So we continue our sermon series in the book of revelations as Paul told all of you that
it's stretching our limits as a congregation.
It is stretching my limits as a pastor.
And one of the most interesting things, and I mean absolutely I don't mean this to uplift
myself at all, the amount of you that have been in church for a long, long time, you
feel free to put whatever number in you want, you've never heard a sermon about the entirety
of the book of revelation.
Now a lot of you have said we've done the letters, you'll hear the last, I'm the alpha
and the omega, the beginning and the end, and again I'm not saying those are easy passages
to preach at all, but what is going on, everything that is going on in the book of revelation
is something that we need now.
We need these, the importance and the urgency that we're going to see especially in our
sermon today, we need that in our life.
We need that sense of urgency or we will become complacent in the faith as some of the churches
received in the beginning of the sermon series.
But we're going to be talking about the seven trumpets.
And trumpets are interesting because trumpets had more of a cultural context back in the
first century.
We don't use them a whole lot anymore for the reasons they did biblically or throughout
history, but trumpets meant something.
Trumpets served as instruments of proclaiming a king's voice to get everybody's attention,
that it was something used to specify whatever is coming next.
Do not miss.
And it was hard to miss.
It was there for invocations when people became kings and queens and princes.
It was used in war.
Trumpets were used in war.
We use those even in our history as America.
Trumpet, bugle, whatever.
Trumpets were used to end something.
Trumpets were used for war, were used for peace.
But as we see that what these trumpets are going to signify are significant events and
calling people to attention.
I don't know if you can hear that trumpet or if any of you, and I know some of you,
we've done that with your families, that if a veteran passes away and you have the trumpet
ceremony of taps, there is nothing more somber than hearing that as someone is laid final,
resting place, whether in a military cemetery or another one.
But we see that there are some various contexts, and then we're going to get to the trumpets
themselves.
The first context we'd see is the calling of worship.
That we would see this, we saw at Leviticus 25, Exodus 19, that trumpets summoned people
to worship and to recognize the presence of God.
Second context is they announced battles and judgments.
Trumpets were used to announce war.
We see this in the fall of Jericho in Joshua 6, where the sound of the trumpets combined
with the obedience of God's commands brought the walls tumbling to the ground, reminding
us of God's victory that is not dependent on human strength, but on his sovereign power.
And then a third context we see is signaling warnings and repentance.
In the prophetic books, trumpets warn the impending judgment and the call for repentance.
Joel 2, 1 commands, blow the trumpet in Zion.
Sound the alarm on my holy hill.
That all who live in the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming.
So contextually, trumpets would have meant something.
We've lost a little bit of that in our culture today.
We still see that when the president is inaugurated.
We still see that with air of importance, both politically, somewhat religiously, in
around the world.
But the significance of the trumpets in Revelation, they function very similar to the Old Testament
that we just talked about, but they're announcing something a little more brutal.
I'm just going to use that word.
They announce God's final judgment.
They announce God's final warning to the people of a coming, an imminent wrath, a final call
to repentance before more severe judgments follow.
The number 7 signifies a level of completeness.
We see that throughout scripture.
Seven signifies completeness, indicating that these trumpet judgments are kind of comprehensive
in nature, but they cover the fullness of God's decreed purposes.
The seven trumpets in Revelation are part of a series of three and seven.
We see that with the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls coming up and progressively
intensifies God's judgment, ultimately leading to the return of Christ and the establishment
of the kingdom.
So as we read Revelation, as we read Revelation 8.6, it's going to set us up now, the seven
angels who had seven trumpets prepared to blow them.
So now the seven angels, completeness, bringing the judgment.
We see them bringing the letters.
We see them being called holy over the last two weeks, and we see them bringing a lot
of negative things, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the great silence, all of this
kind of melodrama going on.
Now we bring two trumpets.
So what the trumpets are doing is they're bringing a context.
They're bringing a focus about what is to happen.
This is not a trumpet that is just blown in this sanctuary.
This is a trumpet that the entire world hears.
All parts of the world will hear these trumpets.
So we're going to go through the first four relatively quickly because John goes through
them relatively quickly.
But the first trumpet, Revelation 8.7.
