Turn with me to the book of Revelation
chapter 9. Revelation chapter 9. I would like to, as I try to
each time, pick up where we left off, trying to teach As I did
morning and evening in the book of Revelation, two things. Number one, I felt this is what
I need to do. And number two, it helps us to
not forget what we just heard. I'm bad about that. I hear something
and I forget. But I'd like to pick up Revelation
chapter 9. We actually stopped on the 12th
verse last time that said, ìOne woe is past, and behold, there
come two woes more hereafter.î I have entitled this message
this morning, ìWars and Rumors of War.î The fifth angel has sounded his
voice as a trumpet. that issued in the first of the
last three woes. And now, according to that twelfth
verse, two more woes are to be announced. And verse 13 says,
ìAnd the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the
four horns of the golden altar which is before God." Now, whatever
this woe is going to be is associated with John hearing a voice from
the four horns of the golden altar which is before God. And
for the sake of time, and because we've already looked at this,
back in the book of Leviticus when we were studying the altar,
it was stated that on each corner of the altar, the brazen altar
and the golden altar, there were horns that were put. And the blood would be applied
to those horns. spoke of the power and the effectiveness
of what was accomplished. Horns is like on cattle or something. It speaks of the ability to do,
to perform what is actually purposed there. Those four horns then
spoke of power of the voice. It says, "...heard a voice from
the four horns." Whatever this voice says, is going to be. And also it says that this voice
was from the four horns of the golden altar. Now that golden
altar, if you remember, in the Old Testament there was a golden
altar of incense that was placed inside the tabernacle. Not that outer court that was
opened up, but in that enter in that tabernacle that was within
the outer tabernacle, divided into two rooms. There was called
the outer court, which was the tabernacle of the congregation. It doesn't mean that everybody
and their brother could go in there, but it was the congregation
of the priest that could go into that outer court. And that's
where the showbread, the altar, the golden altar of incense,
which was right before the veil, and behind the veil was the Ark
of the Covenant. That's all that was there, and
the mercy seat on top of it. But that golden altar of incense,
the priest would have to go and get coals from the brazen altar,
which was the place that the sacrifice, the burnt offering
was actually sacrificed And the coals from that which was a picture
of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and that sweet savor
of His sacrifice before God. Coals from there were taken and
brought in and placed on the golden altar of incense. And then the incense was sprinkled
on that and the smoke would go up before in a picture here of
the intercessory prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. our high priest."
So this voice, that sixth angel sounded and he said, I heard
a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, that golden
altar that spoke of the worthiness and the glory of the voice. That voice is heard. And then
it says that this sixth angel heard a voice from the four horns
of the golden altar which is before God. And this speaks of
the glorious position of the voice. It is before the Lord
God Himself. No voice other than the voice
of the glorious High Priest Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, who according
to Revelation 8.3, it says, came and stood before the altar having
a golden censer and was there given unto Him much incense that
He should offer it with the prayers of the saints. So this voice,
here is a woe that is being prepared. We're going to hear the second
great woe. If you remember, the first woe
was opened up. The bottomless pit, a key was
given to that one which fell from heaven. And here is the
great woe that we find in this world today. The smoke. that issued out of the bottomless
pit and the locusts that came out of that bottomless pit. A
picture of false preachers that are standing in pulpits today,
claiming, speaking great swelling words. They speak of the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They speak of Him being crucified,
but they do not know the power of that crucifixion. They don't
know what was accomplished. They speak of resurrection, but
they have no idea what was accomplished in that resurrection that Almighty
God accepted what the blessed surety of the saints actually
purposed to accomplish and did accomplish, and God accepted
it. He was made sin for His people. And they, in vital union with
Him, all of the elect, died under the judgment of Almighty God
in a substitute. And they were buried with Him.
