Demons hate. They are ignorant admirers. Do you think Satan worshippers are going to get a reward in the end? Satan hates them. But whatever it takes to get them to hell He's going to apply.
The killing fields in this chapter on earth. Are the very places that their worshippers or adherents? Or carrying out the sinister work a third of the earth. You're listening to Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville.
Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Revelation. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick as he begins his message called Demonic Killers in Revelation chapter 9. We are continuing in Revelation chapter 9. If you have your Bibles, we will.
Take verses 13. Through 21 in our study, but we'll read verses 13 and 15.
Well, 13,215.
So if you have your Bibles. Revelation chapter nine. Verses thirteen through two fifteen. Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice saying From the four horns of the golden altar which is before God. saying to the sixth angel, release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.
So the four angels, the who had been prepared, For the hour and day and month and year were released. to kill a third of mankind.
Well, that's pretty scary. Let's close in prayer. Get out of here.
Now last session it was demonic scourges. The non-lethal Phase Of Satan just wreaking havoc over the earth.
Now we have the demonic killers. are lethal. This is the second of three Wo trumpets. There are the last three trumpets of the seven trumpets that belong to the seven seal. And those of you who have been following, you can keep up with that.
If you're new to this, well, you're going to have a lot of catch-up to do. But this is the second of Of the three woe trumpets, there of course is one more. We won't get that until chapter 11, verse 15. The The question is. is demonic possession Real.
Are there any evidences? Do We have to wait for the Great Tribulation, which hopefully we won't be here for that. Or is it, can we see it now? And absolutely. Look at Hamas.
If Hamas is not demon-possessed, there's no such thing as a demon-possession. They are a death cult. And Then there are, and there are levels of demon possession. There's extreme and there's not so extreme, but still possessed by the devil. For example, the fierce advocacy.
of gender irrelevance. I mean, if someone had said this twenty years ago, you'd have laughed at them. Forty years ago, you might have institutionalized them.
Now they are governors of whole states. Look at the Olympics in 2024. That blasphemous presentation. Demons are very real. When the Bible says there is a way that seems right to man, but its end is the way of death.
There's demonic influence there. God is not negotiating with devils. or sinners God does say to sinners, You don't have to get what's coming to you. And that's the grace of God. Jesus said, The Son of Man, referring to himself, did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.
Luke's Gospel chapter 17. 9 verse 56. Then he says also in Luke 13, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
Well, this is the gospel. the consequences of snubbing God. And they are extreme. The book of Revelation is a story of civilizations deconstruction that. God may go forward with reconstruction.
Okay, that's the introduction. All of that is part of what we're going to open up: demon possession, what God is doing, the mercy of God in the midst of it all. In verse 13 now of Revelation 9, Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice. From the four horns of the golden altar which is before God.
Well, as we covered in chapter 8. These prayers represent the prayers of believers Calling For justice against the persecuted. of Christ, or the persecuted of God. Same thing. The question also arises here in verse 13, what's with the tabernacle in heaven?
which Moses' tabernacle was mm was modeled after.
Well, from our perspective, because God doesn't need reminders. But these things have been cataloged for us to benefit from. The imagery, the symbols, they're meaningful. They don't lose their point, the point that they're making. And one of the points.
That is made from us seeing God say, okay, there's an incense altar in heaven. There's a tabernacle in heaven for you, for the sinner. A reminder to us of God's commitment to deal with the curse, with our sins personally. That God in heaven has a plan to end evil on earth. Reminding us that God is active on our behalf.
The Old Testament tabernacle in the wilderness was all about dealing with sin. None of it was entertainment. It was all when you You either saw the Shekinah. In the daytime, the cloud, the pillar, or at night you see the fire, but you if you smell the meat cooking on the altar, it was a reminder that sin is being dealt with. It's not something to ignore.
In fact, the trumpet blasts A trumpet is one of those instruments you just can't ignore. A piano can be in the background. You can go to a mall or an airport, and someone's playing the piano, and you just really not. Pun intended, tuning in. But a trumpet blast is something else.
So there's the temple in heaven, God signaling to us. I got this. I'm dealing with this. This curse on earth is not the end of the story. It's always before my sight.
Verse, or I'm always mindful of it. Verse 14, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet. Release the four angels who are bound at the river, the great river Euphrates. This is no zombie uprising. These are fallen angelic beings who will use.
fallen human beings in an attempt to destroy them all. This is demonic escalation from the first paragraph in chapter nine, that fifth trumpet. This sixth trumpet has escalated things.
So evil are these spiritual beings that they have been imprisoned until this moment here. As instruments of judgment.
Well, nothing new about God using instruments of judgment. He used the Jews to judge the Canaanites, He used the Babylonians to judge the Jews. I mean, this is.
Something that the scripture teaches. Jude says about these fallen beings the angels who did not keep their proper domain. They lost their place, they became trespassers. before God. but left their own abode He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment.
Of the great day, and there's a dual meaning for that. They will be judged themselves finally. But also, they're used as instruments of judgment, and here it is. Their jailhouse The Euphrates that is mentioned again, this is symbolic. Symbols do not wane over time, as a rule.
