Revelation Chapter 9 Verses 13 - 14

• This is notable.  This voice.  Who was it that was breaking the seals on the scroll that was taken from the hand of God?  It was Jesus.  And these seals brought forth the conquerer upon the white horse there in Chapter 6, war came with the red horse, despair came with the black horse, and death came with the pale horse.  The fifth seal broken revealed the martyrs under the alter and the sixth seal brought great confusion and calamity upon the earth.  Finally, the seventh seal opened in Chapter 8 brought silence.  Utter sadness and inconsolable pain of the Lamb in heaven, man…
• And what I notice is that tracks quite well with the pattern that we looked at in Romans Chapter 2 last Sunday of the inexcusable man.  The man or the woman not seeking after God.  Not trusting the Lord with all their heart.  Not loving the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind and strength…and loving others as themselves.  Paul tells us that they will be conquered…just like the white horse.  Their lives will be marked by war, desperation and decay.  Their family members and babies and husbands will be martyrs…just trying to love them, yet they lay slain and finally all reason, all righteousness, all that the Lord would speak and do for them…silent…as they can't even hear Him anymore.  And the final product, Paul tells us is anguish.
• That pretty much sums up the scene on earth right now and when the sixth angel sounded, John hears a voice from the four horns of the golden altar…who's voice?  Well the golden altar in heaven is precisely what the Ark of the Convenant…more specifically the mercy seat upon the top of the Ark…was modeled after.  And that was the place in which men would approach the mercy of the God, where the holy God would meet with sinful man…the place of mediation.
• 1 Timothy 2:5, there is One Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.  So who's voice is this?  Its Jesus!  Notice what He commands…"release."  That is the Lord's work in your life man.  His will for your eternity…is your release.  Your freedom, your liberty from sin and all of its destruction.  Jesus prayed to the Father before going to the cross, the only place in His earthly ministry where we find His heart poured out, requesting His will be done…each other time He prayed, "nevertheless, Thy will be done."  But there in John Chapter 17 we hear the Lord's prayerful plea and what is His desire?  That we would be with Him.  We would be released and set free, man.
• But that plea has been rejected and so now, Great Tribulation.  The tattoo that is inked on the story of the lives of folks that refuse the Lord's work in their life.  And so now He releases the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.
• No doubt these are fallen angels or demons as they are bound and its interesting where they are bound.  The Great River Euphrates.  This is a place of great significance.  The River Euphrates marks the spot of original sin as Genesis 2:14 tells us that it bordered the Garden of Eden.  It marks the spot of the first murder as Adam and Eve had no doubt settled near the exterior border of the Garden where they had Cain and Abel.  It marks the spot of the first revolt against God, the first act of fake worship, the first war as it were, the first dictatorship…all of these wrapped up in the sinful heart of Cain…and also, it marked the first nation that was founded against God…Babylon.
• All of this associated with this place where Jesus now makes His command…"release."  Man, those things were my resume in the world.  As I myself embraced evil, running after selfish gain and living for myself…but then Jesus gave His command…"release."  And His command was to me.  "Matt, release all this junk.  Where has it gotten you?  What has it gained for you?"  All the toys, all the friends, all the days about you…all of the destruction you've caused…all your turmoil, all your hate, all your fear, all your anger…I have something more for you, release it."  And man when I released those demons, I found myself released…into the will and arms of the Most High.
• That is the same Most High that now commands the release of these demons upon the earth.  Why?  Because the debt payment of the cross of Calvary has been rejected by all who are upon the earth and so they are left to pay the debt themselves…because God is not mocked…the wages of sin is death, man.

Revelation Chapter 9 Verse 15

• From the beginning until now, we have arrived at even the specific hour in which this was all planned.  Man, God is that big.  I rest in that.  That even this hour…He knew.  Even this hour…matters.  Nothing is left to chance in the will of God…much is left to chance in the will of man…which will you choose?
• And notice, a third of mankind are going to be killed by these demons.  Now this is a third of the remaining mankind mind you.  If you add this to the number already killed since the Great Tribulation began you arrive at about 50% of all mankind will be dead after the sixth trumpet.  3+ billion people killed in a very short period of time…where are all the bodies?  Everywhere…no doubt this is a gruesome scene…a gruesome scene that all may have transpired in just a span of one hour…even more horrific.