The first angel blew his trumpet and there followed hail and fire mixed with blood, and
these were thrown upon the earth.
And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all
the green grass was burned up.
So one of the things we see here is we see that the creation is being burned up, that
God is calling the creation back to Himself.
We never think about this in a text of salvation or redemption.
We only look at this when there's natural disasters.
And the thing is we then blame God when those things, where is God in Hurricane Helene?
Where is God in Hurricane whatever the name?
Where is God in, we look at nature as a blame for what God is or isn't doing.
What we see in the book of Revelation, God is calling creation back to Himself.
That sin's curse has consequences in the natural world.
We only ever talk about our sin.
Adam and Eve go back to the garden, right?
Difficulty in childbearing, that for the man the ground was going to be cursed, that cultivating
anything was going to be hard, but the ground was cursed.
We like to gloss over that.
The destruction of vegetation signifies a loss of sustenance, a loss of beauty, highlighting
the fragility of creation under judgment.
We miss this a lot.
It's not just people who are judged in the end.
It is also creation itself.
Trumpet two.
Revelation eight, eight through nine, so we continue with Revelation.
The second angel blew his trumpet and something like a great mountain burning with fire was
thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood.
I believe that's it, yep.
The great mountain burning with fire is thrown into the sea, turning a third of the sea into
blood.
This event echoes the first Egyptian plague, Exodus seven, that results in the destruction
of a third of the sea life and the ships, symbolizing God's sovereignty over commerce
and trade.
I thought that was interesting.
Diving into this that the Lord is calling out, much like when you see the plagues in
Egypt, those are the ten highest gods that the Egyptians worshiped, the ultimate one
being Amun-Ra, the sun god, the god of life.
God says, I don't think so.
I am God overall, firstborn, done, dead, firstborn son.
We see the same over the idols in our life.
Our use of creation, gone.
The use of commerce and trade being judged.
One thing I would pull from this is woe to those who do sketchy business dealings.
Woe to those who do not walk out their faith in their work in the way that they do their
jobs.
That if commerce and trade, first century business, is going to be judged, what will that business
look like being judged whenever the Lord comes back in whatever year?
Very, very interesting.
In the Old Testament, the sea often represented chaos and evil, and God's control over it
symbolizes his power to subdue opposing forces.
God does a very god-like job throughout scripture of subduing the prideful and the arrogance.
Being low, those who are proud and have big heads.
Trumpet three.
The third angel blew his trumpet and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch,
and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.
The name of the star is Wormwood.
A third of the waters became Wormwood, and many people died from the water because it
had been made bitter.
Here we see a new character, a new person brought forth.
The great star Wormwood, say that five times fast, falls from heaven, making a third of
the rivers and springs bitter.
Wormwood refers to the bitterness and suffering.
We see this in Jeremiah 9, Lamentations 3, symbolizing the spiritual and physical contamination
of the water.
Water, a normal source of life, we see that throughout the scriptures, that water brings
life, becomes a source of death under the judgment, emphasizing its loss of divine blessing.
Hopefully one of the things we're seeing in a rabbit trail that will take two minutes,
everything that we find our earthly comforts in, Revelation is calling out, is judging,
and is turning on itself.
Maybe that's why your pastors have never preached through the entirety of the book of Revelation,
because even as pastors, we tend to find comfort in earthly things.
But one of the things that God is doing is he is turning that mentality on himself and
saying, church, I should be your only true thing.
I am deserved of all of your worship.
I am deserved of all of your love, all of your dependence, and your recognition of my
sovereignty should be what's leading your life.
Trumpet four.
The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the
moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and
a third of their day might be kept from shining, and likewise, a third of the night.
A third of the sun, the moon, and the stars, creating partial darkness over the earth.
Again, judgment resembles the ninth Egyptian plague, Exodus 10, signifying a deepening
of spiritual blindness and separation from God's light.
And throughout the scriptures, darkness is often associated with God's judgment and the
removal of his presence.
So eternally separated from God, the removal of God's presence, we have another word for
that.
Hell.
Not death.
Hell.
Doesn't that take on a little bit of a new meaning?
That part of the judgment of the world, part of the redemption of the world, is that God
was going to remove his presence.
