Mike Bickle discusses the fifth and sixth trumpet judgments in Revelation 9, emphasizing the release of two demonic armies that inflict severe torment on those who have rejected God's grace. The fifth trumpet unleashes locust-like demons that torment non-believers for five months, while the sixth trumpet releases horsemen that kill a third of humanity. Bickle highlights that these judgments serve a redemptive purpose, aiming to awaken the wicked to the reality of the kingdom of darkness and encourage repentance before the final judgment. He stresses the importance of prayer and intercession during these times, as they are linked to God's mercy amidst judgment. Ultimately, the sermon calls for believers to prepare themselves and others for the coming tribulation and the return of Christ.

Thank you, Jay. Turn to Revelation 9. Father, we ask you for the spirit of insight and revelation in the Word, and we thank you, as we open our heart to you, that your eyes are upon us. And Holy Spirit, we recognize your presence right now. We ask you to touch us with living understanding. In Jesus' name, Amen. As we're continuing in our series on these seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls of wrath, we're in session nine, which is the fifth and sixth trumpet judgments, found in Revelation chapter 9. Both of those judgments, those fifth and sixth trumpets, are both in Revelation 9. Let's give a quick overview of the six trumpets. Of course, the seventh trumpet is the coming of the Lord and the rapture of the church, etc. We'll look at that next week. But the six trumpets, paragraph A, the first four of the six, they destroy the natural resources of the Antichrist's empire, but they don't actually touch people physically. But the fifth and the sixth trumpet, they do touch people physically in a very intense way. Paragraph B, the fifth and the sixth trumpet release two demonic armies on the earth, I mean into the earth, from hell into the earth. There's two different demonic armies that are described. The first one is an army of locusts, and the second army is an army of horsemen. And we'll look at those real briefly tonight. But those two armies at two different times, one after the other, are released on the earth. It is truly hell on earth. And the full sense of that it ever occurs, I mean, it never occurs at this level until the fifth and sixth trumpet. Hell is opened up and imprisoned demons, hordes of them are loosed onto the human race, onto those that have refused the grace of God and salvation. Now, the purpose of this, well, there are several purposes, but one of them is the Lord wants the wicked to see how terrible the kingdom of darkness is before they go there forever. He wants to show them the nature of the kingdom of darkness because they have a very short amount of time before the Lord appears. He comes at the seventh trumpet. This is the fifth and sixth. He gives them a taste of the kingdom of darkness in full intensity so they will still have an opportunity to say this. I don't want this. I don't want anything to do with this. And they could repent. They still can be saved. Paragraph C. Now, there's two categories of unbelievers in the tribulation. Those that have taken the mark of the beast and they are what we call reprobates. They cannot repent. They have responded to the Lord in the equivalency of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which means they can't repent. You know, I talk to people periodically about this issue, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. I'll just go on a little parentheses. If you think you've committed blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and that troubles you, you haven't committed it. That's a fact, because if it if it troubles you and you're trying to get free from it, a person that has committed blasphemy of the Holy Spirit has no desire for God and no interest in repenting. So if you are troubled by it, it's a demon lying to you to to set to to to throw off your walk with the Lord. So don't concern yourself with believing that lie. You haven't done it. The second category of unbelievers are those who haven't taken the mark of the beast. They still have a chance to repent. And those are the ones for which this fifth and sixth judgment trumpet judgments are redemptive. They still can wake up to salvation. Paragraph E, what's happening as well? Another dimension is that the wicked of the earth are worshiping demons. They're worshiping Satan. It's the most powerful. And in terms of the number two of people that are worshiping Satan, it's the most powerful satanic worship movement in history in terms of intensity and power and numbers. Billions are worshiping Satan, which means they're worshiping demons. So what's really happening is the Lord is lifting his hand off the demons and letting their true nature come to light. And the demons that are worshiping, I mean, these people are worshiping demons. The demons are now free to come near them and the demons are tormenting them. Now, the normal way that a demon worshiper would think is if, hey, if I worship a demon loyally and faithfully, the demon will help me wrong. A person that worships a demon, a demon has no capacity for mercy, no capacity for kindness. You are if someone is faithful in worshiping a demon, the demon will still murder them and torment them. But this is a this is not something the demon worshipers are expecting because the true nature of a demon can never change. And the Lord is allowing them to see where they're going and the condition of the kingdom of darkness when it's fully released in hell, Roman numeral two. OK, we'll look at the fifth trumpet just for a few minutes and then we'll look at the sixth trumpet, probably a little bit shorter amount of time on the sixth one. The fifth trumpet is a release of a demonic army of locusts, demonic locusts, and they come and torment men for five months. Revelation nine, verse one to six. And the fifth angel sounded the trumpet. And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. That star is an angel. To him, to this star, this angelic being, and there's debate whether it's a fall, if it's a good angel or a bad angel. And the argument is persuasive in both directions. What really matters is that Jesus has the authority over this fallen star, this fallen angel. But to him, so the star is identified as a personage. It's not a inanimate object. