Beloved radio friend, in the precious and worthy name of our wonderful Savior, we heartily greet you and welcome you to the continued study of God's precious and His Holy Word. We re-emphasize the particular theme that is before us, as we have taken it from the early chapters of the Book of Exodus. The character of the world, a world that is dominated by sin. dominated by Satan's power and his authority. A world that men have turned over to him in their disobedient acts of sin and rebellion against the truth and the law of God. We thank God that our Savior came to deliver us out of the realm of this world to translate us into the kingdom of God's blessed Son by the power of his redeeming grace and by the precious blood of his cross. We would conclude our present study concerning the plague that God sent in the book of Exodus in chapter ten that we have found called the Plague of Locus. It was a devastating plague that brought Locus throughout all the land of Egypt from one end to the other, bringing them in swarms till the very air was darkened. And every green vegetation, every green leaf in the land of Egypt, was consumed by the ravaging of the locus. We have been noting a contrast, or should we not rather perhaps say, a comparison with this plague to one in the book of the Revelation that is coming upon the whole world, not just a nation. For when we read the book of the Revelation, we realize that the whole earth comes under the divine judgments of God. One of those particular judgments is the fifth trumpet judgment, which we have been considering in the book of Revelation chapter nine. We now go on further to consider the character or the description of these locus that are so described, which I personally to believe, of a figurative character, not a literal character. The literal description of these locus would be perhaps impossible to thus be able to visualize. But there are spiritual and figurative implications regarding the character of this judgment, coming out of the bottomless pit, coming under satanic authority and power, coming through the agencies upon the earth that Satan will use, as well as his own evil spirits. We have noted in chapter nine, and particularly in verse seven and eight, some of the description. They are more like in character. ready to execute their commission, like horses prepared unto Babel. They are divine in their claims, as though upon their heads were as it were crowns of gold, reminding us in the book of the Revelation that crowns of gold belong to those who possess and have the honor of knowing divine righteousness. But let us not, indeed let us not, be deceived, that even Satan and even his emissaries, even human beings he may use, may have the claim of divine dignity and representation. We noted also in verse seven, their faces were as the faces of men, reminding us that they possessed the intelligence of men, though that intelligence is directed for the destruction and the torment of their victims. We go to verse eight and find they have hair as the hair of women, which would remind us of the seductiveness of these creatures that are described. They will be great seducers to lead men away from the living God, to pollute the moral conditions even in a greater way, as we saw represented by the sun that gives its light and its heat, and by the air which we breathe, They both were darkened by the reason of the smoke, out of which these locusts appear. And they will indeed have the hair as of women, seductive in their character, but with the teeth of lions, indicating they are savage, they are destructive, they are heartlessly cruel. Beloved me, I say very frankly, the devil isn't kind, the devil isn't loving, the devil isn't merciful. He's contrary to all the graces, to all that which is good. I want to say very frankly, may I quote the words of Peter, your adversary, the devil goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. I want to say to my dear radio friends who are still out of Christ, the purpose of the devil is to take you to hell and to take you to that place of his eternal abode where he himself will be. forever and forever and as far as the heartlessness of his being it is described in the next words of verse nine they had breastplates as it were breastplates of iron hearts that are completely hardened toward their victims to do their work and they had no feeling for the suffering of their victims my beloved let me say frankly The devil has no feeling toward his creatures that he has in bondage and that he seeks to destroy. And when you and I, my radio friend, submit ourselves to Satan's authority, to his power, to his will, he has no feeling toward us of kindness and of love and of gentleness. That heart of the adversary is steel, together with all the hosts of evil spirits that he may use. And then we read they had wings. The sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running the battle, reminding us of the rapidity as well as the resistless energy that they thus manifest against their victims. Now I am bringing before you the word of God. I know that I am dealing from this scripture with figurative language, symbolical undoubtedly, to a great degree, but may I state behind this symbolic language, there is a living truth, indicating what God would impart by this symbolical language, a terrible judgment under the power of Satan permitted by him and his evil hosts, upon the sons of man. This is one of the visitations of divine judgment in that period that is called in the Word of God the Great Tribulation. Now may I state clearly and effectively, I do not expect to be upon the earth during that period. I believe with all earnestness that the Word of God teaches that those who are saved will be taken out of this world before that Great Tribulation. and the church will have been taken to heaven above. But the judgments that follow will come upon all the earth. Now note verse ten, please, and we see the sting these terrible locusts possess. We read they had tails like unto scorpions. There were stings in their tails, and their power was to hurt men. Five months. Oh, beloved. What does it suggest? Oh, may I quote a verse from Isaiah chapter nine, verse fifteen, where the prophet said that concerning the true prophet, the prophet that told the truth, he is the head, the prophet that speaks lies, he is the tail. And I am fully persuaded that under this particular judgment, the spirits of evil, under Satan in his power will manifest an energy of false teaching and false doctrine that will never have been equal before, to bring their subjects and their victims into torment as they believe the lie of the devil. The outstanding manifestation of Satan's power and of the godless Trinity that will be upon the earth, the beast, the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, we who are recounted and found, recorded in the book of Revelation chapter thirteen, their greatest weapon to bring men into torment and into delusion and under destruction is going to be the weapon of a lie. And men will believe the lie rather than the truth. and it will be a sting like the sting of a scorpion when he strikes a man with his tail. Oh, my beloved, what a terrible day that is to be. But please note, as this concludes in verse eleven, these locusts that the Spirit of God describes in Revelation chapter nine, they have a king over them. Now, if you read the book of Proverbs, you would read in the book of Proverbs that the locusts have no king. Yet they go forth, but there's no king designated to be their leader in the literal manifestation of locusts. But in this which is spoken of, in its spiritual character, in its evil character under Satan, they have a king. And that king is none other, as the apostle John writes, The angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew is Abaddon, another name for the devil himself, and in the Greek language, Apollion. My beloved let us recognize their leader is the king of the abyss. Their leader is the king of the bottomless pit. Their leader is without question of doubt. Satan himself. And this judgment will be executed upon the earth. and particularly will it be executed upon those who know not God and whose names are not written upon his forehead, indicating they are his. Now may I conclude by reminding my listener, just as in the land of Egypt, God visited Pharaoh, the Egyptians, the land of Egypt, with the terrible plague of locusts. So we have in this counterpart of the book of the Revelation in the closing days of the age, the record of a terrible judgment. That is, and I say it frankly, that is beyond my complete comprehension, but in which I certainly am clear enough to realize a most terrible visitation of divine judgment upon the ungodly of the earth. Now, my friend, let me ask. Will you be under that judgment? Is your soul resting for salvation in Christ? Let me remind you, our Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us out of this present evil world according to the will of God our Father. My friend Christ alone can save you from this terrible visitation of judgment that God will permit under Satan in the coming days. All fathers speak to hearts and consciences that men and women may turn to the Savior now. For his name's sake, amen.