And we'll stay right there in
Revelation chapter 8 that Brother Robert read. I'm not going to
do the whole chapter today, but just give kind of an introduction
in the first six verses. As you remember when we began
looking at the book of Revelation, I gave you an outline that showed
how the whole book of Revelation, talking about things to come
in the Gospel age, the New Covenant age, the last days, which are
the days from Christ's first coming to his second coming,
how the book of Revelation looks at that time period through seven
different views, seven revelations, you might say, because of the
book, seven sections, seven visions. And we've covered the first two.
We concluded the second vision, With chapter 7 and this is where
the the Lamb of God Look at look at verse 1 of chapter 8 and when
he who is the he that's the Lamb of God. That's Christ who is
the only one who was found worthy to open the seven sealed book
of God's plan and purpose for this whole universe throughout
this New Covenant age and Remember what the New Covenant age is
now that we're living in that age the new covenant. The new covenant is the fulfillment
in time of the terms and the prophecies and all of the conditions
of the everlasting covenant of grace made before time. The preaching
of the gospel is the preaching of the covenant terms. Salvation
by the grace of God, through the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, Christ our surety, As Robert prayed, our sins imputed
to Him, Christ our substitute, taking our place under the wrath
of God, which we deserved and which we've earned, but it was
placed upon Christ, poured out, that wrath of God poured out
fully upon Christ for the sins of His people charged to Him
and His righteousness, the righteousness of God, charged to our account
so that we are safe in the fold, we're safe in the Lamb, safe
in the Rock, Christ Jesus. And so he opened the seven sealed
book and here in the third vision, which in our English Bible goes
from chapter 8 to chapter 11, that's the third vision, And
he's opening the seventh seal. He's opened the first six already.
Now he's opening the seventh seal, and that's what this third
vision deals with. And it says, and when he had
opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the
space of half an hour. And he says, and I saw the seven
angels which stood before God, and to them were given seven
trumpets. And what is this all about? Well,
you know what a trumpet was for back then. It was to bring an
announcement. Something really important is
about to be announced, be declared, be revealed. And what this seventh
seal is, it's a revelation of seven angels, seven messengers
from God, who are blowing seven trumpets of God's judgment upon
the earth, seven trumpets of judgment. The first six trumpets
show God's judgments, the manifestations of God's judgment throughout
this age as it comes in segments and degrees. And then the seventh
trumpet is the trumpet that will blow when final judgment is coming
just prior to the second coming of Christ to destroy this world
and to rapture his people up unto himself. And so that's what
these seven trumpets of judgment are. And it says here in verse
one, there's silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
What is this silence about? Well, it's a preparation. It's
a preparation for people to think and to meditate concerning what's
coming. Think about this. This is important. This doesn't have anything to
do with what we say, what we declare ourselves, our opinions,
our ideas. It's simply the will of God taking
place. He's already revealed so much
of it. He's going to reveal more of
it. And this silence is a preparation for the space of a half an hour
a time of reflection, a time of preparation to receive the
revelation of the final seal before the judgment of God is
poured out upon this earth. Now, you know, throughout time
here on earth, from the fall of Adam, there's always been
manifestations of God's judgment poured out upon the earth. And
we, I mean all throughout the Old Testament, You know, a lot
of people have the misconception that in the Old Testament, God
was a God of wrath, a mean God, a God of judgment, and not a
God of love. But in the New Testament, He's
a God of love. Well, that is a gross misinterpretation of
God's Word. God has always been a God of
love. He's always been a God of mercy. He's always been a God of grace. Compassionate. But he's also
always been a God of justice. Who will by no means clear the
guilty. Who hateth workers of iniquity. Upon whom God's wrath abides. And he's always shown this. And
these kinds of misconceptions that people have about God being
a God of wrath here and a God of love there and all of that.
First of all, they don't understand God's wrath or God's love. And they don't understand the
sinfulness of man, all without exception, in the sense that
we by nature deserve nothing more than God's wrath. None of
us deserve God's love and His grace and His mercy. That's why
salvation is by grace. We don't earn it. We don't deserve
it. I quote that passage in Psalm 130 all the time. If thou, Lord,
shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? None of us. And it brings people to think
and believe a lie. That there's good people and
there's bad people. The good people deserve God's love and
mercy. The bad people deserve God's
wrath. My friend, they're measuring goodness by their own standard.
It's like that false preacher or false rabbi who wrote that
book, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? He's measuring
goodness by his own standard, not by God's. The Bible says
in God's standard, there's none righteous, none good, none that
doeth good, no not one. And so these manifestations of
God's wrath are like trumpets blowing. There's a trumpet blowing
right now. There'll be another one tomorrow.
And that trumpet is telling people, prepare to meet God. To meet
God whose wrath and justice, who is a consuming fire. And
the main message out of all of this is flee from the wrath to
come. Well, where are we going to flee?
Well, God's Word says in the Bible that there's only one place
that you can flee to and be safe from the wrath of God, and that's
fleeing to Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, the one and only
Savior, pleading His blood and His righteousness alone. The
opening of this seventh seal accomplishes two things. Number
one, it reminds us of the security of the sealed saints. You remember
he talked about those saints who are sealed in their foreheads?