This is consistent with the lampstands that are going to be blown out.
This is consistent with those churches who thought they were doing the right things in
and of themselves, are being eternally judged and unfortunately, eternally damned.
I think this trumpet packs a punch that we don't understand, because darkness, if we're
going to put the hell definition on it, the eternal separation from God, should be making
this judgment very real as we like to tiptoe our days in light and in dark.
We say we love God, but we do things that worship the dark.
And 1 John wrote us already saying, and we read it before Revelation, in 1 John, you
can't do that.
If you have a foot in the dark and a foot in the light, what doesn't know you?
The light.
The light doesn't know you.
To live that hypocritical life.
And the number of us just tensed to understand that maybe we in this account are being judged.
These first four trumpets show God's judgment, which impacts both nature and humanity, revealing
the effects of sin over all creation.
So what this shouldn't do is all of a sudden, for some of us, we may be going, but I'm not
as bad as that person, and that, oh, I know I'm not as bad as that person.
Have you seen what that person posted?
Friend, stop.
This is over the entire ball of wax.
This is the every day of creation sin has affected and is now being judged.
And this is a call for repentance.
God limits His judgment to a third, indicating His purpose is not complete destruction, but
repentance.
The restraint shown by God demonstrates His patience and desire for people to turn back
to Him before even more severe judgments are released.
But here's the thing.
I just said that and a bunch of you got offended.
So God's gonna scare me into believing in Him?
Maybe for some of you, that's how you came to know Jesus.
I remember very early on going through a hell house, which was a church version of a haunted
house, absolutely terrible idea.
I remember going through a room to their depiction of hell.
Looking back on it, the Chucky doll was in there.
And I go, I judged that.
That is the dumbest thing I have ever, not the dumbest, but one of them, that they're
trying to throw everything at you to scare you.
You might as well throw Michael Myers in there.
If you're me, you throw clowns in there.
You throw all of these things.
And then you go into a room and there is a preacher wanting you to preach the prayer
of salvation.
If that is not the bait and switch of church culture, I don't know what is.
Because what is happening there, you're being completely scared in your flesh to then receive
something completely eternal.
Now don't get me wrong.
I think a question to ask someone, if you die tomorrow, if you meet someone in a restaurant
for the first time, you sit down with them and say, if you die tomorrow, you're gonna
go to heaven or hell.
They're probably gonna run away.
They're probably gonna get scared.
But the urgency of that question is important.
Having the comfort and peace of salvation, of knowing that you are heaven bound is something
tangible we all need to wrestle with.
But for those that are mad that God might be just this bully, I think we're past that.
I think we're past any point in our relationship with God when we try to understand why God
moves the way He does.
When we try to figure out that we're trying to put God in like, okay, what kind of manipulation
are you gonna do with me?
Stop.
That's not a thing.
God doesn't manipulate.
This is the sovereign God doing sovereign things just as He said He was going to do.
God's not doing a mea culpa here.
God's not saying, oh, by the way, I changed my mind.
It has been forever, everlasting upon everlasting.
This is how it's going to go.
So how do we look at these first four?
When we experience natural or societal disasters, we should reflect on our own need for repentance
and to be quick to share the gospel with others, pointing them to God's mercy amidst His judgment.
We are not called to bring the third of the sun and stars and moon down.
None of us have that power, but we know who does and we know what He's already done.
He sent His son to die so you and I could have everlasting life.
He rose again to conquer death, but this is the end of the story.
It doesn't get better.
The fifth trumpet, Revelation 9, 1 through 6, and the fifth angel blew his trumpet and
I saw a star fall from heaven to earth and he was given a key to the shaft of the bottomless
pit.
He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke
of a great furnace and the sun and the air were darkened with smoke from the shaft.
And from the smoke came locusts on the earth and they were given power like the power of
scorpions on the earth.
They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but
only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not kill them.
Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.
And in those days, people will seek death and will not find it.
They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
What in the Disney version of Hercules is going on with this trumpet?
How many of you have ever been stung by a scorpion?
I was hoping there would be at least one.
I was hoping you got stung by a scorpion, but you can talk about how excruciating that
might be.
