2. What makes sin so terrible?
The Trumpets:
What makes sin so terrible?
Discuss –
Consequences
Broken fellowship/separation from God
Holding power
Romans 1:18-32

3. “This passage teaches us that God’s judgment is painful and terrifying and that only those whom God seals will be protected from His judgment. You can not keep the judgment of God from falling. You cannot protect yourself from it. You are not stronger than the scorpion sting of those locusts, and they are more scary to you than you are to them.”
James Hamilton Jr., Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches

4. 6th Trumpet Voice from the altar
Chapter 9:
6th Trumpet
Voice from the altar
Four angels from the Euphrates released
Prepared – hour, day, month, year
Purpose – kill a third of mankind
Unleashed Calvary
Voice from the Altar
Altar – golden before God – as in 8:3
Whose voice?
Prayers of Saints – problem = one singular voice
Voice of angel with censer most likely
Commands trumpet angel
Only trumpet angel to be involved in the action
Four Angels Released
Who are the angels?
Same as ones restraining in 7:1? Not likely, there four corners, here one location
Good or bad? Most likely demonic – “Bound” – Death angels?
The Great River Euphrates.
One of the rivers of the Garden of Eden
Eastern border of Israel
River crossed by invaders – Babylonians, Assyrians, Medes & Persians
Symbol of foreign invasion
Prepared
Specific time – one definite article for the list – specific time
Speaks to God’s sovereign plan
He has the time prepared
Not a reason to calculate a time…
Prepared – Perfect tense, passive voice – action with ongoing results, divine passive…waiting on God’s plan.
Purpose
Kill a third
Today – Billion (google) = Billion dead.
Catastrophic

5. 6th Trumpet Mounted Troops = 200,000,000. Horses are the weapon.
Chapter 9:
6th Trumpet
Mounted Troops = 200,000,000.
Horses are the weapon.
Lion’s head with fire, smoke, Sulphur.
Tails had power to wound
Mounted Troops
200 Million (10,000 x 10,000 x2)
Demonic Calvary – similar to Joel 1,2 – locusts plague then an army
China – 200 Million army?
In that context – Roman army 125K active army, another 100K in reserve…
This army dwarfs the largest of man’s power then.
This army is not about its number, but its effect
Horses
Mounted troops only had colored breastplates – colors of fire, smoke, Sulphur
Horses inflict the damage
NOT NORMAL – nor are they descriptions of tanks and such.
Lion’s Head
Fire, smoke, and Sulphur are the killing agents
Terrifying picture!
Tails
Power to wound as well
Like serpents – ties to demonic

6. Rest of Mankind Unrepentant Did not give up idols and false worship
Chapter 9:
Rest of Mankind
Unrepentant
Did not give up idols and false worship
Did not refrain from sinful acts
Unrepentant
“Did Not Repent” – Greek = not even or refused
Plagues – god’s of this world of no effect, God is most powerful
Things of the world will not save them
Demonic turn on them!
Did not give up idols
Absurdity of depravity
Power of idolatry – false hope

9. “Nowhere will you find a more accurate picture of sinful humanity pressed to the extreme. One would think that the terrors of God’s wrath would bring rebels to their knees. Not so. Past the point of no return, they respond to greater punishment with increased rebellion. Such is sinful nature untouched and unmoved by the mercies of God.”
Robert Mounce, The Book of Revelation
* Terrible Judgment – Call to repent!

10. “What keeps people from Heaven
“What keeps people from Heaven? The worship of gods that cannot save, gods that cannot protect, gods that cannot satisfy, gods that cannot even see, hear, or walk. What keeps people from Heaven? Their love of meanness to other people- murder, magical manipulation, immorality, theft. God’s commands do not deny us good things. God’s commands protect us from evil. God is not holding something good from us by telling us not to murder; he wants us to love other people, not kill them. God is not keeping power from us by forbidding sorcery; he wants us to trust him as God. God is not withholding pleasure from us by telling us not to commit adultery, not to be sexually immoral; he wants us to enjoy pure, undefiled sexual fulfillment within the context of the covenant union of one man and one woman joined as one flesh…”
* Terrible Judgment – Call to repent!

11. “…God is not relegating us to poverty by telling us not to steal; he wants us to have clear consciences, to be content with what he has given to us, and to know that he can and will meet all our needs. God is not withholding good from us; he is calling us to trust him.
There is no greater fulfillment than that of knowing God. There is not greater joy than the joy of obeying God.”
James M Hamilton Jr., Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches
* Terrible Judgment – Call to repent!

12. Sin’s shiny seduction never rewards like it sells!
Takeaway Thought.