We return to Revelation this morning, and in Revelation we have learned that we have the record of the battle between Satan and King Jesus. And we have seen that King Jesus is in complete control of everyone and everything, including Satan. When various judgments are loosed on this earth, King Jesus rules. When Satan attacks, it is under the limitations that Jesus sets for him. We've seen over and over that during the time between Christ's first and second comings, everything is happening exactly as God has decreed it would happen. And now we're in the section of the trumpets and the judgments that they bring. Those first four trumpets, you recall, brought limited destruction to this earth. It affected one-third of the seas, one-third of the waters, one-third of the vegetation, one-third of the sun and the moon and the stars. All these judgments, of course, have great impact on the human race. But last time, we heard of the fifth trumpet. and its horrible effects, the vision of Satan, Satan falling from heaven and giving the key of the bottomless pit to the abyss, and how he has opened that pit and released demonic forces in the shape of locusts. And we saw their awful power to torment human beings. They could hurt them, but they couldn't kill them. But it would be so bad that people will want to die, but they can't. horrible these demonic torments would be. And the king of these demons and of all their demonic forces is Satan, who we learned last time his name is King Destruction and King Destroyer. That sums up exactly what Satan's work is, to destroy, to destroy all that is good. And yet we saw that these demons could not harm the elect, those who had the seal of God in their foreheads. And all this destruction, all these horrible judgments are poured on the ungodly. But those who fear the Lord and repent of their sins and believe the gospel are not harmed. At the end of chapter 8, We read this, an angel said with a loud voice, woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth. And last time, after the fifth trumpet in chapter nine, verse 12, we read this, one woe is past and behold, there come two more woes hereafter. And children, do you remember what that word woe means in the Bible? Whenever we read that word, woe, it means how terrible it shall be. How terrible it shall be. There's two more of those woes to come and we're going to consider the first one of those two this morning. And we see that the violence, the judgment is increasingly severe. We're also going to see what sets the Lord's people apart from the ungodly. It's pictured so clearly for us this morning in our text, which is Revelation 9, verses 13 through 21. At this time, I'll read just verse 16. This is God's Word. And the number of the army of the horsemen were 200,000,000. And I heard the number of them. Our text is verse 13 through 21. And our theme is 200 million horsemen. We're going to answer three questions this morning. What was their task? And secondly, what was the result among the ungodly? And then thirdly, what sets believers apart from the ungodly? First, what was the task of these 200 million horsemen? Remember that in Revelation, John is receiving revelation in the form of visions. And visions always have symbolism. Things are not always exactly what they seem to be but are representing something else. That's the same that happens this morning. The sixth angel sounded. It means he blew his trumpet. And I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God. Now we've been there before, this golden altar which is before the throne of God, back in chapter 8 and verse 3. Another angel came and stood at the altar having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. That's that same golden altar from which John hears a voice now in this vision. And from chapter 8 we know that the angel who's standing there, so the voice that is now speaking is Jesus, who is purifying all the prayers of the saints. And what is about to happen in John's vision is the reply to the prayers of all the saints, past and present. And what does Jesus say? from the four horns of the golden altar. He said to the sixth angel, which had the trumpet, loose the four angels who are bound in the great river Euphrates. In chapter seven, there were also four angels and they were controlled. They could not hurt the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees until the angels had sealed the servants of God in their foreheads. Those angels were constrained, but these angels in chapter 9, the command of Jesus is clearly given, loosen them. Loosen those four angels who are bound in the great river Euphrates. You remember as we've been going through Revelation, we're trying to hear it as the first readers of these letters would hear it. as the people in the churches, the seven churches in Asia Minor would hear these things. And when they read about the great river Euphrates, what would they think of? They would think, first of all, that the Euphrates formed the border between the nation of Israel and all others. That was one of their borderlines. But they would especially think back to what the prophets wrote. Jeremiah, for example, in chapter 46, verse 10. For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries. And the sword shall devour, and it shall satiate and be made drunk with their blood. For the Lord God of hosts has a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates. That Old Testament prophecies, the river Euphrates refers to the armies of destruction that will come and that did come. Sometimes they came against Israel, sometimes they came through Israel in their way to other nations, but they would hear the great river Euphrates and they would think destruction is coming. The four angels were loosed. When it says the four angels were loosed, it means they were bound and they could not loosen themselves. Someone had to loosen them. And notice again, they can do nothing until they are loosed at the command of King Jesus. These angels were prepared for the hour and day and month and year, for the hour, the exact moment It's listed there down to the very hour. And we know from that that all events in world history are under the ultimate authority of God Almighty. Nothing can happen until His determined hour, until