Fallen Angels Bound Under the Euphrates River!

We are studying a difficult portion of Scripture today. More difficult than the study itself is the context! Those who experience this chapter in the future will be those who, when the opportunity was before them to respond to the gospel invitation, refused, neglected or mocked the chance to be rescued from hell. Like Felix in the Book of Acts.

Acts 24:24-25 ~ "After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. And as he reasoned about the righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, "Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you."

Guess what? Felix never called for Paul.

2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 ~ "Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

Those of you who think you can put off making a decision to accept Jesus may come too late and God may harden your heart so that you can't make that choice because you simply pushed it off for too long just like He did for Pharoah.

The readers of Revelation are being exposed to what God says are demons, fallen angels, these demonic powers, that are bound right now in the spirit realm and they have a geographical location, the Bible says under the riverbed of the Euphrates River, somewhere buried beneath in the spirit realm there are a specific geographical spot where these demons are being held until they are released. The Bible says that they are so bad, that they are currently confined until they are released at an appointed time during the Tribulation Period.

The Euphrates is referred to as the cradle of civilization because on the human side we can trace languages and our human DNA to the location but it appears that God in Genesis is describing creation mentioning the Euphrates River. It may have as well hosted the location of the Garden of Eden.

We see that judgment is God's resource. It's a tool of His. We don't like the term judgment but when it applies to God, He is the ultimate Judge and is Holy and Righteous when He applies it.

Revelation 9:14 ~ "Saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."

We know that the Euphrates River is very much a real location. These four creatures are not something you would see. They are not swimming around in the Euphrates River. You can't take dive gear and attempt to locate them. They are bound under the river. You can't take sonar equipment and attempt to locate them. They are there. The Bible tells us they are even if we can't see them. We can't see radio waves, but we know they exist. We know angels exist but we can't see them right now. As a Christian, based on the book of Matthew and Hebrews, we have at least one angel that is assigned to our life right now, regarding the heirs of salvation, and that is us according to the Bible.

There is spiritual for the good and spiritual for the bad entities around us at all times. So much so as what is talking about here in Revelation, when the spiritual world meets the physical world, two worlds in collision.

The Euphrates River is 1780 miles long and is considered to be the most important river in the Bible. It is located in the heart of the cradle of civilization and in the middle of the most oil rich nations in the world. After God created the heavens and the earth, that area in particular was known as the Garden of God. It was so beautiful.  Adam and Eve used to live in that region. Between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers today it doesn't look like much and the environment is horrible. It's amazing to look at what happened when the fall of man occurred and sin entered the world. That region looks like it has been devastated and is a horrible place to be right now. You would think with all the abundance of water that flows from both the Euphrates and Tigris River, that area would be blessed but it is not. Have you ever thought about that before?

Some people have wondered if its not the demonic effervescence or the demonic influence of these four fallen angels that reside under the Euphrates River has an influence over the very topography and climates of that region. It is a stretch but it is interesting to consider. What was actually one of the most beautiful places on the planet is the most horrible place today.

If you are a skeptic, you will have a hard time dealing with the fact that the Euphrates River is mentioned in the Bible from the Book of Genesis all the way through the Book of Revelation. The Book of the Bible deals with facts. The Bible says that there are four terrible, horrible, evil angels that have fallen. They are bound and held under the great Euphrates River until a day of judgment appointed by God. Who are these fallen angels?

Jude 1:5-7 ~ "Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day - just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire."

This is referring to the final 3 1/2 years of the 7 year Tribulation period. The pieces are beginning to fit together. We have angels who once lived in heaven, that sinned and rebelled and were cast out of heaven. We know that four of them are bound in chains under the Euphrates River, and disobeyed and did something that went against their natural habitat. They went somewhere that was not authorized. For this reason, God has bound them up and they are held in chains, they are not free to run around like Satan is. These four are not.

What was the sin of these fallen angels?

Genesis 6:1-5 ~ "When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh, his days shall be 120 years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. The LORD saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

He mentioned Sodom and Gomorrah because they were famous for their sin in the Book of Jude. There were angels who disobeyed God and were booted out of heaven. These angels went after strange flesh. In the Greek it was heteros, which is where we get the word 'heterosexual.' What does that mean? It means when two people of opposite genders of the same kind to procreate. The procreation of the same race but different genders. That is a good thing. That is the reason God designed it that way, a man and a women shall become one flesh!