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit, which is commonly referred to as hell or the abyss. Verse two, this fallen star opened the bottomless pit and out of it came smoke and out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth. So the angel takes the key, opens the pit. Smoke bellows out across the earth. And locusts come out of the smoke. Now to them, these locusts, these demons was given power. And they were given the power that a scorpion has. To torment, to sting people is the idea. Verse four, but these locusts, these demons, they were commanded to not hurt, harm the grass of the earth, number one. And they were commanded to only touch the men who don't have the seal of God. In other words, they can only touch unbelievers. Those that have the seal of God on them are protected. Verse five, they were not given authority to kill. That was the next thing they were commanded. You can't kill. And they were to limit their torment to five months, like the torment of a scorpion. Now, in those days, men will seek death and they will not find it. They will desire to die, but death will flee from them. This is mysterious. We don't understand how they won't be able to commit suicide in the anguish of their torment. But I'm sure the scripture is right in saying they will try to, but it won't work. Maybe every time they get right at the point of it, a demon appears, you know, to take them down to hell. And you've heard testimonies of people that have been to hell. We got a testimony coming tomorrow, matter of fact. And different ones that have had testimonies of on their deathbed and a demon comes, it's more horrifying than anything they could imagine. I'm talking about unbelievers. And some testify to they end up not dying, but they get saved because they are terrified by what they saw. So maybe there's a spiritual realm has opened up to them. I don't know how they're prevented from killing themselves, but somewhere, somehow they are prevented. Paragraph C. Now, these locusts are demonic beings. They're supernatural beings. They are not natural locusts. The details of the prophecy gives the specific rank, the specific names, the five-month period of these demonic beings in Revelation 9, verse in the fifth and the sixth trumpet, the details are given so clearly that the details demand we can't just simply dismiss them and spiritualize them like many commentators do. They'll just say, well, this is just symbolic, but then they don't account for the details of the prophecy. We cannot dismiss this like a common interpretation as these are helicopters. You know, that John was seeing a helicopter from the ancient, you know, for the ancient, I mean, the first century, what he thought a helicopter would be like. No, these are not helicopters. These come out of the abyss, and they have the power to sting for five months. Top of page two. The characteristics of these locusts make it clear they're not natural. Paragraph F. The torment lasts for five months. Now, it's interesting that that corresponds to the period of time that a locust will pillage an area for five months, from May to September, the Middle East. But an interesting fact is also that the five months times 30 days would be 150 days. I don't know what this means. I just find it interesting because the coming of the Lord is likened to the days of Noah, but the waters of the flood were causing trouble to the earth for 150 days, and it's the same timeframe. I do not know the relationship, but I'm guessing there is one. So if one of you can figure that out, that would be nice. I can't imagine it's purely coincidental that the 150-day periods of the judgment of Noah and of the fifth trumpet are purely accidental. Paragraph H. Now, throughout this fifth trumpet and the sixth one as well, it is stressed that God is the one granting permission. Permission is given, and the unexpressed agent doesn't say who gives the permission. It says it was commanded to them or permission was given to them or it was given to them, and it never says who, but it's understood throughout the book of Revelation that it's always God unless designated otherwise as the one with the authority over the angelic and the demonic realm, because demons can only move as far as God will allow them. The devil is on a chain. He can only go as far as the Lord lets him go. He's very measured in his boundaries. Now, he can move within his boundaries, but his boundaries are set by the Lord. Now, there's strategic divine limitations on these locusts. They're not supposed to hurt the grass. They can only hurt men without the seal and only for five months, and you can add another one, they couldn't kill. They were not allowed to kill. Now, these limitations are strategic, and I don't know the reason for them, but I'm sure there is a reason for each one of them. So again, I'll just send you, kind of challenge you to go, you and the Lord in the next year sort that out, and let me know when you get the answer. Paragraph J, now the seal of God will be upon the foreheads of the saints in the same way that Israel was protected during the plagues of Egypt, in the same way the saints will be protected during the end time plagues of Egypt, so to speak, which is the judgments of God in the great tribulation. The children of Israel were in Goshen. Now, most of you are familiar with what I mean by the Goshen principle. Goshen was a geographic area in Egypt where the children of Israel lived. It was a