Sealed saints in the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of God. We
may suffer the consequences of manifestations of God's wrath
here on earth. It may come in the form of war.
It may come in the form of economic disaster. It may come in the
form of pestilence. It always comes in the form of
death. It's appointed unto men once to die, and after that,
the judgment. But here's the point. We may suffer the physical
consequences of these manifestations of God's wrath, but we do not
have to fear God's wrath upon us eternally and spiritually
because we stand before God in Christ. So this silence is a
reminder to God's people, cling to your Savior. Cling to Christ. Don't let anything get in the
way. Don't let anything clutter your mind and your heart. That's
the most dangerous thing you can do. Keep your mind fixed
on Him. He is at perfect peace whose
mind is fixed on thee, the prophet said. Look to Christ, rest in Christ,
plead His blood and righteousness, and don't let anything else,
don't let psychology, philosophy, don't let ideas and opinions
of men get in the way. Don't let religion get in the
way. Don't let self get in the way. Look to Christ. I must have Christ. I know we
all, by nature, we sit around, we think of things we really
need to have. Well, when it comes to a right relationship with
God, there's only one thing we need, and that's our Savior,
our Lord. We need His righteousness alone. So this, it's a reminder
of us. Hold on for dear life. Christ
stood under the wrath of God and drank that cup of wrath dry
for His people. And then the second thing this
seventh seal reminds us of or means, it ushers in the judgment
sent forth by God through the agency of what is revealed in
the seventh chapter of the angels that stand in the four corners
holding back the winds. You remember that? They're not gonna be held back
forever. The four winds of God's wrath.
And you know, when I read this about silence, it also reminds
me of what Paul wrote by inspiration of the Spirit in Romans 3, when
he talked about the law of God and what the law says to us by
nature in our sin and our depravity. And when people are seeking salvation
by the law, it says, therefore, verse 20, by deeds of the law,
there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. Well, right before that, he says,
we know, That what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law. Now who's under the law? Those
who have no savior. Those who have no blood. Those
who have no righteousness. Those who have no mediator. They're
under the law. And what does it say to them
that are under the law? That every mouth may be stopped and
all the world may become guilty before God. This moment of silence, what
does it tell us? That sinners who stand before
God without Christ have nothing to say to defend themselves against
the wrath that they deserve. And it reminds us who are in
Christ that we don't have to say anything, we have Christ
to speak for us. Well, look at verse three. And
another angel came and stood at the altar having a golden
censer, And there was given unto him much incense that he should
offer it. And in your concordance, it may
say, add it to the prayers, but I think offer it. It's an offering
with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which
was before the throne. Now who's this talking about?
This is a reference back to the tabernacle and the altar of incense,
which represents the intercessory work of Christ. You know, in
1 John chapter 2, the Apostle John wrote that when we sin,
we have an advocate with the Father. That's what this is.
This is the advocacy, the intercessory, the mediatorial work of Christ
on behalf of His people so that we can know that when these trumpets
sound, these trumpet judgment sounds, whether it's an earthquake,
a tornado, a hurricane, all throughout the new covenant age, sickness,
disease, death, whatever it is, we have an advocate with the
Father. And who is he? Jesus Christ the
righteous. He stood at the altar, the golden
censer. There was given unto him much
incense. That's the prayers of the saints. We pray to God on
the basis of the merits of our great high priest. Why does God
accept our prayers and consider them a sweet-smelling savor? Look at verse four. And the smoke
of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended
up before God out of the angel's hand. What is that all about? Standing
at the altar, much incense, that golden censer, that altar represents
the merits of Christ. God doesn't accept you or me
or our prayers or our sacrifices or our obedience on its own merits,
because we have no merit. It's the sweet-smelling savor
acceptable unto God, which speaks of the pleasure and the satisfaction
that He takes in his son. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased, he said. Our whole salvation, our whole
persons, our obedience in prayer, in worship, in service, they
all ascend up unto our heavenly father out of this angel's hand,
this messenger who is Christ the Lord. And it's by virtue
of his merits alone that God accepts us. We're accepted in
the beloved. And always remember when he says
the word saints, always remember this, that that's a sinner saved
by grace. That's not some kind of super
Christian. It's not someone that the Pope
has canonized and recognized. No, sir. It's a sinner saved
by grace. You know, when Christ took the
place of His people on the cross, what happened? The fire of God's
judgment fell upon Him. And without Christ, no sinner
will escape this judgment. None. Doesn't matter how good
they appeared. Doesn't matter how moral and
religious and sincere they tried to be. The fire of God's judgment
will fall upon all who are without Christ. And when these trumpets
sound, when you read or hear about a tornado or a hurricane
or an earthquake, and you hear about it more and more, a pestilence,
COVID-19, whatever it is, think about it. That's God's wrath. It's not
the fullness of His wrath now. That's coming later. But it's
a manifestation, it's a trumpet blowing, and we're gonna see
that when we get into describing these seven trumpets. Oh my soul, listen to the fire
of the altar. That's the fire of God's judgment.
