In a book entitled The Voice of the Seven Thunders, subtitled Lectures on the Apocalypse, a preacher by the name of J. L. Martin set forth his understanding of this sixth trumpet judgment in Revelation chapter 9. The year of his writing was 1870. He had embraced a relatively novel method of interpreting the prophetic portions of the scriptures, a method that only recent to that time had become the new and innovative fad in many Protestant circles. It was advertised as the most literal method of interpretation to help you taste something of the flavor of this. Let me read to you his shrewdly scientific explanation of the army of 200 million that appears here in Revelation 9. He writes, We have a few more than one billion inhabitants on the earth. But of that billion, about 500 millions, one half are females. Leaving an average population of male inhabitants of about 500 millions, and of that number about one half are minors, leaving about 250 millions of adult males on the earth at a time. But of that number of adult males, about one fifth are superannuated, two-world to fight, these are statistical facts. This leaves exactly John's 200 millions of fighting men on earth. And when we prove them mathematically, we think it is pretty well done. And what about these images of horses with lions heads? And fire coming out of their mouths? At the time 1870 Buffalo Bill was fighting the Sue Indians as the chief of Scouts for General Sheridan's fifth cavalry, and therefore Martin's conclusions then, at least to himself, were obvious beyond all question. This is what he says. John is pointing to the modern mode of fighting on horseback, with the rider leaning forward, which to his side and to the side of one looking on at a distance, would appear as a great main of a lion, the man leaning on the horse's neck. He would, in fighting with firearms, have to lean forward to discharge his peace lest he might shoot down his own horse that he was riding. In John's day, the posture was very different. Now, I want to ask my friendly hears if it is not as literally fulfilled before our eyes as anything can be. Are not all nations engaged in this mode of warfare? Do they not kill men with fire and smoke and brimstone? Do you not know that this is just ignited gunpowder? Could an uninspired man in the last of the first century have told of this matter? Well, of course, my friends, the answer is absolutely not. But therein is the problem, you see. Neither could uninspired readers in the first century have comprehended it, though this book had been written to them and for them. Such an interpretation would have no relevance to them whatsoever. But let's be charitable. Do we automatically doubt the spiritual integrity of a person who would arrive at such conclusions? No. Do we call into question his devotion to the sacred tax? No. And yet it is quite obvious that time has embarrassingly revealed the faultiness of his conclusions and we should also learn the faultiness of the method of interpretation that led to those conclusions. We read his words today, 130 years after he wrote them, and we can't help but snicker at his conclusions. But do you realize, my friends, that the very same conclusions are being derived at today, albeit in contemporary terminology as a consequence of interpreting the revelation by means of that very same method? One popular writer suggests of these horses with lion's heads, quote, John is describing some kind of mobilized missile launcher. Another asserts the horses' mouths are flame throwers and their tails are stealth bombers. A third identifies each individual feature of this vision with such military apparatus as tanks, troop carriers, missile launchers, rocket batteries, and helicopter gunships. All these things rights the guru of this genre are a part of a thermonuclear war. Smoke represents the immense clouds of radioactive fallout and debris while brimstone is simply melted earth and building materials. These 200 million troops are red Chinese soldiers accompanied by other eastern allies. It's possible that the industrial might of Japan will be united with red China for the first time in history there will be a full invasion of the west by the east. Do you hear what this is? It is J. L. Martin, 1870, contemporized, simply recondextualized in the 21st century. It is the same method of interpretation so fundamentally flawed that its validity couldn't stand the test of 130 years. And I will wager with you my friends that 130 years from now, if the Lord has not yet returned, Christians will be snickering at these contemporary conclusions in much the same way we snicker at those of 130 years ago. And sadly you see for the very same reason an erroneous method of interpreting apocalyptic literature. But it is at this very point that we need to make some necessary clarification because you see there is a sense in which J. L. Martin and his 21st century counterparts have not altogether missed the truth. I would remind you friends that even a broken watch is right twice a day. A fact that encourages me given the awareness of my own limitations. Let me see if I can explain to you what I mean. Where are we in the revelation? Or better yet where is John when he has given these visions of judgment? You remember chapter 4 verse 1? After this I looked and there in heaven adores stood open. And the first voice which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. Now do you remember the imagery we employed in an attempt to illustrate John's experience? We said to you what's like looking through a plate glass window at the airport. What do you see? Plains taking off, planes landing. People with headphones and walkie talkies scurrying around in hurried movements, making confusing signaling gestures with their hands and with their arms, cars and trucks of various speeds, shapes, sizes moving simultaneously in every possible direction. From where you stand in and from what you can see it is a maze of chaotic motion. You can't make sense of it. But then someone invites you up to the control tower. And suddenly from that lofty perspective all of the motion that it seemed so random and without meaning is now seen to be operating with distinct