Revelation Chapter 9 Verses 16 - 19

• Notice in verse 16 that John "heard" the number of them…he didn't count them.  Two hundred million…that is so many that it would take you six years of non-stop counting to get them all…so what he saw was a major force…
• Some commentators have ascribed what John saw to a literal army of men with their tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their bombs zombies, HA…but seriously as I read this I just can't arrive at this is any natural army.  For one thing, the emphasis is not on the men, but the horses.  It is the horses, with heads like lions mind you, that have the power to kill and that power is in their heads and their tails…lions head and serpent tails. 
• What John is seeing here is a demonic army, man, headed up by the four fallen angels that have been bound since the beginning for this very thing. 
• At any rate, I would think that after 5 months of horrible scorpion locusts, death fleeing and a zombie apocalypse…and then an army of 200 million horsemen with lions heads, serpent tails and over half of all mankind killed…plus all of the other calamity that we have seen…I would think that there would be a major revival right?  But that’s not the case here…why?  Because of the colors man.  What?
• You ever draw a picture, you know as a kid, and that picture is something…maybe elegant, maybe a mess (if you draw like me), but then you color it in and what happens…it becomes something completely different.  Something distinguishable from other drawings.  Its like the color gives it personality, life…meaning.  And notice John gives us color here in verse 17.  And as I read this man I was like…God…what’s with the colors?  And then….crazy, the Lord led me to the veil of the temple.
• You see, the veil of the temple, as we read in Exodus 26:31 was fashioned with three colors.  Scarlet red, blue and purple.  And so interesting what do we see here upon these horsemen?  Red, blue and…yellow!  What’s the significance?  Just this.  When Jesus paid the price for sin, that veil, those colors…were torn in two…ripped from the top to the bottom…a feat that Josephus tells us two horses tied to each side of the veil with ropes would not have the strength to do…
• But you see it was torn from the top to the bottom as God the Father, through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, opened the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies, to all mankind.  And the color, well the only peculiar color between these two sets that you find on the veil…purple.  The most precious, the most costly, the color worn by kings you see…and for the kings and queens, made royalty by the invitation of the King Himself, for them that accept that perfect sacrifice, not just with our minds – understanding what happened, believing as fact what Jesus has done, but accepting Jesus as our Savior and or Lord, believing with our hearts you see…we are saved from the peculiar color we see here…
• What do you mean by peculiar color?  Remember both the horsemen and the veil, both made with red and blue…but the peculiar color of the veil…purple…beauty, costliness and royal…but the one peculiar color of the horsemen…yellow.  Do you know what yellow is?  It’s the cheapest dye.  It’s cheaper than buying white because at the time, even white required cleaning and was labor intensive to bleach…but yellow, a pale yellow at that described here as sulfur yellow by John was the cheapest man…the color of the poor, the wardrobe of the peasant you see.
• And so the doctrinal precept is clear in the colors.  The royal blood of the Most High for those who would not only hear but respond and be saved…or the cheapest raiment for those who reject and live on in their sin…sold out to it man…the choice that poses us all and the reward described here for those that have chosen poorly and notice as we continue, their condition is completely sold out to evil even as evil is exacting its toll…

