1. "The revolutionary nature of our country has left Americans with a deep ambivalence about authority. We think of authorities as abuses. We rarely distinguish between authority and authoritarian."

2. "Is there such a thing as too much suspicion of authority? A house full of children left without parents. A mob rioting. Sheep without a shepherd. It's a vacuum that will be filled. A lack of direction can have tragic consequences."

3. "The exodus that happened of the Israelites from Egypt was there primarily to foreshadow this real and true and final exodus of God's people from our bondage in the Egypt of this world."

4. "Whenever this world receives any suffering and tragedy short of final judgment itself, it is in part a proclamation of God's still continuing mercy, the call to the survivors to repent."

5. "Sin, biblically speaking, is not only the absence of good, it also entails our active opposition to God. It is the way we wrench ourselves free from obedience to Him, cut ourselves off from His grasp and refuse to let Him be God."

6. "The beast is allowed a victory, but it is a victory that is temporary and merely apparent. John is preparing his hearers to understand that the opposition they face is no surprise to God and it should not be to us. In this fallen world, the Word of God will be opposed."

7. "At the appointed time and in the appointed way, as witnesses finish their purpose, God will sometimes allow them to be apparently and temporarily overcome. But their defeat is always only temporary."

8. "As long as you will not acknowledge Him as the Lord of your life, your opposition to Him will be met and matched by His opposition to you, which will only increase and increase and increase until it finally reaches an eternal and excruciating point as you find yourself suddenly before the judgment seat of God."

9. "We're used to hearing who is and who was and who is to come. But here, for the first time in the Bible, there's no who is to come. Why? Because one day He will come. And this is a picture of that day."

10. "As Christians we take joy not only from the past, from how God has loved us in Christ, we take joy from the future. We take joy in what we know that God will do, how He will love us and bring us to Himself, bring us to our rest above."

Observation Questions

1. According to Revelation 8:7-12, what specific parts of creation are struck by the first four trumpets, and what fraction of each is affected?

2. In Revelation 9:4, what specific instruction were the locusts given regarding whom they could and could not harm?

3. According to Revelation 9:20-21, how did the survivors respond to the plagues, and what specific sins does the text say they refused to repent of?

4. In Revelation 10:9-10, what happened when John ate the little scroll, and what was he then told to do in verse 11?

5. According to Revelation 11:3-6, what powers were given to the two witnesses, and for how long were they to prophesy?

6. In Revelation 11:15-18, what announcement is made when the seventh trumpet sounds, and what events does it declare have now come?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why do you think the judgments in the trumpets affect only fractions (one-third) rather than the whole of creation and humanity? What does this suggest about God's purposes in these judgments?

2. The sermon notes that the plagues in Revelation 8-9 closely parallel the plagues God sent on Egypt. What is the significance of this connection, and what does it teach us about God's pattern of redemption?

3. In Revelation 9:20-21, despite witnessing devastating judgments, humanity still refuses to repent. What does this reveal about the nature of human sin and the human heart's resistance to God?

4. The two witnesses in Revelation 11 are described as "olive trees" and "lampstands." Based on the sermon's explanation and the book's own symbolism (Revelation 1:20), what do these witnesses represent, and why is their testimony important?

5. In Revelation 11:17, God is described as "the One who is and who was" but notably not "who is to come." Why is this phrase different here, and what does this change signify about the vision John is seeing?

Application Questions

1. The sermon emphasized that suffering and disasters in this world serve as warnings calling people to repentance. When you experience or witness hardship and tragedy, how do these events typically affect your relationship with God, and how might you respond differently in light of this passage?

2. Revelation 9:4 shows that God's sealed people are protected from His wrath. How does knowing that you are "sealed" by Christ change the way you face opposition, difficulty, or fears about the future this week?

3. The passage describes humanity persisting in idolatry and sin despite clear warnings. What are some "idols" (things you trust or prioritize over God) in your own life that you tend to cling to even when God is calling you to repentance?

4. The sermon connected the two witnesses to the ongoing faithful ministry of the church proclaiming God's Word despite opposition. In what specific ways can you participate in bearing witness to God's truth this week, even when it may be unpopular or resisted?

5. The sermon concluded by asking whether we live as if God were dead or as if He has already won. What is one practical change you could make in your daily routine or mindset that would reflect genuine confidence in God's sovereignty and ultimate victory?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Exodus 7:14–10:29 — This passage recounts the plagues on Egypt, which the sermon identifies as foreshadowing the trumpet judgments and the ultimate exodus of God's people from bondage.

2. Joel 1:1–2:11 — This Old Testament prophecy describes a devastating locust plague in terms strikingly similar to Revelation 9, illustrating God's use of such imagery to warn of judgment.

