The Coming Demonic Invasion (Revelation 9:12–21)

I think we all understand the evil that exists in the world we're seeing it at a level like um we have never seen in our lifetime before in this uh sort of postchristian anti- Christian time of corruption we are we are seeing an entire Society an entire Globe catapult headlong into gross kinds of corruption and immorality at every level and the powers that be supporting all of that and um and taking aim at those who are righteous in the culture this is exactly what Isaiah talked about in chapter 5 when he said bitter has replaced

sweet and everything is upside down and inside out and overturned the things that we always considered to be good are now considered as evil and the things that were evil are now good so we understand manifest evil in the world we understand there's a battle between good and evil we as the children of God have been made New Creations and we love righteousness and we are set against a world that is bent on evil at a level that has never been seen before because evil men get worse and worse through history as the Bible says

we understand what we see and what we know and what we experience but what we we might not so readily understand is that beneath the surface in the spiritual realm there's a massive massive conflict going on it's a conflict that involves Holy Angels who are ministering Spirits sent to minister from the Throne of God for the well-being of the Saints and carrying out the will of God and there is another spiritual force a massive force of fallen angels that we know as demons who in engage themselves in the perpetration and the expansion of everything that

is wretched and evil this is the Unseen World the Bible gives us a glimpse into that Unseen World in a number of places in scripture we can as we go through the Bible see the activity of Satan and fallen angels in a lot of places particularly manifest most dramatically during the ministry of Christ on Earth it's as if that when he showed up all the demons came out of their their hiding their clandestine places and exposed themselves when they came face to face to him but we have to understand that there are these two Mighty

fortresses working in the Unseen World spiritual spheres and um all of us are on one side or the other we either are a companion to God or a companion to Satan we are either those who who take part with the Holy Angels in the Enterprise of the advance of God's kingdom or we are engaged with demons in the expansion of the power of Satan you're either a saint or a sinner and there's nothing in between and to doubt this reality is the most momentous mistake that a person can ever make and most fatal error that

you can ever make because it has Eternal consequences Eternal results you might sort of simplify it by saying Heaven is calling you through Jesus Christ and the gospel at the same time hell is calling you through Satan and his lies and deception that's going on all the time so it's overt in our society but it's also beneath the surface in all the subtleties that Satan can manufacture now the voices of hell have always been loud enough and alluring enough to charm and seduce the world of Sinners who are born into the kingdom of darkness to

start with so that Satan flourishes in his kingdom and all who follow him all who are children of the devil follow his Direction his lead and so to one degree or another every human being in this world is either a part of the kingdom of God and the ministry of Holy Angels on on their behalf or the kingdom of Satan and the ministry of demons on their behalf that's existing even now we don't wrestle against flesh and blood Paul said but against principalities and Powers the rulers of the darkness of this world spiritual wickedness in

the heavenlies you have to understand the Unseen World is real and it is vast and it is powerful but again we don't see it in our time the the Outburst came in the ministry of Christ and even after that in the ministry of the Apostles but since that time Satan has been much more covert in his operations although from time to time it's unmistakable to understand what he is doing as bad as it is now as powerful as Satan is as effective and successful as he is there is coming a time in the future that

will be fastly Beyond this era even at its very worst there is coming a time when virtually all of Hell will come to Earth and there will come demons with inevitable overwhelming virtually irresistible power and seduction they will successfully drown out all the preachers who are proclaiming the gospel and calling people to come to Christ and come to God and come to heaven when this time comes the people who are alive at this time will already have had plenty of warnings powerful warnings dramatic warnings inescapable warnings from those who preach the gospel the 144,000 Jews

who are converted as the Book of Revelation tells us from two witnesses described in chapter 11 from an Angel flying in heaven who will proclaim the gospel across the face of the Earth there will be people converted and saved from every tongue and tribe and people and Nation as chapter 7 of Revelation says so there will be a force of Believers proclaiming the gospel they will be martyred many of them not all of them some of them will come under the power of the Antichrist and he will slay them and they will be killed for

the cause of Christ but others will survive through that time in the future to enter into the kingdom of Christ when he returns so the people who are alive at that time and we're talking about a time the Bible calls the tribulation a seven-year period in the future the second half of which is called the Great Tribulation just to set it in your mind the church will have been raptured the church will be taken out of the world world we see that in the chronology of Revelation the church is in the first three chapters on

