Introduction

Revelation 8:6-13 ESV  Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.  (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 green grass was burned up.  (8)  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.  (9)  A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.  (10)  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.  (11)  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.  (12)  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 the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night.  (13)  Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”

Revelation 9:1-21 ESV  And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.  (2)  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 the smoke from the shaft.  (3)  Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth.  (4)  They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.  (5)  They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.  (6)  And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.  (7)  In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces,  (8)  their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth;  (9)  they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.  (10)  They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails.  (11)  They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.  (12)  The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.  (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.

• Wow, that is A LOT to consume!
  • But if you know your biblical history, it is actually not that difficult of a passage.
  • Why? Because we have seen almost all of this happen before… not to this extent, but in the exact same way.
• Listen church, I am passionate about the Biblical feasts, because I believe they are designed to teach us and remind us of God’s history, and thus God’s characters.
  • Now we just read a lot of scripture about trumpets, and you may think that this coincides to the Biblical celebration called the Feast of Trumpets… and to much extent it likely does…
  • But the real correlation here is to Passover.
    • I strongly believe that God commanded us to celebrate and remember the Passover… and I think it is for good reason.
    • To remember what God has done, for whom He did it, and why He did it.
      • And as such, knowing that God never changes, understand that God can and will do like things again.
• Now if you have studied the Passover, or better yet, if you have celebrated the Passover for many many years… then this passage in revelation should not be difficult for you… because God is doing here at the first 6 trumpets something He has already done before.
  • He is doing it for the same reason, the same means, and to the same people.
  • The God of Revelation is the God of Exodus, and the God of Exodus is the God of Revelation.
• Let me quickly tell you what I am talking about…
• In Exodus, God’s people are enslaved by an Pharoh, and evil king of Egypt.
  • As such, God sends His messenger Moses to speak to Pharoah… to demand that God’s people be let go.
  • But Pharoh’s heart is heard and he says “No”… so God sends plague after plague.
  • But even after all of these plagues, Pharoh’s heart is still hard, and at times God even HARDEN’s Pharoh’s already hard heart all the more… that God might get the most glory out of an Evil king’s reign.
  • But Pharoh’s heart wasn’t the only heart that was hard… the Egyptian people had a hard heart too.
• Think of the 10 plagues of Egypt…
  • The Nile turns to blood, Frogs invade Egypt and are everywhere, even in the houses, after flogs came the fly’s, after the fly’s cattle begin to die off, Then everyone begain to get boils, then there was a plague of Hail with fire and thunder that was incredibly destructive,
  • then there was the plague of Locusts which came and ate the crops that weren’t destroyed by the hail,
  •  Then everything when dark… then the firstborn in every family except those covered by the blood of the lamb was killed.
• Now, here is my question… WHY WAS THERE NOT A MASS CONVERSION OF EGYPTIONS TO WORSHIPING THE GOD OF THE HEBREWS?!
  • You know, you see that your son has died, and everyone elses son has died… and this after all of these other crazy plagues…
  • And you notice that your Hebrew slaves… they are all fine…. Unaffected by this death… and all of this leads up to them leaving…
  • WHY NOT GO WITH THEM? Why not forsake worshiping Pharoh who did nothing to protect you, and begin worshiping the God who protected His people from the plagues… the verry God who sent these plagues?
  • Shouldn’t there have been a mass conversion event? Well of course their wasn’t, why, because the Egyptians hearts were hard.

1 Samuel 6:6 ESV  Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had dealt severely with them, did they not send the people away, and they departed?

• In other words they were SO STUBURN. They said “My way is my way and I am not changing it”.It doesn’t matter what the evidence says, it doesn’t matter what our experience is, it doesn’t matter what I am seeing with my own two eyes… even my own suffering doesn’t matter… MY WAY IS MY WAY AND I AM NOT CHANGING IT.
• NOW IF WE CAN UNDERSTAND ALL OF THAT, IF WE CAN UNDERSTAND THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT… THEN WE DON’T NEED A FOUR WEEK TEACHING ON THE TRUMPETS OF REVELATION.
  • Why? BECAUSE THEY ARE NEARLY IDINTICAL IN FORM AND REASON TO THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT.
• Look at the first trumpet

Revelation 8:7 ESV  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 green grass was burned up.

• Hail, fire and blood… Hmmm… that sounds really similar to the Plagues in Exodus of… you know… hail, fire, and the water being turned into blood.

Revelation 8:8-11 ESV  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.  (9)  A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.  (10)  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.  (11)  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.

• A third of the sea and waters turned to blood… that sounds a lot like the Nile River… the water source for the Egyptians, turning to blood in the Exodus.

Revelation 8:12 ESV  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 the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night.

• That sounds a lot like the Exodus plague of darkness!

