We have been moving through the book of
Revelation and we've learned something about how God
is reclaiming ownership of the earth, taking it
out of the hands of Satan and away
from sinful man.
And he does it with a threefold process.
It's called seals, trumpets, and bowls.
And if you understand that there is a
sequential, telescopic, unfolding progression of these judgments, then
you know where you are in the book
of Revelation so that you don't have a
trumpet flying out and going off here and
a bowl going off here and a seal
bursting here randomly.
I used to think that that's what was
going on.
Oh my gosh, here comes another bowl, you
know, and here comes another trumpet blast.
Now I know that it's all sequential seals,
trumpets, bowls.
And when the final bowl, there's seven of
each, when the final bowl judgment is done,
it's all done and Jesus Christ comes back,
judges the unbelievers and sets up his rule
and reign for a thousand years here on
earth.
Where are we in the middle of all
this?
We are on trumpet judgment number six and
I'd like to read it in verse 13.
Then the six angels sounded and I heard
a voice from the four horns of the
golden altar, which is before God saying to
the sixth angel who had the trumpet release
the four angels who are bound at the
great river Euphrates.
So the four angels who had been prepared
for the hour, day and month and year
were released to kill a third of mankind.
Now the number of the army of the
horsemen was 200 million.
I heard the number of them and thus
I saw the horses in the vision.
Those who sat on them had breastplates of
fiery red, Hyacinth blue and sulfur yellow and
the heads of the horses were like the
heads of lions and out of their mouths
came fire, smoke and brimstone.
And by these three plagues, a third of
mankind was killed by the fire, the smoke
and the brimstone, which came out of their
mouths for their power is in their mouth
and in their tails.
For their tails are like serpents having heads,
but with them they do harm, big harm.
They bring wide scale death, but the rest
of mankind who were not killed by these
plagues did not repent of the works of
their hands, that they should not worship demons,
idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, wood, which
they can neither see here nor can walk.
And they did not repent of their murders
or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or
their thefts.
You know, reading over it, it occurs to
me that if you haven't read over it
before, this probably really sounds way out there.
And I'm coming out of studying it for
two weeks.
And just reading it aloud helps me understand
where your mind might be with it right
now, because it's not mysterious to me at
all anymore.
I thank God I can say that I
have along the way been stuck on certain
points, but I'm not now.
So I'm delighted to unfold this chapter tonight.
There's three things that I see basically here
in this passage, the demonic powers, the demonic
horde and the demonic worship.
It's all there.
To begin with, let's look at the demonic
powers.
Verse 13.
Then the sixth angel sounded and they heard
a voice from the four horns of the
golden altar, which is before God, saying to
the sixth angel who had the trumpet, it
released the four angels who are bound at
the Great River Euphrates.
Now, in verse 13, he says, I heard
a voice from the four horns of the
golden altar, which is before God.
John is beholding all of this.
He hears the voice that comes from this
altar that is before him in heaven as
he sees all of this.
It's worth pointing out that this golden altar
is the real thing in heaven that Moses
was instructed by God to build on earth
in the tabernacle with the children of Israel
as a model of what was in heaven.
So when Moses came off Mount Sinai with
the instructions to build the tabernacle and he
set up the surrounding fence and then the
entrance where you went in, there was the
altar of burnt offering and where they put
the sacrifices of the animals and then the
labor with the priests washed.
And then beyond that, there was this little
structure that shaped kind of like a rectangular
box.
Inside was the holy of holies.
Now, inside was the holy place, sorry.
And then just beyond the entrance was the
holy of holies.
And that was sealed off by the veil.
So as you walked in, you'd see the
table of showbread, you'd see the seven branch
menorah and that lit up the holy place.
And then right in front of you, if
you were the high priest coming in would
be the golden altar of incense and the
incense would rise up before the veil and
the holy of holies where the kind of
glory of God was.
Well, that altar was always a picture of
God's mercy in communing with man.
And the incense was a picture of man's
worship and his prayers going up to God.