slave camp, and the scripture says clearly that in Goshen, God's judgments didn't come. They fell on the land of Egypt, but not in Goshen, and there will be the same principles. There will be a distinction. It's what the Lord told Moses. I will make a difference between the Egyptians and the children of Israel. There will be a distinction between believers and unbelievers in terms of the release of the judgments of God. When the angel of death came over the land at the Passover to kill the firstborn in the time of Moses and the generation of Moses, if they put the blood on the doorpost in Exodus 12, they put the blood on the doorpost. It was a picture of the mark of God, of the seal of God. It protected them from the spirit of death. Paragraph K, another example where the Lord protects His own people in a time of judgment. Of course, Egypt in the generation of Moses is the most graphic example, the most prolific one. I mean, there's more details on it is what I mean, but there's another example where there's several of them in the Old Testament, but this is a very important one in Ezekiel chapter nine. Now this is in the time of the Babylonian captivity when Ezekiel's prophesying the same time of Jeremiah and Daniel. Daniel, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, the three of them were contemporaries. And the Lord said to an angel in Ezekiel nine, verse four, go through the city of Jerusalem because judgment was coming on the city of Jerusalem. And in the midst of Jerusalem, put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations or the sins that are happening in the land. So God tells an angel, walk through the city of Jerusalem and whichever people sigh and cry over sin, in other words, intercession. These are saints. They're troubled by the compromise in the land. They're crying out. Literally, a spirit of intercession saved their lives. Verse five, but to the other ones who don't cry out against these things, the Lord said in my hearing, go after him through the city and kill. Do not let your eyes spare. Utterly slay, but don't, he's talking to the angel, don't come near anyone who has the mark of God upon their forehead. So the Lord is telling the angel, put a mark on the forehead of those that intercede and cry out to me for mercy. And when the angel's released, God commands the angel, don't touch anyone, don't even go near those that have the mark of God upon them. Paragraph L, the Lord spoke of in a general way, authority over Satan, but I believe it will actually have application in the fifth trumpet. Though I believe the principle is much bigger than the fifth trumpet, I believe it will have application. Jesus said in Luke 10, verse 19, I give you authority to trample on serpents and I give you authority to trample on scorpions. And then he went on and made it more general over all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means hurt you. I believe when the Lord said this, he obviously understood the fifth trumpet, that the locusts would be released with tails like scorpions to sting, but the saints would not be hurt by any of it. Again, that's wasn't the general principle, he was talking about just authority over Satan, but it does have an application in the fifth trumpet. Okay, let's go to the top of page three. Now these locusts come out of the bottomless pit. The fallen star or the angel opens the bottomless pit. Now I just wanna, I give a little bit of teaching here on what the bottomless pit is, we're not gonna cover all this, but it's just for your own study, it's very brief. The bottomless pit is what we refer to as hell right now. It's a temporary prison for certain fallen angels. And it's also a temporary prison for unbelievers who die. And the reason it's a temporary prison, because after the millennial kingdom, everyone that's in hell, Hades, the bottomless pit, they're thrown into the lake of fire. So hell, as we refer to it, it's actually only like the county jail. It's not the federal prison. The federal prison is the lake of fire. That's the final place of punishment, is the lake of fire. Second Peter two gives us a little bit of insight into how the demonic relates to the bottomless pit. And Jude tells us the same thing, and it relates to the fifth trumpet here. So Peter teaches us, he says, "'If God did not spare the angels who sinned, "'but he cast them down to hell "'and delivered them into chains of darkness,'' and here's the key word, "'to be reserved for judgment.'" They're not only reserved to be judged in the lake of fire, they're actually reserved to be an agent of judgment in the tribulation against the wicked. So they're being held, they're reserved to be used as an instrument of judgment, as well as to partake of greater judgment in the lake of fire. Now, most of the demons are moving around the earth. They're in the mid heavens, the second heavens. They're moving on the earth. But there are demons, a certain category of demons that are in chains of darkness being held captive in hell right now. Most demons are moving around the earth, tormenting people or doing the work of Satan. But there is a category that are right now in chains of darkness, and those are the demons that will be released in the fifth trumpet and the sixth trumpet. They're held in darkness right now in chains. Jude 6 gives us another picture of what Peter was talking about. Jude talks about the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but they left their own abode. God has reserved, He has reserved them in everlasting chains. They have chains on them right now, under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Again, they're instrument of judgment in the fifth and sixth trumpet, but they're also being reserved to receive far greater judgment from the Lord, which is the lake of fire. But most demons are not in chains right now, only a certain category, and there's not much in the scripture on them. And I think that gives