Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #31 of Revelation, chapter 9, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 9:17:
And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
We were discussing “brimstone” the last time we got together and I want to continue a little bit longer to look at “brimstone,” and two interesting things about how God uses it.
But, before we do that, let us just notice that the “breastplates” which we saw last time identify with Christ. He is our “breastplate” of righteous, of love and faith, of iron (as it said earlier in Revelation 9), or of “fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone.”
Notice that it mentions three things and the number “three” points to the purpose of God and it is repeated at the end of the verse, concerning the horses: “and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.” Again, three things are mentioned, and if we move on to Revelation 9:18, it says: “By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.” So God is making a very strong emphasis here on the number “three.” He even says, “By these three was the third part of men killed.” That is letting us know this is God’s purpose.
Things have not caromed way out of God’s control where God’s will is no longer being accomplished on this earth; it may appear that way and maybe things may just seem insane. How insane it is that gay marriage is now the norm and if you do not accept marriage between men or marriage between women, then that is a “moral issue” with you – you have some deep-seated problem; you are the one being immoral. That is just incredibly strange, not only because of what the Word of God says in the Bible, but it is even strange for the world. The world has been operating for over 13,000 years and for all of that time, except for the last few decades, homosexuality has been an evil thing – it has been something that was against all law and all custom and all tradition and against the morals of all societies in the world. But, now, people look at you as if you are “off” and you are doing something wrong because you believe marriage should be only between a man and a woman. Yet, it is God’s will and God’s purpose, according to Romans 1, to “give them up” in the Day of Judgment. Now this “giving up” and “turning over” to wickedness began during the Great Tribulation period, but it has just magnified and increased during the time of Judgment Day in the world.
Yet, God is letting us know: “What you were seeing in the churches was not people going contrary to my will, but it was my will to loose Satan to bring judgment upon the churches and congregations. That is why there was falling over backwards and speaking in tongues and holy laughter. That is why they lost sight of truth and they could not find the door – spiritual blindness engulfed them and the darkness of judgment overtook them. Likewise, when you are seeing these things in the world, it is because it is a time of wrath, a time of fire and brimstone and a time I am judging the inhabitants of the earth. If those in the churches lost sight of truth and lost sight of what is right and wrong – what is good and evil – why would you expect the people of the world (that never had any identification with me except for what was written on their hearts) not to go far astray? Darkness has overcome the earth – a deep darkness like what overtook Egypt, a darkness which may be felt – and you can be sure this is my purpose.”
So we see the number “three” in view in Revelation 9:17-18, as God is really comforting His people and encouraging us. Things are not “out of control,” and they have not gone beyond God’s ability to retain control. Remember when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and then turned over into the hand of the Romans. Why did that happen? It was by God’s determinate fore council. It was the will of God that the Lord Jesus Christ suffer and die and demonstrate what He had done in making payment for sin from the foundation of the world.
So it was God’s will to show us that this was the case. Time, and again, in the Gospel accounts, God gave us the number “three.” There were three crosses, three people upon the crosses, and three times Jesus went to beseech the Lord that the cup might pass from Him, and so on. The number “three” appears everywhere. Even then, it could have seemed that the will of God had been overcome – man has been conquered; Satan has been victorious: “Look, the Messiah, the one we had trusted to be our deliverer is on the cross. He has been put to death. He has died.” God allowed this and permitted this and it all happened according to His perfect will and, yet, it gave the appearance of the enemy prevailing and the enemy winning.
Likewise, on May 21, 2011, God allowed and permitted it to happen exactly as it did, so that there would be an “appearance” of failure and an “appearance” of defeat. There was an “appearance” that God’s elect (who had trusted His Word and they had even said, ‘The Bible Guarantees It.”) had misplaced their trust because it had not happened, or come to pass. as the Bible had seemingly locked it in. Yet, this was all according to the plan and will of God. It was His purpose.
So these verses, here, comfort us and assure us that this is what is going on in the Day of Judgment, as the number “three” is being emphasized to indicate the purpose of God in these matters.