His determined moment. The same with these angels being loosed. But what were they prepared for? What purpose will they serve? What is their task? Their task is to slay the third part of men, to kill one-third of the human race. That was the appointed task of these four wicked angels, to kill one-third of all people. But how are they going to carry out that task? They're going to do it by means of horsemen. And suddenly our attention is drawn away from those four angels to an army. Verse 16, the number of the army of the horsemen, so we're talking about military powers out to wage war, were two hundred thousand thousand, and I heard the number of them. In Greek it is ten thousands of ten thousands. Two hundred million it comes to. It's a symbolic number. an overwhelming amount, an innumerable multitude of these horsemen. And just to remind us of the symbolism John tells us in verse 17, Thus I saw the horses in the vision. In his vision. And then that sat on them having breastplates of fire and of Jason and brimstone. Children, those breastplates were protective armor that was worn around the chests. of horses and of men, perhaps both in this case. But the colors here are also symbolic. Fire adjacent that is an orangey, smoky red gemstone and brimstone, sulfur, colors depicting burning and flames. and smoke, much like we had last time from the abyss. And again, we see before us these hideous, terrifying creatures, beasts of warfare. The heads of those horses were like the heads of lions, reminding us also of last week, the locusts had teeth like lions. And out of those horses' mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. 200 million fire-breathing horses. I can only mean the disasters of war. It's especially true when we remember who their king and leader is. King Destruction, Satan himself. By these three was the third part of men killed by the fire, by the smoke, and by the brimstone which issued out of their mouths. Those three plagues are connected. One third of the human population was to be killed by them by means of war. There have always been wars, even before Christ came. But since he came, until this very moment, there's always been a war going on somewhere in the world. Some have been little, some have been huge. To give you two examples from World War I, 17 million people killed. World War II, more than 60 million people killed. I know that wasn't one-third of the world population at the time, but those things all add up. And remember, the one-third is symbolic. It is a number that it is limited. That's the limitations of those military forces. They could go no further. They can do no more harm than what God permits. And that's all. Their power is in their mouths and in their tails. The power of those 200 million fire-breathing horses is in their mouths and in their tails. No matter what side you see them from, they are destruction. That's with war too, no matter what side you look at war from. It means casualties. It means destruction. Their tails were like unto serpents. and had heads, and with them they do hurt." We can imagine such a horrible looking creature, striking terror into people, have destructive powers, but limited power, limited to one-third, but only one-third. It cannot kill the other two-thirds. And remember that in Chapter 9, Those killed are the ungodly, non-believers, God-haters. Now the other two-thirds see this happening. They see one-third of their fellow human beings killed. And what will the rest of the ungodly do when they see this? That's our second question this morning. What was the result among the ungodly? Verse 20. And the rest of the men who 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 of wood, which neither can see nor hear nor walk. the rest did not repent, despite seeing all around them the death of man. The Greek word plage here refers to administering blows, and in this case, God Almighty administering blows. Even when the ravages of war destroy one-third of the population, the rest of them were desensitized to it. And we can see how that happens, because it happens to us too these days. We've all heard of the wars. We've heard of terrorist attacks. We've heard of genocides going on. We've heard rumors of war and we get used to it. We take it all in stride. Oh, that's just something happening on the news. Something happening somewhere else that doesn't affect us. Yet God uses all kinds of disasters to call human beings to their senses. Yes, He uses wars to do that. but also natural disasters. He uses cemeteries, obituaries, all calls from God. Even excessive rainfalls and flooding in certain areas of the country are meant to draw all of our attention to God Himself. But in our text, those ungodly ones do not repent of their idolatry. Despite the repeated serious warnings, they just carry on hardening their hearts, worshipping the devils and their idols. And remember, we heard just a few weeks ago, covetousness is idol worship. How foolish we are by nature. Rather worshipping the works of our own hands, rather worshiping ourselves than bowing down before God, our Creator, exalting ourselves instead of exalting God. They did not repent. They continued on like nothing happened. In verse 21 that's repeated, neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. They just kept right on living in sin just like they always had. Breaking God's ten commandments with impunity as if sin is no big deal. Two times it says, they did not repent. And that means they just carried on as is, no matter how serious the callings were, they did not repent. In fact, we may believe the harder their hearts became, the more set in their ways, the more purposely they refused to repent. to the ungodly among us this morning. By ungodly I mean people who are not trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of their souls. Not believing the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Those going on in your own way. Not saying it, but living it. Who cares what God says or what God does? What will it take to bring you to your senses? Not only do you see all around that death is coming for you too, you will not escape it, but you also have the gospel proclaimed to you, Lord's Day after Lord's Day, that the free offer of Christ Jesus to sinful people