We have been studying in the book of Joel. We have been looking at Joel 1, and I am going to read the first seven verses of Joel. Joel 1:1-7:
The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.
We have been going through Joel, verse by verse. The last time, we were continuing to look at the locust as part of these plagues, these swarms of insects that are crop destroyers, as God is sending them against Israel, but really, against the church, against the New Testament churches and congregations of our day. We spent a little time looking at the locust. The last time, we went to Revelation 9 and we saw in Revelation 9:1:
…and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
This is the Lord Jesus Christ because He is the only One who has the keys of Hell and of death. So it is Christ who is going to open up the pit, as we see in Revelation 9:2, and He is going to release Satan. Satan is going to be set loose in order to bring about the Judgment on the churches and congregations. Therefore, what we are reading in Revelation 9 has to do with the Great Tribulation and the very beginning of it because that is when the Lord Jesus opened up the pit and set the devil loose. It was at the beginning, which we have come to learn was in 1988. In all probability, that is when the Great Tribulation began.
Then, we read in Revelation 9:3:
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.
This is why we came to this verse, because we are looking at the “locusts.” The “locusts” come out of the “bottomless pit.”
In other words, as Satan is loosed at the very beginning of our day in this time of Great Tribulation, his emissaries, in a sense, are loosed with him because God is going to allow him to take over the church—and He has allowed him to do that. These locusts are pictures of those who are not saved yet are in the churches; they are professing Christians. They would tell you that they are believers. They might even be a pastor or an elder or a deacon, yet they are represented by these locusts here.
Then, in Revelation 9:4-5, we read:
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 the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
As far as I know, the only thing that the “five months” relates to or ties into that I am aware of is the 150-day period that we read about in the flood, back in the last verse of Genesis 7. In Genesis 7:24, it says:
And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
With 30-day months, that is five months. Five months, “the waters prevailed upon the earth.”
So as we see that this information has everything to do with the Judgment of God upon the world of Noah’s day, then we can understand that this is, likewise, a Judgment of God upon the corporate church, upon the churches and congregations of the world. Therefore, they will be tormented “five months,” just as the waters were upon the earth for that period of time.
Then we read in Revelation 9:6:
And in those days shall men seek death…
Those two words, “those days,” are tying this into the Great Tribulation. You can find this phrase in Matthew 24 at least three times. We will not turn there, but those two Greek words are found in Matthew 24 at least three times, and it is referring to the time when “judgment must begin at the house of God.”
Revelation 9:6 goes on to say:
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
We can hear all kinds of explanations or attempted explanations for this verse. One thing we know is that it has nothing to do with the physical realm. It has nothing to do with people committing suicide, because even today people are still able to commit suicide. I even heard someone say that when we get to a certain part of the Great Tribulation, people will try to commit suicide and not be able to.
This is not what it is saying at all. The Bible is not teaching this. You know, committing suicide is really a very unwise thing to do, to say the least, because, for all intents and purposes, you are sealing your fate. In all likelihood, the person who commits suicide was never saved. We have to allow for the possibility that one, here or there, could, in a state of being downcast in their soul to the point where they became so depressed that they did something rash—we will allow for this possibility—but this is not a good way to go.
If anyone is thinking that they are a Christian and they are in depression, suicide is the last thing that you would ever want to do, because then you are done. You are done and immediately your soul goes into a place of silence. The next thing that you will know is that you will be awakened on Judgment Day and God will cast you into Hell for your sins.
Once someone is in Hell, they are not going to hold to the ridiculous idea that this world is Hell, because there are plenty of good things about this world. No matter how miserable you are, there are still comforts and things in this world that Hell will have none of. Hell is going to be the worst nightmare imaginable. Anyone who contemplated suicide and then followed through with it is not going to find relief. They are not getting away from their problems and their troubles. They are actually making it far, far worse, because they will, in all probability, end up in Hell suffering eternally.