us enough understanding, those two verses, to know that they are in chains, but they're released from their prison for a short amount of time in the fifth and the sixth trumpets. Now, the bottomless pit, I don't think is the best term. The Greek word is the abyss. The reason the bottomless pit is, the bottomless pit is actually in the earth, and it's not technically bottomless, because if it was bottomless, it would go straight through the earth. I think abyss is a better term. In many translations, they either use hell or abyss. Now, the earth, the center of the earth is 4,000 miles from the surface, 8,000 miles in diameter that the earth is. And we don't know that it's at the center, but we know that it's 4,000 miles from the surface to the center, and the demons, the demonic underworld is actually under the surface of the earth. Somewhere down there, you know, 100 miles or 1,000 miles or 4,000 miles down, we don't have any idea. But we'll never, ever be able to contact that realm in a natural way. I mean, nobody's gonna drill down and see it. But there's a whole world, there's a whole underworld that's actually in the earth, and there's a huge shaft that will be opened up. The pit will be opened up. The key will be given to this star that has fallen, and he will open up this huge shaft, and these demons will come out that are in prison right now, in chains, and they will torment people for five months, those that don't have the mark of the beast. I mean, those that don't have the mark of God that have the mark of the beast. Paragraph P, there's five words, and this is what I was referring to a minute ago, you can read this more on your own, that describe the underworld. Five biblical words, words that are used in the Bible. Not every translation uses all of them. Sheol, that's the Hebrew word, that's the main word used in the Old Testament. Hades is the Greek word that's used in the New Testament. Gehenna, Tartarus, and the bottomless pit, or the abyss. Now, when the King James Version runs into any of those five words, it always says hell, just says hell every time. But there's actually distinctions within the underworld. There are three chambers, three distinct chambers in the underworld described in the Old Testament, or described in the Scripture, but there are three distinct chambers. Number one, it's where the unbelievers go in Old and New Testament. If an unbeliever dies today, they go to that chamber, to that place right now, called Hades. But if you're in the Old Testament, you call it Sheol, it's the same thing. It's the underworld, it's the chamber for where the unredeemed go, waiting for final judgment, which is after the millennial kingdom at the great right throne. The second chamber in the Old Testament is where the redeemed went. When David died, he went to that good chamber in the underworld, and it's called Abraham's bosom. And when Jesus died and rose from the dead, he went and cleared out that chamber and took them all to the presence of God. So that chamber's finished now, from the cross and resurrection on, that chamber has nothing, it's no longer functional. But there's a third chamber in the underworld. It's where the demons go, that are chained. And most demons are not chained in the underworld, but this particular category. There could be several categories of chained demons, I don't know, I don't really have that much interest in all those kind of details. So anyway, it gives you a little bit more insight on that, but I just want you to figure, just have a little bit of bearings from the scripture of what this bottomless pit is that's being opened. It's the chamber where the demons are held captive. It's opened. Okay, let's go to page four, paragraph X, not right near the middle. Now John describes the locust army, this demonic army, and he compares them to horses prepared for battle. And he gives several descriptions of this demonic army. And this is actual, this is not figurative, this is actual. He's seeing it, now he uses the word like eight times, so he's not saying it's exactly that, but he says what I'm seeing, it's like it. He goes, I don't really have terms to describe exactly what I'm seeing. But it is literal what he's seeing. He's describing demons. This particular imprisoned army that's set free, not set free, but is being used in a mission of judgment, they have crowns of gold upon their heads. That speaks of their supremacy. They have human faces. That speaks of their human abilities and emotion. They have hair like women. I'm not touching that. They have teeth like lines. I've taught this several times through the years that I don't have the political, I'm politically correct or something. I'm just, I always dodge it, okay. They have teeth like lions, which means they have the ability to tear their prey apart, although their power is in stinging, tormenting. They have breastplates, durability in battle. They have wings that when they move, it's a terrifying sound to their prey. And the power is in their tails to sting for five months. Now, again, these limitations I find are interesting. Why only five months? We know that the locus, it parallels a natural locus, destruction for five months, but it's far more significant than that, I'm sure. These are very strategic descriptions that they're not given to entertain us. They're given because they will have meaning to us in that hour. Paragraph Y, they have a king. There's a hierarchy, even in the imprisoned demons, there's a very deliberate hierarchy in Satan's kingdom. Let's go top of page five. Let's move now to the sixth trumpet, the sixth trumpet. Now, there's a lot of distinctions, but it's between this demonic army and the other one. This is an army of demonic horsemen, and the other was demonic locus. But there are similarities, and their tails that sting. And it's interesting that the fifth trumpet is likened to a scorpion. The sixth one is likened to a serpent. And Jesus said, serpents