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Satanic Slaughter (Revelation 913–21) John MacArthur · THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together

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  Speaker 1: Again, tonight we return to the book of Revelation, and
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  Speaker 1: I invite you to open your Bible, if you will,
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  Speaker 1: to chapter 9, Revelation chapter 9. And we're looking at
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  Speaker 1: verses 13 through 21 in this tremendous book, and I'll
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  Speaker 1: be reading those verses to you in just a moment.
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  Speaker 1: Mankind lies between two mighty opposite spiritual spheres, both touching
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  Speaker 1: the earth and man directly. And each of those spheres
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  Speaker 1: operates to conform man to itself. And as he yields
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  Speaker 1: to one or the other, he becomes a companion to
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  Speaker 1: God or a companion to Satan, a companion to holy
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  Speaker 1: angels or a companion to demons, a companion to saints
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  Speaker 1: or a companion to sinners. And frankly, to doubt that
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  Speaker 1: reality is the most momentous mistake and the most fatal
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  Speaker 1: error that any human being will ever make. Heaven, one
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  Speaker 1: of those spheres, is calling to man through Christ Jesus. Hell,
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  Speaker 1: the other sphere, is calling to man through Satan. And
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  Speaker 1: the voices of hell have always been loud. loud enough
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  Speaker 1: and alluring enough to charm and seduce the world. And
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  Speaker 1: there is coming a day, frankly, when the sirens of
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  Speaker 1: hell will call with a powerful seduction, so powerful that
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  Speaker 1: it will drown out the voice of preachers.
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  Speaker 2: Who are calling people to heaven.
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  Speaker 1: The people in that day who have ignored all the
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  Speaker 1: powerful warnings, all the calls of mercy in the gospel,
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  Speaker 1: all the offers of grace, will see death come upon
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  Speaker 1: them as never before, judgment fierce and indestructible. And in
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  Speaker 1: the midst of it, they will not repent. The sirens
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  Speaker 1: of hell will totally drown out the preachers of mercy.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, they will curse the God of heaven. They
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  Speaker 1: will make their choice to become the companion of Satan, demons,
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  Speaker 1: and sinners forever. And that's what this chapter is all about.
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  Speaker 1: Let me begin reading in verse 12. The first woe
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  Speaker 1: is past. Behold, two woes are still coming after these things.
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  Speaker 1: And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice
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  Speaker 1: from the four horns of the golden altar, which is
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  Speaker 1: before God. One saying to the sixth angel who had
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  Speaker 1: the trumpet, Release the four angels who are bound at
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  Speaker 1: the great river Euphrates. And the four angels who had
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  Speaker 1: been prepared for the hour and day and month and
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  Speaker 1: year were released so that they might kill a third
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  Speaker 1: of mankind. And the number of the armies of the
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  Speaker 1: horsemen was 200 million. I heard the number of them.
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  Speaker 1: And this is how I saw in the vision the
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  Speaker 1: horses and those who sat on them. The riders had
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  Speaker 1: breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone.
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  Speaker 1: And the heads of the horses are like the heads
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  Speaker 1: of lions, and out of their mouths proceed fire and
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  Speaker 1: smoke and brimstone. A third of mankind was killed by
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  Speaker 1: these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and
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  Speaker 1: the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths. For the
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  Speaker 1: power of the horses is in their mouths and in
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  Speaker 1: their tails, for their tails are like serpents and have heads,
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  Speaker 1: and with them they do harm. And the rest of
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  Speaker 1: mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not
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  Speaker 1: repent of the works of their hands, so as not
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  Speaker 1: to worship demons and the idols of gold and of
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  Speaker 1: silver and of brass and of stone and of wood,
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  Speaker 1: which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they
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  Speaker 1: did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries,
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  Speaker 1: nor of their immorality, nor of their thefts. Here you
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  Speaker 1: have the blowing of the sixth trumpet, and in the
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  Speaker 1: blowing of the sixth trumpet you have another demon attack,
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  Speaker 1: such as in the blowing of the fifth trumpet recorded
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  Speaker 1: in verses 1 to 11 of the same chapter. Now remember,
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  Speaker 1: We are in a seven-year period in the future after
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  Speaker 1: the rapture of the church called the time of the Tribulation.
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  Speaker 1: We are in the latter half of that period called
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  Speaker 1: the Great Tribulation. The Tribulation time is unfolding for us
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  Speaker 1: in seven sealed manner. There is a scroll which records
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  Speaker 1: the takeover of the earth by its rightful ruler, Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Each phase of that takeover is revealed as the next
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  Speaker 1: of seven seals is broken. The seventh seal has been broken.
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  Speaker 1: And upon the breaking of the seventh seal, it reveals
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  Speaker 1: seven trumpet judgments. We are moving toward the end of
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  Speaker 1: that latter half of the seven years, and we are
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  Speaker 1: already at trumpet number six. There is only one more
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  Speaker 1: trumpet to blow, and that trumpet contains seven bowl judgments.
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  Speaker 1: which are rapid fire. So we're nearing the end.
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  Speaker 2: We are in the seventh seal. The book is fully open.
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  Speaker 1: We are in the sixth trumpet, near the last trumpet,
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  Speaker 1: which encompasses the seven bowl judgments described in chapter 16.
