Revelation 9:13-10:11 (Christ Over All)

Introduction

My introduction is going to be very brief today, because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover, and some of it is going to be quite difficult (at least for some of us). We are continuing our study through Revelation today, and we are picking up with the sixth of the seven trumpets.

During our last time together in Revelation, we walked through the first five trumpets, which were the successive announcements of God’s judgment on the world… both present and to come.

There will be a bit more of the same here today, but I trust that we will see that this bittersweet message will help us better understand the unfolding mystery of God’s plan to save repenting sinners.

Scripture Reading

Revelation 9:13–10:11 (ESV)

“9:13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”

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. 16 The number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard their number.

17 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. 18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths. 19 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.

20 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, 21 nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

10:1 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. 2 He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, 3 and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded.

4 And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”

5 And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven 6 and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, 7 but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.

8 Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” 9 So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll.

And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.”

10 And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.

11 And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”"

Main Idea:

God’s judgment, including demonic affliction and unbelief, is part of the unfolding mystery of His plan to save and sanctify repenting sinners for His glory.

Sermon

1. Judgment of Affliction (9:13-19)

This sixth trumpet announces both a continuation and an intensification of the afflictions upon the earth-dwellers.

We are reminded that God distinguishes between His people and those who dwell on the earth, since this judgment is coming from “the golden altar before God” (Rev. 9:13) – Remember the saints who have died praying for God to avenge them? – and we see that God distinguishes since there is a reference to the “four angels” who were told “Do not harmthe earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads” (Rev. 7:3).

But (both before and in our passage this morning) God’s judgment against the world of unbelieving sinners is unleashed.

Some Christians view this as an intensifying of God’s judgment as we get closer to the last day, when Christ returns. That may be… I’m inclined to think so… But as I’ve been arguing throughout our time in Revelation, these judgments are not unique to some future time from the perspective of the first century. God’s judgment (including both natural disasters and demonic afflictions) is not only to be experienced a brief time before Christ’s return. These have been a reality since Genesis 3, and Christ Himself (the risen and glorified and reigning Christ) has been overseeing the distribution of God’s judgment since His ascension to glory.

1. The first 5 trumpets announced God’s judgment (Rev. 8:2-9:12)

a. We highlighted (a couple of Sundays ago) the backdrop and echo of the Exodus plagues (Exodus 7-10) and Jericho’s destruction (Joshua 6).

2. The fifth trumpet specifically introduced demonic affliction (Rev. 9:1-12)

a. This was the “first woe” announced by the heavenly messenger, who cried “woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth” (Rev. 8:13, 9:12).

b. Satan (i.e., “Abaddon” or “Apollyon” [Rev. 9:11]) is the “king” of the grotesque hoard, which “torments” those “people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads” (Rev. 9:4-5).

c. But their power is limited by time(“five months” [Rev. 9:5, 10]) and by intensity(they are “not to kill” [Rev. 9:5]).

3. The sixth trumpet is a continuationand intensification of the demonic affliction.

a. We were not given a number for the demonic “locusts” (Rev. 9:1-12), but here we are told that “number of mounted troops” is “twice ten thousand times ten thousand” (Rev. 9:16).

i. “ten thousand times ten thousand” is a real mathematical number, but the Bible uses this phrase to indicate a great innumerable amount (Ps. 68:17; Ps. 144:13; Dan. 7:10).

ii. The doubling of it here is meant to tell us that the number is greater than any that can be counted.

b. So too, this hoard of “mounted troops” (unlike the “locusts”) is set loose to “kill a third of mankind” (Rev. 9:16).

i. Again, the description John gives us is supernatural.

1. These are warriors with “breastplates” of “fire” and “sapphire” and “sulfur” (v17).

2. Their horses have “lions’ heads” and “fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths” (v17).

3. They bring “plagues” upon the earth-dwellers, and they “kill” and “wound” a “third of mankind” (v18-19).

4. Thus, the sixth trumpet announces God’s judgment in the form of intensified demonic affliction.

a. Brothers and sisters, we must remember that we live in a world that includes both natural and supernaturalrealities.

i. There are natural disasters, natural ailments, naturalcauses and effects to our decisions and actions.