coordination and purpose. Elevation has resulted in illumination. Come up here John, interpret things from this vantage point. And what is John see in heaven? He sees the ascended son of man Jesus Christ, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the slaughtered lamb, take the scroll of destiny out of the right hand of the one sitting on the throne. And what does he do with that scroll? He begins the process of slitting its seals, thus inaugurating at the point of his ascension God's pre-judgment justice on the unbelieving world. This judgment we have learned that unfolds in three series of judgments each of which culminates in God's final and ultimate judgment. All of which suggests what? That these various preliminary judgments are not to be thought of beloved as one time events that are obviously distinguishable reserved for the final moments just prior to the return of Jesus Christ, but rather judgments that are continually expressed throughout the entirety of this age. This age marked out as the time between the first and second comings of Jesus Christ. So are these horses heads that look like lions, really cavalry soldiers seen from a distance, leaning over the heads of their horses, firing their handguns and rifles? Are these horses with tails like serpent's heads, really stealth bombers? As we have seen in this apocalyptic genre, they are demonic beings sent by God himself to inflict his pre-judgment justice upon the inhabitants of the earth. In this case, my friends, a judgment that includes the killing of one-third of the human race, but do you realize what this means then? Consider it from the vantage point of the control tower. It means that in one strange sense, that J. L. Martin and Halenzi and Timla Hay are right. The essence of the thing they got wrong, the timing of the thing they got wrong, but the extent to which they acknowledge such historical events as various fulfillments of God's pre-judgment justice on the human race, they get it right. And you see, my friends, in part that's how we must think about this present war. This past week, Donald Rumsfeld said, this campaign is not an assault on a country, it is not an assault on a people, it is not an assault on a religion, it is an assault on a regime. Is that true? We can only assume that it is. Is it well-intentioned, such as our hope? Is it just to my way of thinking it is? That's how I see it as an American. That is a Christian. From the vantage point of the control tower, I must also interpret it as one expression of God's pre-judgment justice on the inhabitants of the earth. This slaughter of one third of the human race that is to occur throughout the time between the ascension of Jesus Christ and His return. Now, I can't go any further than that with you. I can't speak with any greater specificity than that because the text doesn't allow me. But to not go that far is to miss the plain and obvious implications of this text. Now, of this sixth trumpet judgment, we are asking three questions. The first of which we posed last Lord's day, where, from where, does this little judgment come? And the answer we saw in verses 13 through 16 was obvious beyond all question. This little judgment originates with God Himself. From the altar in heaven, in response to the prayers of His people, God speaks His word and sets this judgment in motion. He releases four angelic beings, demons, if you recall, who, having been ready for this very moment, have been restrained against their wills. Now, with the authorization of God Himself, they are released to lead a host of demonic beings, 200 million, an apocalyptic number that suggests the multitude so vast that it defies all powers of measurement. And yet, as we discovered, for all of their malevolent desires, these demons only serve to accomplish the righteous agenda of God. All the power they possess has been granted them. God sets the terms. God sets the limits. They move at God's command. This little judgment then comes from Him. Here now, then, is the second question we ask. And we'll finish this morning with the third. What is the primary objective of this lethal judgment? What is the primary objective of this lethal judgment? Let's pick it up at verse 17. And this was how I saw the horses in my vision. Wait a minute, Art, what happened to the four angels? The four angels released to kill a third of humankind. Well, the text doesn't say, doesn't. They seem to disappear in this group of 200 million. Might it be to lead these troops? Perhaps this is the very task for which they had been prepared and held in readiness, verse 15. In any case, beloved, John reminds us that this is a vision. Did you see that? And this was how I saw the horses in my vision. My vision. It is not as it were, something akin to a Thomas Kincaid painting. Rather, it's like a scene from a Stephen King novel. It's surreal. That is to say, the images we see here are not ordinarily related to one another. They are dreamlike. It's something closer to a hallucinogenic experience than common thoughtful prose reflecting on a wonderful day at the beach. John begins by saying in this vision that he sees horses, but what frightening horses they are. Horses like no one had ever seen before, monstrous horses, murderous horses. As we discovered last Lord's day, they are not horses at all. Are they? They're demonic beings. But then rather than proceeding to describe these horses, John first takes brief note of their writers. Look at it. The writers wore breastplates, the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur. In the prior trumpet judgment, the demons from the abyss characterized as locusts were said to possess scales like iron breastplates. Here, the writers on these horses are wearing breastplates that resemble the colors of fire, red, sapphire, a dark smoky blue, and sulfur, otherwise known as brimstone, which in color was yellow. Now take a look at this, friends. Does each one of the breastplates bear all three colors? Or instead are some breastplates red, other breastplates smoky blue, and still other breastplates yellow? John doesn't give us that much information. But what he is explicit about now, look at this, is that the colors of the breastplates