During a tourist bus excursion to a volcanic canyon in Iceland a woman was reported missing when she apparently failed to return to the bus. The bus driver waited an hour and then notifyed the Icelandic police and filed a missing person’s report. Soon search and rescue teams arrived and even a helicopter was called in to search. 50 people from the area also participated in the search in vehicles and by foot.
The search was called off after 12 hours of searching when the authorities discovered that the missing woman wasn’t really missing. She was actually on the bus and she had even been a part of the search party. Apparently before reentering the bus after the stop to tour the canyon, she changed her clothes and “freshened up.” The other passengers didn’t recognize her. She eventually discovered the description as herself but until that moment “she had no idea that she was the lost person.” (“Lost Woman Looks for Herself in Iceland’s Highlands,” Iceland Review, 8-27-13; www.Preaching Today.com)
This story describes a lot of people. They have no idea that they’re lost and in need of Jesus Christ the Savior.
Perhaps, that describes someone listening now. You’re in the church or on the bus, so to speak, and you do good things like joining the search party. But you don’t know that you are the one that needs to be rescued. You don’t know that you are the one who needs to repent and believe the Gospel.
Why is repentance so important? Because repentance is commanded by God.
Acts 17:24-31 “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
So what happens to people like that? What happens to people who don’t realize their need to submit to the creator and turn to Christ to save them? That is what Revelation 9:13-21 reveals.
Revelation 9:13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God. (ESV)
This is the altar of incense, from which the prayers of believers ascend before God that we read about in Revelation 8:1-5. After the blowing of the sixth trumpet John hears a voice. The identity of the voice is not stated, but its origin from the heavenly altar indicates that the voice, is actually that of God and it speaks with Supreme divine authority.
Revelation 9:14 [This voice] saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, ‘Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.’”
According to this verse, four angels are bound there waiting for their release. No doubt, these are fallen angels or four of Satan’s demons, because God’s good angels never appear to be bound in the Scriptures.
Back in the earlier passages of chapter 9, the fifth trumpet unleashed demonic forces of destruction. Now the sixth trumpet announces the release of four demons that will lead an army of demonic beings into killing a third of men. However many people will still survive this judgment!
You and I know Jesus could authorize all life to cease at any moment but, He gives people every chance for change.
Notice that these demons were prepared for such a time as this.
Revelation 9:15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released to kill a third of mankind. (ESV)
Already in the first part of chapter 9, we’ve seen a quarter of mankind killed. Now, a third of those who are left are going to be killed when these four demons are released from the Euphrates River. That’s more than half of the world’s population terminated in two major events.
YET THERE ARE MORE OF SATAN’S DEMONS AND PEOPLE WILL DIE!
Revelation 9:16 The number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard their number. (ESV)
That’s 200 million! In other words, these four demons will bring an army of 200 million, and 1/3rd of the world’s population will be wiped off the face of this earth. Really there will be nowhere for people to hide on earth. Every person left alive will certainly see destruction and death
Next the apostle John describes this army of demons.
Revelation 9:17-19 And this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them: they wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur, and the heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound. (ESV)
These are strange creatures, they are fire-breathing demons.
There are people that read these descriptions and details and say it is symbology or not literal. The size of the invading army is almost unfathomable—twice ten thousand times ten thousand or two hundred million (9:16). As if the sheer number of the invaders were not terrifying enough, the physical appearance of this army is shocking.
But the riders and the horses in the text is vivid. We thought that the locust army of the previous trumpet blast was a group of hideous demons. These demons have heads like lions’ heads, and their tails are like serpents. Both their heads and tails are dangerous weapons. From their mouths issue fire, smoke, and sulfur, all of which are symbols of punishment, destruction, and terror.
If we would take time to look into the details of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, there is similar imagery and importantly suggests that this is not just symbology.
Notice that there are repeated terms for clarity, detailed numbers, and colors. These details should lead to a conclusion that this is not figurative language. This is literal, it describes the seriousness of sin and its consequences.
This army may be overwhelming, but its power is limited by God. It is allowed to kill only a third of humankind, revealing both that this is not yet the final act of God’s judgment and that God’s mercy is yet extended to people during this destructive force.
YET PEOPLE WILL REFUSE TO REPENT.
They will refuse to turn from their sin, and they will refuse to turn to Christ, Who alone can save them.
Revelation 9:20-21 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. (ESV)
Usually when a person is faced with certain death, they turn to God, but not here at this point in the Tribulation. They continue on in their sin and refuse to be rescued from it.
We read and are told of these accounts because there is coming a day when people who are content to remain in their sin, whose hearts will be so hard, they will refuse to cry out for help, and who continue to refuse the Lord, will face God’s final judgment.
People are resistant to change. For example, Psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Grosz points to research that shows people don’t usually respond when a fire alarm goes off. Instead, of leaving the building immediately like they know they should, they stand around a few minutes and wait for more information. But even when that information comes, they still won’t make the right move – and sometimes that proves deadly
In1985, 56 people were killed when a fire broke out in the stands of a soccer match in England. Close examination of television footage later showed that fans did not react immediately. Instead, they continued to watch both the fire and the game, failing to move towards the exits.
According to Dr. Stephen Grosz’ research; when people do move, they tend to follow old habits. We don’t trust emergency exits and always try to exit a room through the same door we entered. (Stephen Grosz, The Examined Life, W.W Norton & Company, 2013, pp. 122-123; www.PreachingToday.com)
The point is: when the trials of judgment are upon people who are rebellious, they are less likely to change, not more likely. People are less likely to repent; and are less likely to turn from sin and take the escape God has provided through Jesus Christ, since they hardened their hearts.
Romans 1:18-25 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Much like Pharaoh in the Exodus account, the more a person resists the easier it becomes to continue to resist.
In verses 20-21 express that the people will be so alienated from Jesus Christ that no crisis, horror or judgment will move them to repentance.
Today, we wouldn’t be receiving from God this type of attention like we read in Revelation, because right now the way God is working in the world is through the Holy Spirit. He is convicting, redeeming and sanctifying people. Every person can sense the Spirit of Jesus Christ at work and have an opportunity to repent.
What can be said to us here and now about Revelation chapter 9? The time is now, for the longer you put off repenting that Christ is Lord, the harder it will be to do so later. The Bible says, “TODAY, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” – Hebrews 3:7,15.
A person might say I certainly don’t deserve what Jesus did! Listen to the apostle John, I think he felt the same in Revelation 1:5 & 6 “and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Revelation chapter 9 shows partly what people are saved from! Eternal torment is much worse! Today, every person can make sure that their sin is under the blood of Jesus Christ. Do not harden your heart.