The angels that did not keep their proper domain they got engaged in some sort of sexual deviation and went after strange or hetero flesh. They went after flesh that was not authorized for them. They went after something that was of a different kind. They are who comes out of the ground that is bound and chained in Revelation 9. The sons of God are reserved exclusively for angels if you want to do a further study on just the term "sons of God."

Notice that they "took," in Hebrew means that they mingled with humanity, with the intent to rape, capture or steal them. These women were wives of men and they were taken by these fallen angels for sexual encounters with them. You don't have to go far with Satanism and those who have been a part of it to understand the terms sucubus and incubus which goes back thousands and thousands of years. These are drug induced sexual encounters where a human waits on a demonic entity to have relations with them leaving behind physical manifestations on their body that even psychologists can't explain. These has been going on for at least 6000 years. This is a real dark sinister world.

We know that 120 years later a flood came and washed them all away. If you read about these offspring in Samuel, we know that they had six fingers and six toes on each hand and foot. They were men who stood 9 feet high and plus in height. They were absolute freaks of nature. But they were supernatural of nature. This will happen again during the Tribulation Period.

Daniel 2:40-44 ~ "And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron beaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, not shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, an it shall stand forever."

No wonder that this chapter is skipped over more than any other chapter in Revelation. Divine judgment is God's reward for all of humanity that is without the covering of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 9:15 ~ "So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released to kill a third of mankind."

If you do the math, at this point in the Tribulation, half of the world's population is dead. Remember that this is a very specific day, month, hour and year that have been appointed that during the Tribulation Period this will happen and it is known only to God. God has appointments and God keeps His appointments. These creatures have been waiting for a very long time, to be released to do their mischief, and these fallen angels will stir up an army of demonic combatants with a great hatred for humanity. There's a scene of devastation when a demon army will come to earth.

Revelation 9:16 ~ "The number of mounted troops was two hundred million; I heard their number."  

Don't be mislead by some of the books out there that say that China has an army of more than two hundred million. They do and that's fine. This has nothing to do with an earthly army. This is a demon force. When these four angels will bring with them hordes of demons in an army upon the earth. I still don't believe we will be able to see these things. Remember John was shown them so he might be able to write about them. Imagine being attacked by things you can't see?

We learned that one set of demons will be released to attack and torment mankind for 5 months and then these four will be released along with a demon horde army to kill a 1/3 of mankind. Doesn't that make you glad you're a Christian today? There are those that if you're not a Christian will respond in a number of ways, there are those that will want to know how they can escape this judgment and turn to Jesus, there will be those that reject what is going to happen and say, "What a bunch of fairy tales."  You better watch out. Technology has taken on the look of a fairy tale and if that can happen, can't God through the physical and spiritual world take His apostle John, and try to communicate to us some 2000 years later what its going to be like for those Christ rejectors? For those who remain solidified in their concrete what they will see during this time?

We would hail Spielberg if he was able to portray this on the big screen! God's going to do it for real! He won't get an Oscar for it, instead He is going to get rejected for it.

A demon army is coming and they have supernatural powers.

Revelation 9:17-19 ~ "The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury."

Ephesians 6 tells us that as Christians we are not fighting fleshly battles but spiritual battles. We are all in the battle but if you're getting beat up, something is wrong. You may have ran out of the house without your armor on. Your spiritual armor. How do you do that? Read your Bible, pray, fellowship with God's people, attend church. If you are a Christian today, you may or may not be detecting spiritual battle. If you are coasting and cruising in your spiritual walk and you might be saved and going to heaven, but if you are not a threat to the kingdom of darkness, you're probably not experiencing much spiritual battle. You are not a threat to the enemy.

I guarantee you this, start praying more, witnessing to your friends, get more committed at your church, do something that honors and glorifies the name of Jesus, and the enemy is going to push back. If you don't have spiritual push back in your life, I'd be concerned if I was a Christian. I'd wonder why are things so peaceful and calm. What am I doing wrong? We are supposed to be in a war. We need to put our armor on. When we do that, we might be surprised that our marriage gets a whole lot better, or your kids start understanding more about God. If your Christianity is very calm and peaceful, you want to be out there putting a dent in Satan's door. Stand for righteousness. Do the Bible. Love God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind. It's a wonderful thing to be battling for the Lord's cause!

No Human Has The Authority To Judge!