worn by these writers correspond perfectly to the destructive plagues that come out of the mouths of the horses they ride. Have you noticed that no further mention is made of these writers? Instead, John switches to the horses and now says the heads of the horses were like lion's heads. Stressing what? Consider the context, not their regal bearing, but their ferocity, their destructiveness, then it becomes even more specific. And fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths. You see the parallel here with the writers in the earlier part of the verse, out of the mouth of these horses comes fire corresponding to the fiery red breastplate, smoke corresponding to the smoky blue breastplate, and sulfur or brimstone corresponding to the out breastplate. What's going on here? This is a vision, friends. This is not a literal man on a literal horse. Rather the idea is this combination of horse and writer is a ferocious demonic being that spews forth forces that destroy. You say, well aren't this so strange? Why fire and smoke and sulfur or brimstone coming out of their mouths? Well let me ask you, my friends, what illusions are aroused in your minds when you consider the images of fire and smoke and brimstone? The first illusion aroused in my mind is the wrath of God's judgment that he poured out on Sodom and Gomorrah. Then the Lord reigned on Sodom and Gomorrah's sulfur, there it is, and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground. Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord, and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain and the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of the furnace. There it is, you see the very same three elements mentioned here, fire, smoke, sulfur, fire, smoke, brimstone. Elements associated with a manifestation of the wrath of God in judgment. Are there any other clues to suggest what this demonic devastation here might be? Or keep your finger hearing turned to chapter 20, Revelation chapter 20, verse 10, Revelation 20, 10. And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast in the false prophet were and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever interesting. Some of the same elements are mentioned here. Here associated with a manifestation of the wrath of God in his final judgment of the devil chapter 19, verse 20. And the beast was captured and with it the false prophet who had performed in its presence the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who had worshipped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. Once again some of the same elements are mentioned here again associated with a manifestation of the wrath of God in his final judgment in this case of the beast in the false prophet. Working our way back chapter 14, chapter 14, beginning in verse 9.
Then another angel, a third followed them crying with a loud voice. Those who worship the beast in its image and receive a mark on their foreheads or on their hands, they will also drink the wine of God's wrath, poured, unmixed into the cup of his anger. And they will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb and the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. Here it is again, each of the very same elements we see back in chapter 9. Again associated with a manifestation of the wrath of God in his final judgment here of people who have not sided with God and the Lamb. So then what's the significance of this language back here in chapter 9? Fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths? It is, beloved, a manifestation of the wrath of God here in pre-judgment justice before the great and final day, poured out on whom? We've seen it again and again. Your cue up to be chapter 8, verse 13, the inhabitants of the earth, humanity in rebellion against God, people who are not Christians. And so with his God using the demonic realm as his instruments of judgment, their primary objective, physical destruction that results in final condemnation. Look at verse 15, remember it was mentioned there. So the four angels were released who had been held ready for the hour, the day, the month, and the year to kill a third of humankind. Now verse 18, by these three plagues, a third of humankind was killed. What is this? It is a manifestation of the wrath of God in judgment using these demonic beings to inflict a death stroke against the physical bodies of unbelievers, thus making certain their spiritual death for all of eternity since those who physically die in an unbelieving state remain in that condition forever. It is a pre-judgment justice that secures the eternal condemnation of unbelievers at the final judgment. It is as it were, the first installment on their final condemnation. Now, unless there be any lingering confusion, we need to focus our attention a bit more sharply. The death about which we are speaking here is specifically induced, isn't it? It is the consequence of a particular expression of divine judgment. As such, it will not be experienced by all unbelievers, will it? No, the text says one-third of humankind. But how is this death brought about? It originates with God, as we've already seen, who in turn employs demons to execute this judgment. But what more particularly will be the specific cause of death? What will be written on the death certificate? The text doesn't say. Which leads us to believe that it is inclusive of all the various forms of death that may be experienced by the ungodly. Death by bullets and bombs and missiles and other accoutraments of warfare? Yes. Death by terrorist assaults and dry by shootings? Yes. Death by aides and alcoholism? Yes. Death by earthquakes and tornadoes? Yes. Death by car accidents and plane crashes? Yes. Death by malignant cancers and heart attacks and nursing homes? Yes. Now friends, we need to be very careful here, you see, to judge that such a thing has, in fact, happened in any specific situation. It is beyond the boundaries of what God has given us to do. Such pronouncements are not for us to make. They are a part of God's own secret purpose, not revealed to us. However, to say that such things have happened, do happen, are happening and will happen, is well within the scope of this passage. You can see it for yourself. By these three plagues, a third of humankind was killed by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths for the power of the horses is in their mouths. It is interesting that the mouth is often used as a source of judgment. In chapter 11, we will read of the two witnesses who consume their foes by the fire that pours forth from their mouths. In chapter 19, we will see the returning Christ with a sharp sword emerging from his mouth. Hear this judicial power to inflict death resides within the mouths of these demonic horses. Such is their primary objective to kill a third of humankind. I say their primary objective because of what John now says. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails. Their tails are like serpents having heads and with them they inflict harm. Now this is amazing. These horses are seen to have heads like lions and tails like serpents. Speaking most broadly, the idea is these demons affect a comprehensive devastation in front of them and behind them. But notice more specifically, while the power to kill is in their mouths, the power in their tails is to inflict harm. Do you remember the prior trumpet judgments? Because there the very same word used here translated harm is twice used in that context. Look back at verse 4 of chapter 9. These locusts from the abyss, these demonic beings. Verse 4, they were told not to harm same word. The grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree but only in other words to harm those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torture them for five months but not to kill them. In other words, a distinction is being made between killing and harming. Follow what I'm saying? Verse 10. They have tails like scorpions with stingers and in their tails is the power to harm people for five months. In other words beloved, the harm they were to inflict was something less than death. And here in verse 19 we have the very same language. From their mouths they affect death from their tails they inflict harm. What is the nature of the harm they inflict? Well, we get a clue from the imagery associated with their tails. These tails are like serpents. This is something much different than their heads, isn't it? We were told earlier that the heads of these horses were like lions heads. Lions devour. They kill. Here the tails of these horses are something different. They are like the heads of serpents. And what is the defining characteristic of the serpent in the Bible? The serpent deceives. In fact in the revelation itself this very thing is repeatedly reinforced. In chapter 12 John writes, the great dragon was thrown down that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. Then again in chapter 20, then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit locked and sealed it over him. Why? So that he would deceive the nations no more? Lions devour. Serpents deceive. You say, well, if it is true. But one third of humanity is to be killed by the plagues that come out of the lion like mouths of these horses. Who then are the unique targets of the harm inflicted by the tales of these horses likened to serpents that deceive the rest of humankind? Who were not killed by these plagues, the plagues that are specifically said to emerge out of the mouth of these horses? They did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood which cannot see or hear or walk. Now my friends, if you've been following the flow of the argument here, you would think that such prior judgment mentioned when awakened these people, the rest of humankind out of their unbelief, that they would immediately forsake their idolatry and the specific practices associated with it. But it doesn't happen. To the contrary, they stubbornly persist in their refusal to give God their allegiance, which at the end of the day is precisely what idolatry is, any substitution of what is created or the creator. But why? Why don't they repent? Because they too have been made objects of judgment. A different kind of judgment, but a judgment nonetheless. Those referred to here as the rest of humankind. We're not killed by the mouth of the lion, but spiritually unesthetized by the deception of the serpent. And this you see is the answer to our third and final question. How do the survivors respond to this lethal judgment? They respond in persistent rejection of God. More in keeping with the text at hand, they continue in their devotion to idolatry their worship of a thing created instead of the creator. Now, beloved, this is an amazing thing. In the Bible, idols are viewed from two different vantage points, both of which convene right here in one verse. On the one hand, idols have no real existence. Do they? Paul teaches us this in 1 Corinthians chapter 8. Idols have no life of their own. Idols are lifeless things. And John gets it that idea right here when he says that they are the work of human hands. They're the objects of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood. They cannot see. They cannot hear. They cannot walk. On the other hand, it is also true that the Bible likens idolatry to the worship of demons. For example, God says of Israel's idolatry, they sacrificed to demons, not God. Paul says to the Corinthians, I imply that what pagan sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons. So while idols have no existence in and of themselves, demons stand behind idols and use them to destroy those who worship them. And you see, beloved, this is the very connection that John is making for us right here. These people, the rest of humankind not killed by these plagues, will not forsake the lifeless work of their hands, rather they will continue to worship demons. Watch now. All together unaware that demons are the ones who afflicted them with a deceiving anesthetic that keeps them spiritually numb to the only thing that can cure them. The true God in His gospel. The Psalmist says of the idols, they have mouths but they do not speak. They have eyes but they do not see. They have ears but they do not hear and there was no breath in their mouths. Those who make them and all who trust them shall become like them. And how will that happen? We see