3. Ezekiel 2:8–3:3 — Here Ezekiel is commanded to eat a scroll, the same symbolic action John performs in Revelation 10, showing the prophet's commission to speak God's Word.

4. Matthew 10:16-33 — Jesus warns His disciples that they will face persecution and opposition for their witness, but they should not fear those who can only kill the body, reinforcing the sermon's application about faithful witness.

5. Zechariah 4:1-14 — This passage describes the two olive trees and lampstands that are explicitly referenced in Revelation 11:4, providing the Old Testament background for understanding the two witnesses.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The American Ambivalence Toward Authority and the Need for Divine Direction

II. Understanding How to Read the Book of Revelation

III. God's Warning: The First Six Trumpets (Revelation 8:6-9:21)

IV. God's Word: The Faithful Witness Continues (Revelation 10:1-11:14)

V. God Wins: The Seventh Trumpet and Final Victory (Revelation 11:15-19)

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Detailed Sermon Outline

April 19th is a date fraught with significance in history. April 19th is the date in 1775 that some Massachusetts men in Lexington and Concord refused to recognize the authority of the British crown any longer and engaged British troops in battle. Also on this date, April 19th in 1861, The Virginia legislature voted to cease recognizing the authority of the Congress that meets here on Capitol Hill. The revolutionary nature of our country has left Americans with a deep ambivalence about authority.

We think of authorities as abuses. We rarely distinguish between authority and authoritarian.

Much anti-Catholic literature, for example, in the 19th century. Was simply appropriating the American love of freedom and casting that in opposition to religious authority, whether of the Bible or the Pope. Now we Americans like our religion to fit looser. So for example, on the Unitarian Universalist Association's website, they say that in the end, religious authority lies not in a book, person or institution, but in ourselves. One pop-up ad there bore a similar sentiment: Instead of me fitting a religion, I found a religion to fit me.

Is there such a thing as too much suspicion of authority?

A house full of children left without parents.

A mob rioting.

Sheep without a shepherd.

It's a vacuum that will be filled. A lack of direction can have tragic consequences. Many of us in high school probably read William Golding's novel, the Lord of the Flies. In that 1954 work, he portrays really an interesting example of a lack of authority and new vicious authority that could establish itself among a group of schoolboys wrecked on a plane crash on a desert island.

As Ralph's rules crumble and Jack's hunters seem to take over. Well, is this world kind of like the island in the Lord of the Flies? Are we all simply plane wrecked here? Are we left to generate our own authority?

Does God give us any clues? Better even any instructions about this.

Who will finally show themselves to be in authority?

Well we are studying through the Bible's longest account of history's end game, the last book of the Bible, the famous and infamous book of Revelation. If you take your Bibles and turn there, you will be helped to make it through this next period of time together.

If you're looking for the book, it's the last part of the whole book. So if you just take your Bible and open the back cover and start turning in, you'll very quickly find it.

The larger numbers are the chapters. So we're looking at chapters 8, 9, 10 and 11 this morning. The larger numbers are the chapters, the smaller numbers after those larger ones are the verses. So if Isaiah chapter 8 verse 13, I'm referring to the big number 8 and the little 13 after it. This morning we come to the third series of sevens that we found in this book.

And before we dive into it specifically, I want to begin with some larger comments on the way judgment is presented in this book of Revelation. I want to get more teachy with you than I have yet been in this series. Because when we come to this second set of judgments, then we really need to stop back and say, Now how are we understanding this book as a whole? There are different ways that people have understood the series of judgments in Revelation. If you read through, you'll find there are seven seals that we've already considered, seven trumpets we're looking at today, and then seven bowls to come.

Our study this morning will require a little bit more flipping around in the book than we've been doing. And before we get to the particular passage, I want to just give you this general teaching on how people have viewed the book of Revelation. It can be laid out in many different ways, but let me just put it in four different ways. These are not the four points of the sermon. This is four points of introductory material to help you understand the book of Revelation, all right?

Four different ways people view the book of Revelation. And you can be a member of this church in good standing and take any one of these ways to view the book of Revelation. I, of course, can only preach from the way that I best understand. Number one, some say it all happened in John's time. This is called the Preterist, P-R-E-T-E-R-I-S-T, Preterist, understanding.

It says that all these trials are symbolic representing things that were going on in the first century of the church. And of course, these are certainly right to say that this book had to mean something important for the Christians that John was writing to. However, we understand this, we can't forget that John's readers needed to get hope and warning and instruction from this. So this certainly had to have importance and significance for the first century readers. And yet I think it has language that is too clearly future, sweeping and cataclysmic For all this to have happened centuries ago and us still be sitting here.

Number two, others would say that this is all to happen in the future. This is called a futurist understanding. And it says that all these images are describing trials that will happen at the very end. That is, immediately before and along with The Second Coming of Christ. But while this book is certainly focused on the future, it is not irrelevant to us today.