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  Speaker 2: And when the final.
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  Speaker 1: Bowl is poured out to end the seventh trumpet, which
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  Speaker 1: is the consummation of the seventh seal, Then the Lord
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  Speaker 1: Jesus arrives to set up His glorious kingdom on earth,
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  Speaker 1: the millennial kingdom. So here we are, trumpet number six,
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  Speaker 1: judgment to come upon the world in the end of
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  Speaker 1: the age. Now remember, by this time there has been
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  Speaker 1: a worldwide revival.
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  Speaker 2: Many have been redeemed.
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  Speaker 1: Many of the redeemed have been slaughtered, and they're already
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  Speaker 1: in heaven, a multitude too vast to number. revealed to
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  Speaker 1: us in chapter 7. Some of them are still on
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  Speaker 1: earth and they'll survive all of this. The Lord will
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  Speaker 1: protect them through the slaughter and the judgment and they
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  Speaker 1: will enter into the kingdom in their physical bodies.
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  Speaker 2: So there are believers all over the earth.
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  Speaker 1: Israel is going to come to repentance and look on
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  Speaker 1: Him whom they've pierced and some of them will as well,
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  Speaker 1: of course, become preachers, namely the 144,000 and many others
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  Speaker 1: and they will be used by God to preach the
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  Speaker 1: gospel across the earth.
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  Speaker 2: It is in that scene that the.
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  Speaker 1: Seventh seal reveals the seven trumpets and we find ourselves
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  Speaker 1: at trumpet number six. The fifth trumpet, according to verse 12,
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  Speaker 1: was the first of three woes. You remember the first
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  Speaker 1: four trumpets had to do with judgment, judgment that's described
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  Speaker 1: for us in chapter 8, judgment on the land and
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  Speaker 1: judgment on the sea and judgment on the fresh water
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  Speaker 1: and judgment on the sky. The created universe is judged.
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  Speaker 1: The physical universe is judged. But the last three trumpets
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  Speaker 1: are called woes because they are more frightening judgments, more
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  Speaker 1: fearsome judgments. The fifth one involved a demon horde coming
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  Speaker 1: out of the pit and running rampant over the earth
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  Speaker 1: and tormenting men.
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  Speaker 2: To the point where they wished they could die, but they.
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  Speaker 1: Couldn't, and so they had to endure the torment for
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  Speaker 1: five months, demonic torment. And now we come to the
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  Speaker 1: second of those woes, and we read about it in
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  Speaker 1: verse 13.
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  Speaker 2: Let's look at it. And the sixth angel sounded.
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  Speaker 1: Now, if you go back to verse 2 of chapter 8,
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  Speaker 1: you see there the seven angels standing before God. They
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  Speaker 1: are angels accustomed to being in the presence of God.
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  Speaker 1: They have seven trumpets ready to go. Five have been blown.
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  Speaker 1: Now back to verse 13. The sixth angel sounded, and
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  Speaker 1: I heard a voice from the four horns of the
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  Speaker 1: golden altar, which is before God. One saying to the
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  Speaker 1: sixth angel who had the trumpet, release the four angels
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  Speaker 1: who are bound at the great river Euphrates. Now the
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  Speaker 1: first point that I want to direct you to in
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  Speaker 1: the unfolding of this scene is the release of the demons.
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  Speaker 1: The release of the demons. The sixth angel sounds his trumpet.
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  Speaker 1: Five have already sounded. The judgments are inconceivable up to
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  Speaker 1: now and they will get worse. God is judging man
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  Speaker 1: with a final flurry of judgment called the day of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord. Land, plants, animals, sea, fresh water, sky, and
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  Speaker 1: you remember even terrifying demonic pollution has already fallen upon
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  Speaker 1: the earth. Hell has already opened up and belched out,
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  Speaker 1: as it were, millions of captive demons who had been
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  Speaker 1: bound there.
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  Speaker 2: And here comes some more to be released.
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  Speaker 1: Now, the voice that follows the sixth angel sounding comes
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  Speaker 1: from the four horns of the golden altar, which is
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  Speaker 1: before God. I need to spend a moment on this
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  Speaker 1: to give you some understanding of it. I heard a voice.
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  Speaker 1: In the Greek text, it's one voice. A solitary, singular
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  Speaker 1: voice is emphasized. Perhaps it's the voice of the Lamb.
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  Speaker 1: After all, He is executing this takeover. It's time for
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  Speaker 1: Him to give His order, time for Him to speak.
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  Speaker 2: And to judge.
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  Speaker 1: The voice is not identified, but the location from which
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  Speaker 1: it comes is identified, and that tells.
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  Speaker 2: Us the Holy Spirit is laying emphasis there.
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  Speaker 1: Notice that it comes from one of the four horns
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  Speaker 1: of the golden altar which is before God. Now John
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  Speaker 1: had already seen this altar back in chapter 6. You
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  Speaker 1: remember in 6, 9 to 11 that there was an
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  Speaker 1: altar and underneath the altar there were souls praying for vengeance.
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  Speaker 1: They were the souls of martyred believers who had been
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  Speaker 1: killed during the tribulation time, and they were underneath this altar,
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  Speaker 1: and they were pleading for vengeance. And at the time
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  Speaker 1: we studied that, I told you that was a heavenly
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  Speaker 1: counterpart to the altar of incense, which is the.
