Well, let us turn to the book
of Revelation, returning to chapter 8. We read chapter 5, but I want
to direct you to the verse that we find here in chapter 8, and the third verse. Revelation
8, verse 3. 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 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."
One has to consider then the significance of the golden altar,
the golden altar which was before the throne. the altar of incense. It's what's spoken of, of course,
back in the Old Testament with regard to the furnishings of
the tabernacle there in Exodus chapter 30. Verse 6, God says, concerning
the golden altar, giving direction to the man Moses, I shall put
it before the veil that is by the ark the testimony before
the mercy seat that is over the testimony where I will meet with
thee. So the golden altar has its place
there in the furnishings and it is before the Ark of the Covenant
which has that covering of the mercy seat where God says I will
meet with thee. and the golden altar was the
place of course where they were to burn the incense and it would
fill the holy of holies with that odor to be distinguished
from the brazen altar which was in the courts of the tabernacle
where they would make the various sacrifices burnt offerings and
sin offerings and trespass offerings this is the golden altar then
that is before the mercy seat. And the psalmist prays in the
141st psalm and says let my prayer be set before thee as incense. The incense burnt on that golden
altar then is a representation of the prayers, the prayers of
the people. And here of course in the verse
we're told the angel came and stood at the altar having a golden
censer. and then reference to the incense
that's given to him and he offers this incense as prayer for the saints upon
the golden altar in the chapter that we read back in chapter
5 and there at the end of verse 8 again we have that expression
concerning the golden vials full of odors which are the prayers
of the saints and he goes on and they sung a new song it's
interesting I know I read the first two verses in hymn 19 and
we sang from verse three but of course there's a connection
between the second and the third verse that we can so easily miss
the whole hymn of course is a paraphrase of that chapter that we were
reading and there at the end of the second verse what says
in the hymn he speaks of the church worshipping God with vials
full of odours sweet and harps of sweeter sound those are the
prayers of the saints and these the hymns they raise those referring
to the vials full of sweet odours and these referring to the harps
of sweeter sound Isaac Watts was a remarkable
poet he was much more really than a hymn writer and it would
do well sometimes to meditate in the way in which he interprets
God's word in those paraphrases The golden vials then, full of
odours, or as the margin says, they are incense, which are the
prayers of the saints. Well, as we come to consider
this verse in chapter 8, verse 3, I want to deal with just two
points. First of all, to say something
with regards to the mediation of Christ, the offices that He
occupies in association with the prayers of his people. Look
at that first of all, and then in the second place to say something
with regards to the believer's heart when it comes to his prayers. First of all, thinking of the
mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ and his offices. We have to remember
the general context. What is it that we have here?
in this book, the book of the Revelation. Well, we're told,
aren't we, in the opening words, it is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. And there we have the genitive
case, it says, of Jesus Christ. It's an objective genitive, in
a certain sense, it means it's a revelation that concerns Jesus
Christ. He is the object of the revelation. He is the one that's being revealed,
and we see that quite clearly right at the outset in what follows
in that opening chapter. At verse 12, John hears the voice,
and turns to see the voice that spake with him, and being turned,
he says, I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven
candlesticks one like unto the son of man, clothed with a garment
down to the foot, and gut about the paps with a golden gurgle,
his head, and his hairs were white like wool, as white as
snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like unto
fine brass as if they burned in a furnace. And his voice is
the sound of many waters. He gives this wonderful description
of the glorified Christ. This is the revelation then.
It's a revelation of the Lord Jesus that's given unto John.
That's primarily what the book is about. It's about the Lord
Jesus Christ. That one who is the image of
the invisible God. Remember, no man has seen God
at any time. The only begotten Son hath declared
him. In these last times God hath
spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all
things, by whom also he made the world. So he is the brightness
of his glory, the express image of his person. I'm sure we're
familiar with those words, the opening words of the epistle
to the Hebrews. The revelation then of Jesus
Christ. He concerns Christ. He is the
one revealed. But in a sense, it's not only
an objective genitive that we have there, it's also a subjective
genitive. In fact, we'd have to say, principally,
that's what it is. It is the revelation that was
committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the revelation that was
given him. It belongs to him. He's the one
who is the author of it, really. What does it say, if we read
that opening verse? It's the revelation of Jesus
Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things
which must shortly come to pass. So, it's not just a revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's not simply the one revealed,
but it's a revelation of which he is the author and the possessor. God has given it to him. And so here we are to think with
regards to his offices of Christ as that one who is the true prophet
of the Lord. He is that one through whom the
Lord God speaks. He is that one of course spoken
of there in Deuteronomy 18 On two separate occasions in that
verse, Moses refers to one like unto himself and yet one greater
than Moses. Deuteronomy 18 and verse 15,
he says, The Lord thy God will rise up unto thee a prophet from
the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me. Unto him ye shall
hearken. And then again at verse 18, the
Lord God speaks directly, I will raise them up a prophet from
among their brethren like unto thee, and will put my words in
his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command
him. The Lord Jesus is that one who
comes to speak the words of God. He says in the course of his
ministry in John on a number of occasions, For example, John
7.16, my doctrine, my teaching is not mine own, but is that
sent me. Again, in chapter 14, verse 24,
he says, the word which ye hear is not mine, but my father's.