So we know that this verse is not saying that people will not be able to kill themselves—they will drink poison and that poison will have no effect; they will jump off a bridge and miraculously they will survive—it is not saying this. What is it saying?
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
We have to look for a spiritual understanding, a spiritual meaning to this. Actually, it is not really that difficult. If we turn to Romans 6, I think that we will be able to understand what is being said in Revelation 9. We read in Romans 6:3:
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Also, look at Romans 6:5:
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
This is indicating that when someone becomes saved, Christ’s death becomes their death as well. Look at Romans 6:7-8:
For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
You can see very clearly that God is saying to anyone who hears the Gospel and does truly become saved that once they do become saved, they are dead in Christ. This is what is in view in Revelation 9:6:
And in those days shall men seek death…
They are going to want to identify with the Lord Jesus as He died for His people. Yet, here it is saying that they are not going to be able to find that kind of a death. They will “desire to die, and death shall flee from them.”
This is indicating that there will be no salvation of any kind in the churches during the time of the Great Tribulation. We can say this absolutely because Revelation 9 is the setting of the loosing of Satan and the loosing of the locusts, his emissaries along with him. In this context, God is saying that men will “seek death.”
When people go to church, when they go to their local congregation—no matter where it is in the world, in a real way—they are seeking God’s approval and His pleasure. They are seeking to be right with God. Whether they are aware of it or not, they are seeking for themselves the death that Christ died.
This is why they want to identify with Jesus. They profess to be Christians and they will tell you, “Yes, I believe in God, so Jesus died for me.” Really, when they say this, they are saying, “I am dead in Christ. I am dead in Him.”
So we do have all kinds of people seeking death. They are going to their church this Sunday morning, and in a real sense, they are seeking death and they can not find it—and they are not going to find it. They will desire it, but “death shall flee from them,” because this is referring to Christ and the Spirit of God and God Himself who has left the church—they have come out of the midst of the congregations. Therefore, there can not be this death that is identified with Jesus and His baptism—the washing away of the sins of His people. No one in the churches, we can know from just this verse but also from other information in the Bible, is being saved. No one is being saved anywhere in any church.
This is a big thing to say because this is a big world and there are all kinds of churches located in the cities and in many of the nations, if not all of the nations of the world, yet no one is finding salvation because they can not—it is an impossibility.
They can not become saved just by hearing the Bible. They have the Bible in the church and the preacher is preaching from the Bible, but it takes more than the Word of God. What does it take? It takes God to bless that Word. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God,” and so people can hear the Bible with their physical ears, and yet, if God is not there to bless the Word, to bring fruit according to the Word, then there will be no salvation.
Let us continue in Revelation 9. We read in Revelation 9:7:
And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
Remember, earlier in the book of Revelation, the twenty-four elders had crowns and they cast them at the feet of the Lord.
Every believer is a prophet, priest, and king. When you become saved, when you are a child of God, God places a crown upon your head, a golden crown upon your head because you are a spiritual king in His sight and Jesus is the King of kings—He is Lord over all His people—but we are a “holy nation,” a “royal priesthood” the Bible tells us, so we wear a golden crown. But it looks like everyone forgot theirs today; everyone left them at home. No, it is not a literal “crown;” it is a spiritual crown and we can not see it. No matter how hard we look, we can not see this, but God is saying in His Word that His people wear crowns.
If we go back to Proverbs 4:7-9, it says:
Wisdom is the principal thing…
And “wisdom” is Jesus. If you are saved, Jesus indwells you and you are wise. If you are not saved, Jesus does not indwell you and you are a fool. This is how God divides the human race.
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.
You can see what God is saying here, “Get wisdom—get Christ—and you will have an ‘ornament of grace,’” indicating that you have been saved by grace and not of works. You have become a spiritual king, and “a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.”
