The Sixth Trumpet - The Second Woe

 Temple Baptist Church - 1-17-2021

Revelation 9:12-21

 

A.  We saw God’s reprieve in Chapter 7 where the 144,000 were sealed, the Gospel preached with an innumerable people saved and martyred.  Yet there was also an innumerable number of people who, when the pressure was off, continued to reject our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

I thank God for every soul saved.  Heaven is going to be a crowded, busy place.  These Tribulation saints paid a great price for their redemption but not as much of a price as Christ paid for it.

 

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision who will never come to know Christ because of the god of self and their rejection of our Lord.

 

B.  In Chapter 8, we saw the “locusts from hell” unleashed upon mankind with 5 months of unthinkable pain and suffering.  Men sought to die but death could not be found. 

 

I am glad that you and I who are saved will be rejoicing in heaven while the unsaved will suffer hell on earth and, after death, the lake of fire.

 

C.  Verse 12 says, “One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.”  There is an old saying, “The best is yet to come.”  Here, we find the judgment of God building, not fading away.  “The worst is yet to come.”  The Second Woe is about to be unleashed.  Mankind may reject and attempt to withstand Almighty God, but the outcome will not bode well for them.

 

Mankind cannot outlast God nor can they change His venue.  As we cannot know all that God has prepared for us, neither can mankind know all that He has prepared for them.

 

D.  Verse 13.  The sixth angel sounds, and a voice comes from the Golden Altar which is before God.  In both the Tabernacle in the Wilderness and the 2 great Temples (Solomon’s Temple and Zerubbabel’s Temple which was rebuilt in the days of Ezra), the Golden Altar of Incense, were the incense was burned and the prayers of the priests were offered, stood in front of the Veil that stood between God and man was hung.

 

I placed this replica of the Golden Altar of Incense here as a visual aid to understand what and where it stood in both the Tabernacle in the Wilderness and both Solomon and Zerubbabel’s Temple.

 

The scene here may not be exactly like the Temple in Heaven but the one on earth was made after the pattern of the heavenly.

 

E.  The voice heard was the prayers of God’s people for justice and reparation for the injustices of humanity upon them.

 

Revelation 6:9-10  And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:  (10)  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

 

F.  Verse 14.  The voice commanded the sixth angel to loosen the four angels bound in the Euphrates.  These are evil, fallen angels as God’s angels are not bound; these are special angels that are bound in the great Euphrates River; these are angels bound by God to be loosed for special purpose: to judge those who have rejected the Great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

 

It is sobering to think that these angels and creatures are bound there in our day to be loosed in God’s time for God’s purposes.

 

G.  Verse 15.  Bound here for millenniums, the time of their loosing is at hand.  In Revelation 6:8, we saw the death of one fourth of mankind, 2 billion if it were today.  Now, men will once again be given their wish: death.  One third, billions, of mankind will die at the hands of these “horsemen from hell!”

 

There are app. 8 Billion people on earth today so one third will be 3.7 billion who will die here.  To give you an indication of just how many 3.7 billion is, it is 11.3 times the population of the United States (326.7 million).

 

H.  Verse 16.  The number of these “horsemen from hell” is an astonishing one: 200,000,000.  The greatest army ever assembled.  These “horsemen from hell” are not to be confused with the great army from the East found in Chapter 16.  The reason for this confusion is a figure given to the ability of China to bring forth an army of 200,000,00 a few years ago.  Some expositors reference that number in correlation with the number given in this verse.  Chapter references the army from the East that will cross the dried Euphrates River on their way the Battle of Armageddon at the end of the Tribulation Period.

 

J.  Verse 17-18.  The description of these “horsemen from hell” is a terrifying one.  Those setting upon these horses have breastplates of fire (not as it were fire but actual fire), jacinth (a gem of deep blue color-the color of royalty), and brimstone (“flashing sulfurous” material).  Sulfur burns with a blue flame in oxygen to produce a gas called sulfur dioxide. This gas smells like rotting eggs and is poisonous to breathe.  Their lionlike heads, a fearful sight, will issue forth the fire, smoke, and brimstone.  Imagine the fire breathing dragons of folklore. One third of mankind will be killed by fire, smoke, and the poisonous gas produced by the brimstone exposed to oxygen.

 

K.  Verses 19.  Their destructive power is found on both ends of these “horsemen from hell.”  The afore mentioned fire, smoke, and brimstone will proceed from their mouths while they will have tails like poisonous serpents that can strike and bite, producing a painful death.  The bite of a poisonous snake is a painful one and, unattended to, often brings about a painful death.