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  Speaker 2: Altar symbolizing prayer or petition.
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  Speaker 1: In Old Testament times, the altar of incense was where
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  Speaker 1: prayers for mercy arose. Now it's become an altar of
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  Speaker 1: intercession where prayers of vengeance are.
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  Speaker 2: Originally a place where.
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  Speaker 1: People of God would go symbolically as the priest took
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  Speaker 1: in the incense and they would there symbolically have the
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  Speaker 1: pleading for mercy. But already we can see that pleadings
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  Speaker 1: from that once known as an altar of mercy have
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  Speaker 1: become pleadings for vengeance. Again in chapter 8 we see
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  Speaker 1: that same altar. And an angel at that altar filling
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  Speaker 1: up his censer with the fiery incense, according to chapter 8,
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  Speaker 1: verse 5, hurls that to the earth. And now we
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  Speaker 1: see that the golden altar, which once was where you
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  Speaker 1: pled for mercy, became an altar of vengeance, where you
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  Speaker 1: plead for vengeance. And now, not only an altar of vengeance,
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  Speaker 1: but actually an altar of judgment. Because when the angel
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  Speaker 1: throws the fiery coals from the altar, peals of thunder
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  Speaker 1: and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake take place.
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  Speaker 1: So the altar is very, very important as it begins
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  Speaker 1: to unfold in its meanings. This would be a visionary
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  Speaker 1: replica that John sees, a heavenly replica of the golden
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  Speaker 1: altar of incense described in Exodus chapter 30. We don't
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  Speaker 1: have the time to go through all of the details,
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  Speaker 1: but I think it would be helpful just to listen
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  Speaker 1: to what it says in Exodus 30 about the original
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  Speaker 1: altar of incense that God prescribed to be placed within
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  Speaker 1: the tabernacle. He shall make an altar as a place
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  Speaker 1: for burning incense. You will make it of acacia wood.
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  Speaker 1: And then He gives its dimensions, and it will have horns,
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  Speaker 1: little protrusions on the corners which stick up, probably really
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  Speaker 1: decorative more than anything, giving it a unique appearance. You'll
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  Speaker 1: overlay it with pure gold, its top and its sides
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  Speaker 1: all around and its horns. There it is, the golden altar.
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  Speaker 1: Make a gold molding all around for it, two gold
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  Speaker 1: rings and so forth. Further prescriptions are given. And you
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  Speaker 1: shall put it, in verse 6, in front of the veil.
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  Speaker 1: Now remember, in the inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies
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  Speaker 1: was the Ark of the Covenant. Immediately outside the Holy
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  Speaker 1: of Holies, outside the veil that separated men from God,
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  Speaker 1: where God was in the Holy of Holies, on the
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  Speaker 1: outside was a place called the Holy Place.
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  Speaker 2: Only a priest could go there. The priest could go
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  Speaker 2: into the Holy of Holies only once a year. He
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  Speaker 2: could go into the Holy Place every morning and every night.
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  Speaker 1: And right before the veil, right before the presence of God,
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  Speaker 1: this golden altar of incense was to be placed. Right
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  Speaker 1: in front of the veil that separated from the mercy seat,
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  Speaker 1: the ark of the testimony or the ark of the covenant.
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  Speaker 1: Then the priest was to go in there every morning
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  Speaker 1: and he was to burn incense. And then he was
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  Speaker 1: to go back every twilight and he was to burn
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  Speaker 1: incense again. And then verse 10 says, And Aaron shall
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  Speaker 1: make atonement on its horns once a year on the
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  Speaker 1: day of atonement. Once a year on the altar of incense,
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  Speaker 1: the high priest went in and put blood. Now what
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  Speaker 1: that was saying was that prayers can rise, prayers for mercy,
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  Speaker 1: pleadings to God for grace and blessing, but only on
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  Speaker 1: the basis of what? Sacrifice.
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  Speaker 2: Sacrifice.
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  Speaker 1: Only do we have access to commune with God and
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  Speaker 1: any right to ask for mercy on the basis of
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  Speaker 1: blood sacrifice. The book of Hebrews puts it this way,
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  Speaker 1: Christ in His sacrifice has created a new and living way.
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  Speaker 2: Access to God.
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  Speaker 1: So there were two altars then in the ancient tabernacle
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  Speaker 1: and temple. One was the great altar outside in the courtyard.
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  Speaker 1: It was called the brazen altar or the altar of sacrifice,
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  Speaker 1: the altar for burnt offering. That is where the sacrificial
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  Speaker 1: animals were placed and consumed.
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  Speaker 2: That was the bloody place where atonement was made.
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  Speaker 1: And then on the basis of atonement, The priest would
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  Speaker 1: take coals from that altar and take them in and
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  Speaker 1: put them on the golden altar, put incense there, and
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  Speaker 1: prayers would rise, prayers for mercy and grace and blessing
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  Speaker 1: from God who would grant that because sin had been
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  Speaker 1: atoned for. It is this golden altar here, smaller than
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  Speaker 1: the brazen altar, made of gold, not brass, inside the
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  Speaker 1: holy place before the veil. Now this gives us graphic
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  Speaker 1: insight into the fact that prayer and worship and communion
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  Speaker 1: with God, access to God, a right to plead your
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  Speaker 1: case was always connected to atonement, right? I mean, to
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  Speaker 1: make it simple, no person whose sins have not been
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  Speaker 1: atoned for has any access to God.