A lion is always considered fierce in every age. A lamb, a sheep, is not. And so these symbols mean something to us. We're not to say, well, there were actually four angels released and they're walking along the earth, they're just slaughtering people.
Well, that's not the meaning. And if you try to have. A literal approach to Revelation, you're going to be all confused, all scrambled up. But if you understand, as God introduced this revelation, that He's speaking through symbols. that are attached to Old Testament meanings and New Testament teachings.
And so these Creatures will be released That part's literal, but they will spiritually influence human beings. But back to the Euphrates, because we're going to get back to these bad guys as we go through this. This paragraph. It was the easternmost border of the ancient Roman Empire, some seventeen. Hundred miles long, largest river.
in Western Asia. And it served as a natural boundary To protect Rome's territory from the Eastern Parthian threat. They were. In today's Iranians. not necessarily the Persians.
There's a a link there, but we're not going to get into that now.
So it Also ran through Ancient Babylon. And now we're getting closer to the meaning or the significance of The Euphrates. Babylon was the center For from which Satanic cults flowed.
So there is a keen link. to the Evil creatures that are influencing people. And at the end of the chapter, God comes right out and says, Because you didn't depart from your idolatry. And the idolatry comes out of Babylon historically. When you read the book of Daniel, you'll find how many sorcerers and wise men and mad, all of these people dipping and dabbing in the occult.
We'll get back to the Euphrates in chapter 16 when it is dried up to make way for the kings of the East so they can invade. But that is a, we'll have to wait for that. Verse 15.
So the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.
Well, specific date, time. It's it's narrowed down. down to the hour.
Well, it's been said.
Now, I don't know. I have this here. I don't know if it's original. Because I've been through Revelation a few times. I try to keep a bibliography of everything I write so that I'm not plagiarizing anyone.
Now, some things are, you know, it's common. You can't claim that, well, that's plagiarism. No, that's just an insight that belongs to us all. But other things are worded in such a way that. The author deserves the credit for it.
So I don't know if this is original, but I'm going to take credit for it because I didn't put a bookmark, I mean a no end note there. But anyway, history will run through the channels that have been dug in advance By the hand of God.
Now some of you might say, well, no, no, I know where that's from. I don't want to hear it. I just just let me have my little satisfaction. But it's true that these channels of metaphorically They have been carved out by God. And what happens as humanity in the history flows through these channels?
Well, that's largely up to how they're going to react to God. In chapter 7, these four angels of destruction were restrained until the saints were sealed.
Well, now they're discharged. They are allowed, they are unleashed. And so we read here in verse 15. They were released to kill a third of mankind. Unlike the fifth trumpet.
with the locust from hell that spewed out. These sway people to kill people. to bring about wars. And you can't have the carnage that we're talking about from just earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis. You've got to have some weapons of mass destruction.
If you want to just apply reason to what we're reading here, and that's what we should do, this is not sci-fi.
So, a time when men will be satanically energized, unlike ever before. You know, Satan acquires people as resources. They are resources to him. What did Jesus say to Judas? Satan has filled your heart.
And if you want to look at other historical Evidences of things that are beyond insane, they're beyond. wicked behavior, they go into the demonic.
Well look at Chichijima. Look at what happened in Nanking, the Holocaust. These are demonic activities. They're not saying, boy, that thing's got out of hand there. Demons hate They're ignorant admirers.
You think Satan worshipers are going to get a reward in the end? Satan hates them. But whatever it takes to get them to hell. He's going to apply. The killing fields In this chapter on earth, Are the very places that their worshippers or adherents?
Or carrying out the sinister work, a third of the earth. of the world. We'll get some numbers in a little bit. But this is an an aggressive evil en masse. It's global.
It's it's just uh it's the insanity. a collective insanity. And the Internet has made this very possible. to influence to corrupt. To get everybody on the same page.
We've seen evidences of this already. There are types of insanity. And Some of them are demonic. Uh we Christians should point out to unbelievers, don't let Hollywood Be your source of spiritual information. That you know, someone's head spinning around, is you know, oh, that person's demonic.
Well, there's certainly some sort of contortion going on there, but You don't have to wait for something sensational like that to happen. If you've ever been to a big city or lived, spent any time in a big city where homelessness was getting out of control, you're going to come across some behaviors that you will walk away from saying, that was the devil. That was evil. That was not just a situation where a person just doesn't have a place to live and they become a vagabond. I'm talking about the behaviors that go with it, the things that they do in public.
Some of you have been to other countries. third world countries. And you've seen people in public, and you've got that understanding, this is dark, and it's beyond just bad people being bad and doing bad things. There are also insane ideologies. They come from hell they come from the demons Babylon, we're going to get to that in latter chapters, but it is directly associated with the spiritual world and its influence on people to get them away from the truth of God.
Now, back to the death cult of Hamas. They're not by any means the first, but think of the Thugis of India. We get our word thug from them. They were They committed evil on another level. It was just not robbing people, gouging eyes out, just for the fun of it.