 

L.  Verse 20.  Though they see God’s judgment, the do not repent of the things that they worship.  Though seeing and fleeing from these horrendous beasts, those who do not die will not repent of the worship that they give to the “gods” and “god of this world.”  Devils, idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood.  As one preacher said, “There are idols that are metal and idols that are mental.”  Man’s “god” is what or whom he places before Almighty God.

 

Psalms 115:4-8  Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.  (5)  They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:  (6)  They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:  (7)  They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.  (8)  They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.

 

M.  Verse 21.  Though they see God’s judgment, they will not repent of the sins that they commit: murders, sorceries (phar-ma-kia, from which we get the word “pharmacy:” drugs), fornication (unlawful sexual relations), thefts.

 

N.  God will not have mercy upon their souls!

Remove Not The Ancient Landmark

 Temple Baptist Church - 1-17-2021

Proverbs 22:28

 

Introduction: 

 

A.  We live in a rapidly changing world and the changes are not for the better.

 

1.  The World is changing.  We are seeing the anti-God movement as people become reprobate concerning the faith.  There is a general forsaking of the local church; a general lack of concern for things that are eternal; a general turn away from the beliefs of our fathers.  People today think that they have to re-invent the wheel and that their fathers and mothers were wrong on almost everything that they taught.

 

2.  Churches are changing.  Quantity over Quality.  They have become “numbers” oriented instead of maintaining the traditions of the fathers.  Their ploy is that the world is changing, and we must change with it.  Both young and old are forsaking traditional churches for the contemporary ones where they are entertained instead of being preached to.

 

Hosea 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

 

3.  Doctrine is changing.  Thus, we come to our text for the next few weeks.  I have often said: “We must have an Anchor in the shifting sands of human theology.”  We must have something that is right; something that is not moving; otherwise, we get “spiritual vertigo.”

 

Psalms 11:3  If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

 

B.  Before I dissect our text for this morning, I want you to turn to 2 Timothy, chapter 3.  The introduction to the context found here is simple:

 

1.  Verses 1-5 – The Spiritual Condition of the Last Days.

 

2.  Verses 6-9 – The Spiritual Confusion of the Last Days.

 

3.  Verses 10-17 – The Spiritual Constancy of the Last Days.

 

C.  How do we know what is right?  The key is found in Verse 14: “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.”  I will look at these verses in a later message but now I want to go back to our text.

 

D.  Let us look at the words of our text as words in the Bible are important.  I will also take a closer look at that in the weeks to come.

 

E.  Our text verse says, “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.” 

 

F.  LAND'MARK, n. [land and mark.]  1828 Webster's Dictionary: A mark to designate the boundary of land; any mark or fixed object; as a marked tree, a stone, a ditch, or a heap of stones, by which the limits of a farm, a town or other portion of territory may be known and preserved.

 

G.  The Bible has much to say concerning “landmarks.”

 

1.  These landmarks were given by God - Deuteronomy 19:14  Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour’s landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it.

 

2.  The Lord curses those who remove them - Deuteronomy 27:17  Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen.

 

3.  These landmarks belong to others also - Proverbs 23:10  Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

 

4.  There is an ulterior motive for removing them - Job 24:2  Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.

 

H.  The longer we hold to the “Old Paths” or “Ancient Landmarks,” the farther away from this rapidly advancing, present evil world we get! 

 

1.  W become the spiritual “stick in the mud” or “narrow minded” fundamentalists!  Our theology becomes less and less acceptable in both the world and the religious community.

 

2.  The farther we get from the world (it is the world that is moving away from God, not us moving away from the world) the more of as oddity and threat we become.  We will become more maligned and persecuted for an unbending faith in both Christ and the Bible.

 

3.  The world will hate us because it hated Christ but the danger is this:

 

a) If we move or remove the ancient landmarks, we will think about them less and be more apt to “get used to the dark” of sinfulness.

 

b)  If we move or remove the ancient landmarks, our children will never know them!  They will only know the pseudo-spirituality of the Antichrist and his one world religion of the end-time.

 

2 Timothy 3:12  Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

 

1.  The Command of the Landmark – “remove not”  (If these landmarks get either moved or removed, it will be done by us, not the world.)

 

2.  The Antiquity of the Landmark – “ancient”  (“New” may be good in some things, but not in the spiritual realm.  We are to seek and walk in the “Old Paths” wherein is the good way.)

 

3.  The Fixture of the Landmark – “landmark”  (We need to make sure that these landmarks not only are left for our children but also that they do not “move!”)

 

4.  The Setters of the Landmark – “fathers”  (These landmarks come from our spiritual forefathers who loved God, loved God’s Word, loved God’s church, and loved God’s people!)

 

5.  The Permanence of the Landmark – “set”  (If these landmarks are right (and they are) then they need to be driven so deep in our hearts and lives that they can never be either moved or removed!)