And they were raised with Him, justified before Almighty God. No record whatsoever. These false
preachers, these locusts, this is a great woe in this world. Men standing and deceiving. and lying on God and not preaching
this Gospel, the Gospel of free grace. That's a great woe. There's another woe that we're
getting ready to hear about, right? And this woe is ushered
in when that sixth angel sounded and John said, I heard the voice
from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God. But
especially in that voice that was heard They heard the voice
of power and providence. Now listen. Think about it, you
that believe. How comforting it is. You know
that we've already looked at a great woe. And it's the woe
of false preachers, false delusions, smoke out of the pits of hell.
And you're thinking, I don't know what's getting ready to
come next, but how comforting it is to know that before I even
find out, He steps up. He is there to comfort His people
and says to them in His very presence, remember, I'll never
leave you. I'll never forsake you. You're
the ones I've sealed. You're the ones I've written
the name of God Almighty in your foreheads. So John hears this
voice knowing that a woe is getting ready to be announced. And this
voice of power says in verse 14, saying to the sixth angel,
which had the trumpet, loose the four angels which are bound
in the great river Euphrates." It is He, the Lord Jesus Himself,
the great High Priest who speaks to the sixth angel, the angel
who is the means of the accomplishment of God's will. It is God Almighty
that is going to reveal the woe. But He uses this angel. And here is the one speaking. He says, John, I heard that voice.
And He said, Loose the four angels. Here is the one on the throne. In Hebrews 1, the Scripture speaking
of Him says this, Who being the brightness of His glory and the
express image of His person, and upholding all things by the
word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat
down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." Here is Almighty
God, the Lord Jesus Christ back in Revelation 9, and He says
to the sixth angel, loose the four angels. Here is the Master. who had said previously in Revelation
7, verse 3, "...hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the
trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their
foreheads." Here is our Protector being our Lord, our Master, our
Friend, our Surety. And he says, under the watchful eye of the
Lord God Himself, "...the elect are preserved from the destruction
of His wrath, He's getting ready to send woe. It's the Lord that's
getting ready to send this woe. And these four angels, the Scripture
says, are to be loosed which are bound in the great river
Euphrates. Now, these four angels, they're
called angels because they are the messengers of Almighty God. concerning His messengers, they
are the messengers that will deliver the woe. They're angels. It means messengers. And whatever
they do, whatever they're allowed to do, is according to His will
and His purpose. Now, you remember, all power,
it just... Whenever I hear somebody speak
of the devil and the Lord, like there's some kind of a battle,
a conflict going on here. And it's like it's kind of in
the balance right now. There's nothing in the balance.
He is all-powerful. He is God Almighty. And He does as He will in the
army of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth. And when He speaks
and says, loose them, that means that they can't do anything until
He says so. Now they are going to be the
messengers of woe. I'm going to tell you this right
now, but you remember this, they're God's messengers. You loose the
four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. They're not running rampant right
now, I'll tell you this, for they've been bound or tied according
to God's timing. Ecclesiastes 3.1 says, There's
a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. It is the
most comforting thing to know that there is absolutely nothing
out of control today. You know, I've never seen gasoline
prices this high. I'll tell you this, if they go
any more, they're going to be $3 by the end of this summer. I tell you this, I'm going to
tell you something. The way it's going right now, if this country right
here doesn't... So, do you think that there's
anything outside of the exact purpose of Almighty God? Let
me ask you this. Has God ever forsaken His people? Have they ever been begging bread
by this God? Have you ever seen that? No. There was Elijah and
a raven. God sent a raven. Gave him something
to eat. Gave him a brook drink out of.