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  Speaker 2: Is that not true?
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  Speaker 1: Without sacrifice to cover sin, no communion with God is available.
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  Speaker 1: Sacrifice opens the way to God. So the work of
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  Speaker 1: the golden altar, the symbolic emphasis of the golden altar
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  Speaker 1: was predicated on the brazen altar. And once a year
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  Speaker 1: to carry that symbolism fully out, the high priest on
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  Speaker 1: the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, would go into the
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  Speaker 1: altar which was golden and he would put.
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  Speaker 2: Blood on it.
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  Speaker 1: So it was an altar where prayers rose symbolically, prayers
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  Speaker 1: for forgiveness, mercy based upon the fact that sins had
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  Speaker 1: been atoned for. So they always knew it as an
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  Speaker 1: altar of mercy. But now it has become an altar
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  Speaker 1: of vengeance and an altar of judgment. And here unimaginable
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  Speaker 1: to the Jewish reader, a voice comes out of that
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  Speaker 1: very same altar where once was mercy and the voice
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  Speaker 1: that cries from the horns of this altar is not
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  Speaker 1: a voice that says, I forgive, I grant mercy, I
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  Speaker 1: grant grace. It is a voice that calls for devastating
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  Speaker 1: demonic destruction. And I am immediately reminded of what God
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  Speaker 1: said to the antediluvian civilization when He said, My spirit
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  Speaker 1: will not always strive with man. 1 Kings 1.50 says
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  Speaker 1: that in the past, some Jews have clung to the
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  Speaker 1: horns of the altar for mercy.
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  Speaker 2: There is no mercy left now.
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  Speaker 1: The angel in chapter 8 verses 3 to 5 has
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  Speaker 1: let us know already that this has become an altar
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  Speaker 1: of judgment and the terrible, terrible scene that we see
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  Speaker 1: in this text certainly does confirm that. I can't resist
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  Speaker 1: reading you the comment on this very scene that comes
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  Speaker 1: out of Hebrews chapter 10. Anyone who has set aside
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  Speaker 1: the law of Moses dies without mercy. How much severe
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  Speaker 1: punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled
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  Speaker 1: underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean
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  Speaker 1: the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified
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  Speaker 1: and has insulted the Spirit of grace? And everybody who
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  Speaker 1: has rejected Christ in this time period in the future
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  Speaker 1: up to this point will have done all of that.
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  Speaker 2: And then he says, vengeance is mine. I will repay.
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  Speaker 2: The Lord will judge His people.
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  Speaker 1: It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands
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  Speaker 1: of the living God. This is the end of mercy, folks.
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  Speaker 1: This is when mercy is at its end. And so
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  Speaker 1: one says to the sixth angel, the one whose voice
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  Speaker 1: comes out of this altar, says to the sixth angel
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  Speaker 1: who had the trumpet, release the four angels who are
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  Speaker 1: bound at the great river Euphrates.
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  Speaker 2: Now this too is fascinating.
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  Speaker 1: Who are these four angels who are bound? Well, first
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  Speaker 1: of all, never in Scripture does it say holy angels
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  Speaker 1: are bound. Why would they need to be bound? The
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  Speaker 1: only reason you would bind someone would be to prevent
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  Speaker 1: them from doing what you don't want them to do, right?
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  Speaker 1: Holy angels don't do what God doesn't want them to do.
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  Speaker 2: Did you get that? There's a lot of negatives in there.
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  Speaker 1: You don't have to bind holy angels to prevent them
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  Speaker 1: from doing what they would do against the will of God.
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  Speaker 1: So the fact that they are bound should make it
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  Speaker 1: clear to anyone that they are demons, fallen angels who
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  Speaker 1: need to be restrained. And this is a perfect tense
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  Speaker 1: verb which means that something has bound them in the
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  Speaker 1: past with continuing results. They are in a state or
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  Speaker 1: condition of having been bound. So here are four bound demons,
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  Speaker 1: fallen angels. They're another segment of Satan's force. Now, obviously,
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  Speaker 1: Satan doesn't want them bound. He'd like to have his
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  Speaker 1: demons running loose all over the universe all the time.
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  Speaker 1: The demons didn't want to get sent to the pit.
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  Speaker 1: You remember, please, they pleaded to Jesus, don't send us
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  Speaker 1: to the pit. Satan doesn't want them bound, but God
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  Speaker 1: has bound them. And here's another group of four that
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  Speaker 1: He has bound, reminding us that God controls all the
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  Speaker 1: demonic forces. Now, these four are apparently in charge of
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  Speaker 1: a massive demon horde. Not those on the earth, not
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  Speaker 1: those who've been up in space battling angels who now,
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  Speaker 1: according to Revelation 12, have been cast down to the earth.
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  Speaker 1: Not those who have come pouring up the shaft of
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  Speaker 1: the pit described in the first part of chapter 9.
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  Speaker 2: Here's a whole new group, a whole new horde.
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  Speaker 1: Of demons controlled by these four who are bound by God.