and scorpions, you will have authority over. Again, He meant through history, but He undoubtedly understood Revelation 9 before He gave it to John. Now, this is the most terrifying of the judgments up to this point in time. At this one, these demonic horsemen kill one third of the earth, literally kill one third of the earth. And again, those that read this chapter just symbolically, I understand why people want this chapter to be symbolic. But you can't wish a meaning on the Bible. We have to take it at face value. Now, the men that are seeking to die from the fifth trumpet, the ones that are stung by the scorpion tails of these locus, for five months, they wanna die. Now, this sixth trumpet, they will die. Their wish is now gonna come to pass. And again, the reason this is so horrific, the Lord is actually trying to wake them up before they go to hell forever. He's giving them a snapshot, just a taste of hell on earth while there's still time to change. Revelation 9, verse 13, I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar. Now, you know the golden altar, that's where the prayer ministry from the earth, we read about in Revelation 8, that the prayers of the saints, they go to the golden altar and the angel throws an incense and then it ascends to God from the golden altar. The golden altar is connected to the prayer movement. It's interesting that it's from the prayer central, if you will, from the prayer headquarters, of course, it's not a headquarters in that sense, but from the central place where prayers ascend before God, the voice goes forth and commissions this most horrific sixth trumpet. So a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, this voice, and obviously it's the voice of God, or it's certainly a voice that God has commissioned to speak says to the sixth angel who has the trumpet, release the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates. So the sixth trumpet, the trumpet, I mean, the angel of the sixth trumpet has the job of blowing the sixth trumpet, but he has a second job of releasing the four demonic angels, the fallen angels that are bound. Now we know these are fallen angels because they're bound and all angels that are bound, it's negative, they're evil angels. And the Bible calls demons angels, fallen angels or evil angels or demons because the word angel means messenger. So it's an evil messenger, whereas the good angels are good messengers because the word angel means messenger. So release the four angels that are bound at the great river Euphrates. So these four angels who had been prepared, God prepared them, I mean, 2,000 years ago, John sees that God has four demonic beings prepared strategically for one hour of history. And it says this, that the four angels had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month and the year exactly. There's a specific time on God's calendar that these demonic angels were reserved in judgment to be released for this very moment in human history, in natural history. Now their mandate of these four powerful like principalities I don't know that that would be their formal designation, but their four mighty demonic angels, they are released these four to kill one third of the human race. This is a literal number, John hears it twice. Now, the number of the horsemen that were under their authority, the number of the demons that were under these four mighty demons was 200 million. So we have four leading demons with 200 million. You know, that would be 50 million under each one of them, not that it's perfectly symmetrical or proportionate like that, but it would be 50 million. So you're talking, these are powerful demons, these four, they have 50, 200 million demons under the four of them collectively. And John says in verse 16, I heard the number, I heard it 200 million. There's no guesswork. Verse 17, now those who sat on them, on these horses, they had breastplates that were red and blue and yellow. And the heads of these horses were like the heads of lions. And out of the mouth of these horses and horsemen, we don't quite know how it all works together, fire and smoke and brimstone came out of their mouth. So fire comes out of these horsemen or horses or both or this or that, we don't have all the clarity, but fire comes out of their mouth, but not just fire, smoke does too. Smoke comes out and kills. Now being killed by fire or killed by smoke or killed by brimstone, I wouldn't choose any of the three, but they're three different descriptions of the way that the one third of the human race will be killed. By these three plagues and they're different. The brimstone plague is different than the smoke, which is different than fire. They're three distinct plagues. A third of the mankind will be killed by the fire, by the smoke and by the brimstone that's came out of the mouths of these horses. For their power is in their mouth, releasing the fire, smoke and brimstone and the powers also in their tail. Their tails are like serpents. So I picture the head of a serpent at the end of their tail, that's how I imagine it. And with their tails, they do harm. Now we know the scorpion tails would sting. We don't know what these tails do, but we know it's bad. So the power in these horses or horsemen is in their mouth, three plagues come out of their mouth and in their tail that's like a serpent that obviously or seemingly bites and kills or at least causes great harm. Paragraph B. Now to emphasize the literalness of this judgment, John twice in verse 15 and verse 18, he says it two times, one third will be killed. If we honor the scriptures, we just can't take a part of the scripture that we're uncomfortable with and just dismiss it. I've asked guys that have done that, I go, how can you dismiss it? And the answer I've received several times, it's just ridiculous. The gravity, it couldn't mean that. I go, that's not a good reason to dismiss the Bible. Others have given other answers, but