing. You know, in a smoky scene, you
can't really see clearly what's going on. That's what they have
to do to hide the true meaning of their message, to hide what
it is that they're really doing. Magicians do the same thing,
don't they? They use all this smoke and dazzle, you know, to
dazzle people to get your attention over here so they can use sleight
of hand over here and appear to work this magic. Rock bands
do the same thing. They use all this fire and smoke
and all this stuff to just impress people. and take away the attention
from the fact they can't sing. You know, it's just, we went
to see James Taylor in concert. There were no smoke posts there.
He just stood out there with his guitar and sang songs for
two hours. And it was, he didn't have to
use that. He can sing, but they're using all this other smoke and
pyrotechnics, you know, to take attention away. That's the doctrine
of false prophets. Their smoke, their doctrine is
a smoke that hides the glory of Christ. When they make salvation
dependent on something that you do, it's a smoke. It's a smoke
that hides the glory of Christ in salvation. Now that makes
us sad. It makes us mad. It's just, oh,
I hate it. This doctrine of hell is spread
across the earth. But you know, it's the Lord's
will. Now it wouldn't be here if it wasn't the Lord's will.
Nothing can happen that's against our Lord's will. I tell you why
the woe of false prophets, why it's on this earth. It's God
letting men have what they want. You know, I'm always fearful
of that in prayer. Lord, don't give me just everything
that I want. I might want the wrong thing.
That's the nature of man to want the wrong thing. Man doesn't
want to worship God. Man doesn't want Christ to be
all of our righteousness? Man doesn't want Christ to be
all of our salvation. We want something, you know,
we can contribute to that. They don't want to worship Christ
alone. They want to worship the creature. They want to worship
themselves, give themselves some credit for what they're doing.
So God lets them have what they want. And what they get is the
woe of false prophets. And here John begins to describe
them in verse three. And there came out of the smoke
locust upon the earth. and unto them was given power
as the scorpions of the earth have power. Now these locusts
represent false prophets. They come in this smoke and they
come out of that smoke in droves to destroy everything in sight.
But that was one of the plagues of Egypt, wasn't it? The locusts.
The locusts came and they ate every green thing in the field
that had not been destroyed by the hail. They just devoured
it all. Settlers in our country have
experienced that. I try to imagine how awful it
is for this settler out there just, you know, scraping together
a living, trying to farm and, you know, make a living for his
family, feed his family. And he's been working all this
time. Months he's been working on this crop. And then suddenly
the sky is just blotted out with this host of locusts coming. And he's helpless. In just minutes,
those locusts come and completely destroy his crop. How's he going
to feed his family? How's he going to provide for
his family? Everything just suddenly consumed by a bunch of insects.
That'd be awful, wouldn't it? The plague that John is describing
here, the plague of false prophets is much worse because they don't
just destroy physical things. They destroy spiritual things.
And to make it even worse, John describes these false prophets
as kind of like a hybrid between a locust and a scorpion. They
destroy everything in sight, and they kill. Their message
stings and kills like a scorpion. Now, I don't know much about
scorpions, so I look this up. A scorpion sting usually is not
painful. It can be treated. It won't kill
you or anything like that. It's very painful, but it's not
going to kill you normally. But I tell you who it does kill.
It kills the weak. It kills babies, small children. It could kill the elderly or
the sick. That's exactly who false prophets
pray upon. The weak. Their babes, their
elderly, their sick. You know, they can't understand. That's who they pray upon. And
I read the scorpions, once they get in an area, they are almost
impossible to kill off. Even for a professional exterminator,
they're tough to get rid of. That's false prophet. We can't get rid of them, can
we? Try as we might, we cannot get rid of them. And the reason
for that is it's God's will that they be on the earth. He has
given them power on the earth as a judgment, as a woe to people
who don't want God, who want their own religion. Now that
ought to make us watchful, watchful, watchful over our own selves,
watchful over the pulpit. Now it ought not make us frightened
in the sense that we're frightened of losing our salvation, but
we ought to be frightened of that doctrine, frightened enough
to stay away from it. and watchful, just watchful,
because of the threat. This threat of the smoke and
the killing of these false prophets, it's a real threat. But as we're
watchful, this is what we need to always remember, as we're
watchful, we need to be watchful looking to Christ our Savior.
That's where our comfort, that's where our assurance, that's where
our instruction is found, by looking to Christ the Savior.
These false prophets have very real power to destroy and to
kill, but they can never harm God's people. Look at verse four.
