Revelation Chapter 8. The book
of Revelation Chapter 8 is what we come to in our study of this
book. I want to begin by reading these
13 verses to us. The book of Revelation Chapter 8. And when he had opened the seventh
seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which
stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. 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 with the prayers of
all saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne.
And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of
the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.
And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire off the
altar, and cast it into the earth. And there were voices, and thunderings,
and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels, which had
the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound. The first
angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood. They were cast into the earth,
and the third part of trees were burned up, and all green grass
was burned up. And the second angel sounded,
as it were a great mountain burned with fire was cast into the sea,
and the third part of the sea became blood. And the third part
of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died. And
the third part of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel
sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as
it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers
and upon the fountains of water. And the name of the star is called
Wormwood. And the third part of the waters
became wormwood, and many men died of the waters, because they
were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded,
and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part
of the moon, and the third part of the stars. So as the third
part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third
part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld and heard an angel
flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe,
woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth, by reason of the
other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet
to sound." There seems to be a theme that we see here in the
beginning of this chapter that has seemingly ran through What
we've studied in this book beginning in chapter 4. You remember before
the seals were opened in chapter 6. The Holy Spirit was very careful
to show us the throne. In chapter 4 we saw the throne
and one set on the throne. And before the throne was clear
as glass. It said clear as crystal. And
we looked at that and what a blessing it was to realize, no matter
what else was coming in this book, all the seals being opened
and the trumpets of war being sounded, it was such a blessing
to remember that one sits on the throne of heaven. And before
him, everything is clear. It's not clear for us. You and
I have difficulty understanding things. Things arise in our life
that we just don't understand. The providence of God sometimes
turns our world upside down. But there is one who rules it
all. And one who sees all very clearly. And that is our God
who sits upon the throne. And then after that, before He
began to open the seals in chapter 6, we saw the Lamb of God. The
Lord Jesus Christ. And He comes and gets the little
book out of the Father's hands and He begins to open the seals. But before He does that, They
look upon Him as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and they
said, He has prevailed. He has gotten the victory. And
everybody began to shout and sing and say, He's worthy because
He's redeemed us to God by His blood. And it's not until that
all is done that we see God upon His throne. We see our Redeemer
there in heaven on His right hand. Then we see him take the
seals and begin to open them. And that's a blessing, isn't
it? And if the same thing happens here in this chapter, we see
the Lord Jesus Christ with His sweet incense, offering it with
the prayers of all saints unto His Father. And it's not until
that happens that he begins to call these angels and they sound
these trumpets of woe. Now let's begin here at verse
1 and I can't spend too long with these because I want to
try to finish this chapter. But we begin here in verse 1
before these angels of woe sounded and it said there was silence
in heaven about this space of half an hour. Now there is a
sense in which you and I don't like heaven to be silent. I mean,
it can be heart-wrenching when heaven is silent to us. And one
time is when heaven is silent to our prayers. When we've prayed
and prayed and we've prayed and we've sought the Lord and He
seems to be silent to us. He doesn't hear us. Boy, that
can be heart-wrenching. David said it like this in Psalms
28. Unto thee, O Lord, I cry. Thou art my rock. Be not silent
to me, O Lord, lest, if you be silent to me, I be like them
that go down to the pit." What an awful burden it is when the
Lord is silent. I am so thankful, brothers and
sisters, that though He tries us, He will finally answer our
prayers. He will finally meet our need.
The second thing that is sometimes almost a torment to us is when
the Lord keeps silent when the wicked are triumphant. At least
they seem to be in our own eyes. Listen to Psalms 81. Keep not
silent, O my God, hold not your peace, be not still, for lo,
your enemies make a turmoil, and they that hate you have lifted
up their heads. When the wicked seem to reign,
And when wickedness seems to fill our society, I tell you,
it's a burden to the church, isn't it? And we want the Lord
to intervene. We want the Lord to at least
hinder the activity of the wicked. And thirdly, sometimes silence
in heaven depicts a calm, but it's a calm just before the storm. That's what we see in this chapter,
isn't it? There's a calm in heaven. But it's just before the trumpets
are sounded. Well, there is storms in the
lives of the Lord's children, but usually it's just before
the calm. And there's calm in the life
sometimes of the unbelievers, but it's just before the storm.