This book was sent out to these seven churches to be read at the time, so it would seem to have some more immediate reference and relevance than simply the end. Number three, still others have argued that this book of Revelation shows the judgment of God progressing linearly throughout history. So we should expect to find the vision of the future expressed chronologically. You call this the chronological view and history following it. Perhaps then we should be able to say like we're in chapter 8, ready for trumpet 1, or that seal 3 happened in 1914 or some such kind of thing.

This would be like the Jehovah's Witnesses or I think the Left Behind series understands the book. This has the obvious advantage of being both relevant for John's age and our own, and everyone in between, Christ's ministry and His return. And this way of reading it is perennially popular. It leads to wonderful and amusing games of speculation. I remember when I was a young person and first began attending church, hearing two older people discuss whether or not the Antichrist could be Henry Kissinger.

It hasn't played out quite yet. Well, I have to say that I haven't really seen a presentation of this view worked out in a convincing fashion. These kind of interpretations seem beset by the problem of pressing details too much in order to fit the course of history. And usually I have to say from having read stuff like this, it's almost always European history. It's terribly subjective.

It seems to be a lot more of our imposing a meaning on the text than exposing the meaning of the text. If you look closely at these visions, they don't seem to be intended to be pressed into strictly chronological sequential order. So if you do that, you would find that the sun is blackened, for instance, more than once. Once in chapter 6, as we saw a couple of weeks ago, in the sixth seal. And then again we'll find today in chapter 8, during the fourth trumpet.

And then there are the recurrent summaries of the end. So the end of the world happens at the seventh seal. And then the end of the world happens with the seventh trumpet. And then the end of the world happens with the seventh... Well, you can only end the world once.

So I think that's a challenge to this reading. The mountains and the islands fly away. But they do that before Babylon is defeated. I don't think it's a good way to read this book. I don't think it's a faithful way for all the good intentions those proponents may have.

I don't think these visions can be convincingly pressed into a strictly chronological sequential order. That's not how they were meant to be read. We get them, I think, in the order that John got them. So we're getting his order. As different topics are pursued.

Number four, others have said that it shows cyclically God's judgment throughout history, really recapitulating the same thing again and again. Now I think this is getting closer to how you should read the book. But even here, if the previous explanation pushed the details too far, this one seems to almost ignore the details. Well, then how are we to read this vision? Two things that I think we can notice that help us read the vision well are the repetition that there is in the book and the intensification that goes on.

Symbols, of course, stand for something. Sometimes they stand for more than one thing. This is typical in highly expressionistic writing. Sometimes it even says so in the text. If you look over in chapter 17, in a section where Babylon is being judged, that Lord willing, we'll come to in a few weeks.

In chapter 17, verse 9, we read, this calls for a mind of wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. They are also seven kings. Okay, we don't need to worry about the particulars right now, but simply notice that multiple meanings are common in this book. We're going to find that in the passage that we read this morning.

One vision can have reference to more than one reality or happening. And that's the pattern we see in the Old Testament too, where there will be prophecies that in some sense seem to be about the king, but in other sense they're clearly about the Messiah. And in some ways they're clearly about the Messiah's second coming. All there referent in the original prophecy. Anyway, I found in reading over this vision again and again, there seems to be a progression and intensification in the judgments presented in these three most prominent series of sevens, from the seven seals to the seven trumpets to the seven bowls.

And now we come to the second series of judgments. I just wanted to make sure that you were seeing this. And that you notice this so you'll understand more the way I'm approaching it. This intensification, I think we'll notice as we read through our passage for this morning. If you look at chapter 8, the very last verse is typical.

You know, after we've had four angels fly out sounding trumpets announcing terrible divine judgments in the first four trumpets, as if they were not bad enough, enough themselves. We read here in chapter 8, verse 13, As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in mid-air call out in a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels. As if the first four weren't terrifying enough, what on earth could they be talking about? But that's what you find in this book. You find these judgments intensifying as they're presented.

God is deliberately ratcheting up the tension, making His judgment appropriately, of course, seem more ominous, more forbidding, more terrible. So just to consider the judgments described in this book, if you were to sort of compile them and compare them, you would find that in the trumpets we'll see today, one-third of the sea turned to blood, one-third of the waters turned bitter, whereas in the bowls, all the sea and all the waters turned to blood. In the trumpets, one-third of sea creatures died, in the bowls, all of them. In the opening of the sixth seal a couple of weeks ago, we saw natural disasters and judgment there at the end of chapter 6. But the pouring out of the seventh bowl brings about unprecedented natural disasters which seem similar, but they seem more severe.