1. We call them “natural” because they are according to our natural or common or usualexperiences.

ii. But there are also supernatural actors (angels and demons, and God Himself) and supernatural purposes (God’s designs and intentions, and also demonic efforts).

iii. We must remember that these supernatural actors are constantly at work to carry out their purposes even in what appear to be naturalexperiences in our lives and the lives of those around us.

iv. And, ultimately, we see here that God is sovereign over all of it.

a. There is no yin and yang.

b. There is no such thing as opposite equals here.

1. God is the one from whom these judgments come.

2. God’s plans and purposes are governing even the most wicked and evil intentions of demonic activity in the world.

3. This can be troubling for some, if we think too little of God’s sovereignty or of God’s power or of God’s transcendence above all that He has created.

4. But for Christians (for those who believe and trust the God of the Bible as He has revealed Himself), the reminder that God is sovereign over all things (both the good and the bad) is a great comfort and a source of unflappable stability.

God’s judgment, including demonic affliction, is part of the unfolding mystery of His plan to save and sanctify repenting sinners for His glory.

And this is also true of God’s judgment revealed in unbelief.

2. Judgment of Unbelief (9:20-21)

We see here in these two verses a terrible and heartbreaking reality. God’s grace is something we should never presume to be owedto anyone. But when we see God deliver justice and not grace (by His own free decision) it can expose the fact that many of us actually do presumethat God owes grace to everyone.

We’re going to face some hard truths here, so let’s buckle up and consider together what the Bible actually says about God, about unbelieving sinners, and about why we see such hard-hearted unbelief in the world.

1. God’s judgments (plagues on the earth and even demonic affliction) do not result in repentance and faith.

a. Rev. 9:20-21 – “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, do 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.”

2. This too is a feature of God’s judgment upon unbelieving sinners… and we can see examples all over the Bible.

a. The kings and populations of the Canaanites

i. When God led Israel into the Promised Land, with Joshua as their commander, “There was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel… They took them all in battle. For it was the LORD’s doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the LORD commanded” (Joshua 11:19-20).

b. The people of Israel

i. When the prophet Isaiah saw the rebellion of Israel, he cried out to the Lord, “O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not” (Isaiah 63:17).

The Bible never blames God for the unbelief or rebellion of sinners. No, sinners deserve the blame for their own hard hearts and wicked deeds.

But neither does the Bible shy away from the fact that God is sovereign (He’s in charge; He’s the ultimate master and ruler) over everything that happens in His created universe (including true faith and idolatry, belief and rebellion). Even the free choices of men are under the sovereign rule and authority of God. This is as it mustbe. This is what it means for God to be sovereign.

The Bible teaches us to view God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility not as enemies that need to be reconciled, but as two compatiblerealities. We may have a hard time understanding just how these two affirmations fit together (God is completely sovereign, and man is completely responsiblefor his choices), but the Bible doesn’t ever seem to have a hard time saying both of these things at the same time… and even in the same passage.

You might take some time this afternoon to read Isaiah 10 and consider how God sovereignly uses the king of Assyria to bring judgment upon the sinful people of Israel… and then turn right around in judgment upon Assyria for attacking Israel in such an arrogant and haughty way.

But the quintessential example in the Bible of God’s sovereignty side-by-side with man’s responsibility is in the Exodus story and the hard-hearted Pharaoh.

c. Pharaoh in Egypt

i. God told Moses before He sent him back to Egypt, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracle that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go” (Ex. 4:21).

ii. And again, “You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you” (Ex. 7:2-4).

iii. And, of course, all unfolded just as God had said.

1. When Moses told Pharaoh that the Lord God Almighty demanded that he let the people go, “Pharaoh’s heart [was] hardened; he [refused] to let the people go” (Ex. 7:14).

2. When Moses performed signs of God’s power, “Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said” (Ex. 7:22, 8:19).