none of them were satisfactory or convincing. We also take the literalness of it because John told us the specific number, he heard it. It's not just a symbolic picture, it's an actual number. He actually saw what they really look like, these demons. He understood there was a specific hour and day and month and year that they were being prepared, these four mighty demons to release this judgment. This is all very literal and specific. Paragraph C, now just put your seatbelt on here on paragraph C. Of course, the numbers are so big, I can't relate to them. None of us really can. I mean, it's just incomprehensible, the numbers. The population in 2025 on the earth is estimated at eight billion. Now, I'm not in any way suggesting this will happen in 2025, that's not my point. My point is to give you a feel for the population. It could be 50 years after this, after 2025, I don't know. Could be decades after, it could be sooner. But just to give you a feeling for that, it'd be eight billion people. I wanna give you a sense of the gravity of it. Now, after the fourth seal, now here we're talking about the sixth trumpet, but the fourth seal, if you will remember, one fourth of the human race dies at the fourth seal. One fourth, so if there was eight billion, just work with that number because it's an easy number to work with. Again, it may be a few years after that, it may be a couple decades after, or it might be before. But working with eight billion, that means two billion will die in the fourth seal. That leaves six billion left. Well, if a third of six billion, that leaves four million total that have died and four billion, I mean, four billion that died and four billion that remain. We can't fathom what four billion deaths would mean in a three and a half year period of time. You can read the rest on your own, but that would boil down to three million people a day or a hundred million a month. That's proximate, but just to give you a sense of the gravity. A hundred million people a month dying under judgment before the transition to the age to come. Now, that's mind boggling. But to understand that the Lord is doing this in order to create the optimum environment for the most amount of people to be saved and to grow in the deepest levels of love without violating their free will. Paragraph D, Isaiah describes this timeframe. Isaiah chapter 13. It's describing specifically the timeframe of the great tribulation, but undoubtedly at the very forefront of this description is the sixth trumpet. It's not only the sixth trumpet, but certainly the sixth trumpet is paramount, at least in the Lord's mind when he's giving this to Isaiah. I don't know that Isaiah understood it. Behold the day of the Lord, Isaiah 13, verse nine. It will come cruel. It will be fierce. God will destroy sinners. Verse 10, this is the time when the stars will not give their light. This is when the sun will be dark, and this is clearly the great tribulation time. Verse 11, I will punish the world for its evil. Verse 12, I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold. According to these numbers, about 4 billion, could be more, could be less, but that's a kind of a number. The Lord says, I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold at this time. Of course, it intensifies through the seven trump, I mean, through the seven bowls of wrath. It actually gets more intense than that. Isaiah 24, verse six, describing the same timeframe. Therefore, the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell in it are desolate. The inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left. This is Isaiah describing the events that are associated with the great tribulation, but even in specifically the sixth trumpet and the seventh bowl is really intense as well. Okay, let's turn to page six, top of page six. Now, the voice, in verse 13, it says the voice from the golden altar, which is before God, the voice from the golden altar. Now, the golden altar, again, is the place of intercession. There's a voice, the voice of God, whether it's God directly or God through an angel or some agency that he chooses, a voice comes out of the prayer central, so to speak, out of the prayer center of heaven, the golden altar. That's not a perfectly accurate description to call it the prayer center, but you get the idea. Commissions the angel with the sixth trumpet. He says, you've blown your trumpet, but now I have another mandate. Release the four demonic, these mighty demonic angels. They're bound at the Euphrates River. And why the Euphrates River? Well, there's, I'm not gonna go to it now. I don't have that much insight, but it's a few points, but just ask the Lord the question and you can find it in different commentaries, the significance of the Euphrates River in redemptive history. It's where the Garden of Eden was and where the Garden of Eden's gonna be restored. It's the boundary lines of the promised land. Anyway, going on, I don't wanna go into it, but these demons are bound there. Like where? Where's there? I don't know, but there. Underneath the Euphrates River? Probably. How far down? I don't know. Those are questions I get asked. I go, I don't have a clue. Bound in some proximity to the Euphrates River, whether below the earth where other angels are in prison or who knows. The point I'm making is that the voice from the golden altar, the voice is related to the prayer ministry of the church through history and the prayer ministry of the church at the end times because the prayers are accumulated through history, but they are accelerated in the final years before the Lord's return. Roman numeral, I mean, paragraph I. In the Old Testament, there's two places of asylum or two places in the Old Testament where you could find mercy if you were charged with a crime. There was the horns of the altar was one place and the cities of refuge is the second place, but it's the horns of the altar in heaven. It's