Listen to how David said it. This is what God said to the
unbelievers, to the wicked. And to the wicked, God said,
seeing that you have hated my instructions, And you have cast
my words behind your back. And when you saw a thief, you
consented with him. You have been partakers with
adulterers. You gave your mouth to speak evil. You spoke evil
against your brother, and you slandered your mother's son.
These things hast thou done, and I kept silent. I kept silent. But I will reprove you, and set
them in order before you. When the wicked live their daily
lives in their wickedness, they think because the Lord doesn't
hasten judgment that He's not a God of judgment. But I tell
you, sometimes that's just a calm before their storm, isn't it?
And fourthly, verse 1 seems to tell us that the things God is
doing, even His judgments, is not done haphazardly. Before
these judgments or woe, woe comes, there is a silence. What does
that tell us? There is serious thought with
God. Whether He gives grace or whether
He brings judgment, He gives serious thought. There is some
solemn reflection. God gives consideration to all
His work and the consequences of His work. There seems to be
silence just before he does this great work. And fifthly, this
silence tells us something else. The judgment of God that he brings
on this earth are not decided by his creatures, not even the
holy angels that stand before him. These trumpets are ready
to be blown, but nobody will do anything. No angel will blow
a trumpet. until it is God's time, until
God gives permission. So what do they do? They wait,
as it were, with bated breath until God says it is time. Listen to Habakkuk 2. The Lord
is in His holy temple. He is there on His throne, isn't
He? He is fulfilling His will. He is bringing His purposes to
pass. He is on His holy throne. Therefore, let all the earth
keep silent before Him. Nobody does anything but until
God says do it. Now here in verses 3 and verse
5, I was telling Cindy this afternoon, we was talking about the text
and I was telling her what an encouragement for us to pray
and believe and endure and be of good courage. Here we see
Jesus Christ the Son of God And he's in the immediate presence
of his Father and our Father. And he's a minister there in
heaven, not only to make us acceptable, but to make our prayers accepted. And not only to make us and our
prayers accepted, but to make us and our prayers a sweet-smelling
savor. And I love how he says this,
that he's there and he takes this censer, what a beautiful
emblem of our Savior. He takes this censer that was
so long under the ceremonial law, so deep, and they would
take that censer and dip it into the coals on the altar where
they burnt the sacrifices. They'd take that censer into
the holy place with a handful of incense and they'd pour it
on those hot coals. And this sweet aroma would fill
the holy place. And what a beautiful emblem that
is of our Savior. Did you ever feel like your prayers
were so weak? And you see sin mixed with them?
And sometimes you get discouraged about praying? And you see so
much unbelief in your prayers? But brothers and sisters, here's
the thing that encourages us to pray. And here's the thing
that encourages us that God will hear our prayers. Jesus Christ,
by His own intercessions, puts His sweet obedience and merits
upon our prayers. And when He does, they come up
before the Father as a sweet-smelling savor. And this is a New Testament
doctrine, isn't it? That He ever lives to make intercession
for us. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Yea, brother, who is risen, who
even lives at the right hand of God, to make intercession
for us." What an encouragement, therefore, to pray. Whatever
trumpets these woes, trumpets these bring, whatever it means,
whatever devastating judgments these trumpets bring. They will
never separate us from the love of our Savior and from His work
on our behalf there in heaven. It seems like the more we read
this book, the more of Christ we see in it, don't we? I remember
one time I tried to go through this, and it was a great burden
to me, but I didn't see Christ in it as I see Him now. There's
no wonder that Brother Don Fortner wrote the book, Discovering Christ
and Revelations. What a good title that is. Discovering
Christ. He's everywhere, isn't he? And
Mr. Hendrickson wrote his book, More
Than Conquerors. And that's what we see in these
passages. Now, let's look at these four trumpets. What do
they symbolize? How do we understand them? And
let me say these two things concerning the subject tonight. The best
and maybe the only way to interpret what these symbols mean is by
interpreting them by scripture. That's the only way that I know
to interpret. I can't interpret them by history.
I know you look at some commentators and they say the first trumpet
is revealed in the first and second century, the second trumpet
is revealed in the third and fourth century, and on and on
they go. How in the world would that have helped the early church?