So in Revelation 9 when we have these locusts, this is why we are saying that these locusts represent false prophets, false teachers, false professors of being a Christian. They think that they are Christians. They think that they are believers, so they believe that they have “crowns like gold.”
If you were to ask two people if they are believers, if they are Christians, and both of them respond, “Yes,” we can not make a judgment because we do not know. But both are saying that they have a crown of gold; both are saying that they are spiritual kings. Yet like Jacob and Esau, one God loves and the other, God hates.
Therefore, one of them might have a crown, but it was not placed there by God. It was not put on their head by the Lord Jesus Christ but by the lies of the devil—Satan himself, through false gospels—as people have been deceived. Now they think that they are saved; they think that they are going to Heaven. Yet, it could be, they are like these locusts—they do not have the salvation of God.
Then we read in Revelation 9:8:
And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
We also read this in the book of Joel where we read about the four crop destroyers. What were those four crop destroyers? They were the locust, cankerworm, caterpillar, and palmerworm. Following this, Joel spoke about a nation that was coming against the land “whose teeth are the teeth of a lion” who “hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.”
This is just as we read here in Revelation 9 regarding these locusts, “their teeth were as the teeth of lions.” What do lions do? They devour; they consume. You would not want to be in Africa or somewhere and have a lion come along and catch you from any kind of shelter because he will quickly devour you—he will destroy you.
I was talking with a friend from Kenya and I made a joke about lions. He got very serious and said to me, “Lions are no joke.” He probably had some personal experience or maybe knew someone who had been torn by a lion. We do not have this problem normally in our land, but lions are definitely very serious and they can devour the prey. Whatever they go after, they are strong enough. God has made them to be devourers.
So are these locusts who are wearing “crowns like gold” and who are in the churches. They may not seem like a lion outwardly. When you talk to them, they might be very nice and very kind and they might tell you all kinds of sweet and flattering things like, “God loves you. He has a wonderful plan for your life. Accept Jesus and all will be right with you and God.”
Yet, through all of those words, they are devouring the people; they are consuming the people because they do not know if God loves them or if God has a wonderful plan for their life—they do not know if God is going to save them. They are just telling people what they want to hear in order for everything to run smoothly and operate efficiently so that the church can function in society, socially, and so that they can continue on with a nice-size congregation.
But the Bible is warning us—it is warning us to not look “on the outward appearance.” Spiritually, this is the case with these individuals, many of whom are pastors and elders and teachers in the churches. They are not “feeding the flock;” they are devouring themselves “of the flock.” They are like a lion loose in amongst lambs, who are easy prey for these false teachers and prophets.
Then we read in Revelation 9:9:
And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron…
“Iron” has to do with that which comes out of the ground, that which is natural and comes from the earth. The “breastplate,” as God tells us in Ephesians 6, is part of the “armour of God”—the “breastplate of righteousness.”
The “breastplate of righteousness” is what a child of God should be equipped with. We should be covered with the breastplate of the Lord Jesus Christ—His saving work, His work in redeeming a people for Himself. It should never have anything to do with anything that we have done, and in Revelation 9:9, their breastplates are not of Christ; they are not of God. They have to get the iron out of the ground and fashion the iron and form the breastplate and put it on—it is all work.
It is all work to do this, so these locusts, or these individuals in the churches, have done some work—it might only even be a little work, just a little bit, where they are going to “accept Christ” or “take the step of faith,” or something like that. Yet, what immediately happens is that their breastplate—that which is to protect them—is no longer of God; it is no longer Jesus Himself but it is man’s work and will be, really, no protection at all on the Last Day.
