Revelation: Part 26

Revelation 9:13-21. This is the sixth trumpet of judgment that is about to sound. Remember, the chronology of this book is carried forward by these three series of judgments. First, the series of judgments that are called the seal judgments.

That is, they had a scroll. And each time they’d break a seal, they would unroll it and read that judgment, then break another seal and read it. And on the seventh seal, that was opened and that opened a new series with telescopic, the series of the trumpets, and these became much worse. Whereas, God judged the earth by fourths, a fourth of mankind was wiped out during the seal judgments.

In the trumpet judgments, he deals with the earth in thirds. A third of the trees burned up. A third of fresh water is polluted and poisoned. A third of all the life and ships in the sea destroyed.

And now we come to another third. Let’s begin with verse 13. And I’m reading from the new American standard. It says then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, release the four angels, who are bound at the great river Euphrates.

And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released. And what’s there? Here’s the purpose clause. What’s the purpose of it?

So that they would kill a third of mankind. Now this is devastating news. Because once again it shows -the book of Revelation switches between heaven and it switches between there in earth just as easily as I would switch conversation with one person and another. Because to the one who is really tuned in with the spirit of God, you realize that what happens in heaven determines what’s happening here.

And the book of Revelation, over and over again, shows that everything that is going to happen, during this Tribulation period before Jesus returns, starts in heaven. And it says there’s a voice that comes from the golden altar that is before God. And this, in the book of Revelation, it tells us that there is a tabernacle in heaven that is actually the pattern after which the one that was made by the Israelites was made. That’s why God told Moses to make everything exactly according to the pattern that he showed him.

And so the golden altar we know is the place of prayer. It’s the place where incense was burned and the sweet savor was a picture of prayers of the saints going up to God. And so one of the horns of this altar, which represents all of the prayers of God’s people, and represents all of the people of God that have been martyred and slaughtered by the Christ-rejecting world, it speaks out and it says, release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. Now these are special kinds of angels.

You know, that there is an order of angels that’s very, very well described in the Bible. And the ranks are respected among these angels. There’s a great order among the angels. Now we know that these are beings that are of enormous power.

But they’re divided into ranks and some have much more power than the other. And it says that these four angels had been bound at the great river Euphrates. Now, tracking back, the time that they would have been bound would have been during the time of Noah. Because apparently they were responsible for all kinds of terrible things.

These are particularly violent and powerful angels. Ephesians 6. All right, it says, in verse 10, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. All right, now, we need to go over some of the Greek words that are presented here about the rank and file of the angels. The first one it says that our struggle is against the powers. Now the Greek word is archon, from which we get the word arch, archangel.

And so the first order of power in the angelic realm is they’re called archons. And in the archons, there are cherubs and seraphs. The cherubim, “im” in Hebrew is like “s” in english. It means plural.

Cherubim means plural for cherub. Cherubim are the most powerful and all of the archons are cherubs. Now, an archon then is also they’re archangels among the fallen, that is there was a third of the whole angelic realm, rebelled against God and followed the highest and most mighty of all angels, Lucifer, who became known as the devil and Satan. And the archons are people that you really want to have your armor on when you meet.

And I find that the more God uses you, the more you start coming against the archons. Let me tell you something. Sometimes it’s scary and you really get that armor on real close and start trusting on the one who’s in you, the Holy Spirit. Then the next one it says our strife is against the powers and against world forces of this darkness.

The word here, world forces, is exousias in Greek, which means high authority. High authorities. They are the high authorities of this darkness that we’re in. They are the ones that have a special power to blind people to everything about God.

There has to be spiritual forces that keep this darkness in the earth. The exousias are mighty authorities that specialize in blinding people to the truth of God and to his word. Then it says, and we fight against, against the world forces of this darkness. Against the rulers, against the powers, the powers is the one I was looking for.

I didn’t read it correctly. The rulers are the archons. The powers are the exousias, the mighty authorities. And against the world forces.

Now this is one word in Greek. It’s kosmokratoras. Kratoras means a mighty power. Kosmos means an organized world system.

