The Study of End Times week 21 6/1/2022
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Praise and Prayer
Praise and Prayer
The World has Gone Crazy
The World has Gone Crazy
In the last few chapters, we have studied the future period of time known as the great tribulation, which is described by the seven-sealed book.
As the seals were broken and the book was open, we saw the horrors prophesied about the great tribulation.
We missed last week and we will miss next wee due to V.B.S, but tonight we will look at the sixth trumpet found in Revelation 9:13-21.
13 The sixth angel blew his trumpet. From the four horns of the golden altar that is before God, I heard a voice 14 say to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 So the four angels who were prepared for the hour, day, month, and year were released to kill a third of the human race. 16 The number of mounted troops was two hundred million; I heard their number. 17 This is how I saw the horses and their riders in the vision: They had breastplates that were fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and from their mouths came fire, smoke, and sulfur. 18 A third of the human race was killed by these three plagues—by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur that came from their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, because their tails, which resemble snakes, have heads that inflict injury.
20 The rest of the people, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands to stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.
As we look around at a world that is in chaos, we must wonder how much more chaotic will it be during the great tribulation!
Thankfully, the church will be raptured, and we will not have to experience that torment.
There are five factors from our text that we will see tonight.
I. The Prayer Factor
I. The Prayer Factor
13 The sixth angel blew his trumpet. From the four horns of the golden altar that is before God, I heard a voice
What is the golden altar? In the tabernacle in heaven, there is a golden altar called the altar of prayer.
In the days when the Israelite priests worshipped in the earthly tabernacle, there was also a golden altar.
If you had been able to go into the earthly tabernacle, the first thing you would have seen was the outer court where a fire burned continually in a brazen altar.
This fire represented the holiness of God and His judgment against sin. The priests would sacrifice a spotless animal on that altar, which represented the Lord Jesus Christ dying for our sins.
The inner court (the holy of holies) contained the golden altar (the mercy seat). It had four horns on each corner (the horns speak of power).
On the Day of Atonement each year, the high priest walked into the holy of holies and sprinkled blood from an animal sacrifice on the golden altar.
This offering represented the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the propitiation of our sins.
When the offering was burned, the high priest then burned incense on the golden altar from morning until evening. This incense represented our prayers to heaven in the power of the blood.
We see this in Scripture in Revelation 5:8
8 When he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
We also see it in Psalm 141:2
2 May my prayer be set before you as incense,
the raising of my hands as the evening offering.
Knowing our prayers are like incense before His throne gives us a little more insight into our prayer life. But do you ever feel like you pray and pray, and yet nothing happens?
Perhaps you think God hasn’t heard your prayer or God heard and said no. Others share in how you feel:
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the word of God and the testimony they had given. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, the one who is holy and true, how long until you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?” 11 So they were each given a white robe, and they were told to rest a little while longer until the number would be completed of their fellow servants and their brothers and sisters, who were going to be killed just as they had been.
God says in, Revelation 8:3
3 Another angel, with a golden incense burner, came and stood at the altar. He was given a large amount of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar in front of the throne.
Are you a saint? You are if you are saved. Your prayer has been heard.
Ron Dunn, who was an outstanding preacher before he went home to heaven, said that prayer is the Christian’s secret weapon and that it is like an intercontinental ballistic missile.
He went on to give five factors about prayer:
1. Prayers can be fired from any spot.
1. Prayers can be fired from any spot.
Mr. Dunn said, sometimes I will take a young person to a certain spot in my office, and I say, Do you see that spot on the carpet? You can go to anywhere in the world from that spot. In the same way you can launch a prayer from any spot on earth.
2. Prayers can travel undetected at the speed of light.
2. Prayers can travel undetected at the speed of light.
Dunn said, I don’t know where heaven is or how far away it is, but your prayer can reach heaven faster than the speed of light.
3. Prayers hit the target every time.
3. Prayers hit the target every time.
The Father is always listening to His children, and He hears each and every prayer.
4. Satan has no defense against prayer.
4. Satan has no defense against prayer.
Satan does not have an anti-prayer missile that can prevent your prayer from reaching heaven.
5. Prayers often have a delayed detonation.
5. Prayers often have a delayed detonation.
Prayer delayed is not prayer denied. God has His own schedule, and if you prayed to God about something, that prayer did not fall to the ground; that prayer is still in heaven.
II. The Power Factor
II. The Power Factor
It is so easy to divert our eyes from God and get deceived by Satan’s power. Indeed, I would venture to say that all of us at one time or another have thought God was up in heaven wringing His hands and walking around saying, What am I going to do? But we must recognize the power factor.
14 say to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates.”