Continuing in Revelation 9:9-10:
…and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
We do not really need to do this, but just to kind of confirm it a little more, turn to Isaiah 9. This is how God would have us study the Bible and learn from the Bible. We do not think, “Well, let us see—their tails are like scorpions. What could this mean?” So we search our minds or maybe talk to our friends to learn from other sources. No—we learn from the Bible itself. The Bible is its own dictionary and explains it owns terms. In Isaiah 9:15, we read:
The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
Here, God has defined the “tail.” So when we go back to Revelation 9:10 and read:
And they had tails like unto scorpions…
It is just confirming and validating what we have been already seeing. These locusts who have been loosed by Christ Himself, by God Himself, to wreak havoc and bring destruction upon the church are false prophets. This is not saying that these are just individuals who thought that they had some kind of revelation from God. A false prophet is anyone who says that they are a Christian when they are not, because we are all prophets, priests, and kings, spiritually.
So these locusts are identified with false prophets and they are hurting men “five months.” This is the timeframe that we looked at earlier that relates to the flood in Genesis 7:24. This relates to God’s Judgment being upon the churches of the world today.
We are just going to read one last verse here. Revelation 9:11:
And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
These are synonyms of one another. God is giving us this word in the Hebrew because the Old Testament was written in the Hebrew, mostly, and He is also giving us the word in the Greek. Yet it is referring to he who was “a king over” these professing Christians—over these individuals in our day, today, at our time, during the Great Tribulation. God is telling us that they have “a king over them,” and it is not the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we find that he is called “Abaddon” and “Apollyon,” it is not Christ at all who has taken his seat in the temple, but it is Satan. When one takes his seat, he is ruling. Satan is a king over all “children of pride.” He is a king over all those who remain in the churches and congregations and who are not God’s elect. They are not coming out and he is ruling over them with an iron hand, and he has been given this by God because God is finished with the church. He is the “abomination of desolation…in the holy place.” He is this “Abaddon” and “Apollyon.”
Proverbs 15:11 says:
Hell and destruction are before the LORD…
“Abaddown” is the word “destruction” and it is found only a few times in the Old Testament—about five or six times—and in every case, it is translated as “destruction.” “Destruction” is the name of this king.
“Apolluon” is a Greek word that is only found here in Revelation 9, but it is derived and comes from another Greek word that is found numerous times in the New Testament that is translated, for example, as “perish,” or “lose,” as in, “For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself?” “Lose” is the Greek word that “Apolluon” comes from.
These two words are very similar; they are synonyms. So God is giving us a very good description of Satan. He is giving us a very fitting description of this spirit being.
Imagine that you have a king over you and all that he is interested in is not your welfare or your betterment or not so that you can be happy or have a joyous life. He wants absolutely nothing good for those he rules over. He wants nothing good. He does not want to help them in any way. He does not want to encourage them if they are cast down. He does not want to do anything but one thing, because it is his name: destroy them. He wants them to perish. He wants them to end up in the pit of Hell with himself and all of the other fallen angels.
This is that king who rules over anyone here who might not be saved. This is the one who is watching over you, in a real sense. He is the one whose kingdom you are in. You are in the kingdom of darkness. He is the god of this world. He is the ruler who is over you. Sure, it looks good and it sounds good. Enjoy yourself; enjoy the world; enjoy the pleasures of sin—continue on, day after day. Keep going and following—not the Lord Jesus—but Apollyon. Keep following Abaddon; continue down that road that leads to destruction.
This is what Satan is interested in. This is what he desires for you, and this is what sin is doing to anyone here who is not truly a child of God—he is going to take that person down to Hell. God has given Satan many names in the Bible, but here we find very apt and fitting names for the devil.
Let us turn back to the book of Joel. We are going to move on to Joel 1:5, where it says:
Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.
In this verse, God is referring to those who drink wine. Wine in the Bible can have a positive connotation or a negative connotation. You can find verses that speak of wine in a very good way. By the way, the words for “wine” are two different Hebrew words here. “Drinkers of wine” is Strong’s #3196, “yayin,” and “the new wine” is Strong’s #6071, “‘aciyc.”
The first word for wine, we also find in Isaiah 55:1:
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
This is referring to the Gospel. This is referring to the sending forth of the Word of God. God is saying, “Come; I have the words of the living water, the words of life. I have the word that can save a soul from damnation.” So that is this same word for “wine.”