And there was that grace of God and
the mercy of God in fellowship with man.
That's what it was a picture of.
And really, it was a picture of the
real altar in heaven where we see in
early in revelation.
Remember when John saw the the people that
had come out of the tribulation died for
their faith?
They were under the altar.
That was the golden altar here.
And their prayers were going up to God.
So what was in the tabernacle of Moses
as a picture of prayers and fellowship with
God we find in heaven with the real
altar, the saints praying.
And they said, how long, oh, Lord, are
you going to wait to avenge our blood
on those on the earth that have persecuted
your people?
God said, just take it easy for a
little while.
Enjoy heaven.
And in the right time, I will do
it.
Well, now he's going to do it.
And so this altar that has always represented
the mercy and the love of God now
becomes an altar of judgment because man has
rejected repeatedly the mercy.
Jesus Christ is the Lord of heaven.
He is the Lord, your savior.
Now, if you will believe on him in
this life, if you refuse to, he will
still be your lord because he's lord of
all.
You don't make him lord.
He is lord.
He will either be the lord, your savior
or the lord, your judge, one or the
other.
Here he becomes the judge of all the
earth.
And so the voice comes from the four
horns of the golden altar saying.
To the sixth angel who had the trumpet
released the four angels who are bound at
the Great River Euphrates, the four angels who
are bound.
These are, in fact, fallen angels.
They're demons.
They are not holy angels.
They can't be.
They can't be because nowhere does the Bible
speak of God binding holy angels.
These are fallen angels.
They are demons.
God has no need to bind holy angels.
We were taught by Jesus to pray in
this manner.
Our father, who are in heaven, hallowed be
thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven.
Why do we pray that way?
Because in heaven, the angels always perfectly do
the will of God.
There's no reason to bind them, the holy
angels.
So then these are demons.
The fact that they are bound indicates that
the amazing thing to me is that we
discover that the bottomless pit, which we studied
last time, is not the only place on
earth where God has demons bound.
Think about that.
The bottomless pit is not the only place
on earth where God has demons bound.
Now, we saw that opened in our last
study and we saw the smoke come out,
rising up and filling the sky, making it
dark.
And we saw all of these demons come
out.
Now, here is another place on earth where
God has demons bound.
They are kept for a reason away from
all the other ones in the bottomless pit.
The reason is unfolded before us in the
text.
These are very, very powerful angels.
And notice, will you, that God's control over
demonic forces is absolute.
He has demons bound here, four of them.
He has countless ones in the bottomless pit
that are waiting for that day.
And there are others free to roam around.
Now, when you and I, I don't want
to digress too far on this, but it's
on my heart.
When you and I pray to the Lord
and ask him to deliver us from the
devil, is he or is he not able
to bind him?
He has four bound at the river Euphrates
that are mighty, and he has countless ones
in the bottomless pit that are the worst
demons we saw last time.
Of all the demons, they sin in the
days of Noah in a horrible way, and
they've been chained up there ever since.
So obviously, he's fully able to bind the
devil whenever he wants to.
Are you with me?
So when I ask the Lord to bind
Satan, if he sees it within his will,
which is networked into the lives of all
of his people, not just one, but networked
around the world and the lives of all
of his people, if he wants to bind
the devil, he can bind him any second.
If, for his lofty reasons, he doesn't, then
he won't.
And you and I cannot waltz in and
speak forth any kind of words that are
going to bypass God to bind Satan if
God doesn't want to bind him.
So that, you know, this whole thing of,
I rebuke you, Satan, I bind you.
I hear Christians pray like that all the
time.
I used to pray like that.
I don't anymore.
Because, you know what?
God has not given me this autonomous power
to bind the devil.
If that's the case and if that's true,
why doesn't one of you get really smart
and permanently bind him for all the rest
of us?
I bind you, Satan.
I always imagine the devil going, ha ha
ha, I'm so scared.
I just imagine the devil laughing when someone
says, I bind you, Satan.
You can, on the other hand, pray, Lord
Jesus Christ.
