Turn with me to the book of Revelation,
please, chapter 11. Revelation 11. The last time we considered this
book, I stopped before we actually started looking at verse 19. And I'd like to pick up there
in a few moments Our eyes, the eyes of God's people by faith,
are opened this morning to a glorious sight. I was thinking this morning
as I was considering this passage of Scripture, and there is so
much that's being said, especially on this day today, on Sunday,
that's spoken of and using the terms of this scripture. But truly, the thought of what is actually
said in verse 19, that opening statement, and the temple of
God, was opened in heaven. There's just so much there that
I really don't know where to start. The Scott just read in Hebrews
9 and it spoke of the first temple, the covenant, or the contract
is a word that we would understand concerning that first tabernacle. God had made a contract. And the shadow of which, what
we see here this morning, the shadow of that back in the Old
Testament, the temple of God itself, that tabernacle back
in the desert, was shut off. No one was allowed but the high
priest, and that, as Hebrews 9 revealed, just one day a year,
the high priest was allowed to go in, Aaron and all of the high
priest after him. On the Day of Atonement, could
enter behind the veil of that tabernacle, that holy of holies
was a picture of heaven, the place where God resides. And that veil that hid the mercy That veil was entered through,
not without blood. That high priest would go in
and the only piece of furniture that was behind that veil was
the Ark of the Covenant. It was a wooden box. It was covered on the outside
and on the inside with gold. Inside it was a golden bowl. It had manna inside the bowl. It had the rod of Aaron that
budded. And it had the broken tablets
of stone. And inside those symbols there
of God's covenant with man, with His people, there was a mercy
seat that was sitting on top of it. And that mercy seat was
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, which I'll speak just a little
bit more in a moment. But that high priest would come
in and there's the covenant. Here's the promise. Here's the
covenant. But there's terms to that covenant. You go in, you enter into a contract
with someone, you sign it, they sign it, but there's terms to
be agreed to. Unless those terms are met, then
that contract is null and void. It's got to be met, the contract. Well, that priest would come
in, Bob, one time a year, and the terms of that contract between
peace being made with God and His people. Here were the terms
of peace. God was going to have to be satisfied.
His law was going to have to be kept. Justice was going to
have to be satisfied. God's wrath was going to have
to be appeased. God's a just God. So the terms of the contract
were found to be totally satisfied in the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He took the guilt of His people.
It was His own. His soul made an offering for
sin. And He paid the debt in full. So the terms of the contract
satisfied totally. So the high priest would go in
one time of year and the blood was sprinkled. There is the payment. He made the payment, sprinkled
on the mercy seat that veil when the day of the
Lord Jesus Christ's crucifixion had come. The veil of that tabernacle,
the hole that hid the place of God's residence, that veil was
rent from top to bottom. During the time of the crucifixion,
the burning of the incense was taking place. It was on the day of atonement.
Now you think of the significance of this. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the atonement of His people, the propitiation, the satisfaction,
the payment Himself, on the Day of Atonement, the Lord Jesus
Christ shed His blood. He cried, ìItís finished.î And
that which hid the Holy of Holies from the people, that veil, was
rent. Can you imagine those priests
on that day when all of a sudden that veil just opened They couldn't. The high priest could only go
in their car one day a year. And that veil just rent, and
there was opened up in heaven, that place of God's holiness. That veil, the Scripture says,
was a picture of His body. The veil rent from heaven itself,
and what it showed was reconciliation had been made between God and
His elect by the Lord Jesus Christ. So heaven was pictured by the
Holy of Holies, and it was opened there for all that Christ represented
at Calvary. He Himself entered into heaven
as the surety, the payment maker, and the representative of all
that the Father had given Him in eternal election. And now,
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have, that is, His
people, God's elect, His believers, we have the privilege and the
right to enter into heaven itself, the holiest of all, with boldness
by the blood of our blessed Savior. Heaven was opened to the people
of God, believers, by the blood. What we have been taught in this
blessed book, we see that for God's They are going to be in this
world, but they are not of this world. We have been taught in
the book of Revelation some precious comforts. We see, first of all,
that there was a book that was in the right hand. This book
is the purpose of redemption and preservation for God's elect. And it was in the hand of Him
that sat on the throne. This book was taken out of the
hand of Him that sits upon the throne by the Lamb because no
one else was found worthy. No one else had prevailed, that
is, had prevailed with God. And he took that book, and that book had seven seals. Now those seven seals were the
perfect and complete revelation or disclosure of God's pleasure
and purpose and will to preserve, to seal, to keep, all that he
had everlastingly loved in the Lord Jesus Christ. As those seven seals were opened,
that's what the seals were. It was the revelation of God
Himself of how God was going to preserve His people. Seven
seals, or the perfect, the number seven, is the completion, the
number of completion, perfection. So here is the perfect revelation
of how God is keeping His people. When the last seal was opened,
there was a silence in heaven. There was seven angels that stood
up. the last revelation of how God
keeps His people, seven angels with seven trumpets stood and
prepared to sound the perfect revelation of God's judgment.