He's speaking the father's word. And when we come to his great
prayer in the 17th chapter of that Gospel according to Saint
John, we praise concerning his disciples, I have given them
the word which thou gavest me. He is that one then who has come
and declared God's word, the full and the final word of God. Remember those words again that
we find in in Daniel 9 concerning this one, who has finished the
transgression, and made an end of sin, and made reconciliation
for iniquity, and brought in everlasting righteousness, and
he said, and sealed the vision and the prophecy. There is no
more any revelation after the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And having accomplished his great work, Here upon the earth, as
the true prophet, the king and the priest, he says, all power
is given unto me in heaven and in earth. He now reigns in his
kingdom. God hath put all things under
his feet, given him to be the head over all things to the church. Now he can give instruction to
John, he can write, John is to write, but what is he to write?
It's those things that the Lord tells him to write. There at
the end of that first chapter the commandment given to John
by the glorified Christ is write the things which thou hast seen
and the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter. All Christ gives instruction
then and Christ is that one of course who has the authority
to speak in such a fashion as this. Here's that one spoken
of in chapter 5, a lamb, as it had been slain, having seven
horns and seven eyes, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root
of David. He hath prevailed, it says, to
open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. Now the
book that's being spoken of there is not the book of Scripture. There's another book that he
has authority to open, it's the book of Providence. He is that
one then who is sovereign over all things. But as we see him
then as a prophet, we also see him as that one who is a king.
Is he not revealed to us quite clearly in the book of Revelation
in his kingly office. We see it certainly later in
the book in chapter 19 and there at verse 11 John says I saw heaven
opened and behold a white horse and he that sat upon him was
called faithful and true and in righteousness he doth judge
and make war his eyes were as a flame of fire. It's the same
one as in chapter 1 On his head were many crowns, and he had
a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed
with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word
of God. And the armies which were in
heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen,
clean and white. Oh, this is that one, you see,
who is sovereign over all things, And he goes on, doesn't he, to
speak of him in the 16th verse, having on his vesture and on
his thigh that name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We see him not only as that one
who is the true prophet, speaking the words of God, but then also
that one who is able to open the Book of Providence, but we
see him as that one who is truly the king He is that one who rules
and reigns and he rules and reigns in his providence. Again in that
19th chapter we have that great shout of joy, hallelujah for
the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. He is the omnipotent one, the
head over all things. And the golden altar that we
read of here in our text is said to be before the throne And it
is the Lamb whom John speaks of there in the midst of the
throne in chapter 5. Oh, a glorious high throne from
the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. The Lord Jesus
Christ is that one then. But how significant are these
words concerning the golden altar? It's before the throne. it's
before the throne of God. Prayers are to be presented before
one who is sovereign ruling over all things and the connection
between the verses there back in chapter 5 refer to the fact
that at the end of verse 8 we have mentioned again of the golden
vials full of odors which are the prayers of saints, and they
sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book,
and to open the seals thereof." The Lord, as it were, is that
one who is opening the seals of that book in answer to the
prayers of the saints. That's what the Lord does. He executes His power by answering
those requests that his people come and present unto him and that's the image that we
have time and again of course in the scriptures Christ in his
office then as a as a king he's that one who is able to do all
things nothing is impossible with him and all power, all authority
is now given to him in heaven and in earth. He is reigning
in his kingdom, his mediatorial kingdom. He is then that prophet
of God, he is that king who reigns, he is also of course a priest
and we see him in his priestly office. here in this book and
again it's there in that in that fifth chapter where we read Thou art slain it said and hast
redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue
and people and nation he is that one who has come as the priest
and as a priest he has made the great sin atoning sacrifice He
offered one sacrifice for sins forever. He's a sacrificing priest when
we see him in the state of his humiliation here upon the earth.