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  Speaker 1: Now interestingly enough, it says they are bound at the
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  Speaker 1: great river Euphrates. That is a very curious thing. If
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  Speaker 1: you read Jeremiah 46, and I won't take the time
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: to read it, you will note that Jeremiah there is
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: describing the day of the Lord several times he refers
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: to the Euphrates.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: That when the day of the Lord hits, it's.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Going to involve some action associated with the location of
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: the Euphrates River. Now the immediate question that comes to
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: my mind as I look at this is, why are
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: these demons bound at the Euphrates? Why has God got
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: them captive there? Well, if you look back a little
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: bit in history, and I don't want to belabor this,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: just kind of stick with me for a few months,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: I'll show you what the significance might be. It was
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: one of the four rivers of the Garden of Eden.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: You remember there were four rivers in the Garden of Eden?
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: There was one, and of course the one that was
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: pre-flood was different than the one that was after the flood.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: But the original Euphrates was in the place of Satan's
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: deception of Adam and Eve. It was in the area
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: where Satan first began his assault on God, where Satan
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: first began his assault on man. The river Euphrates has
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: a very interesting history. The river Euphrates begins in the
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Armenian mountains, some of the highest in the earth. Flooded
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: in the springtime with melting snows, it goes down through
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: the Taurus Mountains and down through the Mesopotamian Valley to
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: the Persian Gulf, all the way through that area of
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: the world. It's the most important, the longest, the biggest
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: of all rivers in western Asia. But it was the
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: place where sin was first known, the place where misery
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: first began. It was the place where the first lie
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: was told, where the first murder was committed, where the
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: first grave was dug. The Euphrates River was the scene
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: of the great apostasies before and after the flood. The
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Euphrates River was the scene of the rise of Israel's
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: greatest and most oppressive enemies. The area around the Euphrates
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: River was the scene of the long years in which
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: the children of Israel dragged out their wearisome days of captivity.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: The Euphrates River was the scene of the rise of
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: those great world empires that oppressed God's people, Babylon, Medo-Persia.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: They're in that place. Four great powerful demons, magnets of
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: evil are chained.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: By God.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: And they have in their hands the power to do
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: awful destruction, but God restrains them. The Euphrates, according to Genesis, Deuteronomy,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: and Joshua was also the eastern boundary of the promised land.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: It was also the eastern.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Boundary of the Roman Empire, which is to be restored
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: and revived at this time under the Antichrist. It is
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the place where the city of Babylon is, and you
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: will remember in Revelation 17 and Revelation 18, both the
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: final form of world religion and the final form of
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: world economy are called Babylon. These could well be the
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: very demons who controlled Babylon of old, who controlled Medo-Persia
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: of old, who controlled Greece of old, who controlled the
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Roman Empire of old. Interestingly enough, in Daniel, just a
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: brief note, in Daniel chapter 10, just.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: A couple of verses to read to you.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Verse 13 says, The prince of the kingdom of Persia
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: was withstanding me for 21 days. That's a demon who
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: was leading Persia from the satanic vantage point. And Michael
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: had to go and get him out of the way.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Down in verse 20... Do you understand why I came
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: to you? I am now going to return to fight
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: against the prince of Persia. So I am going forth,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: So you can see that there were demons associated with
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: these various great empires, with Persia, with Greece, certainly with Babylon,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: and certainly with Rome. And it may well be that
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: those four great world empires had four great demonic powers
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: over them, and these are they.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: And they have been held prisoner. Something else.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: As Satan had entered Eden and corrupted Eden in that
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: same location, later on in that same part of the world,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: he started another corruptive influence, the result of which is
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: still going on because it wasn't drowned like his first
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: corrupt effort. It's the Tower of Babel, the original Babylon
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: in that same area of the world. And out of
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: that complex of religions that was spawned from the Tower
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: of Babel came this complexity of pagan religiosity that involves astrology, pantheism, polytheism, idolatry, spiritism,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: naturalistic philosophy. All of that garbage has penetrated all over
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: the world, and it was originated at the Tower of Babel.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: And when all of that was scattered and the languages
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: were scattered, they took the religion, the false religion of
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Babel and populated the world with it. So you see,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: the Euphrates is a demonic area. You look at it
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: today and it is utterly and totally without any Christian influence.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: That part of the world is as pagan as pagan gets.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: It is as anti-Christian as anti-Christianity can be. So here
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: are these four demons and they're bound there, and that
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: seems to be the focus of their activity.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: In the world.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: And, of course, its proximity to Israel makes it a
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: good launching point for all that they would want to
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: do to destroy the people of God, Israel. So here
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: are these four demons and the angel blows and the
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: voice says, release them. The release of the demons leads
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: to a second point, the return of death. The return
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: of death. Remember, death had taken a holiday under trumpet
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: number five. According to verses five and six, people couldn't die.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: They tried to die and they couldn't die. They tried
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: to kill themselves and it didn't work. Now death returns,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: verse 15, and the four angels who had been prepared,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: look at this, for the hour and day and month
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: and year were released and immediately they killed a third
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: of mankind.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: Who released them? God did.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: And God will now use them in the continuing destruction
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: of the world. What does that phrase for the hour
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: and day and month and year mean?