Now remember, seven seals told God's elect, God is keeping you. You are kept before any judgment
sounded God's people were told, God has preserved you, kept you.
Now, these seven angels stood up, seven trumpets, but before
one trumpet sounded, in chapter 8 of Revelation, it says, well,
verse 1, when He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence
in heaven, about space for half an hour, saw the seven angels
which stood before God, and to them was given seven trumpets.
But look what happens before the first trumpet sounds. Another
angel came, 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." There, before the first trumpet of judgment sounded,
There stood, it says, another angel, the Lord Jesus Christ. And here we behold afresh that
God is telling His people through the Spirit of God, I've kept
you. Judgment is coming, but I've
kept you. I've sealed you. Here the Lord
Jesus Christ, the angel that stood, Pleading His own merit
and blood that we be kept in this world, though we are not
of it, kept in the midst of great tribulation, wrath that is going
to be poured out by Him who sits on the throne. Trumpet after
trumpet sounds as judgment is poured out but those who have
been sealed with the seal of the living God, who are symbolized
by the 144,000. That's a number that is a symbolic
number. They're not hurt. They're in
this world. Remember, judgment is going on
right now. Not complete and final judgment
yet, but this world is under the judgment of God. We come
to the fifth trumpet which was revealed as being the first of
the last three great woes. And those trumpets sounded coming
to that fifth one, it announced a great woe that this world possesses
right now. The fifth trumpet announced that
God had sent strong delusion to those that would not receive
the love of the truth. Now, I want you to remember something. Almighty God is a just God. He does as He will in the army
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No man stays His
hand. If men are left to themselves, men will believe a lie. They believe a lie because they
want to believe a lie. That's what man chooses. Men speak of having a free will. I was listening to television
yesterday, last night, talking about this hurricane, and I heard
one of the announcers I don't remember who it was, but somebody
said something about God's judgment that is sent in this world. And I thought, boy, at least
that was a right statement. But then an announcer said, but
God gives us a free will to decide what we want to do in the midst
of this judgment. Listen to me. Men may say, or
they will say, they not may, they will say, don't you think
that God ought to give every man a chance? He did. In Adam, the infinitely wise
God knew. Give a man a chance, give him
his own free will, and he will choose to rebel against God every
time someone says, how do you know that? Because God said they
would. There's none good, no not one.
Every man at his best stake is altogether vanity. Because men
will not receive the love of the truth, God sends them strong
delusion that they should believe a lie. That's what men want.
And that's what man by nature Leave a man to himself, and that's
what he gets. The sixth trumpet sounds, and
we understand that God has sent a famine in this world. Not a famine of bread and water,
but it's a famine of the hearing of the Word of God. Men do not want to hear the truth. God doesn't let them hear the
truth. You that believe, do you have
any idea? I know I want to have, but I
don't, Kevin, of how blessed it is that God would allow His
people to hear the Word of God, that He's assembled this group
of people here. I've said this before. It's the
most amazing thing in the world, me. You sit around and you think,
There are so few places that you can hear. Isn't it amazing
that you've got, you know, 50, 60, 70, whatever is sitting here,
I don't know. Isn't it amazing that this group of people, that
God has allowed His people and put them together in this glob
right here, to be able to sit here and hear the Gospel when
all places, they're so sparse. It's because God brings His people
together to hear the Gospel. and gives them a heart for it.