God's not going to forsake His people. We need to just settle
down. Everything is okay. These four
angels are said to be bound in or at the great river Euphrates. Now, I thought that that was
kind of unusual that it named a specific river. And you know
that there's no terminology, a river or anything else that's
named specifically that just happens to be there for no purpose. This river is symbolic. There was two great things that
I'm going to look at for just a moment here concerning this
great river Euphrates. This river is symbolically a
boundary, number one, of God's land of promise and peace. to his people. The Scripture
says in Genesis, let me just read this to you. Genesis 15,
18, in the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying,
unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt
unto the great river, the river Euphrates. Now this was a boundary
that was going to be the promised land. From the great river in
Egypt, which would have been the Nile, unto this great river
Euphrates. That was going to be. In Deuteronomy
11.24 it says, Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall
tread shall be yours. From the wilderness and Lebanon,
from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall
your coast be. So this river, Euphrates, it
wasn't just a river. It was symbolic of the boundary
of God's promise of peace, a land of peace flowing with milk and
honey. So here we see, first of all,
that God has hedged in His people. Though they shall surely go through
great tribulation, the trials of their faith are divinely ordered
and bound until the purpose of Almighty God releases them. Here, this river is symbolic
of the place that God says, this is my people, this is their realm,
this is my realm symbolically of their protection, their comfort,
peace. So these four angels are bound
at, that word, in, right there, is actually better translated,
at. They're bound at the great river
Euphrates. But also, secondly, this river
is God's symbolic purpose of the surety of God's justice on
the wicked. Now that river, here these four
angels, they're bound at the great river Euphrates. They can't
come in to get at God's people until God says, I'll allow you
to come in and try them. Whenever Job, you remember this
story, whenever Satan came and he'd gone through the world,
you know, seeking whom he may devour, and the Lord said, have
you considered my servant Job? And what does Satan tell him?
Say, well, yeah, but you've got him hedged about. I can't get
to him. How do you let me get to him?
He said, he'll curse you to your face. The Lord says all that
he has is in your hand. You can't kill him. Satan could
do nothing until Almighty God allowed. These four angels are
bound at the great river Euphrates. The river Euphrates was a boundary
of God's promised land. They couldn't get in. We're safe. We're protected no matter what
we go through. I pray in that day that God Almighty
places me wherever He places me, that I'll remember that,
that He'll cause me to remember. But secondly, as I said, it's
a picture of God's justice on the wicked Babylon, the symbolic
city. of all false religion. The great whore was also at the
border of the river Euphrates. When you go past, you came out
of the promised land, the Euphrates River, Babylon. That was the
country, the great empire of Babylon. I want you to turn now
to Jeremiah chapter 51. And I want you to see what this
river, Euphrates, symbolically represents. Now I'm going to
be very, very, I'm trying to take this thing a little slowly
so that we can see why are these things being said. In Jeremiah
51, verse 59 to 64. The Scripture says the word which
Jeremiah, the prophet, commanded Saraiah, the son of Nariah, the
son of Maathiah, when he went with Zedekiah, the king of Judah,
into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Saraiah
was a quiet prince or the prince of our chief Chamberlain, the
middle part of our Bible. Our note says, it says in verse
60, ìSo Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come
upon Babylon, even all these words that were written against
Babylon. And Jeremiah said to Sarai, ìWhen
thou comest to Babylon and shalt see and shalt read all these
words, then shalt thou say, ìO Lord, thou hast spoken against
this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it.îî neither
man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever. And it
shall be, when thou hast made an end of the reading of this
book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst
of Euphrates. And thou shalt say, Thus shalt
Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring
upon her, and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah."
Now these words of prophecy concerning Babylon. Now you remember, Babylon
is a symbolic country of all false religion. It was Nebuchadnezzar,
we've read that before, that stood up and expressed the very
heart of what Babylon represents when he says, Oh, great Babylon. Look what I've done. Look what
I've accomplished. Look at all these beautiful gardens.