In the seals, one-quarter of the world's population is killed. In the trumpets, you have many plus at least a third plus all who have received the mark of the beast are tortured for five months. And the bowls lead then into final judgment of all of mankind. So even in the images that are used to describe these judgments, you have them repeated, but they're not the same. They get more intense.

And you see that with the seals being broken open, so God's decrees being revealed, and then the trumpets that proclaim and decree these plans of God, and then the bowls where they are finally poured out. So even in that images used to summarize them, you see this progression and this intensification. So given all this, perhaps the image we want to have in our minds when we read through this book, especially the main body of the Great Vision that we are deep into this morning, is kind of a combination of the linear idea, the chronological linear idea, but also the circle, the repeating idea, sort of more of a spiral where there is a progression and again and again the vision presents images which seemed to recall previous images as if to underscore them or push them a bit further, some kind of judgment which has already been mentioned and now is being clarified or reinforced. So in all of this, it seems as if John is ratcheting the tension up, the sense of anticipation. Each one of these series of judgments begins with the heavenly court.

So in chapters 4 and 5, and then you have the seven seals. Then the passage we looked at last Sunday, chapter 8, verses 1 to 5, and then today we'll have the seven trumpets, and then all of chapter 15 and then the seven bowls. Also there are these pauses, these delays between the sixth and the seventh. So you've had six and then a pause before the seventh. We saw it with the seals.

We'll see it today with the trumpets just to serve to punctuate and dramatize the measured, unerring procession of history toward the final judgment of the creation by its Creator, God.

So let's review what we've seen so far in our study. In chapter 1, John recounts as being introduced into this vision. Chapters 2 and 3 we have the first series of sevens as Jesus addresses particular messages to seven churches. Chapters 4 and 5 we have this amazing throne room scene of God where we see the Lamb of God come and take the scroll that is in His hand and open the scroll that stands for history that's to come and it's instrumental that it happens through the Lamb. So in chapters 6 and 7 then we see these events of history happen as the six of the seals are opened and then in chapter 8 at the beginning the seventh seal is opened.

We consider this last week where there is silence. And after a brief summary pictured there in verses 3 to 5 of chapter 8, the judgments of God, really an answer to the prayers of God's people, we come to our passage this morning, the next series of seven, the seven trumpets, which will take us from here in chapter 8, verse 6 through the end of chapter 11. I pray that as we study through this passage this morning, you will be warned, and prepared and encouraged to follow God and to see and understand and rejoice in His authority in your life. And now to the utter terror of the visitors, I say, let's begin.

And we begin number one with God's warning. God's warning. Chapter 8. Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them. The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth.

A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

The second angel sounded his trumpet. And something like a huge mountain, all Ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea was turned into blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

The third angel sounded his trumpet and a great star, stars Wormwood, a third of the Stars turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.

The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.

As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels. The fifth angel sounded his trumpet and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the abyss. When he opened the abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the abyss.

And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. During those days men will seek death but will not find it.

They will long to die, but death will elude them. The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like woman's hair, and their teeth were like lion's teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.

They had tails and stings like scorpions and in their tails they had the power to torment people for five months. They had as king over them the angel of the abyss whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek Apollyon. The first woe is past. Two other woes are yet to come.

The sixth angel blew his trumpet and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar that is before God.

It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was 200 million. I heard their number. The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this.

Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and sulfur. A third of mankind was killed killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury. The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands.

They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold silver, bronze, stone and wood idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts. Well friends, there is so much we could say. There will be far more symbols, pictures, details than I have time Comment on, I will be standing at the door afterwards to give you my best reading of any of your favorite parts which I didn't comment on. One of the overall impressions I had in reading this was the similarity of this and the plagues that God used to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Did you notice that? Most of these plagues are the same. I think what we're to learn is that the exodus that happened of the Israelites from Egypt was there primarily to foreshadow this real and true and final exodus of God's people from our bondage in the Egypt of this world. In these trumpets we have visions which describe perhaps overlapping events but with new details being presented or from a whole different perspective. So as we noted earlier, the judgments of these trumpets are more intense than the judgments of the seals.

They're more extensive in their effect. So, for example, you remember in the seals one quarter of the world's population was killed and here in the trumpets many plus at least a third. And though these are fractions, these fractions rather increase, notice here that in the trumpets these are still fractions. They're not the whole. And whenever this world receives any suffering and tragedy, short A final judgment itself, it is in part a proclamation of God's still continuing mercy, the call to the survivors to repent.

The structure of this passage is the first four trumpets that you've got, after which the eagle there flies that last verse of 8. Verse 13. And after that in chapter 9 we have the two other trumpets, number 5 and number 6. You see that there? And then we have a pause in the chapter 10 and the first half of chapter 11 are what I think acts as a pause.