Revelation Chapter 9 Verse 20

• Man, in the presence of God's most powerful and final judgment, man's heart is hardened still.  The most frightening thing about Revelation 9 for me is not the judgments that God sends but that even in this time, men still will not see, they will not hear, they will not turn and repent so that God would heal them. 
• Its 2 Chronicles 7:14…it reads, "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."  But even now, "God, get on with Yourself, I will not bow to You!"  The arrogant call of dust, man!
• And  who are these dust bunnies?  I love this, see this…John says there in verse 20, "the rest of mankind," notice, no mention of the church right…not "the rest of the sheep and the goats, the rest of the believers and the nonbelievers, the rest of the sinners and the saved," nope…mankind is all one kind at this time…the church is gone…there is no longer the world and the church…now its just the world man…see that? 
• And he says they did not repent…we went over this on Sunday a bit, we just read this in 2 Chronicles, what is it to turn to God on true faith?  To also turn from sin.  Man that's the key.  But these folks, even in the midst of all this, did not repent…from worshipping demons…"but Matt I'm just listening to the music, you know the strong beat…I'm not listening to the words…or I'm just watching because the plot is so good, I turn my head during those raunchy parts…but you just don't understand He never listens to me, she never agrees with me, we have irreconcilable differences and I'm not the problem…he is…" need to repent of that…because all of that serves principalities that do not honor God…"  Want your land healed?  I sure do…turn from that which offers worship to unholy entities...
• John says they did not repent from worshipping idols of gold, silver, brass, stone and wood…"well this one isn't for today, Matt.  We don't have idols of gold, silver, brass and stone…"  Oh no?  Have you looked in your garage lately?  Are you preoccupied with your  next upgrade, is your time spent on distractions that cannot see nor hear nor walk…your kids can…your wife can…is your best time spent on them?  The lost and hurting and overlooked out there can do all of those things…are you preoccupied with seeking, saving and serving the lost?  Is all of your money tied up in making your monthly debt payments?  Well we all need a car man and we all need a house…hmm.
• What percentage of the world owns a car?  Just one.  Would you guess 75%, maybe 50%?  The answer is 9%.  And half of the world's car owners are where?  America.  One in every three people on this planet survive on less than $2 per day!  More people on this plant have mobile phones than they do toilets?  Half of the world's population do not even have access to clean drinking water…and we think it normal to tie all of our resources up in payments…so we can have things now…oh yes, this type of idol worship is most certainly for today…and notice these folks don't care…they are apathetic…I pray we are not as we should not fit in at all with this "rest of mankind."  We must be a different "kind".
• The Bible says that we are to fix our minds on things above in Colossians Chapter 3, not on the things of this earth…for we have died to the lust of the world and our life is hidden in Christ and when Christ who is our life appears, then we also will appear with Him in glory!  Man this isn't life…our life hasn't even appeared yet!  So hard to walk this out in Babylon where we have new cars for a couple hundred dollars a month, new clothes for a couple hundred dollars a month, new houses for a couple thousand dollars a month…and all of a sudden not only do we have no dollars left with which to sow into treasures in heaven but we are trading all of our life for this stuff…40 hours a week, 60 hours a week, 80 hours a week…man what is your life worth?  A new Prius?  No!  You've been deceived…your time on earth is worth so much more than that…and your life man…ain't even here yet.
• And these folks remain, even in all of this horrific calamity, hard hearted…not turning from demons and from idol worship…man demons are slaying them!  Mom, dad, wife, kids…just got eaten up by demonic horseman…and they still worship them!  Happens today….

Revelation Chapter 9 Verse 21

• And they did not repent, even in all of this, they did not change from their murders, phonos in the Greek, they didn’t turn from being fake, phony…or their sorceries, pharmakeia in the Greek, or their drugs…or their sexual immorality, porneia in the Greek, or their fornication…or their thefts, their looting of others…
• And I ask myself, what is it going to take man…the whole world is caving in, signs and wonders from on-high, demons roaring about like locusts and horses, half of all mankind dead…five months of horrific zombie like conditions in the streets, yet “the rest of mankind” John says, ALL of them, continue in the very sin that got them here in the first place…you sit back and you say this is surely enough…all this and surely they’ll turn to God and away from all of this…but the hardness of a heart is beyond reason, beyond logic, beyond pleading…and persuading…
• What about you?  Is the pain and the decay and the death that has transpired in your life as a direct result of sin…is it enough?  Have you had enough?  Even you believers, your born-again Christians, you’re not sin-less…you just sin less…haven’t we seen enough suffering and strife in our walks yet?  If you answer yes…then I call that “turning the corner” man.  Placing all your trust, all of your heart in the Lord and simply simply simply, apart from anything else, living for Him.  Denying emotions and feelings and even logic sometimes forsaking the whole world to be close to the Lord. 
• Allow the Holy Spirit in man…into your heart you unbeliever, into your circumstance and into your throne room you carnal believer, the throne that you occupy today…and put away all of these murders and drugs and thefts…and be free.
• Where is the church in all this?  Heaven.  In the presence of the Lord, free from all this, safe and alive forevermore…why?  They turned the corner…