Look. And the Lord said that He heard the words while they
were still in His mouth. And He says, kingdoms taken from
you. This city of Babylon, or country of Babylon, bordered
the promised land by the Euphrates River. That's what separated
them. Now turn over to Revelation 18. Revelation chapter 18, verse
20 and 21. Now that revelation that we read
back in Jeremiah, The Lord told him, He said, Jeremiah, you go
and you read this in this book, and you read it to Babylon. And
when you get through reading the book, I want you to tie a
rock on it. And you throw the book in the
river Euphrates, and I'm telling you, Babylon, all false religion,
all these liars that's come out of the pit of hell, the smoke
and delusion of a false gospel, what I'm going to do, I'm going
to take it. I'm going to throw you in that river. That river
is symbolic. of my judgment." Now look over
in Revelation 18 and verse 20 and 21. The Scripture says, Rejoice,
Revelation 18, 20 and 21, Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye
holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her. A mighty angel took up a stone
like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, With
violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down and shall
be found no more at all." So back in Revelation chapter 9,
we see when this mighty angel, this great angel that sounded
and heard a voice, John said, I heard the voice of the Master
say, that woe was getting ready to be announced. And the voice
from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God said
to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels
which are bound in the great river Euphrates." So we see that
these four angels, the angels actually of God's wrath, messengers
of Almighty God bound at or in the great river Euphrates for
two purposes. Number one, to restrain judgment
until all the servants of God Almighty are sealed, and secondly,
brought to the place, these four angels, where the wicked are
surely going to perish. And then the Scripture says in
verses 15 to 19, and we'll look at them one at a time, that surely
the Lord Himself is going to reveal the truth that is set
forth concerning actually this great second woe. It says in verse 15, And the
four angels were loosed, and were prepared for an hour, and
a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of
men. Now, in these next few verses,
we're going to find the unveiling of this scripture that the Lord
referred to in Matthew 24 6, and he said, And ye shall hear
of wars, and rumors of wars, see that ye be not troubled.
For all these things surely must come to pass, but the end is
not yet. Now, these four angels are, could
be, and like I've said before, I've tried to be very cautious.
You know, I know how some people will read something, they say,
well, that refers to this particular event or that particular man. Well, you don't know that. But
there's a truth that's set forth here. This says that the four
angels were loosed and they were prepared for an hour, a day,
a month, and a year for to slay the third part of men. These
four angels, whether they be nations that rise against nations
and kingdoms against kingdoms, the Lord said, that that would
come to pass. You'll hear of rumors, of wars,
that this nation will rise against this nation and this kingdom
against this kingdom. But the Scripture says concerning
these four that were loose, they were prepared. That's what it
says. They were prepared or ready and
suited up is what that means. They were ready, prepared. Like
the false preachers in Revelation 9-7. Back, look at that verse.
It says, "...the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses,
prepared for battle. They were ready for it. These
four angels that were loosed were prepared by God's decree. The Scripture says, at an hour,
at a day. These are evil messengers, no
doubt about it. But nonetheless, God's means,
the wrath of man is going to praise Him No matter what, we
look at things that are happening today and we look at it and say,
that in itself is evil. I agree with you. Do we need
to quote Romans 8, 28 again? It says, All things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. These angels of destruction that
relish the idea of war and destruction always accomplish God's purpose. Now, I understand that there
is without a doubt, no doubt, there are actual battles going
on. There are some men that are sitting
in this congregation this morning that have been in combat, and
you know just exactly what it is like. You know what it feels
like to either sit in a tank or sit in an airplane and pull
a trigger. You know what that feels like.
But it is symbolic, though that is real and real. And you've
seen men and women die in combat. But I'm going to tell you something,
and I'll show you this, Lord willing, before we get through with this
chapter, which will probably be tonight, but that these wars
and battles and fighting are actually woe and judgment that's
sent by Almighty God. And it's got another purpose.