And then at the end of chapter 11 you have the seventh trumpet. And these trumpets are giving warning. We thought about the trumpet some Last week, trumpets being a symbol of God's presence, of news, of alarm, of a battle, and of judgment. And all of those associations are in play here. The physical terrors of this world that are announced are meant to warn the unbelievers of coming judgment.

I mean, who doubts today that many ecological disasters are the result of human sin? Sin, rebellion, against God and His ways. Remember how the first four seals represented suffering among humans, the four horsemen of the apocalypse? Well here we have in these first four trumpets four plagues against the physical world, four disasters which remind us of this world's instability, of this world's impermanence, another aspect of our life. In this fallen world.

Now these first six trumpets do not directly represent the end of the world. And we can know that because everyone is not involved in them. Fractions are mentioned. That distinguishes them from the end. In the end, the results will be universal.

That's what makes it the end. But when you have something that's not universal, that's a fraction, it's not the end. So in the series of seven seals and now the series of seven trumpets and to come, the seven bowls, the sufferings are increased as we come ever closer to a sustained depiction of the final judgment. Which is foreshadowed in all of these. And most of all, so far, in the sixth and seventh seals, and we'll see in chapter 11 and the seventh trumpet.

Also, these seem not best read as the suffering in a fallen world in general.

In the first four trumpets, the physical world is the main object of destruction, in turn, the land and then the sea and then the fresh water and then the sky. And it's only after the woes are given out there at the end of chapter 8 that people than seem to be the object. It's, remember, agony for people in the fifth trumpet, and death in the sixth, and judgment in the seventh. And note in chapter 9, verse 4, that the agony of the locust is only for those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. This is a reference to an earlier chapter where we see all the people of God are sealed.

So if you're a Christian here today, that means that you are sealed. By the blood of Christ. You are sealed, kept for God specially. And the deaths represented in the sixth trumpet seem to be of the unrepentant because we read in chapter 9 verse 20, the rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent. It's the unbeliever that is in view.

As we'll see as we come to chapter 11, the seventh trumpet involves everyone, those who've repented and those who haven't, those who are the people of God sealed and those who aren't, the living and the dead.

These trumpets represent the judgments of God in the world. Certainly here in the fifth trumpet we see a new level of intensity reached with this military description of the locusts here in chapter 9, you see, verses 7 to 10. It's a familiar description. You don't need to come up with these as some kind of Chinook helicopters. You can find descriptions of locust swarms almost exactly like this in Arab literature throughout history.

It's even in the Old Testament in Joel chapter 1 and 2. You'll find a very similar description of a locust swarm in its destructive power. Though no one is killed by the locusts described in this fifth trumpet, people's existence is described as torture, agony, suffering, a scorpion sting. Look there in verse 6 of chapter 9. No wonder they would long to die.

But then things turn really deadly with the sixth trumpet. In fact, we see that one-third of mankind are said to be killed by these plagues, but only one-third, though all deserved it. So there is mercy. There is time until the end.

A couple of other notes here. The reference there in chapter 9 verse 14 to the Euphrates River, I'm pretty sure would have made John's first hearers Think of the Euphrates River as they knew it and called it, and the Parthian Empire that was on the other side of it, that they knew to have a vast cavalry of innumerable numbers. And the numbering there in chapter 9 verse 16 of 200 million, I don't think is supposed to be the secret key that lets us realize it's the Chinese National Reserve Army.

Is the fulfiller of this prophecy. I don't think that number of 200 million is meant in the sense of being as opposed to 100 million or 300 million. No, it's literally in the Greek, it's a double myriad times a myriad. It's a double 10,000 times 10,000. The ESV here, I think, actually does a better job on this than the NIV and the New American Standard, if you're looking at that.

I think when you go ahead and calculate it to 200 million, you've already halfway lost the point. It's meant to be just an incalculably, unimaginably large number. And as we well know, in this city, 200 million is sometimes like a bargain basement price.

So I think for us, we better understand this more as 10,000 times 10,000 doubled a myriad times a myriad, just larger numbers than they would ever calculate. And then, friend, look again there at the end of chapter 9:20. These are the verses that have leapt out to me and so many others this week who have read the passage and spoken to me about it. They have to be some of the most surprising verses in our passage. The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands.

They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood. Idols that cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality, or their thefts. Friends, I think of Pharaoh's heart, still not hardened. I think of my heart before I was a Christian. I had seen the warnings of God in our world.

I had heard of disasters. Growing up in Kentucky, we'd seen tornadoes, take out our garage. Take out another one, take out a big tree in our front yard. Still, I did not repent. I went on with my own life.

This is a statement of what it's like to live unrepentant in this fallen world. If you're here and you're not a Christian, I wonder what you think of when I use this word repent. I mean change. Do you think there's anything that you need to change? I don't even know you, but I think there's something you need to change.

