If you will, turn with me to
Revelation chapter 8. I want to begin with the last
verse of that chapter and then move on to chapter 9 and we'll
go as far as we can toward verse 11. Last week, John introduced us
to a vision of judgment. at the beginning of these judgments,
I should say, were eight angels. And the first seven carried trumpets. It was their job to blow these
trumpets. This is what God sent them to
do. They were messengers of God and they were sent to blow these
trumpets of judgment. And these trumpets were a message
of warning, warning, warning, warning. And as I remind you
every week that these things are things which are going to
come upon this world until the end of time. And it's not necessarily
when we read about things, it can, but not necessarily depicting
one little point in history, but it's talking about something
that's gonna go on during this period in time. In Joel chapter
two, the prophet said, blow you the trumpet of Zion and sound
an alarm in my holy mountain. And so this is what's being depicted
here in Revelation. Well, what was the alarm back
in Job? What was the alarm that they
were blowing this trumpet about? It says, for a people, a nation,
a multitude, is come upon my land strong and without number,
whose teeth are the teeth of a lion. And they'll have the appearance
of horses, and horsemen, and so shall they run. Their noise
shall be as the noise of chariots arrayed in battle, like a devouring
fire, like a forest fire, loud, or men running into battle. And
the earth shall quake before them, and the heavens shall tremble.
The sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars withdrawn.
and they're shining now that's as close a revelation to what
john is talking about in revelation chapter eight if you don't mind
anywhere in the bible but everything he talked about those horsemen
and and the noise and the quaking and all those things are exactly
as joe depicted them long before the coming of christ so these
are All things that we looked at last week in relation to the
blowing of these trumpets. Who are the trumpeters? Who are
these seven angels who blow these trumpets? Well, we're told way
back at the beginning of the book who these seven angels are.
They're the seven angels of the seven churches. I don't see any
reason now in chapter 8 to change that. I believe that's the revelation
of these angels all the way through the book. He's talking about
those pastors of his churches and faithful preachers all during
this gospel age. And then there was an angel that
he describes all by himself. He was all alone. And this angel
came and he stood at the altar of God. And he had a golden censer. Now what's this telling us? This
is telling us that this is the high priest. None but the high
priest could approach this altar. And none but the high priest
carried this censer, this golden censer. And there was given to
him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of
all saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne. And the smoke of the incense,
which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before
God. Verse 4. We're in Revelation chapter 9
now. And ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. Now
as the trumpeters blow their alarm of coming judgment, the
blessed angel of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ, graciously
mixes the perfume of his sacrifice. That's what that old incense
in the tabernacle pictured. And he takes this, he mixes the
perfume of his sacrifice with our prayers and wisely corrects
our petitions and then sends them up to God, making them acceptable
to God. And before he will announce his
judgments through his messengers, he will assure us that we have
a sovereign mediator, willing and able, standing before the
altar of God to intercede for us. Now I want to begin this
morning with the last verse of chapter 8 and then move to verses
1 through 11 of chapter 9. In Revelation 8, verse 13, he
says, And I beheld and heard an angel flying through the midst
of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe. I'm going to tell you something.
It ain't often in the Scriptures when God repeats a thing, and
I believe when He does, He means for you to listen. And here he
says woe three times. Woe to what or who? To the inhabitants
of the earth by reason of the other voices
of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to sound. These
things haven't sounded yet. The message of this angel to
me is very clear. The trumpet judgments which are
about to be sounded are far worse than the first four judgments
that we read about in chapter 8. judgments of catastrophes
and things in God's providence that fall upon men, that men
like to just kind of soothe it over, kind of smooth it over,
and say, oh, this wasn't the judgment of God. How many times
do you hear that on TV when Katrina hit New Orleans? I heard it over
and over and over. Now, this is not the judgment
of God. This is a freak of nature, really. As I study the Scriptures, I
find myself amazed at my own ignorance. I sit and look at
these things all the time and I'm just amazed at my own ignorance
and my own indifference to the things of God. You find that
in yourself? You read a thing and it's just
like it don't have any meaning whatsoever. That's how dead we
are. That's how much sin we still
have in us. You'd think that the more we
know about the things, the more motivated and moved we'd be by
them. You'd think that after a while, we'd be in a constant
state of prayer and a broken heart and attitude of concern
about the souls of lost sinners and about our own soul. I'm not saying I don't have any
concern at all. I do. I'm not saying that I'm
not concerned with God's purpose and His ministry. I am. What
I am saying is that I'm dissatisfied that it's no greater than it
is. It ought to be. And I'm aware that it ought to
be. Now last week we talked about God's Providential judgments,
catastrophes, and earthquakes, and droughts, and storms, and
political upheaval, and moral decline, and all these things.
