Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #9 of Revelation, chapter 9, and we are going to begin by reading Revelation 9:4:

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.

We are continuing in chapter 9, where we saw that the Lord Jesus, typified as a star falling from heaven, opened the bottomless pit and smoke came “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.” Then locusts came out of the smoke; and we saw how that identifies with the true believers that come forth in the Day of Judgment to carry out the task that the Lord has assigned for them to do.  The coming out of the smoke has to do with God’s wrath.

Now we have moved on to verse 4 and God is commanding the locusts.  The word “command” reminds us of an army where the General or the King sends forth his army and the army carries out the command of the General or the King.  There is another picture of this same thing, concerning the Day of Judgment, in the Book of Joel; God uses an image similar to the image of the locusts, except He does not call them locusts; in speaking of Judgment Day, it says in Joel 2:2:

A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

The “great people and a strong” refer to God’s army.  Then it goes on to say in Joel 2:3-4:

A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.

We will find, as we continue on in Revelation 9, that the locusts have a shape like unto horses prepared unto battle; and, here, in the Book of Joel, this “great people and a strong” have an appearance of horses and horsemen.  We will also find, later on in Revelation 9, that God is going to break from the picture of locusts and pick up another picture to illustrate Judgment Day; and that is a picture of two hundred million horsemen.  Just as the locusts have tails like unto scorpions, we are going to find that the two hundred million horsemen have tails like unto serpents.  Just as the locusts have tails like scorpions which do “hurt,” so do the two hundred million have tails like serpents which do “hurt.”  So it really is a synonymous picture, even though God is teaching different things and, yet, He is illustrating that His people are typified by the two hundred million horsemen or by the locusts.  Remember, we discussed how the locusts swarm in great numbers and the two hundred million horsemen would typify all of God’s elect; they are both represented by horses, horsemen and by the fact that they are doing battle.

It goes on to say in Joel 2:4-9:

The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.

Since the Lord Jesus Christ comes “as a thief in the night,” the Bible also speaks of His people coming “like a thief.”  Then it goes on to say in Joel 2:10-11:

The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: And JEHOVAH shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of JEHOVAH is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

God does liken Judgment Day to a battle and the sending forth of His people as though they are doing battle.  In Joel 2, the picture is of a great army and, in Revelation 9, the picture is of an incredible number of locusts going forth and wreaking havoc and destruction on all that is before them.  The locusts destroy the “seed” and the “fruit” and we found earlier that “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. We will find, as we consider what God is saying to us in this verse that He has already given similar types of statements in the Book or Revelation and we have already covered them in previous studies. 

For instance, it says back in Revelation 6:5-6:

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

This black horse and its rider typify the Great Tribulation.  The Great Tribulation is a time when spiritual famine occurs in the churches and congregations of the world, so that is why it says, “A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny.”  This language is pointing to spiritual famine, and we are not going to go back over this.  But, notice in Revelation 6:6, after God says that there is this famine, which points to judgment beginning at the house of God, He takes care to emphasize to “see thou hurt not the oil and the wine,” and the oil and the wine are figures of God’s elect. 

The word “hurt” is the same Greek word that is found in Revelation 9:4:  “And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree.”  Just as, in Revelation 6:6, the oil and the wine point to the true believers, so, too, the implication is the same in Revelation 9:4, because it goes on to say, “But only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.”  That implies that the earlier part of the verse referring to the grass, the green thing or the tree is making a spiritual reference to God’s elect – they are not to be hurt.  They are only to hurt those that do not have the seal in their foreheads.  Remember, concerning that seal, it says in Ephesians 1:13:

In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

There is another reference about being sealed with the Holy Spirit, in 2^nd Corinthians 1:21-22:

Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

So God joins together the receiving of His Spirit with being “sealed.”  And, of course, if you have God’s Spirit, you are saved; you have been born again; you are a child of God.   Therefore, when God says, “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,” means that if you are not “sealed” and you do not possess the Holy Spirit, you are unsaved and you are an object of the wrath of God in the Day of Judgment.  That is what God is emphasizing in our verse in Revelation 9:4. 

But let us look at another passage in Revelation 7:1-3:

And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

This lets us know that God was longsuffering and patient as He waited for those to become saved in the churches during the church age, before He brought judgment on the congregations.  Likewise, it is the exact same truth concerning the judgment on the world; God was patient and longsuffering as He put up with the sins of the world until the last of the elect had received the “seal” of the Holy Spirit in their foreheads and that protected them against any harm.

But, once judgment began – whether it be on the churches or on the world – those that are “unsealed” and do not have the seal of God in their foreheads are objects of the wrath of God and they will be “hurt.”  The locusts will “hurt” them.  The locusts are to “hurt” all but those men that have the seal of God in their foreheads.

Let us look at another passage in Revelation 9:15 with the word “hurt.”  I wanted to read it so we can get a good idea of what God means by that word.  It says in Revelation 9:15-19:

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. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: 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 jacinth, 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.