And there are so few places to be able to hear that judgment.
God has sent a famine of the hearing of the Word of God than
the Sabbath trumpet sounds. And the announcement is made
that God is going to send final judgment in this world. But before
we enter in to the revelation of that final judgment, the Spirit
of God, mercifully, causes our eyes of faith to behold afresh
the Lord Jesus Christ and the eternal place of our residence,
which is in Him. And that's what's said here in
Revelation 11, verse 19. And the temple of God was opened
in heaven. I said to someone here last week,
after that seventh angel sounded in verse 15 of Revelation 11,
you'd think final judgment, the great white throne judgment would
just happen. There it is right there. Final
judgment. There it is. And that's not the way the Spirit
of God was pleased to write this book. Final judgment. is coming. But before final judgment
comes, we're going to go through a few chapters here, and God's
going to reveal through His Word exactly what's going to happen
prior to that great day, the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It says the temple of God was opened in heaven. Now, realizing
that the temple of God, remember, is His people. We never get away
all these things that we've been taught. Scripture says in 1 Corinthians
3, 16, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the
Spirit of God dwelleth in you? So when John saw the temple of
God opened, what we're seeing here is like a gate opened up. No hindrances. to its being observed. And it says, And there was seen
in his temple the ark of his testament. Nothing is hid from
the eyes of John concerning the saints' hope of their standing
before God Himself. Here it says that an ark, there
was seen in his temple the ark. of His testament. Here is that
symbol of that contract or will of Almighty God, the pledge of
His faithfulness in the saving of His people. That ark with
its mercy seat was the symbol of God's presence and His place
of meeting. Turn with me to Exodus 25. Exodus
chapter 25. Exodus 25 verse 17. It says, Thou shalt make a mercy
seat. I looked up the word mercy seat
this morning. You know what it is? Lid. That's the interpretation of
mercy seat. The lid. The cover. Thou shalt make a
mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be
the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
Thou shalt make two cherubims of gold of beaten work, shalt
thou make them in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one
cherub on one end, the other cherub on the other end, even
of the mercy seat, shalt ye make the cherubims on the two ends
thereof. And the cherubims shall stretch
forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings,
and their faces shall look one to another. Toward the mercy
seat shall the faces of the cherubims be. And thou shalt put the mercy
seat above upon the ark. And in the ark thou shalt put
the testimony that I shall give thee, and there I will meet with
thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat,
from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of testimony,
of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the
children of Israel." Now this mercy seat, it was a lid. It was a lid. that was beaten
out of one piece of pure gold. That's according to Exodus 37,
7. One piece of gold. And it was
beaten, and in that lid there were these two cherubims, and
their wings touched each other like this. And that was the place
that God said, I'm going to meet with you. I'm going to meet with
you on that mercy seat, on that ark of that covenant between
the two cherubims. And we looked at what the cherubims
actually pictured. They're heavenly symbols, pictures,
types of the character of Almighty God in His revelation of Himself. Glorious pictures. I know some men think they're
higher orders of angels or something. They're pictures of the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself. Those cherubims, when you talk
about where God's going to meet with His people, between the
cherubims on the mercy seat, and those cherubims are all part
of His one piece of gold that was beaten, and those cherubims
were all part of that lid. So if it's all one piece, the
lid itself with the cherubims, and that's where God is going
to meet with His people, what do you think the cherubims represent?