That couldn't have helped them at all. They couldn't have understood
this book. But I think when we go to these symbols, these trumpets,
and look in other places in the scripture, It will help us to
understand what they mean. That's the first thing. The second
thing, I think, is this, and I seem like I saw this, and it
really helped me. When you and I read these woes
that these angels bring when they sound these trumpets, you
and I exaggerate this. And we should, I guess. We find
the first angel sounding here, and there's hail and fire. mingle
with blood? Man, that's, you look at that
and you say, my goodness, whenever this happens, everybody's going
to know about it. This is serious. When you've
got hell coming down, mingle with fire, and it's got blood
mixed with it. But I think that's why it's so
difficult for us to understand it. What I think this is, these
trumpets reveal the judgments of God in everyday life. What's taking place in certain
parts of this world. Here maybe and other foreign
countries. But it's just part of normal
life. And let me give you this example
of what I mean. Can you imagine when Adam and
Eve's children began to hold their gardens and they were spent
so much time chopping the thorns and the brars out of their garden.
And they noticed the animals were killing each other. They
noticed the crooked old dead trees. Some men were beginning
to kill each other. And you would have asked Adam's
children, what's this all about? What would they have told you?
This is just normal life. This is just the way things are.
But if you ask Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve, what's going on
here? They would have said, things have changed. This is not like
it used to be. This was not like it was supposed
to be. These thorns and briars and this
killing and animals attacking, that's the curse of God upon
society. But Adam's children never recognized
it because it was sort of normal to them. And the reason I think
you and I don't see and understand more of what these symbols mean,
it's because it's all around us. But we just can't understand
it because to us, it's just everyday life. So we have to interpret
it in the light of Scripture. So here's the first trumpet in
verse 7. The first angel sounded and there
followed hail and fire mingled with blood. and they were cast
upon the earth, and the third part of the trees were burned
up, and all the green grass was burned up." This sounds sort
of like what literally happened down in Egypt when God sent the
plagues on Pharaoh and his people. Exodus chapter 9, Moses stretched
out his rod toward heaven, and there fell a hail mingled with
fire And the hail was very grievous, and it smote throughout all the
land of Egypt, all that were in the field, both man and beast. And this happened different times.
You can see it in the scriptures. God sending the hail, the hail
stones and the fire and things like that. And our text says
that this hail and fire burned up one third of the trees and
the green grass. Now here is where we have to
go to the scriptures to learn what trees represent and what
grass represents. What did these trees burn up?
Or what did this fire in hell burn up? It was trees and it
was the grass. Well, what do trees represent
in scripture? One of the things, cheaply, they
represent are men. They shall be as trees planted
by the rivers of water, even represents the righteous. And
the cedar trees of Lebanon and the oaks of Bashan represent
the mighty and the famous in this world. Listen to Isaiah
2.12. The day of the Lord shall be
upon everyone that is proud and lofty and everyone that is lifted
up and they shall be brought low. upon all the cedars of Lebanon
that are lifted up in high, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
and the pride of man shall be bowed down, and be made low,
and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." These trees of
Bashan and the oaks of Bashan and trees of Lebanon, those were
mighty trees. They were hundreds of years old.
And listen to what he says in Amos 2.9, I destroyed the Amorite
before thee, whose height was like the height of the cedars,
and he was strong as the oaks. Yet I destroyed his fruit from
above and his root from beneath. When David was talking about
the death of Solomon, the king, that wicked man, he said, Now
is the mighty fallen. He fell as a tree. And many parts
of the world, you and I have seen men that were famous men
that were high and proud, but God brought them down. Remember
Nebuchadnezzar lifting up in his pride and the Lord likened
him to that giant tree. Remember that? And he cut it
down. And He was teaching us that He
humbles the pride of men. And you and I have seen great
men in the last century. Men like Stalin and men like
Saddam Hussein and wicked men, famous men, sports figures and
movie stars. Men that people looked up to
and admired. But you know something? God brings
them down. There is not any man He may be
like a tree, a giant tree, but there is nobody that God cannot
humble and bring them down. The grass was burned up. What
is this? Well, this represents in the
Scripture flesh. Listen to what James says in
1 John 9. Let the brother of low degree
rejoice in that he is exalted, but the rich in that he is made
low. because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen
with a burning heat that it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof
falleth, and the fashion, the beauty of it, perisheth. So also
shall the rich man fade away in his ways. The mighty man and
the rich man cannot escape. the judgment of God. And it seems
to me that this angel that sounds this trumpet of woe, and this
hail and fire that burns up the trees and the grass, it seems
to me to be depicting nothing more than God cutting off the
mighty of this earth. And flesh is burned up. And that's been happening all
around us, hasn't it? We've seen mighty men brought
low and cut down. And we've seen all flesh wither. Here's the second trumpet. We
can't spend much time on them, or we won't get it finished.