Please bind the devil if it's your will
in this situation.
You know what?
Sometimes he will.
Sometimes he won't.
How about the Last Supper when Jesus said
to Peter, Peter, I have some bad news
for you.
Bad news and good news.
The bad news is Satan has asked for
you.
You can imagine Peter.
Well, you told him no, didn't you?
No, there's more bad news.
I told him yes.
Satan has asked for you that he might
sift you as wheat.
Oh, Lord, how could you?
Hold it, Peter.
But I have prayed for you and you're
going to make it through.
And when you do, I want you to
strengthen the brethren.
That's the good news.
You will make it through and you will
strengthen the brethren.
So you see, at that point, Jesus let
the devil at him.
And then when he was done allowing Satan
to do what he was going to do
for his highest purpose, which was to test
Peter and ultimately strengthen him, then Satan was
bound from Peter's life.
So we need to learn a lesson here
that when God wants to, he does.
And he's flawless at it.
And when he doesn't want to, it's because
he has a higher purpose.
But ultimately and always know this.
Satan and the demons, his demons are ultimately,
in the biggest sense, God's servants, God's servants
to accomplish his sovereign will.
God's control over the demonic forces is complete.
So we see the golden altar from whence
comes the voice telling these the sixth angel
to sound that the four angels that are
demons might be released from their place at
the Great River Euphrates.
Now, I don't know about you, but I
studied the Euphrates River in school growing up
at different times.
The Tigris and the Euphrates.
Remember, we've all studied it.
But this is a great river.
This is the river in the Bible.
It's fascinating to me that these four demons
are bounded.
The Great River Euphrates in verse 14.
In the Bible, you find that the River
Euphrates was the boundary of the promised land.
In Deuteronomy one, seven, Moses makes mention of
it in Joshua one for the boundaries for
the land.
As far as the Great River Euphrates, it's
recorded there.
This river rises from the sources near Mount
Ararat in Turkey.
And the Euphrates flows then more than seventeen
hundred miles before emptying into the Persian Gulf.
It is the longest, most important river in
the Middle East, and it figures prominently, as
I said, in the Old Testament.
Listen to this.
It was one of the four rivers into
which the river flowed that went out of
the Garden of Eden.
Genesis to 14.
So you find the River Euphrates all the
way back in Genesis to 14 in the
Bible.
This is the river in the Bible.
It was at the Euphrates sin began.
It was at the Euphrates in the beginning,
the first lie was told and the first
murder was committed when Cain killed his brother
Abel.
This is the river in the Bible.
This river, you may be interested to note,
is the source of the many false religions
we see in the world today.
They began at this place.
This is the place where God confounded the
language of the human race at the Tower
of Babel, the Tower of Babel.
So the origin of the entire complex of
false religions in the world today was here
at the River Euphrates.
This is the place in the Bible that
is really the center of so much of
the judgment you see in the Bible.
This is the region right here near the
River Euphrates that was the central location of
the three world powers that were always used
of God to judge Israel.
You have Assyria, Babylon and the Medo-Persian
Empire centered right here.
So really, the two are a blend, making
if you split the Medo-Persian becomes four.
There's four angels here.
It was on the banks of the River
Euphrates that Israel spent 70 long, bitter, worrisome
years in captivity.
It is the river over which the enemies
of God are going to cross when they
come to the great battle at the place
which is called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
These four demons then have a history here
at the River Euphrates.
They are bound at the great river Euphrates.
They are called the four angels, the four
angels.
The definite article suggests that they form a
specific group that have had a specific role
in the past.
It seems they had a specific role controlling
the four major empires, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece
and Rome.
If you look at the whole Bible in
Daniel 10, hold your place here, let's turn
to Daniel 10.
A holy angel comes to Daniel in answer
to his prayers and he gives us some
insight on the warfare between holy angels and
demons that actually influence individual nations.
We cannot see these demons, but they are
fighting in a cosmic warfare and their battles
influence nations.
Daniel 10, 13, Daniel's been praying and waiting.
And finally, this angel shows up.