Earth the church is in chapter 4 and five in heaven and then back on Earth in chapter 6-9 all hell breaks loose in the final judgments that God unleashes on the world so the people who are left after the church is gone some of them as I said will be converted Jews will come to finally acknowledge Christ as their Messiah people from every tongue and tribe will be saved as I said many will be martyred some will remain alive and preach the gospel the gospel will be preached throughout that period of time but at the

same time the gospel is being preached judgments will be Unleashed like never before and we saw those judgments in the Seven Seals that started in chapter 6 we won't go back over all of that seal judgments the seals symbolize a scroll scoll a title deed to the Earth Christ takes the scroll because he's the heir to the Earth he unrolls the scroll and each time he breaks a seal a judgment comes that is horrendous and devastating so the people who are alive by the time we get to chapter n will have seen Divine judgment they

will have heard the gospel being preached they will have heard calls for forgiveness and mercy and Grace to those who will repent they will see death like never before they will have already experienced the immediate killing of essentially a huge portion of the entire world judgment Fierce unavoidable by the time they get to chapter nine they they will have seen judgment coming relentlessly without relief and they will hear the gospel being preached with the same relentlessness so God will be judging and and offering salvation at the same time so let's step into that future period

of time by coming to chapter 9 verse 13 and as we come here we we come to the sixth trumpet now remember there were seven seal judgments and the seventh seal judgment becomes the seven trumpets seven trumpet judgments the seventh trumpet judgment launches the seven bold judgments which carry us all the way to the return of Christ so in a series of telescoping judgments seals trumpets and judgment by the pouring out of bowls of Wrath we see the unfolding Divine Judgment of the Book of Revelation in the future time called the tribulation but as we

come to chapter 9: 13 we come to the sixth Angel and just so you have a bit of a perspective the seventh seal is opened and when the seventh seal is opened back in chapter 8 look at verse one the seventh seal is opened and immediately you have seven angels in verse two stand before God in seven trumpets so the seven trumpet judgments come out of that seventh seal and each of these seven angels blow their trumpets and these judgments are Unleashed if you want to be reminded of those judgments go down to verse 7

of chapter 8 the first sounded there came hail and fire mixed with blood they were thrown to the Earth and a third of the Earth was burned up a third of the trees were burned up all the green grass was burned up the second Angel sounded and something like a great Mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died and a third of the ships were destroyed the third Angel sounded and a great

star fell from heaven burning like a torch and it fell on the third of the rivers and on the Springs of waters the name of the star is called wormwood and a third of the waters became wormwood and many men died from the waters because they were made bitter the fourth Angel sounded a third of the sun third of the Moon third of the stars were struck so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not Shine for a third of it in the night in the same way Devastation then in

chapter 9 verse one the fifth angel sounded and a star from Heaven which had fallen into the Earth and the and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him this is an Angelic being and he opened the bottomless pit and smoke went up out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace and the Sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit and and out of the smoke came locusts upon the Earth and power was given them as the Scorpions of the Earth had power this is the unleashing

of demons depicted so when you get to the fifth trumpet you have this unleashing of demons who are described as if they were locusts so we've already had an unleashing of demons who had been bound bound since all the way back in the Book of Genesis so there are millions of demons in the world today there will be at that time as well but there will be some who have been bound since the Book of Genesis who will be released increasing the massive size of Satan's force during the Great Tribulation now that gets us to

the sixth trumpet in verse 13 six Angels sounded and I Heard a Voice from the four horns of the golden an altar which is before God one saying to the sixth Angel who had the trumpet released the Four Angels who were bound at the great river Euphrates and the Four Angels who had been prepared for the the hour and day and month and year were released so that they would kill a third of mankind the number of the armies of the horsemen was 200 million I heard the number of them and this is how I

saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them the Riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hin and of Brimstone and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone and a third of mankind was killed by these three plagues by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths for the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their ta tails for their tails are like serpents and they have heads

and with them they do harm the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands so as not to worship demons and the idols of gold and silver and of brass and of stone and of wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their theft the first unleashing of bound demons came in the first half of chapter 9 the second half of chapter 9 200 million more demons are

released 200 million so let's look at this text and we'll start with the release of demons in verse 13 then the sixth Angel sounded and I Heard a Voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God five have already sounded and the judgments are inconceivable devastating everything everything in Earth and Sky land plants animals sea freshwater Sky Heavenly Body sun moon stars and man is tormented by the unleashing of demons and he SE seeks death but can't find it as that first barrage of demons brings pain but not death hell has

spewed out millions of captive demons and here come even more in the sixth trumpet verse 14 one saying to the sixth Angel who had the trumpet release the Four Angels who are bound at the Great River Euphrates now we have two interesting points to think about here first of all is the golden Altar and secondly the river Euphrates as we go back to verse 13 these judgments begin with a voice from the four horns of the altar literally in the Greek One Voice a solitary voice maybe the voice of God maybe the voice of the

Lamb of God it may be the voice of an Angelic being but it is a voice nonetheless and it comes from the for horns of the golden altar which is before God what is the significance of this well we've already seen the golden altar twice in the Book of Revelation we saw it back in chapter 6 veres 9 to1 11 where some saints who had been martyred during the tribulation are under the Altar and they're praying for vengeance they're under the altar praying for vengeance they want God to avenge the enemy if you go back

to verse 9 of chapter 6 I saw John writes at the fifth seal underneath the altar that same altar Souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained so this is the Martyrs from that period of time and what are they crying out for how long oh Lord holy and true will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth so now we find this altar which is the golden altar Before the Throne of God in chapter

6 is an altar of Vengeance it's an altar where the Saints who have been martyred cry for vengeance now look back at the beginning of chapter 8 it appears again there verse three another angel Cay and stood at the altar holding a golden sensor and much incense was given to him so that he might add it to the prayers of the Saints from back in chapter 6 on the golden altar which was before the throne and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God out of the Angel's hand

then the angel took the sensor filled it with the fire of the Altar and threw it to the Earth and there followed peels of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake and then the seven trumpets in chapter six it's an altar of Vengeance and in chapter eight it's an altar of judgment but what is it referring to what is this golden altar in verse 13 well this is a Visionary replica of the golden alar in Exodus chapter 30 in the opening few verses of Exodus we are introduced to this piece of furniture

in the temple in the Tabernacle a golden altar it was located in the Holy place you had the outer Courtyard in the Tabernacle and the temple then you had the holy place then you had the holy of holies where God dwelt according to Exodus chapter 40 so located in the Holy place just before entering into the presence of God is this golden altar there are two altars set up in the temple first altar is the we could call it the great altar the the more familiar altar it was called the Brazen altar it was called

the altar of burnt offering it was called the altar of sacrifice it's the altar where the animal sacrifices were constantly made on behalf of the sins of the people this altar was outside the holy place in the courtyard this is the familiar altar of sacrifice and it was it was just flowing with blood all the time as priests slaughtered animals every morning and every evening symbolizing the need for the atonement for sin that's different than the golden altar the golden altar was inside the holy Place smaller made of goldnut brass inside the golden altar was

where the high priest went because he would then take incense from the sacrificial altar put it on the golden Altar and it would rise as incense to God what's the symbolism of that prayers for grace and mercy prayers for grace and mercy are only possible if sacrifice for sin has been made fiery coals from the outside altar the altar of sacrifice were placed in the golden altar of incense symbolizing prayer to God and the priests did this every morning and every evening the symbol symbolism of this is is very clear access to God prayer to