In verses 8 and verse 9, look at this. And the second angel
sounded, and there was a great mountain burning with fire, which
was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became
blood. And the third part of the creatures which were in the
sea and had life died. And the third part of the ships
were destroyed. Now can you imagine what would
happen if a huge mountain on fire and blazing was cast into
the sea? Can you imagine the turmoil that
would make? The giant waves, the tsunami,
the flooding? And we have to get this picture
in our mind But what does it mean? Well, one thing it means
this, that even the sea will not escape the woes of these
trumpets. I was reading an article, watching
a video or something not long ago, and they said they've now
got these small subs and metal detectors and things and they
say the seas of this earth are littered with ships that in the
last as far back as they can go in times of war and commerce
were sunk by storms upon the sea and men perished in those
ships. So the sea itself will not escape,
and those on the sea will not escape the mighty judgment of
God. But the waves of the sea represent nations. Listen to Ezekiel 26. Thus saith
the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and I will cause
many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causes his waves
to come up. And when the Lord Jesus was talking
about the last days, and the turmoil of the last days. Listen
to how he described it. There shall be signs in the sun,
in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of
nations, with perplexity, confusion, the sea, and the waves roaring. So this mountain that was cast
into the sea seems like its perplexities, disturbances in society. bringing havoc and confusion.
And don't we see that all around us? We try to look at these things. I'll reiterate what I said. We
try to look at these things and we say, well, surely if a mountain
was cast into the sea, even it's a symbol of something that everybody's
going to notice it. Well, we will notice it if we
look at it rightly. It's disturbances among the nations. King David said this, though,
and I love this. He said, We will not fear, though
the earth be moved, and though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea, and though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled, and though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.
Boy, that's confusion, ain't it? That's turmoil. That's danger. But he said, We will not fear,
for God is our refuge and a very present help in the time of trouble. So when you see the perplexities
among these nations and everything like that, like a mountain cast
into the sea, why, it's a trumpet and it's been going on not every
place. All of these trumpets just affected
one third of the location where it was happening at. Here is
the third trumpet in verses 10 and 11. And the third angel sounded,
and there fell a great star from heaven, and burning as a lamp,
and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains
of waters. And the name of the star is called
Wormwood, and the third part of the waters became Wormwood,
and many men died of the waters, because they were made Now what
in the world does this represent? I think we have to go to the
scriptures to understand it. A star represents people, persons
who are in the spotlight. Those who are looked upon in
society as leaders and guides. They are shining lights. But
instead of making life better and sweeter, These stars make
life bitter and so often they become the means of the death
of many. And sometimes these stars in
scriptures represent political heads and political figures. And sometimes they represent
false prophets. Pharaoh made the lives of the
children of Israel bitter with hard bondage and how many politicians
have made society bitter because of the way they rule. Often happens,
doesn't it? But mainly, this star falling
and making the waters bitter that was called Wormwood, it
represents to us false prophets in society. We've often say,
that pastors are such a blessing to a community. They're such
a blessing to a people. And they are, aren't they? You
preach the gospel and it's a blessing to people. But that being so,
false prophets are a curse to people. If pastors that preach
the gospel of the grace of God in Christ are a great blessing,
then false prophets are a great curse. Before Moses died, he
warned Israel to beware of those who left the true knowledge of
God and the worship of God and turned to idols and taught other
people to do it. Listen to what he said just before
he died. Lest there should be among you
man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away this day
from the Lord his God, and he goes and serves other gods, lest
there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood. These false preachers were called
gall and wormwood. That's what they preached. They
preached things that were bitter, and if you follow them and believe
what they tell you, you'll perish with them. That's why the Lord
Jesus said, Beware of false prophets. If the blind lead the blind,
they both fall into the ditch. And Jude called these false prophets
stars. in Jude 1.13. Many look to these
shining ones. They look to them as gods, but
Jude said they are wandering stars. They are false teachers.
They are ministers of Satan. They are perverters of the truth.
They make merchandise of men's souls. They are the means of
the ruin of many, many people. If you and I saw a star fall
into the earth and it made the rivers bitter, and it got down
into our aqueduct, and it made our wells bitter, and we couldn't
drink it, and those that did drink it died. What would we
say? Man, that's an awful judgment.