As our verse says, they had “breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone,” and there is one other thing I want to mention before we go on to discuss brimstone in more detail, and that is the word “jacinth.” We understand “fire and brimstone,” as we have been discussing that and it is mentioned frequently in the Bible, and we are very familiar with that kind of language indicating the “wrath of God.” But why do the 200 million horsemen have breastplates of “jacinth?” We understand the “fire and brimstone,” but why “jacinth?” This Greek word that is translated as “jacinth” is only found one other place in the Bible. It is in Revelation 21:19-20:
And the foundations of the wall of the city< em>were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.
Here, we find the word “jacinth,” and it is the eleventh stone. It is called a precious stone and the “first foundation” was “jasper,” so of these foundations of the wall of the city, “jacinth” is one of them. We know that the city in view, in Revelation 21, is “heavenly Jerusalem,” or New Jerusalem that came down from heaven, and that New Jerusalem is a picture God is giving of His elect. It is a “city” built and compact together and comprised only of God’s elect people, so the “jacinth” identifies with the City of God made up of God’s elect. There are certainly no liars or thieves or murderers or adulterers or idolaters that are a part of that city – there are no emissaries of Satan that are a part of that city. The “jacinth” identifies with the elect and so, too, as we have been stating and restating, as we go through Revelation 9, the “locusts” identify with God’s elect and the “200 million” also identify with God’s elect. They are all God’s elect, just like the New Jerusalem is comprised of all of God’s elect.
So we are not surprised that they have “breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone.” Of course, the “breastplate” refers to Christ and Christ is the “one foundation,” and the believers are in Christ and, therefore, God can speak of us as being “foundations” only as we are in Him.
So we are one in Christ and, somehow, that relates to these “breastplates.” We wonder why God would pick this word (jacinth)…and is it not amazing how God has written the Bible? When He chooses words like this and He picks a word that is only found one other place in the Bible and it identifies with the spiritual city of the elect and He places it in a verse that relates to “200 million” going forth in the Day of Judgment, as Christ judges the world with the saints, and we can only stand amazed and wonder how God perfectly chooses each word in the Bible. He places it perfectly and strategically in the place He would have it, to lead us and direct us, as He fully expects and demands of us: that we would go to that other place in the Scripture to gain further insight and understanding concerning a word which helps us in the verse we are looking at. In case anyone is struggling to understand the “200 million” horsemen to be a representation of all God’s elect, God inserts the word “jacinth” that, likewise, identifies with all of God’s elect in Revelation 21, to assist us in coming to the proper conclusion of who is in view in Revelation 9:17.
Again, it says in Revelation 9:17:
And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone…
Of course, “brimstone” is a word that we saw, based upon Isaiah 30, identifies with the Word of God and I want to read this verse again. This would be a verse that God gives (as He does with many words) as a “defining verse,” a verse given to help us to define a spiritual term. In this case, the word is “brimstone.” Why does brimstone fall from heaven? Remember, God likens the rain from heaven, in Isaiah 55:10-11, to His Word: “For as the rain cometh down… So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.” Then God uses the word for “rain” to speak of “fire and brimstone,” and we will see that as we look at a couple of verses later on. Why does He do this? It is because “fire and brimstone” points to the Word of God. To say it another way, when God sent forth “rain” as a blessing, it was rain as the “dew of heaven” or rain to bring the water of the Gospel upon this dry earth, spiritually.
The “rain” came, both the early and the “latter rain.” The “latter rain” produced a crop of fruit, just as the early rain did. The fruit pointed to those that God saved through the hearing of His Word. So the “latter rain” fell from heaven during the time of the Great Tribulation, simultaneous with (about) the last seventeen years of the Great Tribulation; the “latter rain” fell beginning September 7, 1994, through May 21, 2011, and then the Great Tribulation concluded and the “latter rain” ceased to fall. Once the Great Tribulation ended, so, too, did the “latter rain.” That is why “immediately after the tribulation of those days” the sun was darkened and the moon did not give her light; it was because the “rain” ended and the light of the Gospel went out.
Then began Judgment Day, May 21, 2011, and these days after that tribulation, but did the “rain” conclude totally? Is God no longer sending forth rain? Remember, in the flood account, in the seventeenth day of the second month (in Noah’s 600th year), God sent “rain” for forty days and forty nights, but that was not beneficial rain, even though it did not harm those in the ark and they were lifted up by it. But those that were in the ark were already in the ark when the rain came on the seventeenth day of the second month and the rain did not cause them to enter into the ark – they were already in the ark. That ark typified the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation, so all to be saved were (already) saved; there were eight souls in the safety of the ark when the rain came and destroyed all of the wicked – all unsaved people on the entire earth outside of the ark. It was forty days and forty nights of rain, but it was destroying and drowning the unsaved people of the world until their death, so God likens the “rain” there to judgment.