It doesn’t just simply mean the world. It means an organized world system. So these are fallen angels that have a special duty of keeping control of the world’s system that we’re in. See, we don’t live in a world system that’s friendly in any way to God.

The Bible says that Satan controls the world’s system that we live in. Now the world’s system is made up of all of the thought and the thought control, and the order of things and the way this world is run. Now that just gives you some idea of how the ranks are made in the angelic family and especially among demons, which are fallen angels. And if you think that there is not an order and God respects that order, let me show you something.

Turn to Jude. This is talking about the people who do not understand the spirit world we live in. Verse 8, yet in the same manner, these men also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. But michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you.

Now what does that tell us? That even the devil is paid respect by the archangel michael because of his position that he had before God. So he didn’t take the devil on personally, but called upon the Lord to take him on. Now if the archangel michael did that, where does that leave you and me?

You say the Lord rebuke you. In the name of Jesus, I do this. But you don’t come against the devil or any of these archons in your own strength. Because we’re not wrestling with flesh and blood here.

We’re wrestling with mighty, mighty powers. And it’s not to be afraid. I’m not saying these things to make you afraid. But rather to say that we need to walk moment by moment in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, which is called being filled with the Holy Spirit.

What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? It means at any given moment by your faith, and your choice, you allow the Holy Spirit to take control of your life and you depend upon him. And at that moment, the Holy Spirit takes over and works through you. These are mighty angels.

They’re archons and apparently they were malicious and violent movement among men. It says that the angel is commanded to release these four angels, that are bound at the great river Euphrates. And the four angels, who had been prepared. Now the Greek word here is perfect tense, perfect participle.

And it means an action that was instituted of a point of time that continued. So sometime back in history, God prepared these four of the most mighty and violent angels for a special job. But he kept them bound. And this preparation that God allowed was for an hour, a certain hour, a certain day, a certain month, a certain year.

Now God usually doesn’t single something out like that. In other words, it was absolutely for a specific time, place, and purpose. But look at what happens immediately after these four archons are released. It says, in verse 14, the number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million.

And I heard the number of them. And this is how I saw them in the vision. Now it’s important the place where these angels were bound. They were bound at a place, actually where we believe the Garden of Eden was, where the first sin came into the human race.

And — but it’s very important to note that in the ancient times, all of the historians used the Euphrates river as the boundary between the near east and the far east. And the minute these angels are released, it talks about this vast two-hundred-million-man army rising up. And they’re coming from east of the Euphrates. We learn about that in Revelation 16.

Because it calls them the kings of the east. Immediately this army is mustered. And it’s the demonic forces that these four angels control that bring all of this there. And we can tell that by the juxtaposition that it is with the release of these angels.

Do you see that? What happened in heaven immediately causes what happens on earth. The number of the armies of horsemen was two hundred million. And I heard the number of them.

And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them. Now remember this, and I want you to remember it well. When we read this, we have to constantly remember that John from the first century, was brought, time traveled by God, up to see this and witness it. And then brought back to the first century and told to write about it.

So we have to see it through his eyes, as a first century man, looking at marvels of technology. He had no understanding of. He couldn’t have possibly understood it. So he said he sees horsemen.

Well, in that day, the only mechanized armies were on horses. The only fast-moving armies were all on horses. So he sees them as horses, and he says and I heard the number of them. But, obviously, they’re not real horses because look at the description he gives.

He says and this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those

If you have the guts to be a real revolutionary, come forward right now and accept Jesus Christ as your real revolutionary. And he’ll make a revolutionary that will change lives.

Thank you so much for standing with me as a watchman on the wall. I pray daily that he will reward your faithfulness and protect and prosper you in these difficult times. Thank you again for being a vital part of my team.

Thank you so much for standing with me as a watchman on the wall. I thank God for sending me such loyal partners. And I pray daily that he will reward your faithfulness and protect and prosper you in these very difficult times. Thank you, again, from the bottom of my heart.