The Sixth Angel
Notes
Transcript
If you have your Bibles, please turn to Revelation 9:13-14
The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
As we dive back into the book of Revelation, I apologize for the delay in getting back into the book. However sometimes we need to address the real world from the pulpit. But I wanted to put up a review as we have covered a lot of ground of the last few months and we are going to finish up chapter 9 today. We are still in the tribulation period of revelation. If you look at the simple slide on the screens these are the different relationships. The 7th sealed unlocked the trumpets, and the 7th trumpets will unlock the bowls. We find ourselves on the 6th trumpet today. If you remember a couple of weeks ago we looked at the locusts and the unleashing of satan on the world. As we dive into more judgement on the world. These are difficult passages. We cannot shy away from the difficult passages. This is the truth of God and the truth of the world. It is the word of God, it is the most accurate historical record of the world. It is also the most honest assesment of humanity ever written.
One thing I want to touch on before we dive is one of the benefits of the Holy Spirit that I do not hear covered very often.
And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.
Paul is talking about the antichrist and talking about evil. Over and over again the Bible states that revelation will be like nothing the world has ever seen before. While lawlessness is at work today and we can see that at work. The Holy Spirit is actually holding back the full force of lawlessness. Now the area of Revelation that we are in is when all will be revealed in terms of how bad and evil things can actually get in the world. This is another reason why the tribulation period has not come yet.
The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
Now we go back to revelation and the four angels are bound at the great river Euphrates. All of these details are important. First we know that these angels are not angels that follow the Lord. No where in the scriptures are holy angels bound. So we can conclude that these four angels are in fact demons.
And the four angels who had 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 ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.
These four demons have been held for the exact moment and now they will usher in a final military conflict that the world has never seen before. If you do the math it will result in around 200 million troops. Now again you must always look at your view of the Bible when you read the Bible. Many teachers of the Bible do not take this as a literal number. We must trust God and trust the Word of God. If this is the number then this is the number. Either way you look at it. This is a overwhelming military force. Now here is where it does get interesting especially as we are going to look at the book of Daniel. Now years ago, Time magazine reported in May of 1965 that China claimed to have an army of 200 million troops.
But now we move to Daniel 11:42-45
He will extend his power over many countries; Egypt will not escape. He will gain control of the treasures of gold and silver and all the riches of Egypt, with the Libyans and Cushites in submission. But reports from the east and the north will alarm him, and he will set out in a great rage to destroy and annihilate many. He will pitch his royal tents between the seas at the beautiful holy mountain. Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.
In the book of Daniel it is prophesied that a great invasion will happen. There are lots of debate of which countries are the invading countries. While we can speculate on that and it is fun to debate. If we look at the states of the militaries all around the world it isn’t that difficult to come up with 200 million troops. It also isn’t that difficult to see an invading force move into the area.
Now I am sorry to get a little nerdy on you, I hardly ever use maps but this is important to show how this can happen. We have set up dams up and down the Euphrates rivers which is how this great army will cross. Well because of all of these dams up and down the river at different times of the year there are times of the year when the river bed is actually dried up.
Again the groundwork is being laid for all of this to happen. These are conspiracy theories, this is looking at the world with a Biblical worldview.
The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as 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 three 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.
This is another devastating judgement on the world. The fourth seal that we covered back in Chapter 6 verses 7 and 8 a fourth of the people were killed. Now we have a third of the people being killed. Just these 2 judgements alone would account for half the earth’s population. These are tough truths of the Bible. We cannot take verses like these and skip them or try to soften their blow. This is what has been foretold. This is what has been given to us by the Lord. This is why following God is so important because we must practice what Jesus told us to practice. Because this is God’s judgement on the world. This is true and righteous judgement from the Lord and not from man.
One side note, many people have taken the view of modern warfare and these horses could be tanks or armored vehicles. Again this is interesting to debate and talk about however the results is the same it is utterly devastating to the world.
For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.
We go back to the words of Jesus. He tells everyone that this is what is going to happen. And the only reason that satans days are cut short is because Jesus comes back.
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 worshiping 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.
In my opinion this is the toughest part of all of it. Despite everything people still did not repent. This is why it is so important to understand just how blinding sin is. We have to keep our hearts open to the Word of God because if we do not then sin will rule over us to the point that we cannot even see the judgement of God let alone the love of God. We are still to this very day struggling with the warning that the Lord gave to Cain
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
It desires to have you, Jesus came to give us the greatest freedom in the world and that is freedom from sin. The notion that we can control sin is outrageous and as a person that tried to do it for a very long time, it cannot be done. The only thing that can be done is accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Here is your moment of free will, this question that God asks Cain. There is the way of Jesus and there is sin. It really is that simple.
Instead of dealing with the truth we minimize sin and we rationalize sin. and the truth is that it keeps your from God and it keeps you from who God wants you to be.
“It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the light and out into the nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to hell is the gradual one — the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”
— C.S. Lewis , The Screwtape letters
The indulgence of one sin opens the door to further sins. The indulgence of one sin diverts the soul from the use of those means by which all other sins should be resisted.
John Owen (Puritan Divine and Statesman)
We must treat sin as sin. It honestly is that simple because the result in our lives and in our collective lives is to great. There was no sin in the garden and there is no sin at the end. Sin causes nothing but destruction every single time without fail.
I want to end on a high note
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
When we submit our lives to God , when we actively draw near to God then God comes near to us. When we resist the devil, he flees. We need to keep our hearts pure and minds focused on the Lord. When we are double minded we are not able to fully follow the Lord. It cannot be both ways, and by the way it could never be that way. You could never be of the world and of the Lord. And so We close out chapter 9, the people did not repent. I pray that you would search your hearts and purify them. If you haven’t made that call to Lord do it. God wants you to draw near. He wants you to be close to Him and He will be close to you .