for being sent. He sent them and it says that
these four angels were loosed and prepared, that were prepared
for an hour a day, a month, a year to slay the third part of men. Now these angels are not necessarily,
and here again I do not doubt that World War II and Korea and
Vietnam and the Pyro-Phoenician wars, I don't doubt that all
of those are included in this. But this is symbolic of all wars,
all actual physical wars that represent something else. These
are wars past and present and future that have one purpose,
to warn men and women of the final judgment of Almighty God
and the wrath to come. Now I want you to turn with me
to Amos. Now let me tell you where Amos
is. Find Daniel, then Hosea, then Joel, then Amos. If you find Daniel, you're only
four books away. Just keep turning. Find Daniel. If you find Jeremiah, just keep
going toward the New Testament. You'll find Daniel, Hosea, Joel,
Amos. Amos chapter 4. Amos 4. Verse 6. Now I'm going to show
you in this passage of Scripture why there are wars. Have you
ever wondered, I mean, it's always like there's always something
going on. Always some nation. Always some battle. Always somebody
fighting instead of somebody else. Somebody got a beef about
something. Always something going on. Why? Amos chapter 4. Verse 6, the
Lord says, I also have given you cleanness of teeth. And that doesn't mean bright
oral hygiene. What that means is a laxness
of not being able to eat. He actually explains that. He
says, I've given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and
want or lack of bread in all your places, yet have you not
returned unto Me, saith the Lord. And also, I've withholding the
rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest. And I caused it to rain upon
one city and caused it not to rain upon another city. And one
piece was rained upon and the piece whereon it rained not withered."
Now, you know, we think about this. We talk about, you know,
boy, I tell you what, we sure do need some rain here. You know,
it's been raining over here, but we haven't had any rain.
It's just, you know, I mean, it's drought, you know. Well,
what? You know, we're so prone to think,
well, it's just the bad weather patterns and the ozone and stuff
like that. No, I'll tell you why it doesn't
rain in this spot and it does rain here. Because God Almighty
is saying something. And He says, you don't hear what
I'm saying. He said, I'm the one that caused
it not to rain here. Verse 8, So two or three cities
wandered unto one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied.
Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord? You see,
God Almighty is speaking and men don't hear. They say, I don't
hear God saying anything. He said, I am speaking. What
I'm saying is I'm sovereign. I do what I will. I order this. I send this and I do that. Verse
9, I smitten you with blasting and milled you. When your gardens
and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased,
the palmer worm devoured them, yet you have not returned unto
me, saith the Lord." You go out, you've got some tomatoes and
you've got your gardens coming in right now. You go out there
and you look on some of your vegetables and you see a blight
and you see this and you say, look at that. Man, these worms,
we're going to have to go over here, you know, to get us some
seven dust or whatever they put on it nowadays, you know, and
stuff like that. Get rid of these things. You know why those are
coming here? Because they've moved up from
the... No. God is speaking. You get
a blight on a piece of vegetable and God Almighty is speaking.
Men don't see it. Verse 9, he said, I've sent among
you the pestilence after the manor of Egypt, your young men.
Now listen to this. Have I slain with the sword?
Now that's such a quick statement right there. Just a few words. Young men have I slain with the
sword. That right there speaks of battles, wars. He said, I'm the one. I sent among you pestilence after
the banner of Egypt. Your young men have I slain with
the sword and have taken away your horses. I've made the stink
of your camps come up unto your nostrils, yet have ye not returned
unto me, saith the Lord. I have overthrown some of you
as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked
out of the burning, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith
the Lord." That right there speaks of, not necessarily as we have
read of God's elect being plucked out. What this is saying right
here, there's some men that's gone through. battles and pestilences
and wars and this, that and the other, and survived. Made it. Why'd they make it? God Almighty
just didn't allow them to die on that battlefield. But He says,
but you didn't return. You've not returned unto Me,
saith the Lord. Therefore, thus will I do unto you, unto thee,
O Israel, and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to
meet thy God, O Israel, for lo, He that formeth the mountains
and created the wind, and declares unto man what is his thought,
that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places
of the earth, the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name." So we
find back over here in Revelation chapter 9, these four angels
are sent forth. And they're sent forth, verse
15 says, to slay a third part of the men. But he said, you
don't hear. These wars that are going on
right now, and past, and past, and past, and if God tarries,
future. God speaking. He said to slay
a third part of the men. Men are dying. I heard something
on television, I did not know, yesterday, or the day before
yesterday. And it was talking about World
War II, which, as you know, my thoughts on this, that battles
are God's warning in general. Great woes. Battles and wars
that are being fought now and past and future is a great woe. God is speaking and men don't
hear. But He's talking about to slay a third part of the men.