3. When the plagues came, “Pharaoh hardened his heart” again and again, such that he did not listen nor let the people go (Ex. 8:32, 9:7, 9:12, 9:35).

4. Indeed, we are told that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart for the very purpose that God would make Egypt and Israel and everyone else know who He is and what He is like.

a. God said repeatedly, “I have hardened his heart [i.e., Pharaoh’s heart] and the heart of his servants [i.e., the Egyptians], that I may show these signs of mine among them” (Ex. 10:1, 14:4, 14:17).

3. The height of God’s judgment against sinners is “giving them up” to unbelief.

a. Romans 1 provides us with a summary of the natural condition (i.e., the spiritual diagnosis) of fallen (i.e., unregenerate) humanity.

i. Romans 1:18-32 says, “18 the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse… 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts… 26 God gave them upto dishonorable passions… 28 God gave them up to a debased [or useless or deviant] mind…”

Friends, apart from God’s miraculous work of changing our hearts (giving us eyes to see and ears to hear and affectionsfor the God we naturally hate), God’s judgment against sinners is displayed in giving us up to our own blindness and deafness and disordered affections.

No one is forced to disobey God. No one is forced to rejectGod’s good authority. No one is forced to disbelieve the gospel, which teaches us that God has saved and will save some sinners(through the person and work of Christ) and that God has condemned and willcondemn other sinners who remain in their sin.

But the height of God’s judgment (in the unfolding mystery of His plan to save repenting sinners for His glory) is to leave some unbelievers in their unbelief.

3. Mystery Fulfilled (10:1-7)

If you are tracking with me so far, some of us might be tempted to think, “Well, what’s the point then?” or “If unbeliefor the absence of repentance is God’s judgment against sinners, then why should I pray or tell others about Jesus or hope for anyone’s conversion?”

Well, I might try to answer these questions by drawing from many passages in the Bible.

· Once again, the Bible is full of affirmations that God is completely sovereign over all things, and this includes His sovereignty over spiritual blindness or sight, spiritual understanding or ignorance, and spiritual life or death.

· And the Bible is also full of affirmations that God holds the guilty responsible, and that He urges His people to trust in His goodness and power, to tell others about His grace, and to rejoice at the conversion of sinners.

I might also answer these questions by turning the logical tables. It seems to me that prayer and evangelism and hope are futile if God is NOT sovereign.

· Only sovereign God (one who rules over every molecule of the universe) can be trusted to answer prayer.

· Only a sovereign God (one who by His own gracious plan poured out His wrath for sinners upon Jesus Christ)… only this kind of God can command sinners everywhere to repent and believe Him.

· And only a sovereign God (one that supernaturally changes sinners’ hearts) can give us hope that our loved ones (as hard-hearted as they seem right now) may be converted and come to love the God they presently hate.

But let’s stay in our text this morning, and let’s see how Revelation 10 points us to a right perspective of God’s sovereignty in the unfolding mystery of His judgment for sinners and His salvation for saints.

The first answer is found in ch. 10, verses 1-7… and it’s an apocalyptic vision of the risen Christ who reigns over all.

1. John “saw” a “mighty angel” (v1), but he describes Him as the glorious Christ.

a. This description of the “mighty angel” (it seems to me) is a contrast to the “star fallen from heaven” at the beginning of Revelation 9.

i. The “star” fell (Rev. 9:1), but this divine messenger “came down” or “descended” (Rev. 10:1).

ii. The “star” is labeled as “king” or “ruler” of the demonic hoard loosed from the abyss (Rev. 9:11), but this “mighty angel” is described as crowned with a “rainbow,” His face shining like the “sun,” and “wrapped” in a “cloud,” which is representative of God’s presence and God’s judgment (Rev. 10:1).

b. This “mighty angel” holds the “scroll” in “his hand,” and it is “open” (Rev. 10:2)… which seems to me to point the reader back toward ch. 5, where Jesus Christ (both the Lamb who was slain and the Lion who reigns) is the only one worthy to open the scroll.

c. Also, the description of the “cloud,” the “rainbow,” and the fiery blaze that surrounds is very much like that first vision John got of the risen and reigning Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation 1.