like us, and you still persist. in hardening your hearts and not repenting. You just go on sinning without a care in the world. You know what's happened? Satan has blinded you. That's what the Apostle Paul says. And if you continue in this refusal to repent, that at the judgment day, you must take full responsibility for your deeds. You've now heard six trumpets blowing their warnings. And the warning is judgment is coming. Judgment is really coming. Repent and believe. And all the judgments everywhere in the world are designed to call all sinners to repentance, and to faith, and to conversion, and to a new life. But when hardened sinners ignore the trumpet calls, they will have no one to blame but themselves. Even if one-third of the world's population were wiped out by war today, the calls can come so close and so seriously, yet without repentance. I know of a man who is now a Christian, was brought up in a Christian home, attended a Bible-teaching church, and yet lived like a heathen person, worshiping the gods of self and lust and pleasure, And then four of his closest friends were murdered. And yet he escaped. He was spared. Yet instead of repenting, he hardened his heart and rebelled against God Almighty and continued in sin even worse than before. This text was written of him. He repented not. He repented not. And God would have been perfectly just and right to leave that man to self-destruct. And God would be perfectly right to leave the ungodly among us to self-destruct too. But you know what God does instead? He comes with gospel words, gospel words, gospel of Jesus kind of words. So our message to the ungodly in this crowd and our message, dear believers, to the ungodly out there is Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye and believe the gospel. Instead of coming, damning us to hell right now, which would be perfectly right, he comes with the gospel call. And he tells us in Luke 15, there is joy in the presence of God. over one sinner who repents. Will that one sinner be you today? Thomas Watson has a wonderful little book, The Doctrine of Repentance, and I'll just quote you one little sentence from it. Tomorrow may be our dying day. Let today be our repenting day. That makes sense? Tomorrow may be our dying day. Let today be our repenting day. So the result among the ungodly was they did not repent. Now what sets believers apart from the ungodly? What makes them to differ? We'll answer that in our third question after we sing 397, verses 1 through 4. O Lord, Thou art my God and King, and I will ever bless Thy name. I will extol Thee every day, and evermore Thy praise proclaim. The first four verses, 397. I quoted Mark chapter 1 verse 14, Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, verse 15, saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Now what sets believers apart from the ungodly? We notice the ungodly do not repent. but believers do repent and do believe the gospel. In connection with our text from Revelation and the Lord's Supper coming up next Lord's Day, I want to take our remaining time to focus on repentance and to ask ourselves some questions. What is repentance? And how does a sinner repent? The Greek word means to change your mind. The word repentance means a change of mind. The noun means turning or changing your mind. And as a result of that mind being changed, there is a change of life. But children, why do we need to change our minds? What are we doing wrong if we need to change our minds. Well, our minds are corrupt since the fall. And by nature we think way too highly of ourselves. Our self-esteem is way too high. And we think too lowly of our God. Our God-esteem is way too low. We think too highly of our righteousnesses. and we think too lowly of God's righteousness. In fact, by nature, we think wrongly about everything that the Word of God teaches. That's why we need to have our minds changed. That's why we need a Holy Spirit-worked repentance. By grace, We repent. When Jesus said in his first sermon that he ever preached, the first word in his first sermon was repent, he meant it. He still means it. When we think of repentance, we know that there is an initial repentance. When for the very first time, we begin to think biblically about sin, Sin as an offense against a holy and a righteous and a pure and a just God. We begin to think of sin as worthy of extreme punishment. Yes, the death penalty for sin. We begin to think of sin biblically as something from which we can never escape its consequences on our own. So in repentance we begin to think of ourselves as scripture describes us, totally depraved. In every part of our lives, depraved in our minds, our wills, our emotions. That's what repentance does. And then in repentance, we begin to think biblically about God, the just God, the law of God, the holiness of God. And our minds begin to think biblically about God who cannot let my sin go unpunished. This God who must be just or He's not God anymore. And in repentance my mind is being changed about God and I begin to think of Him as being always perfectly right in everything He says or does. And I begin to think that if I'm ever going to be saved from my sin, then He must do it, because I can't. And under the working of the Holy Spirit, blessing the Word of God, I begin to think biblically about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not just a man in the Bible. not just a good man who did those beautiful miracles and who told those wonderful parables, not just a good moral teacher, but I begin to think of Him as an absolutely necessary Savior for me, an absolutely necessary mediator for me. I begin to think biblically of Jesus. My mind and my soul and my heart begin to see Him as so suitable, so worthy of honor, so worthy of my love. And I begin to think biblically of Jesus as exactly my Savior for me. And by the Holy Spirit, Blessing and applying the Word of God, my mind is changed and my will is changed. And now I want to do what is right according to God's Word. I want to do what is acceptable and pleasing to this God. In repentance, I begin to desire to obey the Ten Commandments. And I actually do begin to obey. Not perfectly. No, I learned that lesson very quickly. Perfection is not to be attained here. It's always