And we're going to find out in the last two verses of this chapter
the result of that. And I know you're going to go
down and read it in just a minute and that's okay. But it's still
what they're going to do. Men are not going to repent.
But in World War II, I heard a man that said, and he's talking
about all of the devastation that took place, not just on
the battlefields, but because of the famine, because of things
that were happening because of the battles. All of the children
that they estimate there was in excess of 50 million people
that died as a result of World War II. But do you think that
that in itself would cause a man to repent before God? No. He said, I sent the pestilence,
I withheld the rain, I did all of this, and you repented not.
This is a great woe. And it says in verse 16, And
the number of the army of the horsemen were 200,000,000. And I heard, John says, the number
of them. Now, John, here's the number
of an army. An army of horsemen, it says
here, 200 million men. Now, this we behold in that number
right there, a tremendous host of an army that represents the
almost endless number of soldiers. that do battle. There has not
been in any nation any time ever been an army of 200 million men. But this number that John said,
and I'll show you in just a minute over in the book of Psalm 68,
is a number that represents God's means and purpose of accomplishing
the sending of this great war. Of course, for any given war,
War causes countries to, because of attrition, a wearing away
or a weakening, they're going to find themselves dwindling
in numbers. But because this number represents
all wars, the meaning is that there's always another army to
step up into this warfare. Now, an interesting fact, turn
over, as I said, Psalm 68, Psalm 68, 17. And let me show you something. As I said before, when God sends
these, we say, well, that's, you know, that's Hitler's army,
or that's Saddam Hussein's army, or that's just, well, let's see
whose army it really is. Psalm 68. John said, I saw, he
said, I heard, heard a number, 200,000,000. In Psalm Luke 68, verse 17, it says, The
chariots of God. That word chariots right there
are angels, messengers, horsemen. God's means. The chariots of
God are 20,000, even thousands of angels. The Lord is among
them as in Sinai in the holy place. In the margin there which
says, Thousands, if you look in your margin, it says, are
even many thousands. That number that John saw back
in Revelation 9 is a setting forth of what was said in Psalm
68. These are God's men, God's purpose, God's means. So here
we see the chariots of God, 20,000 or a myriad. an innumerable number, even thousands
of angels. His angels, His chariots, either
His angels who minister to the saints or the angels or the messengers
of war that accomplish His purpose, they are all His. Everything
is done according to His purpose. Just like the devil is a fallen
angel from heaven that wars against the saints, Going about as a
roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, the armies are the
angels or the messengers of this world. Evil in themselves are
God's. All souls are mine." You take
the evil soldiers that are haters of God and worshipers of Allah
and this, that and the other, those right there are God's men. They are accomplishing God's
purpose. And I'll tell you what God's going to do with them.
He's going to judge them. But they're going to accomplish
His purpose. So when we see this great army
in Revelation 9, 16, loosed to slay a third part of men, remember,
the servants of God are sealed. Now, I got to thinking about
this this morning when I was going over my notes. Does that
mean that those that are in battles, that there's no believers that
were ever killed in war. No, that doesn't mean that at
all. But it means that they're kept from the delusion of Satan
that would set forth the destruction of God's people. God keeps them. In verses 17 to 19, well, I'll
tell you what I'm going to do. Let's just read these two verses
and then I'm going to stop. It says in verse 17, And thus
I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them having
breastplates of fire and of jason 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. And 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. For their
power is in their mouth and in their tails. For their tails
were likened to serpents and had heads, and with them they
do hurt." I read a lot of the commentators on what these angels Or what was actually being said,
it said when they were talking about the heads of the horses,
like the heads of lion out of their mouths, issued fire and
smoke and brimstone, they said, well, surely that's cannons. That's jet airplanes. That's
missiles. That's, you know, John, what about the times when wars
were being taken place when those things weren't there? What does
it mean then? If the Lord tarries and God permits
us to see, I think we're going to see tonight concerning what
is actually being said in those verses. Well, let's just stop
there.