it right here. As an expression of the judgment of God on idolaters, unbelievers, the inhabitants of the earth, the rest of humankind not killed with the aforementioned plagues are afflicted with harm from these demonic serpents. To what end? That these same people continue to worship the very forces that are bringing about their destruction. It is a judgment beloved filled with bitter irony. It is as though God says you want idols? You got idols. And now they find themselves wanting their idols more than ever. And all the activities distinctly associated with their idolatries, verse 21, and they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their fornication or their thefts. Their idolatry expressed itself in murder. How so? We have already seen it in the revelation. But let us let the book interpret itself. Their idolatry of Rome's power resulted in their participation of the murder of Christians. Their idolatry expressed itself in sorceries. How so? Their idolatry of social acceptance resulted in their use of drugs and potions and enchantments associated with the worship of the esteemed community. Their idolatry expressed itself in fornication. How so? We observed it in chapter 2. Their idolatry of job security resulted in the participation of religious prostitution associated with the various idols of the trade guilds. Their idolatry expressed itself in thefts. How so? Their idolatry of affluence resulted in their eagerness to exploit Christians economically. Now dear friends, please do not think that this has no bearing on our own day and time. The contextualization of these expressions of idolatry does not invalidate them for people in the 21st century. The idolatry of power is still a very real idolatry. And so is the idolatry of social acceptance and so is the idolatry of job security and so is the idolatry of economic affluence. These things are far more compelling idols than any statue a person might chisel out of a piece of rock in his own backyard. What's the point? The point is this. The people of this world then and now who forever refuse to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ because of devotion to their idolatries do so because they have already met with the judgment of God. The effects of this sixth trumpet judgment are then plainly evident and beloved they are bleaker than anything we have seen thus far. One third of the inhabitants of the earth physically devoured by the lion in judicial death. The remaining two thirds of the inhabitants of the earth spiritually deceived by the serpent so that they never will repent. Then do not be misled dear friends. You cannot afford to read the revelation wrongly. This judgment is not a phenomenon reserved for a time in the far off future. It is a reality that was occurring then and that is occurring right now. Which is why if you are not a Christian you must not delay in responding to the opportunity God has set before you. God's command to you is clear. It is not properly speaking an invitation. It is a summon that has been issued to you from your creator. Repent and believe the gospel. Embrace Jesus Christ for the gift of forgiveness and salvation. Stake your eternal well-being upon the death, burial and the resurrection from the dead of this man Jesus Christ. As Christians we who have been delivered from this experience of judgment rejoice with great delight, with great enthusiasm. This is not our fear. Part of the reason why this is here is so that we understand as Christians God will be vindicated and as enemies will be destroyed. For those of you however who are not Christians you must understand that there is no other way to evade the judgment of God. Jesus Christ Himself says it like this. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever disobeys the Son that is disobeying by refusing to believe will not see life but must endure God's wrath. The message of the gospel is so simple, flee God's wrath by embracing God's Son and you must do so now. Our Father and our God your words speak so clearly to us. We wonder why we struggle with it so. We get our grubby little hands on it and we can distort it, make it confusing but Father these passages really are clear once we allow them to speak as you intended them to speak. We who are Christians this morning are reminded of who you are, reminded of your character. We have been taught to think more rightly about who you are. We often think of you as a teddy bear as a grandfather and to be sure oh God your love and your long suffering are infinite and for that we praise you but that is not all that you are. You are a righteous and holy and just God a God who will not be overcome by your enemies but who will overcome your enemies. We are thankful, O Lord, the revelation in some sense places us into control tower. It helps us to make sense of all that goes on in this world. It makes us look for your hand and Father we praise you for your purpose that will not be defeated, both the salvation of people and the condemnation of your enemies. O Lord and God I pray for those who are here this morning who do not know you that they would not delay another moment that they would not delay another day that they would hear the voice of God even now speaking to them and compelling them to respond to turn from their sin and to embrace Jesus Christ as Savior. Oh to be sure Lord there may be many things that they do not fully comprehend many things they do not fully understand about your plan and your purpose in this world, none of us understand it all. But what they can understand and what they must respond to is that which is so abundantly clear that in the midst of your judgment and your wrath you have provided a deliverer, a Savior. And we pray, O Lord, and God that your Spirit today would invade the hearts of such people, the hearts of such boys and girls and adults and compel them right where they are to seek this Savior and to have Him, to bow their need to Him, to follow Him. O Father we pray, grant that people would become Christians today. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ and we ask it Father for your great glory in this world. We love you and adore you. In the name of Christ we do pray. Amen.