And we talked about the constant judgments of false prophets. One will arise here, and one
will arise there, and one will arise there. But this week, the
warnings are even greater. Revelation 9, verse 1. And the
fifth angel sounded, And I saw a star fall from heaven unto
the earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. I want you to turn with me over
to the book of Jude for just a second. Just go back a few
pages to the book of Jude. Probably six or seven pages back
from where you're at there in Revelation. Throughout the book of Jude,
he sounds a strong warning about contending for the faith and
to not be moved from it because of false prophets. And included
in this warning is the angels which kept not their first estate
but left their own habitation of them and of men who have done
the same. Jude vividly describes them in
verse 13 as raging waves of the sea. See it there? Joel does
too, and so does Isaiah. Raging waves of the sea foaming
out their own shame, wandering stars, that is a shooting star,
to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. I wanted you to see this verse
before I commented on verse 1 of Revelation chapter 9 so you could
see that this falling star cast into the earth is none other
than Satan. Now we can go a little further
in chapter 9 and it will tell you his name, which is Satan. But I thought as I read this,
what a woe upon the sons of men is the presence of Satan in the
earth. You know, comedians like to laugh
about this. There was one comedian that was
famous for that. The devil made me do it, he'd
say. And they joked and laughed about Satan. But I'm going to
tell you something. Don't you be drawn into that. Satan is
a fierce enemy. One of the strongest angels of
God, he wouldn't contend with you. He wouldn't contend with
you, and you're no match for him. He'd take you captive at
his will, the scripture says. Did you know that every unconverted
soul in this world is walking according to the prince of the
power of the earth, the spirit who now worketh in the children
of disobedience? Every unconverted soul. in allegiance
with him. Now if you ask that man, he'll
tell you that he's doing what he wants to do. I'm not following
anybody. I'm doing what I want to do.
That's what he'll tell you if you ask him. I'm doing what I
will to do, and I'm doing what I love to do. If you ask him,
he'll tell you that he has a mind sufficient to reason for himself.
I don't need you to tell me what's going on. I've got a mind myself. If you ask him, he'll tell you
he's doing the best he can do. I'm doing the best I can. If
you ask him, he'll tell you that he believes himself to be able
to interpret and understand the scriptures. But in so doing,
he's walking according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
and this attitude And these answers manifest that. You see what I'm
saying? Our Lord said to the most esteemed
and highest office holders in Jewish religion, he said, you
are of your father the devil. And the lust of your father you
will do. Our Lord as our representative
must be tempted in all points like as we are. Who was he tempted
by? the devil. Huh? You ever think about that? What
a woe is this fifth woe where Satan is cast out into the earth
among men. What a woe this is. What a judgment
of God this is upon men. Satan's presence. allowed to be among us and his
authority allowed to be exercised upon us. It says, and to him
was given the key to the bottomless pit, Revelation 9.1. The key. Why would God give him the key?
Huh? Ask yourself that. Why would
God give the arch enemy of our souls a key to the bottomless
pit as a judgment against man. That's why. That is, God gave him permission
to access it, to loose from it, and to have power over those
who are in it. And this power consists in evil
spirits or fallen angels. evil and condemned men and this
condemned world in general. And so as Paul warned Timothy,
Satan may take men at his will and therefore when you're correcting
men and you're trying to restore men, you come down, you come
down and you let God do the work and you do it very humbly before
these men. You get all up in the air and
looking down your nose and start correcting people, he can take
you captive at his will, and he may. He may. You remember what our Lord said
to Peter? Peter corrected the Lord. He said, yeah, what you're
saying, these guys might do it, but not me. That's a man looking
down his nose, trying to correct. And he was trying to tell the
Lord, you don't know my heart. I know my heart. And these might
forsake you, but I'm not going to. He said, get thee behind
me. What? Satan. Revelation nine, verse two. And
he opened the bottomless pit, and there rose a smoke out of
the pit as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the
air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. Now this
bottomless pit is hell itself. And as it was opened by the devil,
all the pollution that was in it began to saturate the earth
and rise up among the people. I wrote an article, maybe in
this week's bulletin, about what an awful stench it must be. I remember the old landfills
when I was a kid. We didn't have garbage collection.