Again, this is the same word “hurt.”  Now the two hundred million have the task of “hurting” the third part and when they hurt the third part of men, they kill them.  We have discussed this before, but it is good for us to be reminded that God brought judgment on the “third part,” which points to those within the churches and congregations of the world.  God brought that judgment during the 23 years of the Great Tribulation, but it could be said that He did not slay the third part of men in a final way (a way that would kill them for good) until the end of that 23-year Great Tribulation period and the beginning of Judgment Day on May 21, 2011.  Why is that?  It is because at any point during that 23 years, any individual within a church that was experiencing the wrath of God could have “come out” and left the congregation and gone out into the world and, thereby, placed themselves (during the last 17 years of that period) in a position to receive the “latter rain” and, potentially, to become saved.  God was saving a great multitude all over the world, so even though judgment was on the “third part,” there was still the hope and possibility that anyone within the churches (a bishop, a priest, an elder or deacon or anyone at all) could have hearkened to the warning of God and the sounding of the trumpet and “come out” to seek the Lord while He may be found during the day of salvation, when God was saving so many people in such a short period of time.

But the Bible also indicates that those that did not hearken, rejecting the counsel of God and refusing His gracious opening of the Scriptures to reveal these things and remaining within the churches would wind up as tares bundled for the fire.  Yet that “bundling” was not complete, although the process was under way during that 23-year period, but the final binding of the unsaved within the churches was not complete May 21, 2011, when God shut the door to heaven.  Then it was complete and many professed Christians remained within the churches of the world;  It is a tragic and extremely sorrowful thing that about two billion people, including men women and children, remained within the congregations, against the express command of God and were bundled as tares for the burning.  May 21, 2011, Judgment Day, was the day for that burning.  It was then that their eternal condition was sealed. 

Now we may “gather” the various denominations and the various congregations and simply take them and toss them into the fire.  Why is that?  It is because as long as they remained in the churches, they could experience no latter rain.  God was not sending forth the “rain” into the churches and congregations.  There was only famine.  There was a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord, so it was impossible for anyone to become saved in any church in the world.

Now that means that for all these people that remain, there was no possibility for them to be in a place where God was saving.  Even though they were in that horrible spiritual condition, which is pretty bad, yet, God was still saving outside the churches.  But they went “from bad to worse” when May 21, 2011 finally came because the door of heaven was shut all over the world, never to be opened again.  Therefore, it was as though they were “killed.”  The “third part” of men was slain and that is the reason that God gives us these two different illustrations in Revelation 9.  One was of the locusts which is dealing with mankind in general and one of the two hundred million which would typify all the elect and God is focused on what happened to those that were called by His name, compared to those that were in the churches and congregations of the world. 

We see, once again, that this word “hurt” is used in the illustration of the two hundred million horsemen and their horses, where the Lord spoke of them as having tails “like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.”  The “hurt,” here, and the “hurt” in Revelation 9:4 and the “hurt” in Revelation 6 and 7, have to do with the coming of judgment and the condemnation of God’s wrath; it involves the shutting of the door in the churches and in the world, the removal of the Gospel light and the end of salvation.  That is what is in view with this word “hurt.”

Let us just look at one other place where God uses this word, in Revelation, chapter 22.  I am sure many of you will be familiar with this because it has been often discussed since we entered into this time period after the Great Tribulation.  It says in Revelation 22:10:

And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

Now that pinpoints when this is taking place.  The Bible is the Book that is in view and the Bible was unsealed at the beginning of the Great Tribulation and remains unsealed into this time period of Judgment Day, which we are now in.  So when God says, “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand,” He is indicating it is the time of judgment.  Then it says in Revelation 22:11:

He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

The same Greek word translated as “hurt” in the other verses we looked at is also found here, and it is translated here as “unjust.”  So we could read this: “He that is hurt, let him be hurt still,” and so forth.  We saw that when the locusts “hurt,” who do they hurt?  According to Revelation 9:4, God 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.”

Remember, in Revelation 9:19, that the two hundred million “hurt” the third part.  So when we put the two together, it is every unsaved individual in the churches and in the world that Revelation 22:11 is addressing. 

Therefore, you are “hurt” if you do not have the seal of God in your forehead because you are not one of the elect; you are not one of the firstfruits, the 144,000 that were sealed in their foreheads; you are not one of the great multitude that are typified by the grass, green thing and trees; you are an unregenerate individual and you were never chosen to salvation.  You have managed to enter into the time period of the end of the world without ever experiencing God’s grace and, therefore, since we are at a time when the bottomless pit has been opened; when the door of heaven has been shut; when the Gospel light has been put out; and when even the “air” is darkened, making the dark world even darker still.  You will remain “hurt.” 

You are “hurt” now and you will remain “hurt.”  That condition will never change.  You have been “hurt” by the wrath of God and you will remain unchanged.  Likewise, the ones that are righteous and holy still, they will remain in that condition.  In other words, what God is saying is that each person’s spiritual condition is set and established and will not change.  Every human being that inhabits the earth has “returned to their own land.”  They have either gone to the world or they have gone to the kingdom of heaven – each one has gone to his own and the eternal condition of each individual is for ever established and never can be changed. 

These are the circumstances we now find ourselves living in and these circumstances are different than any other period of time in the world’s history.  We have never before entered into a period of time where there will be no translation out of darkness and into the kingdom of God’s dear son, ever again.  All who are in the kingdom of darkness will remain in the kingdom of darkness. All who are in the kingdom of light will remain in the kingdom of light.  It is a grievous time period for anyone to be alive and, yet, God encourages us and He will bring His people through and He will cause them to endure to the end.