imperfect. And yet desiring, desiring that perfection, and striving to serve, and in all this time learning my mind being changed, that Christ's perfect obedience is imputed to me, put onto my account, so that in all the struggles of this life, in all the struggles of faith and repenting and sanctification, I may know the Lord God sees me as perfect. in Christ Jesus. So, contrary to the ungodly who do not repent, a believer or a godly person is a person who has repented, whose mind is changed. Not just was changed, but is being changed. And as a result of seeing his life changing and being conformed to Christ's image, that believer is also a person who is daily repenting, because he still daily sins. So he has to come daily confessing his sin before God, daily returning to God in repentance, daily in prayer, So that's what sets believers apart from the ungodly is that the ungodly do not repent, but believers do repent. Now, many believers do not know of that initial repentance. They can't pinpoint a time where they say, well, that's the first time I repented right then and there. But they do know that in their daily lives, They are repenting. And that's the important matter. Not if you know the exact moment when that started, but whether you are doing it. Whether you are living this life of repentance. And that every believer will have to acknowledge, yes, my mind is still being changed. as it is more and more conformed to the thoughts of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible. As I'm being conformed to the image of Christ, my mind is being changed as I see more and more of my sin over time. And I see more and more of God's glory. And I see more and more of Christ's grace. My mind is being changed to see that more and more I need the Holy Spirit to lead me, to guide me, to instruct me, to influence me, to enable me. And sometimes, isn't it true, dear believer, we grieve that we don't repent more sincerely. Let me remind you of something. that can be so liberating for a believer. That when Jesus commands us to repent, that same Jesus gives that repentance. So Acts 5 verse 31 should be one of your foundational texts in your life. God has exalted Jesus with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. That means we can come daily back to Jesus and say, oh Lord Jesus, give me repentance again today. Because dear friends, the Christian life Living out of the fullness of Christ consists of believing and repenting. We need Christ for believing and for repenting. We need Christ's perfect sacrifice for our faith life. We are justified by faith, declared righteous by faith. We need Christ's perfect sacrifice. But we also need Christ's perfect obedience for our repenting life in sanctification. We need both. Yes, the good news is Jesus came to die on the cross for sinners, but that's only, that's half of the good news. The other half is he came to live a perfect life of obedience. So that could be imputed to those same sinners. And all believers are called to repentance. and faith whenever the gospel is proclaimed. So my dear friend, it is inconsistent to say you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ when you know nothing of repenting, when repentance has no place in your life. A credible profession is one that is matched with a life of repentance. When we believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, we also believe the need for repentance. Dear believers, next Lord's Day, at the Lord's table, there is a place for imperfect ones. for imperfect believers whose faith at times is so wobbly, so feeble, so weak and strained and under attack. At the Lord's table, there's a place for imperfect repenters. If our repentance was perfect, we'd never have to do it again, right? But we have to do it every day. Isn't the truth something we say, what, that same sin again? I repented of it last week and now I've done it again. Oh Lord, help me. There's room at the Lord's table for needy sinners with incomplete faith and imperfect repentance. If you think that you have to be complete and perfect to attend the Lord's table, you've got it all wrong. It's exactly because the Lord Jesus Christ is complete and perfect that He invites imperfect ones and incomplete ones to His table so He can strengthen your faith. And a final matter, if there are matters of contentions between believers, We need to repent of that too. Take it to the Lord and say, oh Lord God, give me the repentance that I need in this matter. And Lord, show me where I need to repent. And maybe in this week some of us need to go to a fellow believer and confess I've wronged you. Will you forgive me? You know the circumstances where that may be needed. Make it right, my friends, make it right, because then next week we can have communion with the Lord and with each other, knowing that we have done what we could to live in peace. 200 million horsemen. whose task was to kill one third of the world's population. And the effect on the ungodly was they did not repent. And the difference between the godly and the ungodly is that by God's grace, they do repent. Amen. Let's pray. Oh Lord, our God, Thy word has come to us again this morning. Lord, we have trembled at thy word when we read of the 200 million horsemen of war that has raged in this earth for thousands of years. Lord, we tremble when we think that the ungodly do not repent. Oh, Lord God, we pray for them, also the ungodly among us, Oh, Lord Jesus, you would give them that repentance and be with thy people. Strengthen our faith. Strengthen our repentance. Lord, we acknowledge it. It is all imperfect. It's all incomplete. We're but miserable sinners. And yet we look to Christ Jesus. To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words. everlasting life. Feed our souls, Lord, with the bread of life. Bless us further today. Bring us safely back here this afternoon. Pray for the Gomez family as the three girls will be baptized this afternoon. Lord, bless them, bless us, grant us to rejoice together at the amazing leadings and dealings of the Lord in our lives. Lord, we pray that you would forgive our sins of this worship service. Sins in speaking, sins in listening, sins in thinking. Blot them out, oh Lord, in the precious blood of our beloved son, Jesus Christ. Amen.