That would be worth the wait, wouldn't it?
You wait a few weeks and all the
Lord doesn't answer personally.
An angel shows up and Daniel 10, 13.
This angel shows up and he begins to
explain.
I'm really sorry I'm late, Daniel, but let
me tell you what was going on.
And by telling him he lets us in
on this cosmic warfare that we know nothing
about.
And bear in mind, as the angel talks
to him, he's talking angel language to Daniel.
So the language he uses is anthropomorphic in
the sense that it has to do with
man and nations and all of that.
But this angel lives in another realm than
we do.
So he says, I was coming to you,
but the prince of the kingdom of Persia,
that would be a powerful demon who worked
and influenced the kingdom of Persia, withstood me
21 days.
And behold, Michael, one of the chief princes
came to help me.
Do you know who that is?
That's Michael, the archangel.
So this angel is dispatched to give Daniel
an answer immediately when he prays.
He's on his way and he gets stopped
by this powerful demon who is there working
around the kingdom of Persia, who withstands him
21 days.
And he would have probably kept him there
for a long time.
But Michael came and helped him.
As soon as Michael got there, he was
free to go on his way because Michael
is one of the most powerful of all
the angels.
For I had been left alone there with
the kings of Persia, except Michael came to
help me.
Then verse 20, look down at verse 20.
Then he said to me, you know why
I have come to you and now I
must return to fight with the prince of
Persia.
And when I have gone forth, indeed, the
prince of Greece will come.
That's angel speak, angel talk.
Daniel, it's been great.
Hope you have a fantastic life.
I've got to go now.
There's going to be some battles with some
demons, the prince of Persia.
I got to go back and then on
to the prince of Greece.
Got to go.
I'll see you.
So that's an encounter with an angel that
lets us in on this other world where
there's this cosmic warfare that goes on between
these fallen angels that are so powerful.
Here we come back to Revelation.
Here we come to the river Euphrates and
we find here in Revelation that there are
these four powerful fallen angels, demons that are
probably the ones that controlled the four major
world empires in the past.
Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome.
And if you look at it, that makes
a lot of sense because don't forget, these
four are isolated over here at the Euphrates.
And then the mass of these other demons
are kept in the bottomless pit.
Why are they separated?
Well, I think the answer is forthcoming, because
if they ever got together, they would kill
at least one third of the human race
because that's what they're going to do when
they get together right here.
So we see the demonic powers.
Let's go to the demon horde.
Verse 15, down through 19.
You remember last time that death took a
vacation, a holiday, and for five months men
could not die so that now death returns
to Earth as these angels are sent to
kill.
These demons are sent to kill one third
of mankind.
Verse 15.
So the four angels who had been prepared
for the hour and day and month and
year were released to kill one third of
mankind.
Rapidly, as we move through the book of
Revelation, by this time, rapidly, mankind is being
killed off.
Think about it.
Back in Revelation 6, 8, power was given
over to them over a fourth of the
Earth to kill with sword, hunger and with
death and by beasts of the Earth.
That was Revelation 6, 8.
So a fourth of mankind was killed back
there.
Now a third of mankind will be killed.
So if you add up a fourth and
a third of the human population that was
alive before the tribulation began in just over
three and a half years and going on
into the time period where however long it
takes for these demons to kill a third
of the human race, a fourth plus a
third is over half of the human race.
Think of it has died in just a
little over three and a half years.
That is to say, then, that those are
killed by the plagues and by these angels.
But then there are others that were killed
by earthquakes and all these other things that
have happening along the way.
So you're well past the halfway mark of
the human race being dead.
Are you with me?
So here comes this judgment from God, and
it's going to kill a third of the
human beings that are Christ rejectors.
Those that are Christ rejectors are killed by
this, not those who believe they will be
killed by the Antichrist and only those with
the mark of the Lord on them.
The hundred forty four thousand Jews and others
will stay alive to go into the thousand
year reign of Christ.
So these are Christ rejectors.
Probably around a billion people will die.