2. But this vision of the “mighty angel” (which I take to be Christ Himself) is particularly interesting at this point in the unfolding mystery of God’s plan to bring all things toward His purposeful ends.

a. The trumpets have been emphasizing God’s judgment on mankind, and this sixth trumpet has just announced that God’s judgment will not lead to mass repentance… The hardness of man’s heart is itself a part of God’s judgment on the world.

b. What, then, is this vision teaching or reminding Christians as they read of this terrible reality of God’s judgment in the world?!

i. It is teaching and reminding (Christians of every generation) that all of this is exactly according to God’s plan and Christ’s rule.

3. God’s plan and Christ’s rule

a. Christ rules the “sea” and the “land” (Rev. 10:2); He has one foot on each, and He “roars” like a “lion” over all of it (v3).

b. Christ is the one with the authority to announce the fulfillment of God’s “mystery” (Rev. 10:7); He alone is able to “swear by him who lives forever and ever” that the “delay” would “be no more” (v6).

c. And all is unfolding “just as [God] announced to his servants the prophets” (Rev. 10:7).

i. Consider:

1. It was the “earth” and the things on it (Rev. 8:7) that were announced as suffering God’s judgment in the first trumpet.

2. The second trumpet spoke of the “sea” and the “living creatures” in it as suffering God’s judgment (Rev. 8:8-9).

3. The third trumpet called forth God’s judgment by way of a “star” that brought “bitterness” to the world (Rev. 8:10-11).

4. The fourth trumpet announced God’s judgment of “darkness” (Rev. 8:12).

ii. But…

1. The divine and mighty one in Revelation 10 sets His foot upon the earth/land and claims it for His own (v2).

2. He stands upon the sea, and roars that it is His (v2-3).

3. He raises His right hand to heaven and speaks with the power and authority of the one who “created heaven and what is in it” (Rev. 10:6).

4. And He has no need of light from the darkened sun; His own face blazes with light enough for all (Rev. 10:1).

Brothers and sisters, the point of all this (especially noting the question of God’s sovereignty over both the good and the bad) is to say that… as devastating as these trumpets are (and they truly are)… and as horrible as God’s judgments are upon the earth-dwellers (they certainly are horrible)… all of this is exactly as God has planned it from the beginning (even announcing it by His prophets)… and Christ Himself is the one standing and reigning over all of it.

Now, you may be thinking, “Marc, that is no real answer to my question! I wanted to know how it all works… God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.”

Well, it seems to me that Revelation 10 is very much like the answer that Job heard from God when God finally spoke in answer to Job’s similar question. God told Job that He is the one in charge, not Job. God said that His wisdom and power and purpose is beyond Job’s comprehension.

And this is how the Bible speaks of such things for all of us! Even if God took the time to explain how He sovereignly reigns over good and evil, and how God remains untainted by the evil actions of men and demons, and how God works to display His glory both in the salvation of sinners and the judgment of others, why would any of us presume to think that we would understand it?

It is a comfort for us to know that He does! We can face the hardness of God’s judgment (even against those we love), because we know that it is not haphazard or arbitrary or purposeless. Nor is it a case of evil winning. It is not as though God tries His best, but the world of rebellious sinners thwarts His plans.

No! The description we get here is that the mystery of God’s plan to save and sanctify repenting sinners for His own glory travels right along the path of judgment (including demonic affliction and unbelief). The mystery of God’s gospel includes both the sweetness of salvation and the bitterness of judgment… and that’s where we will conclude our passage for today.

4. A Bittersweet Message (10:8-11)

Some of you might notice that I haven’t said anything about the “seven thunders” that John heard but didn’t write down (Rev. 10:2-4). Frankly, I’m not sure what that represents. And it does not surprise me to come across some stuff in Revelation that I can only speculate about.

Some people make it a priority to speculate in Revelation, but that doesn’t do anyone any good. So, let’s focus on the stuff we can know for sure.