It'll fall upon all who are without Christ. It'll fall upon the strong,
the weak, And it'll do it in a very public way, not private. Voices and thunderings, listen
to what it says. Verse five, the angel took the
censer and filled it with fire of the altar and cast it into
the earth and there were voices and thunderings and lightnings
and an earthquake. A very public thing. That's the
answer to the prayers of God's people revealed back over in
Revelation six and verse 10. When they cried out for vengeance,
for being persecuted and even martyred for the gospel, the
vengeance of God, justice. I never get years ago, I heard
a preacher preaching about God's wrath. And he made this statement. He said, you know, when I come
before God at judgment, I don't want justice. I want mercy. And I got to thinking about that.
And I believe I know what the preacher meant by that. I want
mercy too. Because that's our only hope.
But now think about this. At the judgment, here's what
I know, here's two things I know about the judgment. Every person
is going to give an account. Isn't that right? Every man must
give an account. And secondly, every person is
going to get exactly what they deserve. Now here's the question. What is my account? How do the
account books list my name, as it were? Well, here's what it
says about me if I'm in Christ. It's all free and clear. No sin
charged. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? My account book is righteousness
because I stand there in Christ. So will I get what I deserve?
Not according to my works, but I'll get what I deserve as the
reward which Christ earned for me. But now if you stand before
God without Christ, strict justice, wrath based upon your works.
Now, I said all that to say this, that when we stand before God
in Christ, we're getting both mercy and justice. Justice, Not
because we've earned it or deserve it, because we don't. If God
gave me just strict justice alone, based upon what I've done or
decided, it'd be death and hell. But as I stand in Christ, you
see how important this is? You see how vital this is? This
is eternity. He took this fire off the altar.
What's happening here is the priest, the high priest, taking
fire off the burnt offering of the altar of sacrifice, the brazen
altar, which represents Christ on that cross, drinking damnation
dry, taking the full brunt of God's wrath on behalf of all
of His people. And He took that fire and brought
it into the holiest of all and put it in the altar of incense,
and that smoke goes up to heaven, symbolizing the merits of Christ
going up before God on behalf of all for whom he died. Look at verse six. He says, and
the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves
to sound. They're preparing themselves
to blow these trumpets of God's judgment. These trumpet judgments
are recorded here in chapter eight through chapter 11, and
they're a terror. Look over at 2 Corinthians chapter
five with me. I was talking to a dear brother
about this passage, talking about the judgment. And
you think about this. These trumpet judgments, It should
be a terror to all who reject God's one way of salvation, forgiveness
and righteousness, eternal life and glory by Jesus Christ. And
we see there's, you know, there's a striking similarity between
the trumpet judges, we're gonna see that as we go through, and
the plagues that God sent on Egypt. You remember during Moses'
time when the Hebrew children were enslaved, described in the
book of Exodus. And you remember how the only
refuge from death in Egypt was the blood of the Lamb. When I
see the blood, God said, I'll pass over thee. And this is all
pictured here. Pictured the blood of Christ,
the Lamb of God. But look at 2 Corinthians 5,
look at verse 10. He says here, for we must all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Now, understand now,
if we're in Christ, We've already been judged by the justice of
God for all our sins. When were we judged? When Christ
was on that cross dying for our sins. His judgment was our judgment. When he died, we died. When he was buried, we were buried.
When he arose again, we arose again. So we've already been
judged. We're not going to appear there
to be judged We've already been judged. And it'll only be declared
of God's people that they are justified. They are ready to
be glorified. But we must all appear there.
And he says that everyone may receive the things done in his
body. according to that he hath done,
whether it be good or bad. Now, the unrighteous have already
been judged too. You remember, he says over in
Revelation, I can't remember the exact verse, he says, when
somebody dies, he said, let he that is righteous be righteous
still, let he that is unrighteous be unrighteous still. But it'll
be declared. And this is not, now listen to
this, this is not judgment of our persons based on our works. What this is is the judgment
of our works in the declaration that is either good or bad. Now
think about Matthew chapter seven when those stood before him saying,
Lord, haven't we preached in your name and done many wonderful
works? It was declared to them. Now this judgment has already
been made. It was declared to them that
their works were works of iniquity. But what will it be declared
of God's people? That their works were good works
as evidence of their state before God in Christ. Not that they
were gonna be rewarded on how many works they did or anything
like that. That's a lie. So verse 11, knowing
therefore the terror of the Lord. Now every time one of these seven
trumpets sound, we know the terror of the Lord. And what do we know?
Well, we persuade men. But we're made manifest unto
God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
We know that as long as we're under the blood, clothed in His
righteousness, as long as we're in Christ, we're safe. We're in His mercy. We're in
His grace. No harm can come to us eternally. We're set and sure to be glorified. But my friend, those who are
without Christ, no matter who they are, God is a terror. Think about that. Think about
how terrible it'll be for those who stand before God, thinking
that they're okay, just like those in Matthew 7. And every
time one of these trumpets blow, and they blow daily, we'll see
that. That's what we ought to be thinking
about. Oh, thank God for His mercy and His grace. Let's sing
hymn number 51 as our closing hymn. Praise the Savior, ye who
know Him.