Think of the problem of just disposing of
the bodies.
One billion people burning the bodies or burying
the bodies.
Think of this.
There's all kinds of trouble with the atmosphere
and we know it's going to get very
hot.
Think of the stent of the bodies.
So life, as we know it, is going
to change radically, not to mention the effort
of man to bury these people.
So death returns to the earth as they
are sent to kill a third of mankind.
How does this death actually come?
It comes by an army of two hundred
million that are led by these four demons.
Look at verse 16.
Now, the number of the army of the
horsemen was what does it say?
Two hundred million.
And John, as if to record the fact
that he actually knows this is exact as
I heard it from the same voice.
So this is I would say this is
exact.
This is a real two hundred million.
This army.
Verse 17, I saw the horses in the
vision.
Those who sat on them had breastplates of
fiery red, high blue, sulfur yellow.
The heads of the horses were like the
heads of lions.
And out of their mouths came fire, smoke
and brimstone burning sulfur.
By these three plagues, verse 18, a third
of mankind was killed.
Fire, smoke, brimstone, which came out of their
mouths for the power is in their mouth
and in their tails for their tails are
like serpents having heads which do them harm.
Now, the question arises.
Here's the number of the army.
Verse 16, two hundred million.
Question arises, who is this army?
In the early 70s, China let it be
known to the world that they had a
standing army of two hundred million.
And at that time, all the prophecy teachers
heard that, looked at this in Revelation and
said, there's our two hundred million.
So as they would teach through the Book
of Revelation, it was at that time always.
This is the army.
It's red China.
Look, it's being fulfilled in our very day.
But is this red China's army at that
time or China's of today?
They would take that statistic from the news
and join it with this verse here and
in verse 16 of chapter nine and also
with Revelation 16, 12.
And that's how they would come up with
that interpretation where we read of the kings
of the east.
Can you turn in your Bible?
Just hold your place.
Turn to Revelation 16, 12.
Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl
on the Great River Euphrates and its water
was dried up so that the way of
the kings of the east might be prepared.
One of the reasons people are drawn here
is because the Euphrates is again mentioned.
You have an angel here, sixth angel.
But now that we know there is a
sequential telescopic manner in which God is judging
the earth, we know that a seal is
a seal and a trumpet is a trumpet
and a bowl is a bowl.
And they are all at different time periods.
So read Revelation 16, 12.
Then the sixth angel poured out his what
does it say?
Bowl.
This is then a bowl judgment.
This is not a trumpet judgment.
We're studying in chapter nine, a trumpet judgment,
sixth trumpet to be exact.
And though this is at the Great River
Euphrates, this is a bowl judgment.
That means it is a different time.
This battle will definitely involve men.
Look down at verse 16 of Revelation 16
says, and he gathered them together in a
place into a place called in the Hebrew
tongue Armageddon.
Well, here's the deal.
This is a bowl judgment.
It comes then for sure after the seven
seventh trumpet judgment, which opens its way to
the bowls so that this is after where
we are in chapter nine with the four
angels.
This is a bowl judgment, a different judgment,
a different time, a different battle.
And this then is a different army, a
different army.
So this is a different army.
Then who is the army back in chapter
nine?
See, those that want to make the army
of 200 million back in chapter nine men
from China.
Have a real problem because they have to
sweep through the earth to kill a third
of mankind.
If these are men from China and they're
on horses, they're going to have a real
problem riding horseback around the globe to kill
a third of mankind.
They are all armed in the same exact
way.
How is you going to pull that off?
200 million men on horseback galloping around the
earth.
It's sorry.
It's not even possible.
So go back to chapter nine.
Who is this army in chapter nine?
Then this is work is really creepy.
If it wasn't already, it seems like this
is an army of 200 million demons.
It is best to stick to the context
of the chapter.
And the language of the bottomless pit, as
we found it in the beginning of the
chapter.
And thus, verse 17, I saw the horses
in the vision and those who sat on
them.
Had breastplates of fiery red, high and blue,
so for yellow, the heads of the horses
were like the heads of lion and out
of their mouths came fire, smoke and brimstone.