the place of mercy where you could cry out for mercy from death if you were being charged. The reason the voice is coming from the horns of the altar, the clear place of mercy, it's where you went and cried out for mercy from death. The saints are to have the assurance that there will be mercy in the judgment even upon the wicked if they want it and there'll be mercy for the saints if they cry out for it as well. That throughout the judgment, it will be related to prayer, that's the golden altar, but it will also be related to the horns of the altar, which is a place of mercy. So though this judgment is so severe, it flows from prayer and from mercy at the throne of God and God is seeking the good of his people and even the unbelievers that they would be saved, they would come to him. It's an act of mercy, the whole thing. It flows from the prayer center and the mercy place around the throne of God. So we're taking hold of the horns of the altar every time we pray in this age. In essence, we're grabbing the horns of the altar and asking for mercy. Daniel 7, paragraph J, Daniel 7, verse 22, I love this prophecy, it's talking about this time. The great tribulation at the end of it. For the ancient of days, Daniel saw the father as the ancient of days. He came and a judgment was made in favor of the saints and a judgment was made that would remove the wicked from killing them and it would give the government of the earth to the saints. So there's from the throne of God, favor is being granted throughout this whole tribulation scenario to those who love God, to those who want his mercy. Let's go to Roman numeral four. Just in conclusion here, Revelation 9, verse 20 to 21. Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, they didn't repent from the works of their hands. They didn't repent from worshiping demons because the Antichrist worship movement is a demon worship movement, it's Satan worship. Verse 21, they did not repent of their murder. Their murders or sorceries or sexual immorality or thefts. Paragraph A, the greatest heights of sin in all of history will be in the great tribulation time where sin will reach its highest pinnacle of history. There'll be more demonized people than ever at any time in history in those final years, not just the final three years, but in just the final years leading up to the second coming. I mean, we're already seeing a great increase of sin in the earth in just the last couple decades where sin is increasing and abounding. The moral climate of the earth is becoming more and more perverse quickly. And there's four major strongholds in society in the final years of natural history. And we're seeing already the early tokens of it, murder, sorcery, immorality, and theft. Those will be the four main satanic strongholds in society. And that's why the great tribulation, one reason it's so severe because men will increase in these four things the closer they get to the coming of the Lord. Daniel saw this time, in Daniel 8, verse 23, he said, in the latter days, in the latter time or in the last days, sin will reach its fullness. There is a time where sin will reach its fullness, but so will righteousness. Paragraph B, sin will become ripe, but righteousness will also become ripe. There will be a deeper maturity in love and righteousness in the saints at any time in history. So someone's asked the question, well, does it get worse or does it get better? And the answer is both. Yes, the wheat and the tares will mature together is what Jesus said. So the wheat, that's the righteous, the good, will mature the same time that the tares or the wickedness matures. Paragraph C, there'll be more people possessed by demons of murder than any time in history. There will be a great murder movement, and of course, there'll be focused on the saints and upon Israel. But the prayer movement and the great tribulation will be a check that stops and hinders the increase of murder against the saints. See, one of the reasons that the great tribulation seems unreasonable because we don't know the height of what human rebellion will be against God. We cannot imagine the heights of where it's going. So we kind of, we don't mean to, but we kind of accidentally imagine the Lord's a little bit overdoing it. And the Lord says, no, I know you love me, but I'm not overdoing it. You don't know what I know about what the situation of the earth will be like. I won't do anything that's not absolutely necessary for love and righteousness to increase. Paragraph D, immorality. Of course, with the technology, where technology is going in the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years, if the Lord tarries, we can't even imagine the amount of sexual bondage and the number of people that will have demons related to sexual bondage. Imagine 40 years from now, not just the technology of today, but the holograms and whatever happens beyond holograms, above and beyond anything we can imagine today and where technology is going, perversion will follow in the wake of that. Sorcery, which is demon worship. Of course, there'll be an anti-Christ worship movement, which is a Satan worship movement. The earth will be filled with Satan worshipers. Now, you hear sometimes they say, well, America's becoming more and more secular. And that's certainly happening right now. However, it won't end up that way. The nations will not become more secular, meaning more intellectually based and distanced from spiritual reality. The earth is gonna become intensely spiritual. They will be deeply involved in spiritualism on the negative side and in the kingdom of God, the positive side. Right now, there's a trend towards the secular meaning, more the kind of the intellectual based. I don't really believe this. I really don't believe that. I wanna see it proven through science. But before it's over, even the most intelligent people of the earth that are moving in darkness, they will be far more spiritual