Revelation 9:13
The Worst Yet
Rev 9:13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I
heard a voice from the four horns of the golden
altar which is before God,
Chapter 9 moved us into the most awful time of the Tribulation THUS
FAR. There are several ways to divide the judgments. God did it Seal
Judgments, Trumpet Judgments, and Vial Judgments. But we also note
the first set of judgments COULD BE caused by the actions of mankind
(Man against Man Judgments) and the second set of judgments COULD BE
explained by saying that nature had gone off the rails (Nature
against Man Judgments, but there is no way to describe the third set
of judgments except to say that God will loose the worst demons of
damnation upon mankind, Demon against Man Judgments.
They are so bad that in \\#8:13\\, an angel announces to the world
that each of the next three judgments is a woe or an especially
grievous judgment.
1. The first woe, which is also the fifth trumpet being sounded,
involves demons taking possession of some locust-scorpion
like creature which sting the people, causing an intense
pain for five months.
2. But as bad and horrifying as that woe will be, as that Trumpet
Judgment will be, it does not compare to the second woe which
is also the sixth trumpet being sounded.
The sixth trumpet judgment is also what the angel called the second
woe. This will be by far the worst judgment thus far. It begins in
\\#Rev 9:13\\ but the details, the effects, and the after-effects
continue all the way through to \\#Rev 11:14\\.
This morning, all I can do is to begin to look at it with you. All I
will get to is the first of two points concerning the remainder of
chapter nine.
I. \\#13-15\\ A View in Heaven
Note: Earlier in this series, I told you that you would have to
decide whether the actions in heaven have an effect on earth or
whether the actions of earth have an effect in heaven.
1. By now, I hope you see clearly that the actions of heaven
have an effect on earth.
2. At this time, the sixth of seven angels who stand before God
puts the trumpet to his lips and blows.
3. When he does so, a sequence of events happens in heaven which
cause a sequence of effects on the earth.
A. When the angel sounds, a voice will be heard.
Rev 9:13 … I heard a voice from the four horns
of the golden altar which is before God,
1. We are not told whose voice it is.
a. I believe it is God’s voice, specifically the voice of
the Lamb.
b. It has already been determined that God the Lamb is
the only One Who is Worthy to give these commands of
judgment.
c. But even if it is not the Lamb’s voice, whoever it is
will speak because God told him to do so.
2. We are told that the voice comes from the "golden altar
which is before God."
a. That seems odd.
(1) To me, the more important truth would seem to be
whose voice it was, but God revealed where the
voice originated.
(2) That means where the voice originated from is
the more important.
b. We have already talked about these altars, and I
cannot spend the time giving much of a review.
c. My belief is that this is the heavenly altar of
incense which burns before God continually, reminding
Him of prayers that remain to be answered.
d. What prayers? I belief prayers similar to the one
prayed when the fifth seal was opened
\\#Rev 6:9-10\\.
Rev 6:10 … How long… dost thou not judge and
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
e. That would mean that this judgment will be given
specifically to fulfill that kind of prayer, a prayer
of revenge from God upon a world that has terribly
mistreated and killed God’s people.
(1) There are reasons I personally get involved in
politics.
(2) There are reasons I point out to you what some
candidates believe, say, stand, and with whom
they stand.
(3) It is because the governments of this world have
turned against God, His Word, and the people who
stand with God and His Word.
(4) And there is a reason I fear and tell you that
the power grabs made by the governments of this
nation in the last few months are just the
beginning.
(5) I can tell you three things today.
(a) The power grab we have seen the government
do in the last few months is not new. It
has been going on for a long, long time.
(b) The power grab we have seen the government
do in the last few months will not stop.
They will want to keep the power they have
gained and will want more in the near
future.
(c) This power grab we have seen the government
do in the last few months has set a
precedent for the government to exercise
absolute control over business, churches,
and citizens.
(6) A few days ago, listening to Christian radio, I
heard a Christian somebody telling his listeners
that while it is Constitutional for the
government to suspend the rights of the citizens
in extreme times—like war and pandemics—that
our government had gone too far in recent days
and that we had our work "cut out" for us in
RE-educating our government officials.
(a) I am no lawyer nor a student of the law, but
he is wrong.
(b) You can read the entire United States
Constitution and the Bill of Rights and
you will not see any provision for limiting
a citizens’ rights during wartime or a
declared pandemic.
(c) He, no doubt being a man of the law, was
referring not to the Constitution, but to
rulings that have been made by courts about
the Constitution.
(d) I think those are called "precedents."
i. Precedents seem to come when there is
a question about how the laws apply
or fit with the Constitution.
ii. Once a court or judge issues a ruling,
a decision, an opinion, it becomes a
practice of the law.
(e) Precedents are considered laws, but they are
not, not any more than commentaries should
be considered the Bible.
i. It is a precedent that illegalizes the
killing of unborn babies.
ii. It is a precedent that took prayer and
the Bible out of the public view.
iii. It is a precedent that put an
imaginary, one-way wall between
religion and government.