It's what we Christians call sin. And once it's the whole story of Christianity is about how we deal with our sin. We all sin and we all need to repent or turn from that sin. David Wells has a good definition of sin. He says, Sin, biblically speaking, is not only the absence of good, it also entails our active opposition to God.

It is then the defiance of His authority, the rejection of His truth, the challenge to His sovereignty in which we set ourselves up in life to live the way we want to live. It is the way we wrench ourselves free from obedience to Him, cut ourselves off from His grasp and refuse to let Him be God. It is therefore all the ways we live life on our own terms, to our own ends, with accountability to no one.

But ourselves. Friend, what should you do with your sin? Well, as I say, that's what Christianity is all about. We understand that God has made us in His image and that's why, though, you may be someone who's not a Christian until your dying day, we will love you and we will defend your rights and we'll be good neighbors because we think you're made in the image of God and we're responsible to love you and treat you with dignity.

But God who sees the heart, who knows us in a way that we can never make excuses for, knows that all of us have this kind of sin against God, that we've all turned from Him and we've lived our lives independently of Him. At least we try to. But God, though He would be perfectly just merely to judge us all eternally now, God in His great love has sent His Son, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Incarnate to this world, live a perfect life in this world, living the life of complete dependence on God that you and I should live, not independence from Him, but loving, trusting dependence on Him. Jesus Christ lived that life perfectly.

And He died on the cross bearing the punishment that we have deserved by the way we have lived. And God raised Him from the dead, showing that He accepted this sacrifice, just as Jesus taught. And He calls us now to do this, to repent, to turn from our sins and to trust in Him for forgiveness for our sins and reconciliation with Him. I know if you're not a Christian, this may seem like a pile of new and strange ideas. And if that's the case, I would love to talk to you about this afterwards.

I'll be at the door. I'll be folks at all the doors. There are a lot of people around you who are Christians. Obviously, we're sitting here. Any of us would be happy to talk to you more about this.

My Christian friends, I've been surprised how many of you have told me that you were a little scared to come to a study of the book of Revelation. A number of you have said that to you this was a scary book. I think it shouldn't be. It was written to Christians who were being tempted to be scared by those who could take them to task, who could oppress them, who could silence them, who could even kill them. And yet here in these trumpets, God is showing them that He would fight for them against those who oppose them and their gospel because Christians and the Christian gospel belong to God.

And to oppose the gospel is to oppose God. And we see again and again in this book that He is committed to protecting His own. Did you remember that instruction to the locusts there in verse 4 of chapter 9? Look at that again. They were told to harm only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

Friends, we as a congregation are committed to knowing and trusting this God. He is sovereign and He is good. He can be completely trusted and relied upon and delighted in. He does not protect us from all the fallenness of this world as we know every week of our lives. But He does protect us from that which we should most fear, His wrath against our sins.

That has all fallen on Christ for us.

And this book presents nothing other than that careful protecting love of God for His people through all the trials that we may be called to endure. To the world we see God in His kindness warns and He will keep warning until one day the warnings stop and the time for repentance is over and the judgment of God finally comes.

Now we turn number two. That was number one, God's warning. Now we turn number two to God's Word. God's Word. Look there in chapter 10, verse 1.

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud with a rainbow above his head. His face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars. He was holding a little scroll which lay open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion.

When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke and when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write. But I heard a voice from heaven say, Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down. Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and the land raised his right hand to heaven and he swore by him who lives forever and ever who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, the sea and all that is in it and said, there will be no more delay. But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished just as he announced to his servants the prophets. Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more, go take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.

So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey. I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, and when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.

Then I was told, You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings. I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, Go and measure the temple of God and the altar and count the worshipers there, but exclude the outer court. Do not measure it because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying. And they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.

Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will attack them and overpower them and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them.

Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, Come up here. And they went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies looked on. At that very hour there was a severe earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified. And gave glory to the God of heaven.

The second woe has passed. The third woe is coming soon.

What I think we see here in these, what are basically two accounts, first of John with the angel and the scroll, and then these two witnesses, is simply this: that God has not and will not leave Himself without a witness in this world, regardless of the opposition He faces. Just as the seals had this long description of the state of the blessed in heaven in chapter 7, before it got to the seventh and concluding seal in chapter 8, so these seven trumpets have this long pause and description of the Word of God going forth here in chapters 10 and 11. If anything, you could say these pauses are what is the special emphasis of each of these series. In the seals, it was the state of the blessed in heaven, encouraging those persecuted Christians to hang in there. Now here in the trumpets, it's that God's Word will continue to go forth even though it faces opposition.