And by these plagues, a third of mankind
was killed by the fire and the smoke
and the brimstone that came out of their
mouths.
That is, in keeping with the language earlier
in the chapter that went before this, when
the bottomless pit was open and there was
smoke and burning and demons.
So death returns to the earth as they
are sent to kill a third of mankind.
Death comes by an army of 200 million,
led by these four demons.
And that army is made up of 200
million demons.
Most likely, many of them are from the
bottomless pit itself.
Death comes then to the human race by
this hellish army of demons.
Verse 16.
Now, the number of the army of the
horsemen was 200 million.
I heard the number of them.
Now the writers hellish colors are described, and
this takes you further into the right interpretation.
The colors of the writers are the colors
of hell.
If you read through Revelation, when hell is
described and there's smoke and burning, these are
the colors that are used.
So verse 17, fiery red, Hyacinth blue.
So for yellow, these are the colors of
hell.
The color of fire is red.
OK, the color of fire is red.
Hyacinth is described here.
Hyacinth blue.
What is that?
It is a dark navy blue or black
like smoke.
Brimstone is here and it's burning.
It is a sulfurous yellow burning flame that
comes from the rock.
When it's ignited, it produces a flame and
a gas.
And these are the colors of hell.
As I said, if you look at Chapter
14, 19, 20, 21, they all line up.
It's the same.
Paints a terrifying picture of God's wrath poured
out on the sinful world by these demons.
These colors, by the way, are very reminiscent
of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Genesis 19, verse 24 through 28.
You can compare that later.
So the writers colors are hellish and they're
described.
And then the horses are described here.
They're hellish powers.
He says, I saw the horses in the
vision.
The heads of the horses were like the
heads of lions and out of their mouths
came fire, smoke and brimstone.
So the horse understand in Revelation, the horse
is associated with the force of war.
The lion, even in a time of John's
writing, was associated with fiercely, relentlessly stalking and
slaughtering victims as a lion does the serpent
associated with deadly venom.
And these in this army are going forth
to kill.
And so you have the tail and the
horses in the next verse like serpents.
This is figurative language here.
So understand this.
Just pay attention for a minute here in
a different way than you already were.
This is figurative language describing something that is
real.
Figurative language describing something that is real.
So that bear in mind, demons come out
of the bottomless pit.
They're spiritual beings.
They're giving given some kind of a shape
and a form to do the judgment they're
going to do.
John sees that.
But these are supernatural creatures.
He's a man on Earth writing this down.
He's trying to describe the best he can.
What he sees is supernatural in mundane human
language.
He's forced to use anthropomorphic terms.
You all know the word anthropomorphic, right?
He's forced to use, as you know, anthropomorphic
terms and anthropomorphism.
You're very familiar with this.
I'm sure you discussed it this morning.
It's cereal and anthropomorphic term is trying to
convey in human language that which is supernatural.
So you have to bring it down from
the supernatural to the human anthropomorphic.
And that's what you find here.
So this is symbolic language describing something that
is absolutely real.
This plague then kills a third of mankind.
Verse 18 and 19.
The power is in their mouth and their
tails.
Their tails are like serpents having heads and
with them they do harm.
If you compare simply the fire that goes
out of the mouth of the horse with
the breastplate and the description of the rider,
really, it's all one.
It is the force of war coming with
the force of hell, as we call Satan
and his demons.
And they come to kill and they do
it with fire that burns people to death.
Smoke that suffocates people to death.
More people die in huge fire by suffocating
from smoke than getting burned usually.
And then the third plague is a burning
sulfuric gas that will gas people and poison
them.
So burning to death, suffocating and being poisoned
with gas.
So that is very real, very demonic.
It is the demonic horde that makes up
this huge army.
And then we come to the demonic worship,
which is the last thing you would expect
at this point in time, people would be
repenting everywhere.
The sad and tragic thing is that they
don't.
They do not repent.
Verse 20.