God worship of God seeking mercy and Grace from God communion with God the right to plead to God were related to the provision of blood sacrifice sin had to be dealt with before communion could be established before there was Grace before there was Mercy there had to be sacrifice sacrifice opened the way to God so the priest would offer the sacrifice take from the altar a portion of the burning coals take them in and place them on the golden altar symbolizing the fact that prayer could rise to God based upon a sacrifice for sin being

made the book of Hebrews says Jesus by the sacrifice of himself opened the way to God completely and finally so the work of the golden altar essentially was opened by the work of the Brazen altar it was an altar where you sought Mercy in fact in First Kings 1:50 it talks about people would literally cling to the horns of that altar crying to God for mercy it was an altar of Mercy it was an altar of Grace based upon sacrifice once the sins had been atoned for God could deliver the people from the consequence of

their sin and show them Mercy but when you come to the Book of Revelation there is a dramatic change we see the golden altar again in chapter six but it's not an altar of Mercy it's an altar of Vengeance it's an altar Vengeance the Saints are praying for Vengeance on Sinners and now in chapter 8 it becomes a an altar of judgment an altar of judgment where violence takes place as the Angels throw down the censor and unleash the trumpet judgment just mark it this is a horrible time in human history when the altar of

Mercy and the altar of Grace has been turned into an altar of Vengeance and an altar of judgment terrible this is the end when there's no more grace and there's no more Mercy the implication is that God's appointed way of Salvation has been totally and finally rejected the wickedness of the world has risen so high that even the place of Mercy becomes a place of Vengeance and a place of judgment with that understanding we come to verse 14 and the sixth Angel who had the trumpet is told release the Four Angels who are bound at

the great river Euphrates now who are these angels well they're not Holy Angels because nowhere in scripture Are Holy Angels ever bound ever these are Fallen Angels who are bound we already met some like that in the first half of chapter N9 those who were Bound in the time of Genesis and had been bound all the time since Genesis until the future tribulation when according to chapter N9 they are released well here are some more of those bound demons and the perfect tense in the Greek means they have been bound for a long time that

is their condition bound demons Fallen Angels another segment of Satan's force and apparently each of these four bound demons has an army because the armies that are with them in verse 16 in the plural who are these and what is the meaning of the river Euphrates these are demons who have demon armies that have been bound going all the way back to some ancient time around the river Euphrates we know there are demons who have been free and worked throughout all of human history we know there are demons who were thrown out of heaven we

know there are demons who in chapter n as I said came up out of the pit but here is a new force of 200 million of them set loose but why are they bound at the great river Euphrates that seems like a very important note and it is why are they Bound in that place well that is the area of the Garden of Eden of course it was one of the four rivers of the Garden of Eden so it was the place of Satan's deception of Adam and Eve it was the place where Adam was

tempted and fell and the whole human race with him it was the place where the first assault on God and man took place the river Euphrates rises from sources near Mount Ararat in Turkey the Euphrates flows more than 1,700 miles before emptying into the Persian Gulf the longest and most important river in the Middle East it figures prominently in the Old Testament starting in Genesis chapter 2 as it was part of the Topography of the Garden of Eden it was near the Euphrates that sin began that the first lie was told that the first murder

was committed that the Tower of Babel was built the complex of false religions that has since spread across the world the Euphrates was the eastern boundary of the promised land and the Israel's influence extended to the Euphrates during the reign of David and Solomon the region near Euphrates was also the central location of world powers ancient world powers Babylon Assyria and Meo Persia so it's a very important place it could be that the demons who basically ran the empires of Syria Babylon and Meo Persia may have been bound at that time and have been bound

along with their armies ever since then it is the river Euphrates again over which the enemies of God will cross in the future when they engage in the battle of Armageddon so it's it's like the focal point of all evil and God bound some demons and held them in captivity there until this future time along with their army of 200 million as bad as the world is it's not as bad as it could be if 200 million more demons were set loose just think of that it's right at the place where the Tower of Babel