Revelation 9:1-5 ESV  And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.  (2)  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 the smoke from the shaft.  (3)  Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth.  (4)  They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.  (5)  They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.

• A PLAGUE OF TORMENTING LOCUSTS AT THE FIFTH TRUMPET? THAT SOUNDS A LOT LIKE… YOU KNOW… THE PLAGUE OF TORMENTING LOCUSTS IN EXODUS.

Revelation 9:14-15 ESV  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.

• Wait… angels being released to kill a lot of people… AGAIN, this mirrors the plague where an Angle was released in Egypt to kill the first born son in EVERY SINGLE HOUSEHOLD not covered by the blood.
  • And none of this is hard for me to literally accept… why?
  • Because I literally accept all of the plagues of Egypt, I think we all do… and those aren’t hard for me to accept.
    • I believe their will be litteral darkness, because there was literally darkness in Egypt.
    • I believe literally a third of the ships will be destroyed, and literally a third of the water will be mad bitter and blood like…
    • BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED IN EGYPT.
    • I literally believe that hail and fire will literally fall and destroy literal physical things… BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED IN EGYPT.
    • And yes, I believe there will be real, literally, physical demons that come out of the pit of earth and they will swarm like locusts causing real, horrible, physical pain to man kind, all who are not saved, because in Egypt there were real literal physical locust that did real physical literal damage.
    • Finally, I too believe four angles will come and physically slay a third of mankind, from those who are not sealed by the Holy Spirit. In other words, those who are not saved.
• Now why is it that we can read, and we can study, and we can celebrate the Passover… but we get to Revelation and read about the SAME THING happening and we are like AHHHHhhhhHHhhHH?!
  • Is it because the Egyptians aren’t us… that was thousands of years ago to a nation far away.
  • Is it because we don’t take Passover seriously?
  • Is it because we don’t really believe what happened in Exodus?
  • Is it because we believe that God somehow changed and is not the same God that did those things to Egypt?
    • Can we accept that He did these things before but refuse to accept that He is going to do them again?
• Or can we with a somber, holy, righteous, and clear mind… believe… If God did it before, He can do it again.
  • And if we can think that way, then can we think this way to:
  • God is probably going to do it again for the same reason He did it before.
• Because His people need to be set free from a people with hard hearts… Idol worshiping people who persecute God’s children…

Show Title Slide

• How God Responds to a Hard Heart.
  • This is what I am going to spend the rest of my sermon talking about, for the few remaining minutes we have… let’s talk about how God responds to a hard heart, and what that means for you.
  • Now we don’t have much time left today, so follow with me as we fly through these two points:

Point One – God Responds To Hard Hearts with Wrath and Judgment

Our key verses this morning are the final two verses in chapter 9:

Revelation 9:20-21 ESV  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.

• Now there are a few takeaways in this scripture… but for point one I want you to realize this, these people who God is pouring His wrath and Judgment out on are people with hard hearts.
  • They were already worshiping demons, and idols, and money. They were already sexually immoral, murder’s and thieves.
• Let’s just take a few of these for example… they are murders…
  • Now murder in itself is wicked… but when you pair that with a hard heart it becomes devastatingly wicked…
  • Remember, a hard heart is a heart that is so stubborn that nothing can change it’s mind…
  • How does that work with murder… well it works like this… WE LIVE IN A NATION WHERE MURDERING BABY’S IS CULTURALY ACCEPTABLE.
    • Imagine a store called “Child Murder For Less” and that store people walk into it carrying a screaming and crying and tantruming four year old.
    • Imagine a dad walking into a building, his four year old daughter over his shoulder… and the four year old is kicking and screaming… he walks ingot this store “Child murder for less”… walks right through the front doors…
    • He goes up to the counter, pays a sum of money, and two doctors take the four year old, take him into a back room, and through him into a pool of acid where this four year old skin melts off…
    • Or maybe they use tools to rip this four year old limb from limb.
    • Either way, they kill him. And the dad walks out child free.
    • You watch this store as mothers and father walk in with their children and walk out… without them.
      • How would that make you feel to know that’s what is happening in your country? In your state? In your city?!
  • YET THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT IS HAPPENING AT PLANNED PARENTHOOD.
    • Just because the child is not a four year old doesn’t mean the child is any less a child…
    • And he is still being torn limb from limb, literally, or burnt alive with acid that melts his skin.
    • PARENTS WALK INTO PLANNED PARENTHOOD WITH THEIR CHILD AND WALK OUT WITHOUT THEM! AND OUR NATION, AND OUR COURTS, AND EVEN OUR CHURCHES DON’T SAY BOO ABOUT IT.
  • Because we are hard of heart.
    • It doesn’t matter that science has proven time and time again that this is a unique life with it’s own DNA, own brain, own organs… WE ARE SET IN OUR WAYS OF MURDER.
• And what about sexual immorality?
  • Fornication runs rampant, transgenderism has swept the nation, we are telling Kids that they are not boys or girls, we are letting drag queens raise our children, we are letting men into our daughters bathroom.
    • EVEN THOUGH MEDICAL SCIENCE HAS COMPLETELY CONCLUDED THAT THIS IS ALL A MENTAL DISORDER… WE DON’T CARE!
    • Even though professors are now defending pedophilia calling pedophilia’s Minor Attracted Persons because that is less offensive.
    • Even though Children are being rapped in bathrooms…
    • Even though prisoners are getting impregnated by fellow prisoners supposably of the same sex because they feel like being something other than their gender suggests.
      • IT DOESN’T MATTER… WE HAVE MADE UP OUR MINDS. SEXUAL IMORALLITY IS OK, I DON’T CARE WHAT SCIENCE, EXPERIENCE, OR EVEN GOD HIMSELF SAYS.
      • For heaven sakes we have churches teaching this filth now.
• It is a wicked hardness of heart… and God will pour out His wrath… but listen dear ones… there is a better way.
• God doesn’t want to pour out His wrath on you, God loves you and wants to redeem you.
  • He sent is son to die for you… but you must soften your hearts before it is to late… you must humble yourself and listen to reason, listen to steadfast morality, even, dare I say it, listen to ACTUAL SCIENCE.
• Now that brings me to my final point this morning… Soften Your Heart Before it is too late.