But God also uses a typical word for “rain” to speak of raining down “fire and brimstone” from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as in other places in the Bible. Why does He do that? Well, let me read Isaiah 30:33:
For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of JEHOVAH, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.
God’s breath is “like a stream of brimstone.” The breath of JEHOVAH can only be a reference to the Word of God. Remember, it says in 2 Timothy 3:16:
All scripture is given by inspiration of God…
If you were to look up the Greek words that are translated as “inspiration,” you will find it is a compound word – two words put together – which, literally, are translated as “God breathed.” All Scripture is “God breathed,” so that makes this statement in Isaiah 30:33 highly significant and important, as God is saying, “the breath of JEHOVAH,” because that is the Bible: the Bible is “God breathed” and, therefore, Isaiah 30:33 says: “The breath of JEHOVAH, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.” No wonder it was said to “rain down” upon Sodom and Gomorrah, because it came from God; it came from heaven; it came from above, just as the Word of God cometh down from heaven as the rain, according to Isaiah 55. Yet, that instance was for the day of salvation, but for the Day of Judgment, it is the same Word – the same Bible – and nothing has been added or subtracted.
That same Word was once able to open rivers of water in desert places and that same Word was once a stream of mercy that went forth as the “latter rain” to cover the earth with abundant water so that a great multitude would be saved. But as soon as that time ended, according to God’s calendar that He placed in the Bible, and as soon as Judgment Day came and He stopped sending forth the Gospel “rain” to save, immediately the water was transformed and changed into “fire and brimstone” falling from heaven – it was changed into that which was not meant for “good” to unsaved man, but meant for the destruction of the sinners and the ruination of the rebels and the complete end of (unsaved) mankind’s hope. God has been doing that since May 21, 2011 – He has been raining “fire and brimstone” from heaven.
Well, there were two things I wanted to look at. One of them was that “fire and brimstone” are said to “rain down,” and I would encourage you to look at verses where it is stated several times that God uses the word “rain” in connection with “fire and brimstone.”
The second thing is to notice who it is that identifies with “fire and brimstone,” and I will quickly read our verse again in Revelation 9:17:
And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
Then it is repeated, again, in verse 18: “fire, smoke and brimstone.” Now who identifies with “fire and brimstone” in the Bible? Does Satan identify with “fire and brimstone?” Does he identify with “fire, smoke and brimstone,” or “fire, jacinth and brimstone?” No – he absolutely does not. There is no way that Satan identifies with “fire, smoke and brimstone.” He would like to because he wants to be like God and God gave him a “little trinket” of a sign, of a working wonder, during the time that the beast was loosed. God allowed him to give the appearance of “calling down fire from heaven,” in the form of individuals “falling over backwards.” We will not get into that, but that is all the Bible permitted Satan; he was somehow allowed (probably supernaturally) to cause people to fall over backwards and they call it “being slain in the spirit,” and they see it as a sign coming down from above. By the way, “calling down fire from heaven” does not mention “fire and brimstone.” When we read of “fire and brimstone” in the Bible, it is always God’s doing and never Satan’s doings. Let me read some of these verses. It says in Genesis 19:24:
Then JEHOVAH rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from JEHOVAH out of heaven;
JEHOVAH rained “brimstone and fire” upon them, not Satan.
Again, speaking of God, it says in Psalm 11:6:
Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
Then speaking of His wrath upon Gog and Magog, God says in Ezekiel 38:21-23:
And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord JEHOVAH: every man's sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am JEHOVAH.
Who sends the “fire and brimstone”? God does. It is never Satan. It also says in Luke 17:29:
But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
Of course, this relates to Genesis 19, where it was the Lord who did it. Then it says in Revelation 14:10:
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
We could read a few more verses in Revelation that speak of “fire and brimstone” and those that are cast into it, and God is doing the casting. We see that Satan and his emissaries, the wicked and the unsaved, are never the ones that are bringing the “fire and brimstone,” but they are the targets or objects of the “fire and brimstone.”