It makes you wonder why so many people will LOVE the Antichrist. It begs to ask the question why? He will come at a time in the world when there seems to be a complete bankruptcy in leadership among the nations of the world. He arises when the nations of the world are in financial peril and who are crying for peace and he will have all the answers according to the Bible. He won't just promise answers, he will have them. He will be a political whiz and for 3 and 1/2 years, he is going to look fantastic! This will be the first half of the Tribulation Period, but midway through the seven year Tribulation Period, all his false pretense will begin to be revealed to who he really is to the world.

As we continue into our study of Revelation, chapter 9, we can look at this as simply being a precursor to hell itself. There is a time in the Tribulation that is yet coming, guaranteed by God as a time of judgment that will last 7 years. The first 3 1/2 years is a form of judgment that catches people off guard. Judgment sent by God via a demonic deception, signs, miracles and wonders, peace brought about upon the earth, a peace treaty brought upon Israel for the first time. The Bible also says it will be a time of incredible wealth and prosperity. Ever Christian knows about the Antichrist. The world will not know him as the Antichrist. He will be an incredibly powerful, demonically possessed politician who will implement an economic world system, bring pseudo peace to the world, and the world will love him and will throw their dedication to him. This man is the Antichrist or instead of Christ, impostor Christ, he is Satan's son in a horrible, unholy trinity. You have the first 3 1/2 years, deception, prosperity and world peace. The last half is terrible demonic infestations upon the earth.

I don't believe that man will actually see these demonic entities that are coming upon the earth, I believe that God gave John the spiritual insight to see these things so he could write about them to us in the Book of Revelation. That would just make things worse to the people dwelling on the earth at that time, who have rejected Christ, they won't see these entities but will be inflicted by them, and now as we read this morning 1/3 of the earth will perish at their attacks, but mathematically it brings us from the beginning of the Tribulation to now, half of the world's population will be dead by the elements of judgment during the Tribulation period. 

Who wants to read a message like this? This is the reason many churches, pastors and the like don't even bother with the teaching of the Book of Revelation. But God put it there for a reason for us to read it, understand it and share with others what awaits the world when they reject Christ. It will not be a happy place to be. If you are a Christian this morning, Revelation 9, will not be your fate. You will NOT see these events. If you're not a Christian, you'd better be careful and become a Christian today. Here is one of the reasons why. Every day you keep getting older and you keep saying "No" to accepting Jesus. Everytime you say "No" while God is watching, you begin to pour concrete. Every day you say "NO" that concrete begins to set, until you've reached an age and had so many opportunities to say "Yes" to Christ but you continue to say "No" to Him. Now you are standing in cement that is so hard, because you have rejected Him for so long, that now the preaching of the gospel makes you angry. makes you mad and you won't repent. We will see what happens to those who continue to reject Jesus for too long in our study today.

Revelation 9:13-21 ~ "The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I hard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number. The horse and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury. The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood - idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did their repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts." 

When hell is unleashed upon the earth, we see there is a demand for judgment. You might not like it but it is holy and it is right. We have a hard time with it because man manipulates judgment and he creates his own form of judgment, but judgment is God's divine prerogative. Judgment comes from the hand of God. God exercises judgment. It is His right.

We see that the fifth, sixth and seventh angels are the worse because they deal with spiritual entities that are being released upon the earth. We can say, "that person has judged me or that church has judged me, and quite frankly no human has been given the authority to judge, according to the biblical definition. You need to understand that. We do have a judicial system in this land, established from the Bible by our founding fathers, based on the Word of God. That is why Scripture often says that judges in the Old Testament will name them gods with a little "g." They sit in judgment over people in the place of God. They are not God, they act in the place of God as judges. As believers, when we say we are Christians, we place ourselves in a category in which our lives must be evaluated.

It goes this way, if someone says that they are an Atheist, what do expect from them? Nothing. We can't expect anything out of them. If you tell your kid he is an animal, that he is a by-product of the evolutionary process. It is wrong for you to lay upon him a morality. What's wrong with you? Are you trying to impose an ethic upon an animal. You don't tell your dog to sit in the corner and then tell him, "It's wrong for you to do that. You lied to me. Wagging your tail all the while eating my cookies! You don't expect that out of a dog because he is an animal. If the evolutionary theory is right, and we are all just animals, you can't tell someone what is right and what is wrong.