That's what we're reminded of here before the concluding trumpet at the end of chapter 11. So in the six trumpets of chapters 8 and 9, the sinners have been warned. Now as he did the pause in chapter 7, he will encourage God's people. And warn us a little bit too. Chapter 10 is a vision about John's own commission as a prophet of God.

The angel gives him this little scroll open, which he, like the prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament, was to take and eat. This vision served to authenticate John's claim that his prophecy is from God. God will judge the whole world, and that's what John is being commissioned to write. This would be revealed by John. This would be revealed through John.

The interesting note there in chapter 10, verse 4 instructing John not to write down all that he's heard about the seven thunders. What the seven thunders say? That's a reminder, I think, that all of God's plans are not revealed. There are still ways of God that are mysterious to us. Though we have His will revealed in His Word, there are still things that happen that we do not entirely understand, that He has His good purposes for.

But to us there is still mystery. But the scroll that John did take and eat was supposed to give out, was standing for the prophecies that he was supposed to give out that would be both sweet to God's people and bitter for those on whom he was declaring God's judgment. The first part of chapter 11 is presented as being in Jerusalem, but this is a vision, remember. Jerusalem here clearly stands for the whole world in rebellion against God.

Irony of ironies, isn't it really? Verse 8, even as we see Jerusalem being figuratively called Egypt. I mean, of all things to call Jerusalem, the city of God's special presence. But friends, it is the city of God's special presence that also summed up the opposition to God. What Augustine would later call the city of man.

The two witnesses here in verses 3 to 12 of chapter 11 have been thought to be many, many different things. Among the most popular suggestions have been Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets. I think that's a misreading of what this is about. He says right there in verse 4, if you look, chapter 11 verse 4, that these are olive trees. Well, olive trees stood for God's people in the Old Testament and that they are lampstands.

Well, this book already says lampstands stand for congregations. Because they hold out the light of God's Word. So I think rather than picking out two historical individuals, this is better understood as the continuing faithful ministry of the church as God's Word is preached. Now if God and His sovereignty decides to sort of sum that up in two faithful witnesses at the end of history, I'm fine with that. I'm just saying I don't think that's the clearest way to read this.

So why represent this as two witnesses? Why not just one?

I'm not sure. Perhaps because God's law required two witnesses to substantiate anything significant. There were, you remember, two of the seven churches we saw back in chapters 2 and 3 that were faithful. Two of the seven who were remaining faithful. Well, these two churches were being faithful witnesses when John was writing it.

They're models for us in that sense then. But don't misread this section by staring too much at the details. A typical example of this is here in chapter 11, verse 9, where we read that men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies. Well, previous generations of commentators have asked, how could every people, tribe, language and nation gaze on their bodies? How could that happen?

There's no way for that to happen. They're only there three and a half days dead. How will that happen? And then along about the 1950s, commentators start saying, Television.

That's not the point. The point is the opposition of the whole world to God as they stare gloating on the bodies. The point is not how could literally every man, woman and child around the planet see this in a three and a half day period. The point is the whole world in opposition to God. The beast there in verse 7 is clearly some tyrannical opposition to Christ and His followers.

He will, we see, kill them. You know, many witnesses to the truth of God have found death in the path of faithfulness that God has called them to travel. The beast is allowed a victory, but it is a victory that is temporary and merely apparent. John is preparing his hearers to understand that the opposition they face It's no surprise to God and it should not be to us. In this fallen world, the Word of God will be opposed.

Friends, someone sent out by our own congregation was called in by the police just this last week and interrogated. Lord willing, we'll talk about that more tonight and pray for him in particular. But you remember Jesus' words in Matthew, chapter 10. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

At the appointed time and in the appointed way, as witnesses finish their purpose, God will sometimes allow them to be apparently and temporarily overcome. But their defeat is always only temporary. And to remind them of that, John refers in his next verse just in passing to Christ's crucifixion. He reminds us that this is the way of the one we follow and this must be our way. God will preserve us and vindicate and resurrect us even as He acts to vindicate His own gospel.

Here we do have the interesting note in verse 13 that the survivors of the great earthquake, those who had seen the resurrection of His witnesses in this vision, gave glory to the God of heaven. This acknowledgment of God shows that they were converted through all this. The Word of God has powerful effect. Kids, have you ever stopped to thank God? Those of you who are being brought up in Christian homes, have you ever stopped to thank God that you're being brought up in a house where God's Word is read and known and believed?

What a good thing, children, to thank God for. That He would be that kind and that merciful to you when so many children, so many of us were not brought up in homes like that.

Brothers and sisters, we should expect opposition to God's Word in this world. That's what it means for this world to be fallen and in rebellion. We shouldn't be surprised by it. But this opposition should never make us uncertain about God's Word being true.