So there should be no difficulty for us to come to this and understand the demonic activity is going to be unleashed on humanity, and that's what God is saying. He's illustrating it for us. Release the four fallen angels. That are bound at the River Euphrates. It's fraught with symbolism telling us what's going on.
And today, Today's numbers There are about 8 billion people on Earth. And Two billion of them, according to this passage in verse 15. are gonna die. It's astounding, it's inconceivable almost. This, in addition, to the one-third from chapter 6, when death and Hades were doing their thing during this time period.
Great carnage. With converts nonetheless, there will be people coming to Christ. Just not the majority. Powerful forces of darkness sweeping over. Earth.
Because the salt of the earth will not be there. When someone gets saved and the authorities find out, they're going to kill them. There'll be no spirit-filled churches, just apostate churches, until Antichrist has had his full of them and tramples them also.
So, this global traffic with the spiritual world prepares mankind for the manipulation. from the spiritual world. And they don't believe it. They deny the very devil that is pulling their strings. Verse sixteen.
Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million I heard the number of them. John pushed that in. Look, I'm not playing with you. I heard this, it's 200 million. That's an astounding number.
He's confirming. The demonic figures Are swaying Entire nations. Collective minds, mass psychosis, paranoia. Demonic minds think alike.
Well, that's what you're going to get. And this is one army. This is not mentioning the opposing army. What are they putting on the battlefield? What has called for such an investment of resources?
to man a two hundred million man army. 1 John 5: The whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. That should be sufficient for us. to understand what's happening.
So, 200 million men, are you kidding me? The logistics, one of the rules of For ground troops, logistics-wise, are the three Bs. Beans, bullets, and bandages. Without those, you can't wage war successfully. And if the other side has got the beans, the bullets and the bandages and you don't.
Through attrition, you're likely going to be defeated. And in our technological world, it is possible, it is very conceivable. to see that an army this size can be supplied with the food, with the water, with the ammunition, With the care, the medical care, whatever else is needed. Napoleon. In 1812, he put 600,000 men on the battlefield to go after Russia.
and was largely defeated because of lack of supplies. And the cold didn't help either. But this is a mechanized Infantry Army with all the support elements that go with it. This would include tanks and artillery and air support. Here's ground troops, we would say.
200 million, I heard the number.
Well, if they were demons, he would have said they were demons, but he's not saying that. He's saying this was an army. He's going to tell you what their uniforms look like.
Now, the United States with reserves is said to have. Two million. A two million man army. India, 4.2 million. You ask, where do you get these numbers?
I just make 'em up. No, th these numbers are available. China, 3.1 million.
So just you take the United States, India, and China, and you add up their military, you only have 9.3 million, give or take. The total number of Armed Forces personnel in the world in 2020 was 27,000,000. four hundred thousand.
Well, that's 173 million. Short. Of what's going on here. And you're going to say, how do we reconcile this? I mean, these numbers aren't given to us by God for us to just say, oh, that's just, you know, a non-essential detail.
Well How many of you have watched March of the Wooden Soldiers? I mean it's the highlight of the movies when those soldiers come in with the bayonets and they're killing the bogey men. It's a part of your culture and you should understand that movie. Anyway, my point is robots. How do you weigh you going to get 170 73 million more troops?
Well, if you have robots, you don't have to supply them with the beans, the bullets, and the bandages like you would have to do with human beings. Who knows what is in the government warehouses? Elon's only looking for numbers. I'm I'm still I'm gonna tell you, on my way home, I'm gonna be disappointed that nobody really locked into that March of the Wooden Soldier thing because it's one of the highlights of my childhood. It frightened some of my kids.
They just ran out of the room screaming. The boogeyman. Anyway, verse 17.
So keep all of this in mind because it's all connected. And he says, and thus I saw 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.
So they're not friendly, that's for sure. John saw these vehicles. With uniformed occupants. It's almost like he saw them driving by. He could he tells us what what their colours were.
Now Uniforms of the 200 million Man army. He's not telling us the other side, just this one army. This army is demonically embedded, and so is the other team. At least nine countries and fifty eight entities within those countries. have this flag combination.
Will the US, Russia, and Communist China have two of the colors? Uh they're not matching. I mean for instance, China has the red and the the yellow on their flag and We have the red and the blue, Russia also. But that falls short, and I believe because Antichrist will have his own colors. The converts At this time.
will be made converts. also by somebody preaching, I told you so. You see, it's right here. When they start posting what these armies are doing, and they have their embedded journalists, and they're broadcasting from the battlefield or the theater of operation.
Someone's going to see these colors and said, I read that in Revelation chapter 9 and show it to others along with so many other prophecies being fulfilled at this time, and that's where your converts are coming from. This has been Cross-Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston. This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation, but if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand. Just visit us online at crossreferenceradio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings.
While you're there, you can also find links to follow our program on your favorite podcast app, as well as links to get connected with us on Facebook and YouTube. There's also an interviews tab where you can learn more about Pastor Rick's heart for ministry.
Well, we hope you'll join us next time here on Cross Reference Radio. Hello.