But I've never been, but I can tell from people that I know have, it hurts.
But understand, there's something way bigger going on than scorpions, things, and locusts.
The fifth trumpet introduces a star fallen from heaven, second character in this narrative.
A second star now is falling from heaven, symbolizing a demonic figure.
Nine out of 10 scholars agree this is Satan.
This is the fallen angel.
This is Lucifer given the key to the abyss, to Hades, to hell.
When the abyss is open, demonic locusts are released to torment those who do not have
God's seal.
Where do you find this?
We do a little jump back to chapter seven where the 144,000 is sealed.
We'll get more to that because that gets brought up in about three weeks because we're going
to do both of those together.
But God's seal, God's presence have been placed on people.
This judgment is both physical and spiritual as the locusts cause unbearable pain but cannot
kill their victims.
What does this torment reflect?
Because there's a lot of emphasis, John is putting a lot of emphasis on the pain and
the torment.
What does it reflect?
What did we just talk about?
Separation from God.
This is the same torment that spiritual darkness also brings us.
It reflects the anguish of being separated from God, pointing to deeper spiritual reality
of suffering without God's presence or and God's protection.
It is a warning to those who refuse God's seal and continue in rebellion.
Now here we're going to be starting some dialogues over the next couple of weeks that bring in
kind of an understanding of premillennial, amillennial, postmillennial, postmillennial,
sorry, understand that I'm not going to get so lost in that that we're going to not make
our way out of revelation.
There is a view that our Reformed church takes.
We're going to get there when we go but I want to give you all of them because what
you need to understand is that there is different interpretations that, and this is the gospel
according to Jim, those people that defined them that way needed it.
And I believe that there is a way to read Revelation that weaves through all of it to
get to the biggest question, do you have the seal of God on your life?
Do you have the seal of God on your life and are you willing to suffer because of that
seal?
Are you willing to go through whatever it looks like, whatever it's going to be like
for you in 2024 or whenever this is going to happen for you, do you understand that
your suffering is limited?
That your suffering will come to an end?
It should give our sickness, it should give the hard roads in life, it should give all
of this context that if we, just as we sang 20 minutes ago, it is well with our soul no
matter what comes, the same holds true in the book of Revelation.
Though the torment reflects the anguish being separated from God, that's for those who never
bought in.
That is for those who have never professed that faith.
Those are the ones who said my rebellious life is better, is sweeter, is more life giving
than anything God can give.
But friends, there's a reality coming and it's coming at a square in the face.
The demonic locusts remind us the judgment of God is not only physical but spiritual.
They symbolize torment and confusion having lived apart from God's truth.
Where does this point back to scripture?
Where can we stand on some comfort here because we need it?
Jesus often casts out demons and confronts spiritual forces, demonstrating his authority
over the demonic realm.
One of the things we have to understand, though it's easy to say, God wins in the end and
we go, oh thank God, God wins in the end, this is so great.
But friends, we're not there yet.
The end is not.
It might be tomorrow, I don't know, I don't have a calendar, neither do you, we don't
know the time nor the day.
But understand, as we work through it, God is still winning.
God has still won in your life, regardless of what we're going through.
But that brings about great suffering and guess what, first we get to the application.
So recognize today the reality of spiritual warfare and arm yourself with God's word and
with prayer.
When you see people trapped in spiritual confusion or torment, be quick to share the hope of
deliverance and freedom that Christ offers because there will be suffering and that's
trumpet six.
Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet and I heard a voice of the four horns of the golden
altar before God saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, release the four angels
who are bound at the great river Euphrates.
So the four angels who have been prepared for the hour, the day, the month and the year
were released to kill a third of mankind.
What do we do with this?
Well the six trumpets release, the four angels bound in the great river Euphrates, the unleashing
a demonic army that does end up killing a third of humanity.
This judgment intensifies and it involves a massive loss of life.
In some ways I could say this is God getting people's attention and unfortunately that
may hold true in your narrative or in the narrative of the world.
It's not until people lose that ultimate price or end up dying that we actually wake up to
whatever the reality is going on in our world, going on in our life, going on in who we are.
But this is God's word and so therefore we have to lean in.