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Really very obvious.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: At the prescribed year, in the prescribed month, at the
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: exact day, and the very hour which God has designed
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: it to happen, that's when it'll happen.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: Matthew 24, 36, they were asking when.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Is the kingdom going to come and when is the
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Messiah going to come and all of that? And Jesus said,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: it's not for you to know the day or the hour,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: but God knows. He knows the day and the hour
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: of everything. The Father in heaven knows, said the Son
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: of Man. God has His limits and God has His timetable.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: And at the right year, in the right month, on
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: the right day, at the right hour, those demons are
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: going to be released and immediately they're going to kill
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: a third of mankind. Back in chapter 6, verse 8,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: when the fourth seal was opened, one-fourth of the world
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: was killed. Now, I'm not a great mathematician, but I
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: know if you add one-fourth to one-third, you get over half.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: So now, by now, over half the world is killed.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: To say nothing of the ones that have been slaughtered
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: in the wars and the pestilences and everything in the
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: world has been absolutely decimated. Far more than a half
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: of the original population that went into the time known
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: as the Tribulation have died. Just the burial of these
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: bodies would be an inconceivable problem. And now here in
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: a very brief matter of time, one-third of the remaining
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: world is massacred. They must just be pushing bodies into
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: huge holes to bury them or burn them. It would
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: take some kind of massive force to kill a third
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: of the population of the world, and this is some force.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Verse 16 describes their number. The number of the armies, plural,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: of the horsemen was 200 million. Two hundred million. And
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: he says, I heard the number of them. That's how many.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Now remember, there are already the demons that have been
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: running all over the earth all along. There are already
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: the demons who have been in space all along and
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: are now cast to the earth. And then the pit
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: has released a massive demon horde of certainly millions of
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: demons there, and there are still 200 million more of
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: them that have been bound and are now released. Supernatural
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: demon army. Now some have suggested that this is a
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: human army. Some have said it's going to be the
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Red Chinese Army because in the 70s they did number
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: 200 million. Some have said it's probably the army from
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: the north described in Ezekiel 38 and 39.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: And those who want to connect it with a human.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: Force usually associate this verse with chapter 16, verse 12.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: the kings of the east, the drying up of the
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Euphrates River, so the kings of the east can come,
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: and they would say, well, this is the 200 million
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: coming from Asia. Certainly there would be enough people there
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: to make an army that size if the Red Chinese
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Army in the 70s had 200 million, and you see
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: that the Euphrates River is dried up, and these people
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: come marching. The problem with that is it's in connection
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: with the bowl judgments, which fit into the seventh trumpet,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: not the sixth, And it doesn't describe an army of
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: 200 million anyway, it just says the kings of the east.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: But they say it could be this same group and
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: we now know it's possible to dry up the Euphrates.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you've been reading about the Ataturk Dam.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: The Ataturk Dam is in Turkey. One man can walk
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: in and push one button and dry up the Euphrates basically,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: taking it down 75 from its fullness to 75 percent
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: down to just 25 percent of its normal flow and
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: do that rather simply. But I believe the sixth bold
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: judgment comes later, and we'll show you why as we
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: move through the book, and looks at a different army
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: and that that is the issue of Armageddon. And I
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: don't see this as a human army. If this was
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: a human army of men and women marching across the land,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: it would be pretty big. If it were just a
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: mile wide, it would be a hundred miles deep. That's
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: a lot of people. And how could they march... and
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: kill a third of the world. I mean, how could
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: they move across mountains and oceans and all of that?
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Those who see it as a human army, when they
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: get into the description that we read in verse 17
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: and following, see those descriptions as descriptions of guns and
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: helicopters and jet aircraft and tanks and rockets.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: The problem is He describes all of them like that.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: So it would have to be 200 million of those things.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: those human weapons, human machines. The language, I think, is
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: better understood of a demon force, particularly when it's connected
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: to four demons who are being held back. So the
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: cosmic war, the war of hell is hitting the earth
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: with all its force. And it's certainly going to appear
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: as if hell is all over the world. Verse 17,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: this is how I saw in the vision the horses
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: and those who sat on them. They had breastplates and
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: the colors, notice these please, the colors were fire, hyacinth,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: and brimstone. Now this is an amazing description. Fire, hyacinth,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: or jacinth, you could translate it either way. The color
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: of fire is what? Red. The color of brimstone, brimstone
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: represents a sulfur gas. The color of it would be yellow,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: sulfuric gas. The color of hyacinth is anything from blue
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: to black, the red of fire, the blue-black of burning smoke,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: and a yellow sulfur gas, the colors of hell, the
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: colors of hell. The heads of the horses are like
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: the heads of lions. That's descriptive language in his vision.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: God has to represent to him the demons in some
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: way that he can see them visually. The vision is
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: of these lion-headed beings. That means fierce, strong, determined, stalking
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: their victims to slaughter. And then he says, out of
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: their mouths, verse 17 at the end, proceed fire and brimstone,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: fire and smoke and brimstone.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: This is like.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: Again, the representation of the fury of hell, the devastating
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: power that they carry is frightening. The power has an effect,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: verse 18, a third of mankind was killed by these
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: You say, can demons kill? Sure, people can kill and
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: demons are supernatural.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Remember the demon-possessed boy of In the gospel account, what
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: did he keep doing himself?