And it was commanded them that they should 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.
And to them, it was given that they should not kill them, but
that they should be tormented five months. And their torment
was as of the torment of a scorpion when he strike at the man. Now
these false prophets can never harm any of God's people, ever,
because they're sealed in their forehead. Now that doesn't mean
they got some symbol, you know, tattooed on their forehead. This
is a spiritual thing. They've been sealed. They've
been sealed by God's grace. They've been sealed by the blood
of Christ. They've been sealed by God, the Holy Spirit. So they
cannot be destroyed. Look at Luke chapter 10. You
know, this locust and scorpion combo is awful, but they can
never harm God's people. They can never harm anyone who
believes Christ. Luke chapter 10, verse 17. And the 70 returned again with
joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy
name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall
from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power
to tread on serpents and to tread on scorpions. That's the scorpions
we're talking about earlier. I give you power to tread on
them over these false prophets and over the power of the enemy.
And nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nothing. Nothing can
harm God's people. They're sealed. They're protected.
Now, these false prophets, they can't They can't take away the
salvation of God's elect, but they're sure going to cause some
problems. John said they're going to torment God's people. Torment
them. And they're going to do it for
five months. Now, what on earth does that
mean? Does it mean they're only, you
know, five months before the Lord returns, these false prophets
are going to torment? No. These false prophets have
been tormenting the earth, tormenting God's people as long as the earth
has been. This five months, you know what
that is? Five months is the lifespan of a locust. They're gonna torment
God's people as long as they have life. As long as the Lord
lends them breath, they're gonna torment God's people. Don't expect
them to go away, because they won't. The message of false prophets
brings us such grief, and the burden that they put on people
is so grievous. Look at verse six. In those days
shall men seek death, and shall not find it, and shall desire
to die, and death shall flee from them. The message of these
false prophets just make people want to die. I mean, the burden
that they put on people is just never ending. The only message
that's going to give peace to the soul of a sinner is the message
of Christ the Savior. That's the only, you're not going
to find any peace in that smoke. It's in the clear gospel, the
simplicity of the gospel of Christ. Next, John describes, gives us
a description of these false prophets so we can, we can recognize
them when we see them. And you'll see that the way John
describes them is the same way the rest of scripture describes
false prophets. See, this is not something, this
is the way it's always been. The rest of scripture describes
it this way. Verse seven, and the shapes of the locusts were
like unto horses prepared unto battle. These false prophets
like to present themselves as real warriors for God. I'm out
there defending God, you know. Yeah, you just beware of somebody
that's always on the warpath saying that they've got to defend
God. God doesn't need to be defended.
Now, God uses preachers to declare the gospel, doesn't he? The church
is the ground and pillar of the truth. But we're not here to
defend God. No, we're here just to declare.
The power of the gospel is the only power that we need. You
just beware these people say they got it. They're the only
ones out here defending God. John goes on verse seven, it
says, and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold. They weren't crowns of gold as
they were. Do they look like crowns of gold?
What they're doing These false prophets, they'll do anything. They'll say anything. They'll
cultivate connections with anybody, anywhere, so that they can get
honor from men. They want honor from men. God's
servants don't wear a crown like this. Now, they have a crown. All of God's people have a crown.
But it's a crown of righteousness. It's a covering of righteousness. If any of them did have a crown,
they'd cast it at the feet of Christ, wouldn't they? So they're
not out there seeking honor and recognition from men. They're
seeking the honor of the Savior. He goes on at the end of verse
7, he says, and their faces were as the faces of men. They flatter
human flesh instead of putting the flesh in the dust where it
belongs. In verse 8, they had hair as the hair of women. You know, they make their message
alluring to the flesh, the same way a harlot makes herself alluring
so she can draw prospective clients. You listen to me. False prophets
are not to be respected in any way. Not in any way. They're common street whores.
That's what a false prophet is. Is that too hard? That's what
they are. They're selling themselves so
they can get something from you. They're weak, effeminate men
who never take a stand for the truth. Never. They're only interested
in what they get from people, not what they can give to you. That's a false prophet. He says
here that their teeth were as the teeth of lions. They've got
the teeth of predators. They're not. I thought God's
people were sheep. They got the sheep. They got
the teeth of lions. They're predators. They're preying
on the sheep. They're devouring the souls of
poor sinners. That's the only thing those teeth
are good for. Verse 9, and they had breastplates as it were breastplates
of iron. They have breastplates of iron,
the strongest thing that they can think of, you know. The false
prophet is very, very, very careful to protect himself. He's not
going to put himself in harm's way to protect the sheep from
the wolf. He's in the same union with the wolf. They got the same
desire. He's going to protect himself
first. And their hearts, their breastplate, their heart is hard
like iron. They've not been made soft by
God's grace. They wear a breastplate. God's
people wear a breastplate too, don't they? God's people wear
not a breastplate of iron. Something far better than that.