They're pictures of Christ. So this open view of heaven with
the ark of His testament declares that He shall be with His and
dwell with His people forever in glorious uninterrupted fellowship. Now, here's the seventh trumpet,
and you know what's coming. You know that here's the final
judgment of God Almighty. We're getting ready, Lord willing,
in this next chapter, chapter 12. We're going to see some things
that are very unnerving to our human flesh,
some things that we're going to Look at and consider, but
before God reveals exactly what's going to happen, John said, heaven
was opened up. And there I saw in his temple
the ark of his testament. Here, with the appearance of
the ark of his testament, we're reminded again of all the promises
and blessings which are ours in Christ. I was thinking about watching
a little documentary one time and it was when General Eisenhower
on the day before the eve of D-Day. And men knew what was
getting ready somewhat of what was getting ready to happen.
And I can remember seeing a picture of General Eisenhower. And he'd
gone out. I'm sure some of you have seen
it. He's standing in the midst of some of those paratroopers
that get ready to go in. And here was the general, the
commanding general, standing in there talking with those guys,
assuring them of all of the powers that the United States possess
is going to be at your disposal to help you. What an encouragement,
I thought, for those men. Here, we're getting ready to
enter into the final judgment of Almighty God. And before that
final judgment is opened up and revealed, John sees the temple
of God opened up. And there's the ark. But also,
there's one other thing that we're reminded. He said, there
was seen in His temple the ark of His Testament, the reminder
of God's presence, God's goodness and mercy and grace to be with,
to reside with and forever be with His people. But it says,
and there were lightnings and voices and thunderings and an
earthquake and great hail. The thing that we also know is
that there is the announcement of the outpouring of wrath. and
judgment upon all who will not receive the love of the truth.
Realizing that judgment is sure and that God's wrath is just,
how merciful is the Spirit of God to open afresh to God's people
the temple of God and the ark of His testament, the ark of
His goodness and grace and mercy. But also in the last part of
that 19th verse, there were lightnings, voices, thunderings, earthquakes,
and great hail. As John saw in this vision the
temple of God and the ark of his testament, chapter 12 reveals
what he saw. You remember that the final judgment
of God is announced. The Spirit of God again speaks
of comfort to His people. This chapter reminds them of
the security in their Savior and their Lord. I'm going to just tell you just
one thing about chapter 12. I wanted to take verse 19 and
do kind of a summary of what we had actually learned so far
to bring us again, bring to the forefront again of the hope and
the peace and the security that we have because God's people
cannot be comforted enough. But what we're getting ready
to see And this is an amazing thing, and Lord willing, we'll
go into it next time we study it. We know that the judgment of
God is coming. But when you read the entire
twelfth chapter, you're going to find that there is a comprehensive
survey, as you will. It is a continuous view of the
temple, that is, the church, the bride, and her husband, and
her Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ as He was made flesh, the incarnate
Word. And we view in that chapter,
really chapter 12 and 13, we're going to view the church from
her spiritual birth to her final deliverance in the person of
her Lord. Judgment is coming. And John
says, and just let's look at that first verse and then I'm
going to stop. Our time is up. It says, There
appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun
and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of
twelve stars. and she being with child cried,
travailing in pain, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared
another wonder in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon, having
seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads."
John sees as the final judgment has been He sees this great wonder. He sees this woman. And what he views in the next
two chapters is going to be a reminder. It's as if the Spirit of God
is saying, let me just tell you one more time how you're being
kept. This woman, it's a picture of
the church. We see how the Lord keeps her
and protects her and brings her. And all the while, how God continues
to pour out judgment. And in all of the judgment that
the Lord pours out justly and righteously, this woman is kept. Look in verse 6. I don't want
to go too far. It says in verse 6, This woman
fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of
God that they should feed her there a thousand, two hundred
and threescore days." This woman is God's bride. It's church. She flees into the wilderness. We're in it right now. It's a
pilgrimage that we're going through in this life. But this place,
the Scripture says, She hath fled into the wilderness where
she hath a place prepared of God." The Lord has kept her and
is keeping her in all of these things as we go through this
blessed book, the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember,
all you saints of God. The Lord Jesus Himself has said,
I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I'll
be with you. I am with you. Two or three are
gathered together in My name. I'm in the midst of you. We look
at this blessed revelation and we realize this. This is the
comfort of God's people to keep them in the midst of this tribulation
of this world Because he's everlastingly loved her. All right, Gary, you
go.