The Euphrates River is both the cradle and the grave of human civilization. It is the river that divides the East from the West.
We say, East is east and West is west , and never the twain shall meet. One of these days, in the great tribulation, they will meet in a great conflict.
The book of Genesis tells us: Genesis 2:10
10 A river went out from Eden to water the garden. From there it divided and became the source of four rivers.
One of these four rivers was the Euphrates, Genesis 2:14
14 The name of the third river is Tigris, which runs east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
In Genesis 10:8-10 we see a man named Nimrod (who was an Old Testament picture of the Antichrist) and led the building of the Tower of Babel, the first world empire, alongside the Euphrates River in Genesis 11:1-9.
And alongside the Euphrates River is where Saddam Hussein reigned in Iraq. Dictators like these are only tools in the hands of the prince of Babylon, Satan.
In His sovereign wisdom and power, God is restraining four of the most wicked and powerful of all the demonic fallen angels (we might call them the filthy four) who have been given dominion over the four world empires.
When He is ready in the fullness of time, God will give His permission to release them. And when that happens, and I do not mean this jokingly all hell will break loose.
To understand a little about these four demonic powers, let’s look at a prayer Daniel offered that God did not answer immediately.
12 “Don’t be afraid, Daniel,” he said to me, “for from the first day that you purposed to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your prayers were heard. I have come because of your prayers. 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me after I had been left there with the kings of Persia.
Who is the prince of the kingdom of Persia? It certainly wasn’t an earthly man who could do battle with an angel.
I believe the prince of the kingdom of Persia was one of these four angels that are bound here.
The story continues in Daniel 10:20-21
20 He said, “Do you know why I’ve come to you? I must return at once to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I leave, the prince of Greece will come. 21 However, I will tell you what is recorded in the book of truth. (No one has the courage to support me against those princes except Michael, your prince.
Wicked demons rule over world empires. How do we know this? Well Paul told us this in Ephesians 6:12
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
Have you ever wondered why government officials are unable to negotiate with some of these countries?
It is because they are trying to negotiate with men and not the evil power behind those men’s actions.
But let us never forget that despite the power of these rulers of darkness, there is only so much they can do. Satan cannot do whatever he wants when he wants. The Bible says, 1 John 4:4
4 You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
God allows Satan to do certain things. Satan wanted to sift Peter as wheat, but he had to get God’s permission. Luke 22:31-32
31 “Simon, Simon, look out. Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Satan wanted to harm Job, but he had to get God’s permission: Job 1:6-12
6 One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. 7 The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?”
“From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered him, “and walking around on it.”
8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”
9 Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Haven’t you placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
12 “Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “everything he owns is in your power. However, do not lay a hand on Job himself.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence.
In some measure Satan is restrained on a leash. There is not some sort of conflict that has God on one side and Satan on the other, while we wait to see who will win.
Satan is a created being. He may be sinister, but God is sovereign.
Robert Louis Stevenson told a story about a ship on a rocky coastline during a storm. The sailors beneath the waterline were being tossed and turned.
They knew the danger and were wondering how they were going to make it.
One of the sailors could take it no longer, so he left his duty, went up to the pilothouse, pushed open the door, and say the captain steering the ship.
The captain knew the sailor was worried, and without saying a word, he turned and smiled.
The sailor returned below deck and said, Don’t worry. It’s all right. I have seen the captain, and he smiled at me.
Corrie ten Boom said, Look at the world, you will be distressed. Look within, you will be depressed. Look at Christ, you will be at rest.
We must keep our eyes on Him in a world that is so chaotic.
III. The Purpose Factor
III. The Purpose Factor
15 So the four angels who were prepared for the hour, day, month, and year were released to kill a third of the human race.
The words hour, day, month, and year are not talking about actual periods of time. The Greek says, This very hour and day and month and year.
God has a purpose and a plan for a specific hour when these angels will be loosed.
And not a speck of dust moves in this universe unless God gives permission. Not a blade of grass moves in the wind without God’s permission.
God is strategically moving in His world in His own timing.
There was a time when a mission of the space shuttle Columbia was called off because the computer was off by one twenty-fifth of a second.
Can you imagine the wast of money for an error of only one twenty-fifth of a second? Timing is important.
God said to Abraham, in Genesis 17:8
8 And to you and your future offspring I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as a permanent possession, and I will be their God.”
But God had a condition, one condition for Abraham Genesis 15:13-14
13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be resident aliens for four hundred years in a land that does not belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed. 14 However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions.
Why? Genesis 15:16
16 In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
God waited as the iniquity of the Amorites went into the reservoir of His wrath drop by drop for four hundred years.