In Ephesians chapter six, Paul called the believer's breastplate,
the breastplate of righteousness. Breastplate, what covers our
internal organs, our heart is the breastplate of Christ's righteousness.
In first Thessalonians five, Paul called our breastplate,
the breastplate of faith and love. That's the breastplate
of God's people. And then here in verse nine,
and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots
of many horses running to battle. This false prophets are like
a cloud of locusts. A million of them. I mean, how
many of them are in those big swarms? They make a big noise.
All those little wings all together, beating the air, make a great
big noise. That's a false prophet. They
make a lot of noise, but don't say anything. Don't say anything
of any spiritual substance. The gospel doesn't sound like
this great noise of all these wings beating the air. The gospel
is clear note, the note of a trumpet, the note of calling God's people
to battle, calling them to come to Christ. It's a clear note.
And then we've already talked what he says here in verse 10
about the scorpion sting. And they had tails like unto
scorpions and their stings were in their tails and their power
was to hurt men five months. They're going to hurt them as
long as God gives them life. In verse 11, here is the root
of the problem. The root of the problem is who
they serve. And they had a king over them, which is the angel
of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is
Abaddon. And in the Greek tongue, his
name is Apollyon. Now we can never make any allowance
for the message of false prophets. Don't ever think, well, you know,
there's some good things I can get from that. There'll be a
blessing. No, it's not. No, it's not. It's the message
of hell. It's the message that came from
there. There's nothing good there. There's nothing profitable for
men there. Satan is the king that they serve. That's where they got their message
from. Oh, it might sound nice and religious, doesn't it? Same
way he talked to Eden. Same way he tried to tempt our
Lord. His name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon. That means
destroying angels. An angel is a messenger. This
messenger is bringing a message of destruction to anybody who
believes it. And his name in the Greek is
Apollyon. That means destroyer. In every
language, the language of the Gentiles, the language of the
Jews, the message of a false prophet is always the same. It's
a message without Christ. It's a destroying message. Don't
think their message is Christ just because they use the name
Jesus. Don't think their message is the message of the gospel
just because they use the name Christ. No, they might use that
name, but their message is not Christ. The subject, the theme,
the heart of it's not Christ. It's a destroying message. And
God allows this woe to flourish upon the earth because of man's
desire for something other than Christ alone. You want Christ? You need him? Do you want him
more than anything? You're happy. You want something else. You
think there's something else here we're missing we could add
to this? I'll let you have that too. It's the woe of false prophets. Now the next trumpet that sounds
sets forth or sets loose the woe of war, the woe of war on
the earth. And they just make sense that
the woe of war follows the woe of false prophets, doesn't it?
Because their message doesn't give any peace. Now, this is
not describing, you know, a final battle. You know, you're always
afraid some war is going to break out over there in the Middle
East. You know, Israel is going to start fighting with somebody.
That's Armageddon. That means it's the end of the
world. No, that's not what this is describing at all. War has
been fought on earth. almost continually from the time
man has spread out upon the earth. I would venture to say there's
war going on somewhere on the face of this planet all the time. I didn't take the time to look
it up and add it up, but if you do it, I bet you'll find in the
short history of our country, I bet we've either been in war
or preparing for war a whole lot more than we've been at peace.
I bet you. That's the way it's always been.
And that's the way it always will be. Look at Matthew chapter
24. There's always going to be wars
and rumors of wars, but that doesn't mean that necessarily,
oh, that means, well, the world's getting ready to end. You know,
World War I was the war to end all wars, and about 20 years,
we had another one, didn't we? I mean, it's just, that's the
way it's always been. Matthew 24, verse 3. And as he sat upon the Mount
of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell
us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of
thy coming and of the end of the world? Jesus answered and
said, They thought the wars and those things were going on at
that time. Two thousand years ago was a sign that the world
was ending. And Jesus answered and said unto
them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my
name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. He's going
to use that smoke and deceive many. And you should hear of
wars and rumors of wars. See that you be not troubled
for all these things must come to pass. But the end is not yet
for nations shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.