It shouldn't make us uncertain about God's will that His Word be taught and proclaimed. We should simply be prepared that we will face opposition. This is why we as a congregation are committed to sermons that spend time exposing us to God's Word. Mark, I could have had 45 more minutes to eat or to watch TV today. Yes, but we took it from you for a better purpose.

To discipline you to study God's Word, hopefully to expose a particular portion of God's Word, but also to teach you how you yourself can study and understand God's Word. We do this not because church growth studies have shown this is what the public wants, but because this is God's Word.

And we hunger for it. He made us that way. He remakes us that way by His own Spirit. And so we give ourselves to study God's Word, to see what He would say to us in His Word. We gather again to pray based on the will of God revealed in His Word.

We gather in the evening to pray that God will work these things out for His own glory. Well, for our third and concluding point, Let's simply notice once again, number 3, that God wins. This is a consistent theme in the book of Revelation. Chapter 11, verse 15.

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven which said, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. And the twenty-four elders who were seated on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. The nations were angry, and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great. And for destroying those who destroy the earth.

Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and within His temple was seen the ark of His covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm. Here we have the seventh trumpet, and once again judgment is concluded with a scene of praise in God's throne room. And what an exalted view of Christ we have here. Did you see that in verse 15?

He's associated with God Himself. You note in verse 18 that we see these elders say that the nations were angry, but friends, even the anger of nations is nothing compared to the God of heaven. No, it is His anger that they had better be concerned about. What do we see in verse 18? Your wrath has come.

The time has come for judging the dead. So with God's purposes complete, It is now time for him to unleash his wrath and the reign of Christ begins with the destroying of opponents and the rewarding of his servants. Certainly there is nothing here to suggest that the world gets friendlier to the Christian witness as time goes on. This world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ not by our faithful labors, though we should faithfully labors. That will take the action of God himself.

Personally in Christ. But even as the world consolidates its opposition to God and His ways, so His wrath increases. Their judgment mounts. His time draws nearer and nearer. Friend, if you are here today and you are not a Christian, can I urge you to realize that God's opposition to you, as long as you will not relinquish your claims to be the Lord of your own life, As long as you will not acknowledge Him as the Lord of your life, your opposition to Him will be met and matched by His opposition to you, which will only increase and increase and increase until it finally reaches an eternal and excruciating point as you find yourself suddenly before the judgment seat of God.

You are here this morning so that you can hear the truth about this God.

I urge you to realize this, to consider this seriously. Don't let that moment surprise you to your eternal ruin.

Seek peace with God that He offers us on such generous terms with Christ. Seek peace with God while He offers it to us through Christ.

Because, friend, one day the offer will run out. One day that offer will be expired. Today, now, He tells us, is the day of salvation.

We, whoever we are, however many people we may have authority over in this life, we will one day be judged. And so we all need a Savior.

And did you notice that description of God in verse 17? We give thanks to youo, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because youe have taken youn great power and have begun to reign. That's funny, isn't it? We're used to hearing who is and who Who was, who is, and who is to come. But here, for the first time in the Bible, there's no who is to come.

Why? Because one day He will come. And this is a picture of that day. That day when He has come. Here John sees the vision of the worship that is offered to God when He has finally come, when He has now taken His power and begun to reign.

What a glorious day.

To live in the hope of that day when He will finally come.

My Christian brothers and sisters, do you live life like that, confident of God's providence and of His victory?

I'm sure many of you have heard of the incident in Martin Luther's life with his wife Katie. He married Katie who was up to Martin's tempestuousness and moodiness, he married well. But one day he was being unusually grim and gloomy around the house. Katie comes downstairs dressed all in black. Martin, surprised, disturbed, asked urgently, who's died?

She said, I thought God must have died, given the way you've been acting.

Friend, when was the last time you lived a day like God had died?

You realize that as Christians we take joy not only from the past, from how God has loved us in Christ, we take joy from the future. We take joy in what we know that God will do, how He will love us and bring us to Himself, bring us to our rest above. Timothy Dwight in a meditation on heaven said, what an internal heaven will dawn in the mind when we shall be presented before the throne of Jehovah and settled amid our own brethren in our immortal inheritance and our final home. And behold all our sins washed away, our trials ended. Our dangers escaped, our sorrows left behind us and our reward begun in the world where all things are ever new, delightful and divine.

That's our hope. That's the hope we live in today.

Let's pray together. Lord God, we, every one of us, have participated in a rejection of your authority. We have made our lives independent of you, or at least we've tried to. Oh God, we pray that in your grace and mercy, You will show your love clearly through Christ to every person here this morning. Oh God, we pray that you would give gifts of repentance and faith.

We pray that we would be able to live each day in the joy of how you have loved us in Christ and of how you will love us in Him forever. And we pray this for our good and your glory in Jesus' name. Amen.