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: Throwing himself where? In the fire. And they do it.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: They kill with fire, burning people to a crisp. They
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: kill with smoke, suffocating people. You know, of course, that
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: people in fires, as many of those who die, as
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: many die from smoke inhalation as die from flames and
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: sulfur gas. asphyxiates them, the very gas of hell, of
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: fire and fury and smoke out of the pit. It's
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: really an absolutely frightening scene. In chapter 14, verse 10,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: it talks about the wrath of God mixed in full
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: strength in the cup of His anger, and He will
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: be tormented with fire and brimstone.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: And the smoke of their torment goes up forever.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: Those are the people who worship the beast Over in
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: chapter 19, verse 20, the beast, the false prophet, are
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: thrown into the lake of fire, and what is it?
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: It's fire which burns with brimstone.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Chapter 20, verse 10, the devil who is deceived is
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: thrown in the lake of fire and brimstone. Chapter 21,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: verse 8, the lake of fire that burns with fire
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: and brimstone again, which is the second death.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Burning, suffocating death.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: And being asphyxiated with sulfur gas or gas of some kind.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: If that isn't enough, John has to add verse 19.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: The power of the.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Horses is in their mouths. And then he adds a
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: new component. And in their tails, they seem to create
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: devastation in both directions. Their tails are like serpents and
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: have heads, and with them they do harm. And again, remember,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: this is a vision. This is imagery. And the Lord
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: is representing to him their destructive power in some visualization.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: Horses, lions... serpents.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: Those are things that he can understand because they're devastating
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: and destructive things, powerful things.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: Can't describe men.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: And since each of the 200 million are so described,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: it can't be describing 200 million rocket launchers.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: Some commentators say, well, these are.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: Rocket launchers coming out the backside of these guys and
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: guns coming out the front side of them and trying
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: to make it into humans, it doesn't seem that that's
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: the best understanding. So the sixth trumpet will blow, and
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: then this, the release of demons and the return of death.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Now remember, folks, don't push this off into some nebulous,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: nondescript place. This is our world here. This is the
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: same world we live in with newspapers and television. with
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: schools and colleges and universities and people going to work
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: and doing jobs and trying to eat and live and
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: get married and raise their kids and do the normal
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: things that everybody does, and it's just coming down around
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: them in inconceivable destruction. There's another point that ends it,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: the release of demons, the return of death, and the
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: reaction of defiance. You know, I say to myself, if
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: I were an unbeliever and I were in this situation,
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: I'd be converted, wouldn't you? I mean, I'd fall on
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: my face. But by now you have to remember the
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: people of the world have seen it all. They've seen
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: the furious judgments. They've seen the devastation of everything they treasure.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: They've seen the evil of Antichrist, Satan.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: And demons.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: They've heard relentless and miraculous preaching of the gospel of Christ.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: They have been given grace and mercy as a gift
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: that they will not take. Some have received and some
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: have died as martyrs and some have been protected to
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: enter the kingdom alive. But there's still a mass of
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: humanity that will not believe. It's amazing the hardness of heart.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Verse 20 says, and the rest of mankind, that would
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: be the remaining two-thirds that were not killed by these plagues,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: did not repent.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: It's unimaginable. Absolutely unimaginable.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: By the way, may I remind you, and I hate
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: to do this all the time, but it's so important,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: repentance is always the issue.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: If people don't repent they perish repent of what?
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: Sin that's why Luke 24 47 says that repentance is
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: to be preached to all nations but if they're so
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: hard and they've made it all the way through to
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: this point they're not going to repent.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: It says it. They didn't repent. Verse 21 starts, and
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: they didn't repent. It says it twice.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: And when the seventh trumpet blows and the bowl judgments start, look.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: At chapter 16.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: Verse 1, go pour out the seven bowls of wrath.
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: What happens? Verse 9... The fourth bowl, they were scorched
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: with fire. Did they repent?
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: No, they blasphemed the name of God who has the
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: power over these plagues and they didn't repent. Verse 11,
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: they blasphemed the God of heaven when the fifth bowl
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: was poured and didn't repent. Verse 21, huge hundred pound
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: hailstones coming out of heaven. They blasphemed God because of
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: the plague. You see, they've reached the point now of
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: resolute hardness. They have yielded to the sphere of hell.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: They have embraced Satan, demons, death. They literally worship Satan.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Chapter 12 verse 9 says that the great dragon was
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: devil and Satan who deceives the whole world. They buy
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: into his deception. Verse 4 of chapter 13, they worship
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: the dragon. They're Satan worshipers, a world of them. And
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: in the end of this vision, John identifies five sins
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: that are representative of their defiance.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: Five sins. One, idolatry. Idolatry. They didn't repent of the
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: works of their hands. Well, what does that mean? The
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: idols they make. They're man-made gods.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: In ancient times, they actually replicated their gods in wood.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: He talks about it. Wood, stone, brass, silver, gold, idols,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: which can't hear, see, or walk.
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  Speaker 2: They are nothing. They are not alive.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: But men make their own gods, and here they are,
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: and they still won't turn from their own gods.
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: You say, what's important about that?