You had to take your garbage out to the landfill, and when
you get in three miles of that landfill, you could begin to
smell it. And they had fires burning all over it, and the
smoke and the stench of the stuff that was burning out in that
old dump was just unbelievable. Can you imagine the smoke and
the stench that rose up out of hell as this pit was opened? The pollution that rose up out
of that bottomless pit is the pollution of lies and deceits
and rebellious intents of the condemned. And as it rises up,
it has a blinding effect. And then he tells us in verse
3, and there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth. And unto them was given power
as the scorpions of the earth have power. What power does a
scorpion have? It has power to sting you. It
can sting you, and it can paralyze its victims. Their sting does
not in most cases. There are a few that are fatal
and can be fatal to men, but not very many. These things in
general, the scorpions in general, they don't cause death, but they
cause torment from the sting. an aching, paralyzing torment. Locusts are an insect that's
often used in the scriptures to describe God's judgment of
men. Did you know that? In Exodus
chapter 10 verse four and Deuteronomy chapter 28 and 1 Kings chapter
eight, all describe God's judgment using these locusts. The nature
of a locust is just to devour and consume until everything
profitable to eat is gone. These locusts describe what's
going on here in this world is a great apostasy in the world. This is not talking about the
occasional false prophet that rises up. This is talking about
folks like Billy Graham who rise up and are sworn followers, multitudes,
great multitudes of followers. spiritual locusts that rise up
out of hell's pollution. This is talking about men, it's
not talking about insects. It's talking about men. I've
heard men talk about these scriptures there and they talk about this
great tribulation period that's supposed to be only for a thousand
years and so on and the church has already been raptured and
there got up with Christ but there's still some folks here
who haven't exercised their will and God knows that they will
so he puts them through all this torment and now all these beasts
are going to appear and all this kind of out of the heart of men
proceed evil thoughts, and that's all that is. This is talking
about men, not insects. He tells us a little later on
that they have a king, and tells us what his name is. But back
in Proverbs chapter 30, verse 27, he said locusts have no king. So this is not talking about
the bug, this is talking about men who are bugs. These locusts
were some of the few insects. And you, I don't know, I was
shocked when I read this. And I don't know why, but we're
so full of ignorance when we talk about things. I went back
and I was going through the scriptures, looking at all these places,
and everywhere I looked, it talked about the judgment of God and
so on. And all of a sudden I got over here in Leviticus chapter
11 and found out that locusts, were approved to eat. They were
of the edible meat. And then over in Matthew, you
read over there in Matthew chapter three, verse four, when John
the Baptist grazed man born a woman, what'd he eat? Locusts and wild
honey. Oh, what's that got to do with
anything? Well, the fact that they were a food source tells
me that these spiritual locusts are preachers who prepare the
spiritual meat for the church. They're going to pass themselves
off as edible. Edible. Good to be eaten. Now,
he told Peter, he said, Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep.
Feed my sheep. That's how these men are going
to appear, is those who feed the sheep. Whatever these locusts
are, they appear to be that which God has approved as a good source
of food, and I don't think I'm far off in saying that these
spiritual locusts are false prophets, unloosed on this condemned world
as a judgment for their rebellion and unbelief, and used by Satan
to accomplish the will of God in his judgment of men. verse four, and it was commanded
them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither
any green thing, neither any tree, now listen, but only those
men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. When God sent those locusts into
Egypt, He sent them to the bull's eye, didn't he? He sent them
where he intended them to go. They didn't eat one thing in
Goshen, but they ate everything in Egypt. I'm telling you. And here, these spiritual locusts
are seen, and they're not going to do any harm to God's elect.