The rest of mankind who were not killed
by these plagues did not repent of the
works of their hands that they should not
worship.
Notice worship demons, worship demons and idols of
gold, silver, brass, stone, wood, which can neither
see nor walk.
So they're not going to repent those that
live through this.
And they won't repent, even though the gods
that they worship cannot see, hear or walk.
The works of their hands are the little
idols they make out of gold, silver, stone,
wood, et cetera.
But the thing that is alarming to me
is that they worship demons.
They worship demons.
You see, at this point in time, men
on Earth know we learn this from the
end of chapter six, men on Earth know
that this wrath is coming from the Lamb
of God.
They confess that when they were hiding in
the caves, asking the rocks to fall on
them.
So they know Christ is real at this
point in time.
They also know Satan is real.
Satan, we are told in the New Testament.
When he's deceiving people, appears as an angel
of what?
Well, that whole thing is over now because
everybody knows who Christ is and everybody knows
who Satan is and they are worshiping demons
and they won't stop worshiping the demons, even
though they're being judged by holy, righteous God.
Pretty heavy, huh?
You know, that says to me to mess
with the devil now can be eternally dangerous.
To refuse to come to Jesus Christ because
you like your sin.
It can be eternally dangerous because we're told
in the Bible that in First Corinthians 1020,
the things Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons
and not to God.
First Corinthians 1020.
He's saying that when you have an idol
and you sacrifice to it, the idol is
nothing.
But there is a demon behind it.
There's demons behind it.
And that's why people in the occult, in
false religions and so on have an experience.
They may have an idol and we might
look at it and go, that's so stupid.
It's just an idol.
It's like the temple of a thousand Buddhas
in Japan.
You go in there and you see all
these statues and you go, this is ridiculous.
Who could worship all of this?
It isn't the thousand statues.
It's the demons behind the statues that impersonate
the God you imagine they're worshiping that make
it all so deadly and dangerous.
And what happens is through sin, as you
worship any God, but the true and living
God in Jesus Christ, you get roped into
fellowship as Paul called it with demons.
And you may find that time comes when
you can't get loose because here are men.
One third of the human race will be
killed and they still won't repent of worshiping
their demons.
So much in our world today is blatantly,
openly, outwardly connected with Satan.
And people get their pleasures in these ways
and they don't even care.
They think it's cool.
They don't realize they're dabbling with the darkness
in such a way they may never be
able to get free from it.
The time will come, it's right here in
the Bible, when men will refuse to stop
worshiping demons, worshiping Satan, Satan worship.
And they will have been lured in through
the seduction of Satan that made it look
so good up front, but it's never good
in the end.
And so they will not repent.
And because they won't repent, they will be
stuck in the sins that come with having
a link to the devil.
What are the sins right here?
They did not repent of their murders, their
sorceries, their sexual immoralities and their theft.
Sounds like a typical life out there without
Jesus Christ.
Sounds like the evening news.
And one thing that is fascinating, I want
to point out before we finish here in
verse 21, is that they did not repent
of their murders or of their sorceries or
sexual immorality or theft.
Sorcery is right in the middle there.
You know, the Greek word is in the
original language.
This comes across to us as sorceries.
It is from a kiosk, from a kiosk,
from pharmakon, also found in other places.
Pharmakia in the Greek and revelation comes across
to us in the English word pharmacist.
Drugs, they did not repent literally, you could
say of you could translate it and it
would be true.
Good translation.
They did not repent of their drugging's, their
drugging's.
If ever there's been a time in history
where man is globally into drugs, it's now.
It's now it's wide scale, it's global, it's
mega bucks, mega bucks.
Wars are started over opium wars, heroin traffic.
And now man has gotten so clever that
he's invented prescription drugs that in some ways
are even stronger than heroin.
Oxycodone in the time release capsules.
If you crush those capsules, I'm not telling
you how to do this, but if you
crush the capsules, the oxycodone is in there
in time release, in a time release makeup
of the chemicals, so that it's released over
a period of time through your body, about
12 hours.