initiated Pagan religion the very place where Pagan religion today is still headquartered what do I mean by that the Middle East is still the home and going east from there of the major false religions of the world Islam Hinduism Sikhism Buddhism Confucianism taism Shinto Shamanism animism on and on and on and on you go it's still the focal point of Satan's counterfeit religions so there's some demons and their armies bound there and in the future they will be released for what purpose verse 15 the Four Angels who had been prepared for the hour and day

and month and year were released so that they would kill a third of mankind now they're going to unleash death back in chapter nine the first barrage of demons were not permitted to kill anyone chapter 9 verse 5 only to torment them for a period of time now they're given the power to kill who has prepared these it says they were prepared for the hour the day the month and the year God he's the one who bound them he's the one who released them he's the one who will use them as agents of his judgment

God will use them in the continuing destruction of the world before Christ returns to set up his kingdom and the day the hour the month the year has been established and so has the number verse 16 notice the number 200 million and then John says as you looked at the vision I heard the number of them as if to say am not guessing at the precise moment they will be released to kill a third of mankind that's the 13th mention of onethird of something in connection with trumpet judgment now back in chapter 6:8 under the

fourth seal a fourth of the Earth was killed since then many more have been killed in the terrible judgments but this Slaughter will take a third of those in the world that are left unimaginable in a brief period of time the pile up of bodies will be inconceivable I can't imagine how they would even begin to dispose of billions of people this is a force to kill like nothing in history and there's no power on Earth that can withstand this because they are operating as instruments of God's will verse 17 gives us a description of

them as John sees them as if they were Horsemen armies he's not talking about literal people or armies but rather these demons but he describes them in terms that obviously God used in the vision the vision gave him a picture of horse es and those who sat on them and the Riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hin and of Brimstone and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions and out of their mouths proed fire and smoke and [Music] brimstone John's just telling us what he saw he looked at

them and he saw fire and hin and brimstone red blue and yellow the colors of of fire red obviously the color of fire hin which is blue the deepest color of the hottest fire and brimstone is yellow like a sulfuric gas it's as if hell arrived on Earth and in describing their heads like the heads of lions he is demonstrating that these demons are Fierce strong determined murderers come to slaughter and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone and those are the three things that kill a third of the population of the

the world it doesn't describe exactly how that occurs we can only say what the Bible says but the people will be killed by the fire the smoke and the brimstone that these demons generate asphyxiated by the hellish fiery arrival of Hell on Earth burned suffocated with smoke and gas and what about the description of their mouths and their tails simply to say that they have one function and it comes from every angle and that is the function of death they do harm they do harm they do deadly harm so the the sixth trumpet will bring

the releasee of demons and the return of death and then this passage closes in verses 20 and 21 with the reaction of Defiance the rest of mankind who were not killed that are still alive that means the 2/3 that remain when the one-third are killed the rest of them who were not killed by these plagues did not repent did not repent even with that they didn't repent which means they could have repented which means the gospel is still being preached in the world God is still communicating the offer of forgiveness but they don't repent this

is the most severe warning in scripture to any person who thinks that there's not an urgency about coming to Christ you might be able to figure out the truth when you're in the tribulation and not have to do it now when you get into that particular part of God's plan you may be among those who have no capacity to repent like the 2third you would wonder why wouldn't they repent why wouldn't they repent what have they seen they've seen unbelievable judgment they've seen false peace and then war and then famine and then death and then

the destruction of their entire Earthly environment and the destruction of the sky as they know it they've they've seen the whole of the human race begin to disappear a fourth of them being killed and others being slaughtered they've seen the demons harming people and making them so sick they wish they were dead everything is chaos disorder at the same time there will be many who believe the gospel chapter 7 says from every tongue and tribe and people and nation and Israel will be saved so they they've also met Believers some of whom are martyred some

of whom Will Survive to enter into the kingdom when Christ returns but by the time you get to this unfolding they're so hard-hearted two-thirds of them the implication is could still repent but they in a prolic way it says they did didn't repent they didn't repent repentance is always the issue back to the Gospel of Luke CH 24 verse 47 the Great Commission tell people to repent for the Forgiveness of sins they won't have anybody to blame but themselves for their lack of repentance it gets worse under the uh if that's possible under the Bold