than they will be intellectually based in their lifestyles. There will be a demonic worship movement and a sexual perversion that is connected to the occult. And the sexual perversion will not just be hedonism. It won't just be pleasure seekers. There will be a dark spirituality related to the occult and murder and immorality and perversion. It will all come together in a dark spirituality. It won't just be people in sexual perversion for physical pleasure. There'll be a murder and a occult dimension to it as well. It will be a profound dark spirituality. We'll cover the earth. But so will the kingdom of God, we'll cover the earth. There'll be the great collision and the prayer movements of the balance. Paragraph G, now this happens to individuals through history. God gives them up, meaning he allows them to do what they've set their heart to do. He says, if you want to, I will let you do it. But when I give you up, I'm not gonna restrain you anymore. There will be a demonic power. When the Lord gives up a person, it means he lifts his hands and they go to the natural direction of darkness with the demon realm helping them. Now God hardened Pharaoh. He gave Pharaoh up to his own wickedness. God gives up people through history, individuals, but there's gonna be a time he's gonna do this on a corporate wholesale way. He's going to give the nations over to what's in their heart, coming up to the time of the second coming. And then he's gonna replace all of darkness with the greatest transfer, the greatest revolution of all of history when Jesus himself comes and drives all the evil leaders off the planet. Like I said, look at this in Romans one, this is gonna be happening on a global level. But at the same time, the church is gonna be growing and maturing like no time in history. God gave them up to uncleanness, means they want to move in uncleanness. He will lift his restraint off and let them have the uncleanness they want. But that uncleanness has a demonic power that's bigger than most people think when they play with uncleanness. God gives them up to vile passions. If a person steps over the line in sexual perversion, the Lord, after a season, he will woo them, woo them, hem them, hem, discipline them, get their attention. But there is a time he lifts their hands off and says that vile passion will bring you to a level you did not want to go. It has a power rooted in the kingdom of darkness with devils. And then verse 28, not just uncleanness and not just the vile passions, which is not just sexuality, it's murder as well. Then he gives them over to an entirely to a debased mind where they cannot make sense of truth at all. And that's what's gonna be happening in the nations. But in a minute, this is the sixth trumpet. Of course, to me, a minute, I don't really have a time frame for that. A minute afterwards, the seventh trumpet, and Jesus is coming and announcing his takeover of the whole earth. Amen, let's stand. Thought that was a good way to end. You were sitting there thinking, boy, we gotta end this somehow, boy, we're sinking. Well, remember, the next event is the seventh trumpet. The thing that's so dramatic is that this is not gonna be done in a vacuum. All the negative and the positive, it's gonna be done with dynamic human involvement on the dark side and the light side, dynamic human participation. It won't be done on automatic pilot in a vacuum. Evil men will do evil and they will increase and they will excel in wickedness and the righteous will increase and they will mature in righteousness. And they will do it by choices made at the heart level. Let's just open our heart before the Lord just as the worship team comes. Just gonna wait on the Lord for just a minute. Holy Spirit, here we are. Lord, we say we're yours. Just quiet your heart for a second. Just focus your mind on the throne of grace. There you are, right there, the golden altar. You're standing before the throne. Father, here we are. We ask you to touch us even tonight. There are some saints, some in the room, that you're making movement towards these negative things. You're playing around on the edges. And the Lord's saying, don't go there. It's a slippery slope. It has a power of its own beyond what you know. Don't play on the edges of darkness. Others of you, you've set your heart, the vast majority, to go hard the other way. You're saying, Lord, I wanna be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem. If these things happen in your lifetime, but if they don't happen in your lifetime, you'll have a chance to prepare those that it will happen in their lifetime, or their children or their grandchildren, meaning we can impact no matter what age you are. We can affect people of which I believe this will happen in their lifetime, whether they're the little ones or their children, whatever. It matters what we're doing right now related to this scenario. This thing doesn't just happen in the final moments. It's all determined. It happens decades leading up to it. There's a plan that's building with a continuum. So, Holy Spirit, we come to you. We don't know exactly where we are. We could have more time than we think or less time, but we wanna contribute and be a part of the process of preparing your people even now, preparing the next generation and the generation after them. Lord, we set our heart to be a part of the solution. So, Lord, come and touch us. ♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ Holy Spirit, here we are. ♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ ♪ Ah, so sit at your table ♪ ♪ Speak to you face to face as a friend ♪ I want to stand in your fire, wherever your eyes fall. May you find me faithful to your heart. Let me be found with a heart after you. May your eyes find this heart loyal to you. Let me be found with a heart after you. Let me be found with a heart after you. May your eyes find this heart loyal to you. Let me be found with a heart after you.