Corona Chronicles - Crown of Gold

Okay. Hello, and welcome back to the Corona Chronicles, where we're looking through the book of Revelation. Last time we were looking at the fifth angel who blew the trumpet in chapter 9. And as a result, the shaft of the abyss was unlocked and this kind of cloud came out and it ensured chaos on the earth. But we saw in that that even in that, God is still in control, and this is only happening as he allows it to happen.

The power that these sort of dark forces, satanic forces had was given to them by God. So we're still under god's sovereignty here. And that was the first woe, first of 3 woes, and we're about to read the next woe starting from verse 13. The sixth angel sounded his trumpet and I heard a voice coming from the 4 horns of the golden altar that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, release the 4 angels who are bound the Great River euphrates.

And the 4 angels who'd 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 twice 10000 times 10000. 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 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 by the 3 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 who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands. They did not stop worshipping 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. Yeah. I mean, you can get really bogged down in revelation, and you've gotta be careful because this is imagery. It's called apocalyps it's called apocalyps you know, language. It's a bit like when you see 1 of those scenes in Lord of the Rings.

Where there's, you know, millions and millions of orcs coming over the hill. Mhmm. If you froze that, on your TV and then counted, you know, the fifth row back and the third walk in. And you said, why is he blue and the others are green? It's not the point to.

So you gotta be careful of the the details here. It's the imagery. Mhmm. And try to get the whole thing before you worry about every specific detail. Yeah.

And largely, you've got this this we've already seen that God allows these angels to blow these trumpets that bring a third of devastation in everything. And it's almost before a third of mankind -- Mhmm. -- man being made in the image of God. You've got to go back to the throne room again, haven't you? And say and he's got to give permission -- Right.

-- for the fifth angel to blow his trumpet that releases 4 angels. Trying to keep that. To actually destroy mankind. Yeah. So it's it's again sort of showing us we've gotta keep going back.

God is in control. Even of these evils that are going on, God will allow this to happen for his own glory -- Mhmm. -- which you see at the end of the book obviously. Yeah. Yeah.

And we and we've had, as you said, we've had a third of the earth. A third of the sea, a third of the sky, and now a third of mankind. There does seem to be It's ramping up. But there there were these warnings before we got this point. Mhmm.

And this ends here in verse 20 and verse 21. The rest they didn't repent. So the whole point of this is to try and get them to repent. Yeah. And and again, it it mirrors exodus, doesn't it?

In that these plagues first came and affected the world, and eventually affected the deaths of of people, but it was the last sort of resort to to try and give them time and and give them opportunities to repent before it it got to that. Yeah. And I and I guess, you know, I mean, the thing is that the the in in the history of of mankind, you know, there have been plagues that have wiped out literally a third and sometimes a half. So some of the plagues in many evil times in Europe, the third of Europe, died. Yeah.

And we're living in a time where we've never known this in our lifetime with whole world is shut down through a virus that is terrible, obviously, but it's not killing a third. Even with all of our shutdown, are we listening? Are we listening? So still I haven't heard on on our media that are talking about how we can be rescued from COVID and it's just sort of stay at home and look after yourself and look after the NHS There's no call to repentance, is there? Mhmm.

I I mean, you don't It's just as if God doesn't exist. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But we but we still see God very much at work here.

Don't we? Because as as strong as this I mean, a lot of detail is given here to describe the horses and the riders and their and their armor, and and how much power that they have. But we see that at the beginning of this, that they're bound, that as strong as they are -- Yeah. -- God binds them and they're only released at a specific hour in a specific day of a specific month, for a specific year. Yeah.

So no matter how kind of big and scary and numerous, I mean, 10000 twice times 10000 is a ridiculous number. But that number is because it was was was bound by God. Yeah. But in order to get us to repent. Yeah.

I mean, it that's what it's all about, as you say. And and yet what happens is they it says in verse 12, the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues. So, you know, the ones that are still alive still did not repent of the work of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood and idles that cannot see or hear or walk. I mean, it's extraordinary.

I mean, 1 of the national religious men. In this crisis has still been talking about plastic and and how plastic destroys the planet. Now I'm not saying that's a I'm not belittling the idea of clearing up plastic. But is that all he can talk about -- Mhmm. -- is rescuing the planet from plastic in days where people are asking questions about life and death.

Mhmm. We just returned to our idols and and that's an extraordinary thing. Yeah. And it's it's extraordinary that in a world that is being torn apart by demons, people would worship them. Like, what?

Why? And also, gold silver bronze stone and wood, these things are, they can't see, they can't hear, they can't walk. They're absolutely useless. So why on earth are they turning to them. It doesn't really you you wanna in a situation like this, you wanna turn to a God who who can do something about it.

Yeah. And then the end verse 21, nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their theft? Mhmm. I mean, you've seen, I'm sure, the amount of scams that are going around -- Yeah. -- pretending to be the government, pretending to be about COVID you know, 19 pretending to theft is still going on.

Yeah. The the people are knocking on doors and saying I've come to take money off the elderly. That's going on. The sexual immorality going on. The murder that's going on.

Yeah. So in this week, we've even heard that the rescue operations for domestic abuse. You know, the phone calls have gone up 25 percent. So still there's murder, still there's magic art, still there's sexual immorality -- Mhmm. -- going on and still there's theft.

When will we listen? Yeah. Yeah. You know, death is at the door and God is saying, turn to Christ, the 1 who beat death. Mhmm.

So, you know, I think that's what this passage is saying. Yeah. And you do you do desperately want resolution to this, don't you? Yeah. We're on we're on the second whoa.

But we've had this the the sixth trumpets blown. We've had all the seals opened. That's a little bit like when you you were preaching through this, you talked about this. Picture of like an old western film and and the the the sort of the damsel in distress is tied up on the track and there's a train coming. Yeah.

And it's getting closer and things seem to be getting worse and worse and worse and and we know that in the distance, the hero is is on its way. And I think that that's what we're hungering for here, isn't it? Yeah. We would want someone to step in now and and that's our next 1. So you must tune in.

For chapter 10.