The truth is that we are not products of an evolutionary process, the truth is that God has revealed to all mankind, that He is holy and He is Judge. You and I look at one another and evaluate each other based on our belief systems, atheist, evolutionist, and we don't expect anything out of them except animalistic practices. But when someone says,  "I believe in God," you put yourself in a category where I do now expect things out of your life. Why? Because you have put your title out there as one who knows God. Now you have an identity. The truth is now, I can evaluate my life and I can evaluate yours. We inspect the fruit of one another's lives. And so we should. That is acceptable.

But we should never judge one another as the Bible says. Why? Because the word "judge" means to condemn. You and I do not have the authority or ability to judge anyone with condemnation. You know what that means condemnation? If someone is on their way to hell by virtue of their belief and practice, we can not say to them , "You are going to hell!" We can say to them, "If you continue like this, according to the Bible, if you die like this, you will wind up in hell!" They can't say to you, 'Stop judging me!'  "I'm not judging you, this Word is judging you. And the Word says that if you die in your sins, then you will inherit hell. That is what the Bible says!" That is a very important thing to keep in mind.

God is the Judge and it is His Divine Prerogative.

Revelation 9:13 ~ "The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar that is before God."

Do you remember where this is at? That is in heaven, before the throne, do you remember the souls under the altar, remember they are the Tribulation saints who have died for their faith in God in the preceding 3 1/2 years?  Those are the souls that are under the altar, but a voice comes out of the altar. What is this voice? It is none other than answered prayer from Jesus Christ, Himself.

John 5:22 ~ "For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son." 

Revelation 6:9-11 ~ "When he opened the firth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" Then each of them was give a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was complete."

These souls are crying out from under the altar, how long Lord before you judge the earth? There is a response, that judgment will come to the earth, your brothers and sisters that are still upon the earth, believing in Christ, during the Tribulation period, they must also die as you have died. Here are white robes of righteousness, wait just a little while longer.

Revelation 8:3 ~ "Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of the saints, on the golden altar before the throne."

We now already know what that altar is all about. Now comes a voice from the golden altar and that voice has instruction.

Psalm 2:2-7 ~ "The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. "Let us break their chains,"they say, "And throw off their fetters." The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the LORD Scoffs at them. Then he rebukes them in anger and terrifies them in his wrath saying, "I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill." I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son, today I have become your Father."

Can you imagine governmental leaders setting themselves against God? Who would do that? They gather together in a little huddle from hell thinking about ways to overthrown God. Let's get away from God and remove Him from our society. Kinda of like Nimrod who built the tower of Babel thinking he would reach heaven to talk to God. God's going to laugh at their plans. When people draw lines to battle against God, don't panic Christian! In the end, the LORD gets the last laugh!

The ACLU can remove the Ten Commandments out of a courtroom in America. They have aligned themselves against God. God says, "Don't worry, I'll have the last laugh!" It's not American. It's not Civil. There are no liberties, they are taking them away and it's not even a union. They are crazy. They will come after you if you stand for God! It's normal. But remember that God will have His last laugh. Do not take counsel against God.

Psalm 9:7-8 ~ "The LORD reigns forever; he has established his throne for judgment. He will judge the world in righteousness; he will govern the peoples with justice."

God's judgment against those who oppose Him will be worse than anything you could have ever imagined. The Book of Revelation encompasses Old and New Testament and you read about so many descriptions of God's wrath and when you read about God's wrath in the Bible you need to check the context. Many times it will be speaking about the Tribulation period or what the Bible calls the time of Jacob's trouble or Israel's trouble. This is the wrath of God being poured out upon the earth against a Christ rejecting world.

Here are the parameters and the players: (1) Those that make up the Christ rejecting world, the Antichrist and all those that join rank with him. (2) The Tribulation Saints, the believers we read about in the Book of Revelation, who die for their faith in Jesus. (3) There are those who are of the house of Israel, the Jewish people. The Bible says that there will be a remnant of the Jewish people saved. Those are the three groups of people during that time. Without God's mercy for the nation of Israel, and even for the death of the believer, the Tribulation saint, God's mercy will be upon them. There is no mercy for a Christ rejecting world. They receive the wrath of God.

I can give you a million reasons why you should accept Jesus right now, one of them is because He is God. He is awesome. He is holy. He is your Creator. You'd probably expect me to say, "You might want to accept Him so you don't go to hell, or receive His wrath, of course." But the number one reason you should accept Jesus is He is God and He loves you. He is Creator and His attributes are fantastic! He is omnipotent. He is omniscient. He is omnipresent. It's the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance. God is that good! If it takes the wrath of God, that's the hard route. Better to give your heart to Christ today, and get ready to meet Jesus at any time.