Remember that I said there are two answers here in our passage to the question about God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility? “What’s the point?” or “If unbelief or the absence of repentance is God’s judgment against sinners, then why should I prayor tell others about Jesus or hope for anyone’s conversion?”

The first answer is what we’ve already highlighted; it is that Christ reigns over all. I believe that God does not give us an explanation about how it works, but He does urge us to trust that He is wiser and better and more powerful than we can possibly imagine. Christ is in charge, and He is bringing about the fulfillment of God’s plan to save repenting sinners.

The second answer is here at the end of our text today (especially in light of what we will read around the middle of chapter 11). The message John was to continue preaching, and the message Christians of every age continue to announce is one that is both bitter and sweet… and it is the preaching and teaching and sharing of this bittersweet message (and the personal faithfulness and divine preservation of those who believe it) that actually does result in some of those who are now opposed to God turning to give Him glory (Rev. 11:13).

Again, we are told of the “scroll” in the hand of the one who reigns over “sea” and “land” (Rev. 10:8), and John was told to “take” it and “eat” it (v9). This is a poetic way of John representing the right Christian response to the message of the seven trumpets.

The unfurling of the scroll (in the breaking of the seven seals) has been expanded (now in the trumpets) to include the new information about God’s judgment. In fact, the seals and the trumpets have almost entirely been about judgment. This is a bitter taste in the “stomach” of those who would receive such a message. They heard that many of those who dwell on the earth would face God in judgment (and not blessing). Nevertheless, they were to receive, to hear, to ingest this message… and there was and is a sweetness to it.

The fact that God will judge sinners and punish sin is good news. Sin and sinners will not run loose forever, and all that has been said and done in hostility against Christ and His people in the world will not go unpunished. The prayers for vindication we read about in Revelation 6:9-11 will be answered in full.

But John was also told here (at the very end of ch. 10), “You must again prophesyabout many peoples and nations and languages and kings” (v11). This is certainly another commissioning statement that is specific to John (the author of this book). In light of what we’ve read today, it seems that John (like Ezekiel before him) was being commissioned here to “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD’” (Ezekiel 37:4).

Some of you may know what I’m talking about here. Ezekiel was an OT prophet who was commissioned by God to speak to the people of Judah who were already being overcome and who would ultimately be routed in 586 BC. Ezekiel was himself an exiled prophet, living in Babylon under the rule of a pagan king.

And God miraculously brought Ezekiel (in a vision) to the “middle of a valley” that was “full of bones” (Ezekiel 37:1). Ezekiel said that there were “many” and they were “very dry” (v2). But God spoke and said, “Son of man, can these bones live?” (v3). And Ezekiel answered the only right way anyone could. He said, “O Lord God, you know” (v3).

Then God told Ezekiel to “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD” (v4-6).

So, Ezekiel did as the Lord commanded. And then he “looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin covered them… and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army” (v8-10).

From Ezekiel’s perspective, there was absolutely no reason to believe that those dry bones would ever breath life again. But God demonstrated His power by raising up an army from a valley of dry bones.

So too, John was living as a Christian exile in a world ruled by pagan men, afflicted by demonic torments, and completely hardened in their unbelief. Yet, he was commissioned to speak the word of the Lord, and the implication is here that this is what would bring about repentance and faith… at least for some who heard him.

Brothers and sisters, this commission was specifically for John. But as we talked about just last Sunday, all Christians are to live as faithful witnesses for Christ in the world. And, like John and Ezekiel, we live as exiles in the world with an impossible task. We are to fear God, to expect His judgment upon this world and the people in it, and to live as Christ’s faithful witnesses until He comes.

We know that many do and will suffer under God’s judgment, but we also know that those who repent and believe will be blessed beyond measure. This is the unfolding of God’s mystery… His plan to save and sanctify repenting sinners for His own glory… and we not only get to be recipients of this message, but we also get to be carriers of it to those around us who just may hear it and believe.

May God help us to believe this bittersweet message, and may He help us to faithfully bear witness of it (out of love and courage)… until Christ comes.