Point Two – Soften Your Heart Before It Is Too Late

Revelation 9:20-21 ESV  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.

• After all of these plagues and trumpets… much of the world population killed…
  • Demon torturing people for 5 months.
  • Seas and waters being destroyed.
  • Hail and fire falling from heaven.
  • Otherworldly darkness filling the earth.
• Still… abortion and other forms of murder will persist.
  • Still pornography, homosexuality, adultery, and fornication will persist.
  • Still greed and materialism will exist.
  • Still idol worship will exist.
• NO ONE CHANGES THEIR MIND… BECAUSE IT IS TOO LATE, THEIR HEART HAS BEEN HARDENED, THEIR TIME OF JUDMENT HAS COME.
  • So as such, it is out of love, that I urge you, I beg you, I plead with you to get your heart softened NOW before it is to late.
    • And listen, I don’t have any stones to trough.
    • I was a porn addict.
    • I had sex before marriage.
    • I was a thief.
    • I was a hacker.
    • I was a pro abortion advocate.
    • I even had homosexual temptation as a young man.
  • I was one of them with a hard and wicked heart… But Jesus saved me. Jesus gave me a soft heart.
• And it is only God who can do that!

Ezekiel 11:18-20 ESV  And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations.  (19)  And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,  (20)  that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

Ezekiel 36:26 ESV  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Jeremiah 24:7 ESV  I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

• Listen, I know most of you in this room are Christians already… but here is what you need to understand.
  • YOU CAN NOT CHANGE A HARD HEART.
  • No amount of reason or arguing will change a hard heart.
    • I have seen so many arguments about abortion or homosexuality, or whatever…
    • No-ones mind is change… why? Because people don’t listen with their mind, they listen with their heart… and we know that Jeremiah 17:9 teaches that the heart is a liar, deceitful, wretched, and wicked.
    • The only way to really bring someone out of their error is to bring them to Christ so that Christ can give them a new heart.
• Again, this point is, soften your heart before it is too late.
  • God’s wrath is not necessarily meant to lead men to repentance, though the fear of God is an important part and first step…
  • It is In fact not God’s kindness that is meant to lead people to repentance…

Romans 2:4 ESV  Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

• If you are not born again, it is God’s kindness that you are hear today.
  • God doesn’t want you to perish, and I don’t either.
  • If anything, I understand where you are coming from, I have been there… But please, you can feel God in what I am saying even if you don’t like it… please, come to God, let Him give you a clean heart, a pure heart… before it is too late…
• And for the rest of us… we too, as Christians can have stubborn and hard hearts… that is why David cry’s out in Psalm 51 verse 10 and 11:

Psalms 51:10-12 ESV  Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.  (11)  Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.  (12)  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

• Church family, there is no shame in repentance… There is so much joy.
  • For when both the sinner and the saint repent, Heaven wins, and so do the sinner and the saint.
  • If abortion doesn’t bother you… repent and pray for a soft and clean heart and a renewed spirit.
  • If you are still struggling with sexual sin… repent and pray for a soft and clean heart.
  • If you constantly fight about or think about or chase after money and things… repent and pray for a soft and clean heart.
• And together we will rejoice in the goodness of God as we go to seek and save the lost. After all, it was AFTER David prayed for a new heart and spirit that he said this in verse 13…

Psalms 51:11-13 ESV  Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.  (12)  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.  (13)  Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.