Oxycontin, oxycodone is the drug inside.
It's more powerful than hydrocodone, which is in
Vicodin.
You find oxycodone in Percocet, Percodin and Tylox,
if it's the strong form.
People are taking those now, breaking them open
and extracting the drug that's in there.
The drug that is in there in its
raw form is twice as powerful as heroin.
Now, most of us would not consider going
out tonight, going downtown to the city and
scoring some heroin on the street, going in
a back alley or a room and cooking
it up, tying off our arm with a
tourniquet and jamming a needle in there and
shooting heroin.
But some of us might consider having a
little oxycontin and, you know, my tooth hurts.
Doctor gave it to me.
You know what?
Under doctor supervision, if it's once or twice
or, you know, for a few days, that's
one thing which you have to be very,
very careful because now there are prescription drugs
that are more powerful than heroin and people
all over the world are addicted to them
and people all over our country are dying
of overdoses from them and children are being
robbed of their parents and parents are being
robbed of their children and marriages break up
over this kind of drug addiction.
They are white collar junkies, basically hillbilly junkies.
There's all kinds of names for this.
You can buy these drugs on the street
with marijuana, everything else, crack.
You can go get it right now and
just about any street in America.
And people are buying it that way and
they're taking it that way.
Housewives going to look at an open house
to buy a home nowadays go into open
houses on purpose to go straight to the
bathroom.
When a real estate agent is there with
a house open to show the house, they
go straight to the bathroom, to the medicine
cabinet and they find this stuff.
People addicted to it.
They grab it.
Oh, thank you very much.
Really like the house.
I might think about it.
They leave and they have this new stash
of this stuff and that's going on all
over the country.
And I'm not giving this to you to
have ideas, but this I'm not.
I'm serious.
I want to let you know that it's
happening because.
Worldwide addiction to drugs, they did not repent
of their druggings.
Attendant to that is always theft.
Always immorality and always murder.
That's what goes hand in glove with it.
These are the things the devil has always
used.
Always.
Be very careful, because I said to you,
be very careful about having any kind of
association with the devil.
You think, well, I would never do that.
Well, now you know that you might have
a way that he could lure you in.
Most people do not wake up in the
morning saying this is the day I will
begin my journey to become a drug addict.
They don't.
But it happens.
And I would encourage you to study up
on it.
There's a book you can read.
It's called Opium by Martin Booth, most well
researched book I have ever read on the
subject of opium and its history in the
world and the way it has been involved
in the shaping of the world.
It will literally blow your mind.
And it's really good to have as a
background, a backdrop to understand the sorcery of
the world today.
Drugs.
You know, the beautiful clipper ships you see
in pictures when you go into a restaurant.
Oh, my.
Look at that beautiful, elegant clipper ship designed
to smuggle opium in and out of China
in the old days.
And I could go on and on.
You would be amazed.
But you know something?
If we walk in the spirit.
As he is in the spirit.
Then the blood of Christ cleanses us from
all sin.
The love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts.
The Holy Spirit has come to testify to
us of Jesus.
He said, I will give you my spirit.
He would testify of me.
If we walk in the spirit, we're led
of the spirit.
We study the word.
We read these things and we take them
to prayer.
The spirit will lead us away from these
things naturally.
Even when you're standing there and you're alone
and you're faced with some decision, yes or
no, he will be there to tell you
and you will know it's God.
So you don't have to know everything to
stay free.
You just need to know him.
Lord, thank you for all of the light
that you have given us here this day.
Thank you, Lord, that you love us so
much.
You have given us your word that has
the answers to what we need in life
and what we need to die by and
live forever in heaven by.
Lord, work your saving work in every heart
we pray here this day.
Strengthen, Father, your people as they've listened to
your word.
And now may they listen to you and
may you lead them, Lord, and guide them.
Guide us all, Father, in the paths of
righteousness for your name's sake.
And we will give you all the glory
as we enjoy that tremendous relationship with you
and find that in Christ we are set
free to say no to the devil and
yes to Jesus.
For it's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.