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: The important point is that those gods aren't able to
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: cope with what's happening. But they are so resolutely committed
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: to their gods that in spite of the inability of
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: their gods to do anything, they stick with them. Contrast
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: that with the group on the ship we talked about
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: regarding Jonah, who when their gods couldn't do anything to
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: stop the storm and Jonah's god did it, they immediately
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: turned to his god, not this group. This is how
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: deep and resolute their unbelief has become. Please note in
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: the middle of verse 20, so as not to worship demons. Listen,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: anybody who worships any idol, any false god is worshiping
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: a demon. Psalm 96, 5, the Septuagint version says, all
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: idols are demons.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: What do you mean?
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: You make a little idol, and you decide you're going
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: to bow down to it, and even though it's wood, stone, gold, silver,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: or whatever, a demon will come along, impersonate the God
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: you think is in that idol, and do enough stuff
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: in response to your homage to that God to keep
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: you hooked to a false idol. That's why the apostle
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: Paul says to the Corinthians, you cannot come to the
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: table of the Lord and then go in your idol
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: house and worship demons, 1 Corinthians 10. Idol worship in
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: one sense is worshiping nothing, in another sense it is
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: worshiping the demon impersonating the nothing. They worship the dragon,
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: they worship the beast out of the pit, they worship
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: the demons. This is Satan worship gone wild. We already
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: have it, don't we, in our world? Satan worship, at
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: this point it becomes pandemic, endemic. This time of the
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: world's history, idolatry, mysticism, spiritualism, spiritism, all kinds of things
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: that involve Satan and the occult and the underworld and
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: demons will be in full force. And everyone, John 3.20 says,
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: who does evil hates the light and doesn't come to
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: the light lest his deed should be exposed. Evil will
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: be running amok like never before, and people will be
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: deep into it, and when judgment comes, they'll plunge even
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: deeper into it. And the forms of their idolatry will
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: accommodate the unbridled, unrestrained wickedness that's out of control, and
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: they'll be so deeply in love with their sin that
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: they'll worship the demons and Satan, who is happy to
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: have them sin to whatever degree they would like. Sins
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: such as, verse 21, murder. They've been killing now and
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: they've tasted blood and they like the taste of it.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: They've been killing Jews. They've been killing Christians. They've been
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: killing each other for years by now. Violent crime is
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: out of control. Law and order is long gone into history.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: You have a wretched society of wicked people who will
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: not respond to God or to the gospel and they
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: are literally infested with demons all over the place. They
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: have long abandoned any sense of sanity or morality, unbridled
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: worldwide bloodshed. They have tasted blood, they have murdered, and
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: they're not about to stop. And then he mentions sorceries.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: Interesting word in the Greek, pharmakeia, from which we get pharmacy, pharmaceutics,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: This is a word that is bigger than just drugs,
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: although it literally could be translated druggings. Whatever it is
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: that they use to dull their senses, whatever it is
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: that they use to induce their satanic worship, whatever impure
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: occultic practices they use to get in deep to their witchcraft, drunkenness, drugs, seances, hypnotism, incantations,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: mystic mantras, whatever induces their religious experience, cavorting with mediums, spirits,
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: and the deceptions of Satan. They're not about to let
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: go of that. That too will be rampant. We see
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: that coming, don't we, in the new age? We even
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: see the murders coming. Certainly in our society we do.
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: The fourth Of the.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: Sins which they will not turn away from is immorality, pornea,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: from which we get pornography. Sexual sin will go on unchecked.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: If you think homosexuality, rape, pedophilia, child molestation, and bestiality, lewdness,
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: and fornication are going strong now, you couldn't even conceive
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: of what they would be like then. Sexual dissipation and
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: perversion beyond description. And then he adds thefts. Honesty will
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: be nonexistent. There will be no reprisals left. The world
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: is left wretched, full of immoral killers who worship Satan,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: demons who are drugged out of their minds by their
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: mystic incantations and drugs themselves, who follow their impulses to destroy.
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: And plunder, and nobody can do anything about it. That's
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: what's coming.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: And there's still one trumpet and seven bowls of judgment left.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: But our Lord is compassionate. And the reason all these
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: warnings are here is for us. Vance Havner, famous southern preacher, said,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: the real test of how much we believe of prophetic
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: truth is what we are doing to warn men to
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: flee from the wrath to come. To believe the solemn
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: truths of prophecy, he said, and then make our way
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: complacently through a world of sin and shame is not
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: merely unfortunate, it is criminal, end quote. Even God said,
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: turn from your evil ways.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: Why will you die?
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: This, ladies and gentlemen, if nothing else, is a missionary mandate,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: is it not? We look in the eyes of a
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: world headed for this. And as bad as it is,
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: it isn't as bad as hell itself. And though unbelievers
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: may never experience this because they will die before it happens,
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: they'll experience something far worse, if we could even imagine
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: such a thing.
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: He's right.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: It's not just unfortunate if we don't tell them it's criminal. Father,
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: we thank You tonight that You have given us this vision.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: We now responsible for it.
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: It is frightening.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: We think about what it says in the little epistle
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: of Jude that You're coming to execute judgment Judgment on
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: the ungodly for all their ungodly deeds which they have
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: done in an ungodly way and all the harsh things
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: which ungodly sinners have spoken against you.
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: And then we remember that it.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: Is our responsibility to snatch them out of the fire. Lord,
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: help us to do that before it's too late. For
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: the sake of Christ, we pray. Amen.
• 50:09
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• 50:13
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• 50:16
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• 50:20
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• 50:25
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• 50:30
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