Audio Download

Rev 9:20-21-Part 4-The Sixth Trumpet

[Study Aired Sept 1, 2024]

We are continuing to seek to know the scriptural significance of all the symbols used to inform us of our judgment, and the judgment of all men in the sixth trumpet.

Rev 9:20  And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
Rev 9:21  Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

The rest of the men

8) “The rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues” tells us that God’s wrath is on all our self-righteous, ungodliness, and His Wrath is an ongoing yet incomplete process in which we are “dying daily” and being “crucified with Christ” daily. If we do not believe on Christ and do the things He says then we are not ‘dying daily’ and ‘His wrath abides on us’:

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.  [I am “killed by these plagues… daily”]

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Php 3:12  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, [dying daily and being crucified with Christ daily]
Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Yet repented not of the works of their hands

9) “Yet repented not of the works of their hands” signifies the same ongoing judgment which is upon the self-righteous “worship of devils” and “idols of the heart” with which we struggle for so very long. All of this is leading up to the revelation and the judgment of self- righteous Babylon within us in chapters 17 and 18. It is we who are admonished to “read, hear, and keep the things written therein”:

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

We read and we actually understand those words and yet we struggle every day to apply the Lord’s words of admonition to ourselves instead of all those sinners somewhere ‘out there’

Jeremiah admonishes us:

Jer 2:30  In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. [Our own words condemn us “like a destroying lion”]

Luk 19:22  And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:

Paul admonishes us:

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6  For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: [All men, Eph 2:2, are by nature “the children of disobedience”].
Col 3:7  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

2Pe 2:22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog [is] turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

We all ‘lose or first love’ (Rev 2:4) and “return to [our] own vomit [and our] wallowing in the mire”.

Idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood

10) “Idols of gold, silver, brass, stone and wood” are these very same false convictions with which we struggle, ranging from the false doctrine of salvation through self-righteous good works to “turning grace into lasciviousness”. These are all false doctrines called “idols of the heart.”

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity [self-righteousness, Eze 33:13] before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;

Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
Eze 16:18  And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.
Eze 16:19  My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, [wherewith] I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and [thus] it was, saith the Lord GOD.

“The stumbling block of our iniquity” is our own self-righteousness, the most insidious of sins. Ezekiel defines this phrase for us in:

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity [Believing his righteousness was “his own righteousnesses”] that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

When we fail to believe these following verses, at that moment we become self-righteous:

Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670, ‘helkuo’, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Joh 15:16  Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth [How much clearer can the Lord be?], nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Which neither see, nor hear, nor walk

11) “Which neither see, nor hear, nor walk” is the perfect spiritual description of these self-righteous idols of the heart which have taken away our spiritual sight, our spiritual ears, and therefore our ability to walk in Christ’s  steps and live as Christ lived.

Job 12:25  They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like [a] drunken [man].

Isa 59:12  For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions [are] with us; and [as for] our iniquities, we know them;
Isa 59:13  In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
Isa 59:14  And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
Isa 59:15  Yea, truth faileth; and he [that] departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw [it], and it displeased him that [there was] no judgment.

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and [their] ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with [their] eyes, and hear with [their] ears, and should understand with [their] heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16  But blessed [are] your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And [some] of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth

Neither repented they of their murders

12) “Neither repented they of their murders” signifies both the hatred which is in our hearts for our fellow man, as well as the blasphemous doctrine of a “Christian soldier” being a physical soldier physically fighting for his country.

2Co 10:3  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
2Co 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

1Jn 3:15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

Nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication,

13) Refusing to repent of “…their sorceries, [and] their fornication” signifies the tenacity of the false doctrines of “another Jesus” which cling to us even as we are being judged “in one day… the day of the Lord… the day of His wrath”, and as we are struggling to be free of them, and of the influences of “another Jesus”.

Isa 47:9  But these two [things] shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, [and] for the great abundance of thine enchantments.

2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or [if] ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with [him].

Rev 2:14  But I have a few things against thee (Pergamos), because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.

Rev 2:20  Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee (Thyatira), because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Rev 18:8  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong [is] the Lord God who judgeth her.

Rev 18:23  And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

14) The gold and silver implements of the temple signify the doctrines and thoughts of our Lord:

Rev 9:20  And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
Rev 9:21  Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

“Nor of their thefts” tells us that we have stolen God’s Words and doctrines of gold and silver, and we have twisted them and have perverted them and have used them in that way to cover the idols of our hearts and the doctrines of “another Jesus” signified by all those “idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood”.

Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

Joe 3:5  Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:

These are not physical idols in either Ezekiel, or Joel, or Revelation. These are self-righteous idols of our hearts, made by twisting God’s gold and God’s silver, which signify His Words and His doctrines. These are self-righteous “idols of the heart… images of men” which we have “made to ourselves”, and we commit whoredoms and fornication against our Lord by believing in and living by those self-righteous “idols of the heart.”

Our ‘idols of our hearts’ are always accompanied by “the stumbling block of [our self-righteous] iniquity”:

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

‘Iniquity’ is defined as “trusting to our own righteousness”:

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

That is exactly what every harlot does. Spiritual ‘harlots’ do not perceive themselves as harlots at all. This is what a spiritual harlot always does:

Pro 30:20  Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

A spiritual harlot cannot see that she is spiritually malnourished and naked. Instead, this is how she perceives herself:

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

What this “adulterous woman” is eating is “[her] own bread” while she is dressed in [her] own apparel”, and she really believes that “I have done no wickedness” and she “has need of nothing”, while the spiritual truth is that “thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”.

The whole world is groaning and travailing with us as we are being judged. But there are far more of those men who continue in their self-righteous, rebellious ways and do not repent who will be judged at a later resurrection, the resurrection of the great white throne judgment:

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [G2920, ‘krisis’, judgment].

Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Summary

Here is what we have just seen in the demonstration of the spirit (the Word, Joh 6:63) and of power [the Word, 1Co 2:4).

Mat 22:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

1Co 2:4  And my speech and my preaching [was] not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in [words of the] demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
1Co 2:5  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of [the words of] God.

God’s words are His power. It is our fidelity to His words which empowers us to overcome the adversary and all His lies.

Ecc 8:4  Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?

All these symbols signify what the Lord is doing with His power:

1) An army signifies ongoing spiritual warfare within us all.

2) Men on the horses signify the incredible power and influence of the testimony and doctrines of this vast army which is within us.

3) The number two, as in “two hundred thousand, thousand” tells us  that  that there are myriads of false witnesses to all those false doctrines.

4) The breastplates of fire and of jacinth, and brimstone on the horsemen tell us that we will be judged by the words of our own mouths and by the very doctrines we have been teaching to others.

5) The death of “the third part of men” tells us that we are dealing with the process of judgment upon “the inhabiters of the earth,” upon the house of God first (1Pe 4:17).

6) The fact that the power of these horses is in their mouths, which are “as the mouth of a lion,” instead of coming out of the mouth of the men on the horses, tells us that the horse and his rider are both one and the same beast speaking all the same lying doctrines of demons.

7) “Their power is in their mouth and in their tails” tells us that these are the false doctrines of false prophets with which doctrines we all have been hurt, and from which we are being delivered by the process of judgment which is at this very moment taking place in “the house of God.”

Isa 9:15  The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

8) “The rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues” tells us that God’s wrath is on all ungodliness, and this is an ongoing, yet incomplete process in which we are “dying daily,” and being “crucified with Christ” daily.

9) “Yet repented not of the works of their hands” signifies the same ongoing judgment which is upon the “worship of devils” and “idols of the heart” with which we struggle so very long.

10) “Idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood” are these very same false convictions with which we struggle, ranging from the false doctrine of salvation through good works, to “turning grace into lasciviousness.”

11) “Which neither see, nor hear, nor walk” is the perfect spiritual description of these ‘idols of the heart’ which have taken away our spiritual sight, our spiritual ears, and therefore our ability to walk in Christ’s footsteps and live as Christ lived.

12) “Neither repented they of their murders” signifies the false doctrine of a “Christian soldier” being blessed to be a physical soldier physically fighting for God and country, as well as failing to understand that hatred of one’s fellow man is spiritually the same as murder (1Jn 3:15).

13) “Nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication” both signify the tenacity of the false doctrines of “another Jesus,” which cling to us, even as we struggle to be free of them, and of him.

14) “Nor of their thefts” tells us that we have stolen God’s Words and have twisted them, and have perverted them, and have used them in that way to cover the idols of our hearts, and the doctrines of “another Jesus.”

Next week, Lord willing, we will consider what is the little book in the hand of Christ, and why it is that we are not given the message contained in the voices of the seven thunders.

Rev 10:1  And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow [was] upon his head, and his face [was] as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
Rev 10:2  And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and [his] left [foot] on the earth,
Rev 10:3  And cried with a loud voice, as [when] a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.
Rev 10:4  And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
Rev 10:5  And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,
Rev 10:6  And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
Rev 10:7  But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.