Who Have Spoken Unto You The Word of God

 Temple Baptist Church - 1-13-2021

Hebrews 13:7

 

Introduction:

 

A.  I know that I am spending a lot of time on this verse, but it is an important one concerning the person and work of the pastor coupled with the obligation of the church toward the pastor.

 

B.  To remember is to reflect on:

 

1.  The Person of the Pastor.  The gift of God to the local church.  He is God’s man, and he is your man.

 

2.  The Position of the Pastor.  He is to rightly, biblically, compassionately, and justly to rule over the local church flock of God.  His position is God ordained, not self-ordained one.

 

3.  The Preaching of the Pastor.  Tonight, I will look at his work and labor in the Word of God.

 

C.  “Have spoken” is to reflect back upon his work and labor of love in the Word of God.

 

1.  This is not based on a Future Expectation of his work.

 

2.  But is based on Past Example of his performance.

 

D.  There are different aspects of the pastor’s preaching that are essential to God’s command.

 

1.  The Aspect of Study.  Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth.

 

2 Timothy 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

 

1 Peter 5:2  Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

 

Ecclesiastes 12:9-14  And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.  (10)  The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.  (11)  The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.  (12)  And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.  (13)  Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.  (14)  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

 

2.  The Aspect of Teaching.  Expounding the Word of Truth.

 

Ephesians 4:11  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

 

1 Timothy 3:2  A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

 

Isaiah 28:10  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

 

Nehemiah 8:8  So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

 

Habakkuk 2:2  And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

 

Luke 24:25-27  Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:  (26)  Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?  (27)  And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

 

Luke 24:45  Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

 

Acts 8:30-31  And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?  (31)  And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.

 

3.  The Aspect of Preaching. 

 

Isaiah 61:1-2  The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;  (2)  To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

 

2 Timothy 4:1-2  I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;  (2)  Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

 

a.  Preach the Word.  Not opinion but God’s Truth.

 

b.  Preach in Season.  When it applies to our circumstances.

 

c.  Preach out of Season.  Preventive maintenance before our circumstances.

 

1)  Preaching involves Reproof.

 

2)  Preaching involves Rebuke.

 

3)  Preaching involves Exhortation.

 

4)  Preaching involves Balance.  The whole counsel of God.

 

5.  Preaching must be done Compassionately and with Doctrinal Correctness.

The Fifth Trumpet: The First Woe

 Temple Baptist Church - 1-3-2021

Revelation 9:1-12

 

Introduction:

 

A.  The inhibiters of the earth are those who have rejected the preaching of the gospel by the 144,000 sealed witnesses.  Verse 4 tells us that not all people on earth will be tormented because those who have not rejected the gospel are sealed and protected.

 

Revelation 8:13  And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

 

Woe – “Alas, grief!” 

 

Alas defined - “unhappiness, pity, sorrow, regret”

Grief defined – “deep and poignant emotional distress caused by or as if by bereavement such as death.”

 

B.  Choices have consequences!  It takes a foolish man to reject God!  Twice in Psalms, the Bible declares that “The fool hath said in heart, There is no God!”

 

Psalms 14:1  The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

 

Psalms 53:1  The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good.

 

Psalms 10:4  The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

 

C.  At this point we have a Horror Story of horrendous proportions!  Over the years, Hollywood has made movies about ants, scorpions, spiders, and birds that have mutated and taken over the earth.  Destroying everything in their path.  In the movies, mankind survives, and the insects or animals are destroyed.  These movies always brought about both fear and a good ending.  This is not a fictional story nor will the ending be pretty!

 

D.  Verse 1.  The 5th Angel sounded and the star that fell from heaven is an angel, not a celestial body.  We are literalists and take the bible literally, but there are places in the Bible where we find allegories or metaphors.  This is one of those occasions.  In the Book of Revelation, we find the phrase “as it were” used 11 times.  This “star” is an Angel.

 

Revelation 1:20  The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

 

This angel was given the “key” to the bottomless pit.  The word “key” is mentioned in your Bible 6x.

 

The First Mention, an actual key to a door – Judges 3:25  And they tarried till they were ashamed: and, behold, he opened not the doors of the parlour; therefore they took a key, and opened them: and, behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth.

 

The next 5x that “key” is mentioned are not actual keys to open an actual door, but a specific way to open something.  A metaphor for the “power to open”: i.e., “key of David” 2x – “key of knowledge”1x – “key of the bottomless pit” 2x.

 

Revelation 1:18  I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

 

Revelation 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

 

The “bottomless pit” is a reference to hell within the earth.  I find the word “bottomless” interesting.  As people go to hell, they evidently sink down into the magma of the earth but, as the earth turns, the bottom is never found.  I saw a commercial years ago about Prell Shampoo where they dropped a pearl into a bottle of it and the pearl sand slowly toward the bottom of the bottle.  If at any time you rotated the bottle, the pearl could not come to rest because it was simply falling in the opposite direction.  Thus, it may be with the lost sinner in hell.  Always falling but never coming to rest.