It is also used in very negative ways. For instance, in Isaiah 28:1-3:
Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine! Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand. The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
We also read in Isaiah 28:7:
But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
If you are “out of the way,” what does that mean? It is little phrases like this that God inserts in the Bible that we could quickly read and gloss over and not even think about. Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” If we are “out of the way,” we are going the wrong way. There is the “broad” road and there is the “narrow” road, the road that leads to Heaven and to salvation.
So these “drunkards,” these “drinkers of wine,” have perverted the Gospel of Grace; they have polluted the true Gospel of the Bible—and they are drinking it in. They are drinking it in because this is what happens when we hear a gospel and we are accepting it—we are drinking it in, just like a drunk.
If someone has too much to drink, the Bible tells us in Proverbs 31, they forget their misery and they forget their poverty. They forget that they are under the wrath of God. They think that they are right with God. But a physical drunkard, someone who goes to the bar, he has all kinds of troubles and problems that he is going to temporarily forget about in drinking; he is not going to consider them.
This is the same spiritual picture. The problem with man, the number one problem—and really the only problem with anyone—is not your bills or your job or your wife or your husband or your family; it is not any of this. The number one problem is where you are going to spend eternity. Are you a child of God? Are you born again?
This is the kind of problem that people go to the church with. They go to their local congregation and the pastor is more than happy to sit down with them and to explain how they can be saved right now. Then they can drink in that gospel and they can forget their misery—you forget the spiritual poverty that you are in.
The word “wine” is a word that can be used of the true Gospel and it can also be used of those who pervert the true Gospel—as it is here in Joel 1:5:
…weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine…
Then Joel 1:5 goes on to say:
…because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.
The word for “new wine” is a word that is found about five or six places in the Old Testament. For instance, if you turn to Joel 3:18:
And it shall come to pass in that day…
When we read about “that day,” we have learned that it means our day, the Day of the Lord, the Day of this present Great Tribulation. Joel 3:18:
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.
So it is blessing, after blessing, after blessing. “Wine,” “milk,” “fountain” of “waters,” and a “flow with waters”—“waters” is mentioned twice. And it is going to “water the valley of Shittim”—it is the Gospel outpouring of the “latter rain.” It is the sending forth of the Gospel into the world during the second part of the Great Tribulation when God will save a “great multitude.”
This word “new wine” is used in this context. In Joel 1, it is the same idea. It is the same context: it is the Great Tribulation. Joel 1:5:
…weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.
You see, God is bringing judgment upon the house of God. In order to drink of the “new wine,” in order to experience the salvation of God and be a part of that “great multitude,” you have to be outside of the church—you have to be in a position where God can bless His Word to your hearing and where God can save. If you remain in the church, it can not happen. It can not happen, because we saw that “Abaddon” and “Apollyon” is the one in the church. The Lord Jesus left the church and no one can become saved there. So these “drunkards,” these “drinkers of wine” of the gospels that are flowing forth in the churches today have the “new wine” “cut off” from their “mouth.”
Turn to Jeremiah 7:23-25:
But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
Now, go down to Jeremiah 7:27-28:
Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee. But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
This is a similar idea. In Joel 1, the “new wine” is “cut off from your mouth.” They are not going to be able to drink of that “new wine.” Just like here, “truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.” Jesus is the Truth, so it is really saying the exact same thing.
They are hearing the Bible. They have that “wine.” They are drinkers of that “wine,” but the “new wine,” which can only be received when you come out of the church and you are in an arena where God can bless His Word, is “cut off from their mouth.” They can not drink of that “wine.” This is a tragedy because if they do not drink of that “new wine,” then the only thing left is to be bundled like a tare and to be cast into the fire.
We will stop here. In the next study, we will try to get into Joel 1:6-7.