judgments if you go over to chapter 16 the final judgment of all the judgments the final bold judgment the seventh Judgment of the three categories huge hailstones 100 pounds come down from heaven upon men and men blaspheme God they still don't repent as judgment escalates and mounts what do they cling to why wouldn't they repent well we're told they wouldn't repent go back to verse 20 they did not repent of the works of their hands that's a phrase used often in the Old Testament to describe Idols because Idols were made by men's hands there are

five sins representative of these defiant Sinners they choose hell they choose demons they choose death they choose Satan they choose sin they are worshippers of Satan they have the mark of the beast they worship the Antichrist they worship the Dragon they're completely engulfed in control by Satan and 200 million additional demons and so there are five things that Mark them five sins one idolatry they do not repent of the works of their hands that's Idols they make so as not to worship demons which is to say idol worship is demon worship an idol is no

one it is nothing but a demon will impersonate the idol that The Sinner creat creates and he winds up worshiping demons they worship demons in the idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk they'll be completely committed to demon Worship in forms of idolatry and secondly they did not repent verse 21 of their murders their murders murder will be rampant there's so much death going on so Much Death God is killing people in judgment Antichrist is killing people in persecution the world is running a

muck in evil it's completely out of control they've been killing the Jews they've been killing believers violent crime is completely out of control it's worldwide blood bath the angry population of the world and they will be angry will turn that anger on each other they'll kill those in their own family so their sins will be idolatry and murder and they will not be restrained from those sins even in the midst of judgment the third sin is sorceries verse 21 it's the word Pharmaca they're druggings drugs drugs they'll be engulfed in drugs drunkenness drug induced sters

to make the horrors of their life perhaps tolerable to some extent people take drugs today because they can't tolerate Life as We Know It think of what life then will be like and how they'll head for the medicine cabinet to escape the horrors of that reality they'll cling to their drugs their hatred and their demon worship and then the fourth sin in verse 21 is immoralities that's the Greek word pora pornography that's that's going to be the worst of all times the whole remaining population of the world is engulfed in worshiping demons in murdering in

drugs and in pornography sexual sins without restraint rape child molestation pedophilia homosexuality beastiality every conceivable and inconceivable expression of sexual evil and then the end of vers 21 a fifth theft stealing Honesty will be non-existent property rights will be ignored I look at the world around us and I I see forboding realities of this already demon worship rampant crimes of murder drugs immorality and theft we're we're getting a little taste even in America of life like this in the future only then it'll be Global they won't turn so what do we say to all of

this well I want to say this first of all Ezekiel 3311 listen as surely as I live declares The Sovereign Lord I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked did you hear that I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that they turn from their ways and live turn turn from your evil ways why will you die God is saying you don't have to die turn turn turn God finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked now how does this apply to us well the real test of uh

what you believe about this is how you respond to it and since this is true our response should be to warn people to flee from the Wrath that come right that's what I was trying to say last Sunday when we talked about what the churches in the world to do is not to rearrange the politics we're in the world to warn of the Wrath to come a church will be taken out of this world we will be taken to glory to the marriage supp sheer of the Lamb to dwell with the Lord forever in Bliss

and joy and that is offered to Anyone who puts his or her trust in Christ turn turn from your sin repent come to Christ so that you don't end up in this setting of judgment and the hopelessness of clinging to sins without the possibility of repenting if this is true and it is and we believe it is true and we do this defines what Believers are in the world for we're here to warn of the Wrath to come Jesus did that the apostles did that all faithful believers do that as well that's our calling as

we proclaim the gospel let's [Music] pray Our Father we thank you again for giving us the revelation of the future so that we understand what is to come we have no excuse not to be captivated by the urgency of warning people of these Horrors give us the faithfulness the boldness the clarity in love to warn and to call Sinners to repentance and faith in Christ amen