 

E.  Verse 2.  There arose smoke out of the pit.  I think of volcanoes, when they erupt, produce great amounts of smoke and ash.  Yellowstone National Park is a place where magma is either exposed or encounters colder water to produce smoke and geysers.  Hell, when opened to the atmosphere, will produce such great smoke that the sun will be darkened.  Forest fires in the west create this effect to a lesser degree.  

 

F.  Verse 3.  Out of the smoke will come creatures that only God could have created.  Locust plagues have been a part of this earth's history over the ages.  Locusts are very destructive armies that destroy every living thing (plant life) that they come upon.  During their infestation out West that when they walked over the top of houses that they could hardly hear each other talk because of the noise.  They will come out of the smoke, but God has given them a power that normal locusts do not have, the power of a scorpion to hurt but not the power to kill.  The power to torture those it stings.

 

2 Peter 2:4  For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

 

G.  Verse 4.  These locusts that have been unleashed have a command given them, not to do what they want to do, but they will do what they are they are designed to do.  They are not designed to hurt the grass or anything green.  They are there to hurt the people who have not the seal of God in their foreheads.  This means that there are still people that are sealed on this earth at that time.  People that are saved and yet not yet martyred.

 

The destructive abilities of the locusts are specifically limited by the permission of God. 

 

H.  These locusts are there to torment men.  There are scorpions out west of a very large variety that can actually be fatal to some if stung but here in South Carolina, we have a smaller species whose stings are very painful but not fatal unless you have a allergy to insect stings or bites. These are sent to torment men for beer to five months and that is a long time.

 

J.  Verse 6.  Men will desire death but cannot die.  They can neither be killed or kill themselves.  I find this interesting that they think death is far better than living.  Evolution teaches that when you die everything ceases to exist.  Like a an animal that has no soul, you just go to sleep and cease to exist, but that is not the case.  It is a fool's way of thinking!  When you die without Christ, Hell awaits.  “All this and hell too!”  Then there is the Lake of fire for an eternity.  I call this leaping out of the frying pan and into the fire.  These individuals want nothing to do with God.  They just want to put an end to their suffering here on earth.  They want the suffering to stop but do not want the God who can stop it.

 

Job 3:20-22  Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;  (21)  Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;  (22)  Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

 

K.  Verses 7-10.  In verses 7 through 9 we found a description of these creatures that God has created for a special time and use.

 

Verse 7.  Like unto horses prepared for battle.  In war, horses were powerful instruments of war.  Swift to run and powerful to stop.  This speaks of readiness to fight.  Crowns on their heads speaks of the authority to rule.  Power and authority over mankind.  Mankind does not want God to rule so He will give them devilish creatures to rule them.  The Gold speaks of authority given by God.  They are created by God for this purpose. 

 

Verse 8.  Their faces as the faces of men but their hair was that of a woman.  This speaks of shame.  A haunting affect!  These will not be subject to God’s authority, so we find an unnatural ruling.  These locusts cannot be ruled by man as their authority is given by God and can only be revoked by God.  Their teeth will be like the teeth of Lions.  Lions are carnivorous animals of great power.  They have huge teeth, and those teeth are able to rip and to tear, giving them a fearful look.  

 

Verse 9.  They had breastplates to protect their vitals so they cannot be either hurt of killed.  Man will have no power over them, and the sound of their wings is a frightful one.  As chariots running to battle.  They are coming and nothing can be done to stop them.  that means that you can't hurt them as the breastplates of iron these you can't perish them you can't shoot one of 'em you can't stab 'em you can't do anything because they are protected from mankind in the sound of their wing as the sound of chair it's in many horses run to battle great noise I mean multitudes of these things flying together create a lot of noise and therefore they create a lot of fear you know there coming and there's not a thing you can do about it

 

Verse 10.  Scorpions will normally grab their prey and hold their prey down with their legs while they bring that tail over the back and sting them.  There is no power over them and no place to hide from them.  No relief from their pain.

 

L.  Verse 11.  Special angels are found in the Bible and this is one of them.  The king of the locust/scorpion creatures is called Abaddon in Hebrew or The Destroying Angel and Apollyon in the Greek, a destroyer.  The Angel of Destruction.  Throughout the Bible, we have seen angels that God has sent to destroy men.  Though some would say that this angel was a fallen angel, I believe that he is one of God’s special angels who guards the bottomless pit where men suffer and will command the locusts that will cause men to suffer.

 

2 Kings 19:35  And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

 

1 Chronicles 21:15  And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

 

M.  Verse 12.  One woe is now past but the world will know the other two woes well!