Despite the severity of this judgment, the text reveals that the survivors did not repent.
The tragic statement highlights the hardness of the human heart and need for God's not
only transformative grace but true repentance in their life.
So when faced with this overwhelming judgment of all the stuff that has gone on prior to
this, many still refuse to repent.
This highlights not only the depravity but the stubbornness of our hearts.
True repentance requires the Holy Spirit's work to soften and lead people to Christ.
So how do we, what do we do with that?
How do we know if we are hard hearted or not?
My guess is some of us are.
That hard heartedness, one way you know this is going to sting, not as much as the scorpions
or the locusts.
One way you know that you have a hard heart is if there's someone in your life you haven't
forgiven.
I know.
I get it.
That's rough.
That is rough to hear.
I don't want to have a hard heart and have all these things.
I mean, then it's time to forgive.
But Jim, you don't know I've been hurt by this person.
This person took my essence, my innit, whatever.
I understand that you're hurt.
I may not have ever gone through it.
I get it.
But that binding that you have that's keeping forgiveness from that person, whether they
think they need it or not, that's not how forgiveness works.
It is for us to give.
It is for us to place.
It is for us to offer the forgiveness just as the Lord has forgiven you.
You must also forgive.
It is throughout scripture.
I just can't.
Well then how do you understand a text when Jesus says, some will call out Christ, Christ,
God, God, say I never knew you because you didn't forgive.
Because if we're not forgiving, if we're not a forgiving people, if we're not a forgiving
church, then in some weird way we are taking the stance up here that is only destined for
God himself.
And my friends, you know this, I know this, I am not it.
You are not it.
Even when faced with overwhelming judgment and suffering, many still refused to repent.
Where do we see this?
Pharaoh's hardened heart.
Despite repeated judgment, he refused to let the Israelites go until God's final intervention.
And maybe that's it.
I'm going to go off script.
We're going to finish with the number seven in a second.
Maybe that's it.
Maybe just maybe you're waiting for God to give that person theirs.
That little pound of flesh you're just going to keep right here in your pocket.
I will forgive them once the Almighty has smited them.
Friend don't play that game.
Because what that is, is you're waiting for vengeance.
Who does vengeance belong to?
Not me, not you, not even the church.
Vengeance is mine, declares the Lord.
The doctrine of total depravity recognizes that apart from God's grace, no one seeks
God or turns to him on their own.
The sixth trumpet, the judgment, demonstrates the necessity of God's intervention for genuine
repentance.
So where do we go with that?
Pray for God's grace to soften hearts and open eyes and start with you when sharing
the gospel, recognize that it is only by God's spirit that people will turn to him.
Be persistent in evangelism, knowing that God can use even the hardest circumstance
to bring people to himself.
How do we know?
We just went through it and we're not done.
Trumpet seven.
And the seventh angel blew his trumpet.
And there were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom
of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever.
And the 24 elders who sat on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped
God saying, they said something.
We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was for you have taken your
great power and begun to reign.
The nations raged, but your wrath came and the time for the dead to be judged and for
the rewarding of your servants, the prophets, the saints and those who fear your name, both
small and great for the destroying the destroyers of the earth.
Then God's temple and heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant was seen within his
temple.
There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, pearls of thunder, an earthquake and heavy
hail.
The seventh trumpet proclaims the establishment of Christ's kingdom and final triumph over
evil.
This trumpet signals the culmination of God's plan and the beginning of his eternal reign.
The response in heaven is worship and the declaration that the kingdom of the world
has become the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ or of the Lord and of his Christ and he shall
reign forever and ever.
The final trumpet announces the hopes that the believers that the church that you and
I have been waiting for, the coming of Christ's kingdom and the end of all suffering and all
sin.
It calls us to live in the light of God's ultimate victory and to persevere in faith
and hope.
But we're not there yet.
We haven't gone through this yet.
This is what we pray.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallow be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done as earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive those or we forgive
our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever and ever and all God's people said amen.
So what do we do with this?
More on that next week but live with a mindset focused on Christ's return.
When we are faced with trials remember the promise of his victory, of his reign.
Remember his hope with those around you who may be struggling or discouraged.