That's terrible. How much more, brothers and sisters,
when we look at these men who are misrepresenting God, and
lying on God, and they're used as a means for the destruction
of souls. That's a judgment of God, isn't
it? It's upon society. Listen to Jeremiah 9.15, Behold,
thus saith the Lord, I will feed them, even this rebellious people,
with wormwood, and give them waters of gall to drink. What are these false prophets?
What are these wicked politicians? They are judgments of God upon
society. That's exactly what they are.
Verse 12, the fourth angel. This is the last one that we'll
look at tonight. And he says here in verse 12,
And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun
was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part
of the stars, so that the third part of them was darkened, and
the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. Now what would it be if the sun
just shone two-thirds of the day and the stars were darkened
and the moon was darkened? Wouldn't it be a gloomy place?
Wayne knows something about what it is to live in Alaska. He's
told me different times that, what, Wayne, a month or two a
year that's just gloomy? It's not daylight and it's not
dark. It's just a gloom, a gloom, a twilight, I guess you could
call it. Colleen told me one time she had some kind of a lamp
that she had filled up. She shined on it because you'd
get so discouraged and you'd get so gloomy. How would it be
in society if things got so gloomy in your life that you spent almost
all your days just filled with gloom and discouragement? That would be awful, wouldn't
it? I think that's what this means. We read where one of the
seals was opened, and remember, peace was taken from the earth.
And that's what we're having today. There's no peace, saith
my God, to the wicked. What would happen if, in the
minds of people, they just couldn't get out of
the gloom? They stayed discouraged and there was no joy in their
life. And that happened throughout one-third of society in different
places at different times. That would be the judgment of
God, wouldn't it? And you talk to young people
today, you talk to teenagers, and I've talked to some in my
own family. And so many young people that
you see today are on some kind of drug for anxiety or depression. It seems like it's a judgment
of God upon society in our day and in other places that it's
just gloom and doom in their minds all the time. There's no
joy in their life. They live on medication. And
it's not because they've been off to war. And they've seen
these awful things, and they have to have some medication
to help them through the result of all of that? They're young
people that's just living their life, and they've got so depressed
and gloomy. Brothers and sisters, there are
strange judgments of God upon society. And some of it reaches
the mind. It reaches the emotion of people. And that's God's judgment upon
them. I was watching a video one night
and it was showing the different nations and the different cities
from way out of space. And you look at these larger
cities, Atlanta was one, Chicago and New York, and the whole place
was just lit up. And they showed North Korea.
The whole country there was in darkness. It was just dark. There was no lights there. Can
you imagine the gloom of those people's minds in that place? And I think that's the judgment
of God. What a terrible place to live
where the light of the gospel is removed. Maybe in a person's
mind, when the light of the Savior's presence is not seen any longer,
where His name is not heard and loved, And where his promises
are not preached and believed, what an awful judgment of God. And we see that in society, don't
we? Afflictions of the mind and discouragement
and distresses. And here in verse 13, he says,
whoa, whoa, whoa, because of these last three trumpets that
are yet to be sounded. And it seems like they are worse
than the first four. And what that seemingly tells
us is as we progress in the history of this world, things are going
to get worse and worse. False prophets are going to get
worse. Stress is going to get worse. Pain, sicknesses, diseases
are going to get worse. And it's because the judgments
of God are being poured out on society. Brothers and sisters,
aren't you glad for the Lord Jesus Christ? Aren't you glad
for that life and that peace and that joy that's in Him? So leave your tonight blessing
God for Him and the grace that He's given you and the peace
that He's put in your mind. Father, we thank You. Thank You for this opportunity
to study Your Word. And these things that are so
difficult for us to grasp and understand and remember, retain
in our thoughts and memory. But Lord, we're convinced that
your judgments are upon this present society. We see it all
around us. And we know that it's going to
get worse and worse. But our hearts are filled with
gladness. and assurance to know that it's
you, that it's your angels that are instructed to sound these
trumpets, that they all come from your throne. It's your purpose.
It's your will. Help us to claim Lord Jesus to
you, to not get wrapped up so in this world that we forget
you. When we pray, Lord, hear our
prayers. When we ask you for wisdom, O
Lord, hear us. When we need your strength, hear
us. We are utterly dependent upon you. Bless this dear people
tonight, especially those who have driven a long way after
a long day to come and worship you publicly. Bless those who
are traveling. Keep us all safe, Lord, until
we meet again, for Christ's sake. Amen.