Not going to do any harm to this earth. But they're going to do
harm to those who are not sealed in their foreheads, who are not
sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. And I want you to see
this here. I'm trying to give you some evidence
that what I'm saying is correct, that these men are false prophets
and that he is talking about multitudes of deceived men that
rise up from time to time all during this gospel age. False
prophets do not destroy at random. They don't kill the grass and
the trees. While you find these guys in
politicians' pockets who are trying to preserve the trees
and trying to preserve the grass, these guys are their biggest
backers. They don't do any harm to anything
like that. They're sent to do damage to
men's souls. That's what's targeted, and that's
what they do. They're not enemies of the environment.
And often found participating with such leaders and schemes
that are for its preservation and protection, these spiritual
locusts are absolutely forbidden by God to harm anyone sealed
of God. Now their presence is threatening.
And the evidence of their presence is threatening. But he gonna
have us to know they can't do anything to us. Verse five. And to them was given
that they should not kill them. These ones that they come to,
they're not gonna kill them, but that they should be tormented
five months, and their torment was as the torment of the scorpion
when he striketh a man. Now what this verse is describing
is the torment caused by the poison of their heresy. It makes men to tremble, but
it offers no cure. It offers no balm for the sting. It leaves men and women miserable.
It leaves men and women hoping in their fallen natures and trusting
in their captive wills and in their decisions made in ignorance
and darkness. Paul told Timothy, he said, their
word will eat as doth a tanker I looked that word up and it
means gangrene. That's what it means. Like a
cancer, but worse. Like a cancer in its end time. And the five months he talks
about simply means, I think, the last period of their lives.
Just a small portion. They'll flourish. in these five
months or from time to time until the coming of christ and as they
arise the lord will bring them under control you know that there
was a time when papacy ruled the earth just about every nation
was under its power but it's not now not now it's
still powerful but not like it was God brought it under control. And now in our day, it's free
will works religion. And it's flourishing all over
the world. But God bring it under control.
He knows what he's doing, and I know why it's sent, and to
whom it's sent. Verse six. And in those days
shall men seek death, and they won't find it. And they'll desire
to die, and death will flee from them. False religion can never
give any real peace, joy, or freedom to anyone. It thrives
on controls, and it motivates men by guilt and threats of punishment. That's how it rules. And those
who are exposed to the poison of these spiritual locusts have
a religion of works and self-righteousness which constantly reminds them
of their guilt. You can't look in the mirror
and you'll see an old guilty man. There he is. He's guilty. He didn't pray like he should
have. He didn't give like he should have. He didn't walk like
he should have. Having no true sense of pardon
and peace, they soon grow weary of life. Nothing but the truth
of the gospel can set men free. Our Lord said, if you continue
in my words, that is my preaching, my doctrine, you shall know the
truth and the truth will set you free. The truth of the gospel
is that men are saved by the grace of God alone through the
merits of Christ's blood and righteousness. Those who truly
know these things are set free from the bondage of the law and
from the reign of sin and from that condemning guilt of their
conscience. You know how the conscience is
soothed and purged? The blood of Christ. Does God come down and sprinkle
that blood on your conscience? No. an understanding of the gospel
and sprinkles that blood in your mind and heart. And then it's
applied to the conscience. You shall know the truth and
the truth will set you free. It'll purge your conscience.
And he said, he talks about those old types over there in Hebrews
chapter nine. And he said, you know the sprinkling
of the blood. Man comes with leprosy. And the
sprinkling of the blood upon that leprosy would cure that
leprosy. It would purify the flesh. The
sprinkling of that type with faith would clean that skin up
and it would be just as bright and pure as it was before the
leprosy came. He said, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who was offered through the eternal spirit,
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
And that's what he's talking about here. We're saved by the
grace of God, and those things are applied to the heart. Now
next week, the Lord willing, we're gonna begin with verse
seven, and we're gonna finish our study on this fifth angel,
and perhaps begin on the sixth angel. Now all through these
next two chapters, this is what he's gonna be talking about,
God's judgments, these trumpets of warning that his pastors give
to the church. I tell men and tell men and tell
men, you probably get sick of hearing it sometimes. Don't he
know anything except stand up and talk about these false prophets?
I want you to know who they are. I want you to know how dangerous
they are. I want you to know why they're sent. Why does God
tolerate them? Why doesn't God just wipe them
out? Because he's got a purpose in their being here. He sent
them, but he didn't send them to the church. He sent them to
this world. as a judge.