Imagine how long people prayed for the Messiah, who had been prophesied over and over again.
4 saying, “Where is his ‘coming’ that he promised? Ever since our ancestors fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.”
A few verses down Peter reassured them, 2 Peter 3:8
8 Dear friends, don’t overlook this one fact: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
God is never ahead of time, and God is never late. He does not punch a clock when He goes to work.
The day of the Lord will come.
We are told in Galatians 4:3-5
3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were in slavery under the elements of the world. 4 When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Just because it has been two thousand years since our Lord stepped into glory, don’t think for one trace of a second that God has forgotten His promise.
One day the trumpet will sound, the sky will roll back, and Jesus will rise from His throne and step down to receive His own. He is coming,
Paul exhorts Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:14-15
14 to keep this command without fault or failure until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 God will bring this about in his own time. He is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords,
If you want to know where God is, He is on time. With God timing is more important than time.
IV. The Perversity Factor
IV. The Perversity Factor
When God gives His permission to loose the filthy four from the Euphrates River, an Incredible onslaught will be released upon mankind.
17 This is how I saw the horses and their riders in the vision: They had breastplates that were fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and from their mouths came fire, smoke, and sulfur. 18 A third of the human race was killed by these three plagues—by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur that came from their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, because their tails, which resemble snakes, have heads that inflict injury.
The deception of the horsemen here may be a symbolic description of modern warfare.
These instruments of war shoot fire, smoke, and brimstone. They have tails like the tails of serpents.
It sounds much like the kinds of tanks, helicopters, and rockets we see today.
What if God had given John the vision of when man landed on the moon? John may have described what he saw as a great spider sending forth fire, smoke, and sulfur.
Of course, nobody knew anything about helicopters, airplanes, or tanks back then. But thee knew something about horses prepared for battle.
Some have speculated that the army of 200 million mention in Revelation 9:16 is an army of men.
Most likely, this army of 200 million will be wave after wave of demons released from the pit, bringing colossal chaos to this earth and ultimately bringing death to one-third of mankind.
When will this happen? it seems it is going to happen after God removes His church.
Then He will remove His hand of mercy and announce that the four angels can be let loose.
Man, who has wanted to live his own life his own way, will now be vulnerable to the full reign of terror from Satan.
V. The Pride Factor
V. The Pride Factor
After reading about all of these things, you may think men will fall on their faces and cry out for mercy to God. Yet, look at Revelation 9:19-21
19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, because their tails, which resemble snakes, have heads that inflict injury.
20 The rest of the people, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands to stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.
Instead of being horrified, men have become hardened. Men are not changed because of punishment. You can put a person in a prison, but it won’t change his heart.
10 A rebuke cuts into a perceptive person
more than a hundred lashes into a fool.
Do you know what people are doing in hell? Jesus said they are gnashing their teeth.
42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Do you know what it means to gnash your teeth? It means to snarl. They are snarling against God. They are not asking God for mercy.
They are still participating in their wicked course of demons, astrology, and Satan worship.
21 And they did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.
A. Murder
A. Murder
May God have mercy on the murderers of unborn babies in our world today. May God send His Spirit to bring repentance to every man and woman who has participated in this most heinous act against defenseless little ones.
Due to abortion on demand, the streets run red with carnage in every corner of the world.
B. Sorcery
B. Sorcery
The word sorcery come from the Greek word pharmakon. It is the word from which we get the English word pharmacist.
Do you know what a pharmacist does? He dispenses drugs. In the great tribulation, men will be reduced to rubble through their abuse of drugs.
C. Fornication
C. Fornication
This word comes from the Greek word porneias, from which we get our word pornography.
It speaks of sexual perversion and immorality. God left Sodom and Gomorrah with their smoking ruins as a testimony to those who choose to live ungodly lives.
6 and if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;
But mankind will not learn. And Jesus tells us that the world will experience an even worse judgment than Sodom and Gomorrah.
15 Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
D. Thefts
D. Thefts
In the great tribulation, people will steal openly from one another. There will be no restraints or negative consequences from civil authorities for their behavior.
God knows that even in this time, punishment and suffering will not bring these people to Himself.
God says, in Genesis 6:3
3 And the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.”
There will come a time in the great tribulation when man will have crossed God’s deadline, and His hand of mercy will be removed.
What is the application for our lives today?
15 As it is said:
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.
Someone has written these words:
As the tree falls, so must it lie. As a man lives, so will he die. As a man dies, so will he be. Through all the years of eternity.
God loves you. Lay aside your pride. May the mercy of God through His Son bring the saving judgment of eternal life to you today so you will not be lost in the fires of His judgment for all eternity.