(f) Americans should never confuse a precedent
with the Constitution.
i. In this land, only the people can
change or add to the Constitution.
ii. Now maybe the people have been so
brain-washed and dumbed-down that
they would change the Constitution to
what the Communists-Socialist want,
but they have not yet.
iii. And I have a feeling that if you were
to put it up for a vote today, the
Communist-Socialist of this nation
could not get a Constitutional
amendment passed that gave the right
to the government to lock-down
businesses, or to require masks and
vaccines, or to harass and even
arrest citizens who refused to comply
with their arbitrary laws created by
men in women in their secret chambers.
(g) A government that exceeds its authority to
do what you want it to do today can exceed
its authority to do what you don’t want it
to do tomorrow.
f. The fact that the fifth Seal Judgment was the martyred
saints crying out to God for justice on this world
for their deaths and that the voice commanding this
judgment comes from the Golden Altar before the God’s
throne is no coincidence.
(1) It is God’s way of saying that He did not forget
what evil men did to His people.
(2) He will settle accounts and pour vengeance on
this world for how they treated God’s people.
B. \\#14-15\\ When the voice speaks, a command will be obeyed.
Rev 9:14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the
trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in
the great river Euphrates.
15 And the four angels were loosed….
1. As the locust-scorpion creatures of the Fifth Trumpet
come out of the bottomless pit, some type of demonic
prison, so four angels which have been bound or
imprisoned in the Euphrates River will then be released.
a. Oh, so many questions and so few details.
(1) Why were these four not imprisoned in the
bottomless pit?
(2) Were they imprisoned at a different time? for a
different reason?
(3) Are they more or less powerful than those already
released?
(4) Are they more or less wicked than those already
released?
b. I do not know the answer to those kinds of questions,
but remember the principals that I believe are clear
through this judgment period of God.
(1) Things don’t go from bad to better. They go from
bad to worse.
(2) Mercy does not increase as the Tribulation
continues. Mercy decreases.
c. If those principals are true, then I would suggest
these angels are more powerful and more evil than the
ones who were released from the bottomless pit.
2. The command is that these four angels, who I think are
demons, are loosed on mankind.
3. Why were they bound in the River Euphrates?
a. The Bible does not say.
b. However, the River Euphrates is the oldest landmark
on the earth.
Ge 2:10 And a river went out of Eden to water
the garden; and from thence it was parted, and
became into four heads.
Ge 2:14 And the name of the third river is
Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east
of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
c. I doubt that today’s River Euphrates is the exact
same River Euphrates as is mentioned in Genesis 2.
(1) There have been thousands of years and a world-
wide flood which would have changed the
topography of the world drastically since that
time.
(2) However, either God knowing or man thinking these
two rivers were the same or at least similar in
location, has chosen to give it a name that
dates back to the very beginning of the earth.
(3) And three things are certain about this river:
(a) Until Abraham and his family left that part
of the planet to go to Israel, that is
where the Bible focused its attention.
(b) And even after Abraham went to Israel,
nations along that river—Assyria, Babylon,
Persia, the Medes, and Hebron—keep
overlapping their history with Israel’s,
usually in judgment. Typically, those
nations were Israel’s judges.
(c) Nations along that river are again becoming
prominent in human history.
d. May I suggest to you another possible precept?
(1) God likes to finish what He starts where He
starts it.
(2) In 1948, God raised up a nation that had been
dead for almost 1900 years because He started
something there, and He is going to finish some
things there.
(3) And even before God started some things in
Israel, He started some other things on or near
the Euphrates River.
(4) I believe God is going to finish those things on
or near the Euphrates River.
4. \\#15\\ Notice how long they will be around:
Rev 9:15 …which were prepared for an hour, and
a day, and a month, and a year,
a. I do not know for sure if that is literal or not, but
since I see nothing in the text to indicate
otherwise, I will suppose that it is.
b. That is a strange period of time.
(1) Some think these four angels will influence and
lead a great army.
(2) If so, why only for such a short period of time?
(a) But then again, no matter what the
influence and lead, the question remains.
(b) Why for such a strange period of time?
c. If this is a literal time, I think that it starts on
the one side of the half way mark of the Tribulation
and finishes on the other.
(1) I have no way of proving that.
(2) I just think this judgment will be that close to
the half way mark of the tribulation.
5. And last for today, notice what these four dark angels
will accomplish.
Rev 9:15 … for to slay the third part of men.
a. In the hour, day, month, and year, they will be
responsible for killing 1/3 of the world’s
population.
b. If you will remember, \\#Rev 6:8\\ told us:
Rev 6:8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:
and his name that sat on him was Death, and
Hell followed with him. And power was given unto
them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill
with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and
with the beasts of the earth.
c. I anticipate that has already happened by now.
d. But if you add to the original 1/4 a third of those
who are left, you will find out that by the time
these four angels have completed their tasks, just
from the deaths we are told about, 1/2 of the world’s
population has not died.
e. It may be that others have died from other means not
mentioned, but from these two, 1/2 of the world’s
population is dead.
We are not finished. Not with the death, not with the Tribulation,
not even with this trumpet judgment.
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