And there should be famines and pestilences and earthquakes and
diverse places. All these are the beginning of
sorrows. These are just the sorrows. They're
going to be always upon the earth because of our sin. until Christ
returns. So the next trumpet that sounds,
the sixth trumpet, sets loose the woe of war. And let me give
you two things, just quickly, I'll give you two things for
us to remember, for us so that we're not frightened about these
things, to remember about the wars of this world. The first
one is this, and I suppose this is the first thing we talk about
in any situation. God's in control of these things.
God's in control of them. In Isaiah 45, verse 7, the Lord
said, I form the light and I create darkness. I make peace and I
create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.
I, the Lord, am in control of all these things. Verse 13, back
in our text, Revelation 9. And the sixth angel sounded and
I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which
is before God. Now hear the trumpet sounds to
lose the woe of war upon the world. But John hears a voice
from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before the Lord.
Now you remember what that golden altar is. It's the altar of incense. It's the incense that burned
from that altar is a picture of the intercession, the prayers
of Christ for his people. The prayers of the saints joined
with that going up to God. Now I can't explain this. I don't. But this is what this
is saying. These things come as the result
of the prayers of God's saints. They come to punish the earth.
Now, I can't explain that. I've never prayed for war. If
you, I always pray for peace. How this, why this is, how this
works, I do not know. But look in Romans chapter 11. Here's something good for us
to remember in this. Somehow this thing is set loose
from the prayers of the saints. Romans 11 verse 33. All the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways past finding out for who had known
the mind of the Lord or who had been his counselor or who had
given first given to him, and it should be recompensed to him
again. For of him and through him and
to him are all things, to whom be glory forever, amen. God moves in a mysterious way,
his wonders to perform. We can't figure it out. But we
do know this from our text, the Lord sends these wars to punish
the earth. Verse 14, saying to the sixth
angel, which had the trumpet, loose the four angels, which
are bound in the great river Euphrates. Now that river Euphrates
is a river in Babylon. Anytime you read about Babylon
in scripture, Babylon represents the way of the world and the
religion of the world. This is sent to as a punishment
on the earth for the sin and the way of man, you know, and
it's severe. Look at verse 16. And the number
of the army of the horsemen were 200,000,000. And I heard the
number of them and thus I saw the horses in the vision,
and them that sat on them having breastplates of fire and of jackanoth
and brimstone. And the heads of the horses were
as the heads of lions, and out of their mouths issued fire and
smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third
part of men killed, by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone,
which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth
and in their tails. For their tails were like unto
serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt." That's
a frightening picture, isn't it? But that's a pretty good
picture of the destruction that war brings on men and upon the
earth. It brings just all this chaos
and destruction. But we need to remember this.
None of this will ever last one second longer than God ordained
for it to last. before he created anything. Verse
15. And the four angels were loosed,
which were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year
for to slay the third part of men. It only lasts as long as
God permits, as long as he appointed it to last from the beginning
of time. God's in control of these things.
And the second thing is this. The Lord sends these wars as
warnings to men. Turn from your ways and turn
to Christ. But you know what? Apart from
God's grace, no man will ever repent and turn to Christ. Verse
20. And the rest of the men that
were not killed, you know, they destroyed and killed a third
of the people on earth. The rest of the men which 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 seen or hear nor walk. Neither repented they of
their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornications, nor
of their thefts. God sent this horrible, horrible,
destructive war. Yet men still did not repent.
Men still did not learn the lesson to be peaceful. And they certainly
didn't learn the lesson to seek the Lord, did they? You think,
how many promises through the ages have been made by men in
foxholes? Lord, just get me out of this.
I'll serve you the rest of my life. Lord, if you get me out
of this and get me back home, I'll be in church every Sunday.
I'll never smoke. I'll never cuss. I'll never drink
again. How many promises like that have been made? Too many
to count. How many of them have been kept?
Very, very, very, very few. Nothing. but the grace of God
will lead a sinner to repentance. It's not the threat of the law.
It's not earthly punishments and wars and woes and troubles. That's not going to lead a man
to repentance. Only the goodness of God seen in the Lord Jesus
Christ, only that, only seeing Christ will lead us to repentance,
to turn to him from all of our evil, wicked ways. I pray the
Lord will do that for us this morning, to reveal himself to
us so that we'll turn to him.