And we know that no man was able to take that life from him. He
had power, he had authority to lay his life down. He had power
to take that life again. That was the commandment that
he had received of his father. But then, he's not only a sacrificing
priest, he's an interceding priest. He's able to say to the uttermost,
all that come unto God by Him. He died, yes. He made the great sin-attorneying
sacrifice, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
But Christ died, says Paul, day rather, is risen again, who is
even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. In that sense, his priestly work
continues. His very presence there, at the
Father's right hand, is a continual plea on behalf of his people. And do we not see this in the
text? 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. He offers or as Imogen says he adds to it the prayers of
the saints. The incense is associated with
the prayers of the saints. It's an image. It's interesting
when we think of the significance of the incense in a sense, because
isn't the incense Christ? We know that God giveth not the
spirit by measure unto him, he is the Lord's anointed. He's
the Christ of God. His name is said to be as ointment
poured forth. His very name, Jesus Christ,
is ointment poured forth. And this is a name that we have
to plead when we come before God in our prayers. He says,
if you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. Well here surely we see the Lord
Jesus Christ as the mediator, we see him in all his offices.
And he's that one who is now before the throne of God. But then in the second place
I said to say something also with regards to the believer
here. And I was fascinated really to consult Dr. Gill. It's always
safe I suppose when one comes to any part of scripture and
you think you may see something and then you think well that's
an interesting thought but am I going out really on a limb
if I follow this idea that I see in the verse I think it's always
safer to look at the commentaries look at one or two commentaries
to make sure that one hasn't come up with some fanciful interpretation
and I was fascinated to see what Dr. Gill makes of the golden
vials. The golden altar speaks of that
place where the prayers are said as it were before the throne
of God. This is what Dr. Gill says of the vials. He says
these may denote the hearts of believers. These may denote the hearts of
believers. Golden vials. Hearts full of prayers in that
sense. But how are they golden vials?
Well, the believer's heart surely is to be a true heart, a single
heart, a sincere heart. a simple heart, certainly when
it comes to offering our prayers unto God. Remember the language
that we referred to at the beginning there in the 141st Psalm, let
my prayer be set before thee as incense. Is that how we want
to present our hearts to the Lord? Full of incense, prayers,
coming from sincere hearts. God says, ye shall seek me And
find me when ye shall search after me with all your hearts.
Those are sort of golden vials that we desire to present to
God. We know that the sacrifices of
God are a broken spirit. And a broken and a contrite heart,
God will not despise. He said that we desire to come,
we come broken hearted. brokenhearted because of our
many sins and our utter unworthiness and yet wholehearted in our desires
not divided hearts Paul says in Hebrews 10.22 let
us draw near with a true heart well that's a golden vial surely
a true heart in full assurance of faith he says we know that
without faith It is impossible to please God, and he that cometh
to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of
all them that seek him. James says we're to ask in faith,
nothing wavering. And alas, how often it's true
that when we do come before God in prayer, we do waver. We are
beset by our doubts and our fears And we fear that so often we're
coming full of unbelief. Well, what are we to do? Surely
we're to persevere, we're to pray in the very teeth of that
unbelief. I think it was Thomas Hardy of
Leicester, that gracious minister, not much known of or recognized
today, but there's two little volumes of his letters, quite
choice letters. He was an independent minister
in Leicester. And he would say, try what hard-hearted prayers
can accomplish. And we have to pray, you see,
in the face of our hearts, which we feel to be so hard and so
unbelieving. And then you might say, well,
that's hardly hard to be compared to golden vials. But such is
the complexity of the makeup of the child of God. We have
to pray, I say, in the teeth of unbelief. And think of where
that golden altar was placed, in the tabernacle. Exodus 30 verse 6, it says they
shall put it, that is the altar of incense, before the vial.
It's before the second vial, it's in the holy place, it's
not in the holy of holies, that's where the the Ark of the Covenant
and the Mercy Seat is. It's before the Vowel and the
Tabernacle. In many ways, the Tabernacle
was a very dark place. It was made of boards, and there
were curtains of linen and goat's hair and ram skins and badger
skins covering it. It was a rather dark place. And sometimes we have to pray
when we feel ourselves to be very much in the dark. Unbelieving
hearts, hard hearts, and yet still praying hearts. In Job
37.19 we read, We cannot order our speech by reason of darkness.
How true is God's Word? We cannot order our speech. We
can't formulate a prayer. We tried to say a little of this
last Lord's Day, you know, groaning desire there in Psalm 38. We can't articulate, we can't
speak, we can't quite express ourselves. We cannot order our
speech by reason of darkness. And yet I love that hymn of of Newton, we're going to sing
it just now. And those lines, prayers can force a passage through
iron bars and brazen gates. What are the iron bars? What
are the brazen gates? Isn't it our awful unbelief,
that sin that so easily besets us? And yet, how we're encouraged
in God's word to come before him with great boldness. Time
and again we're exhorted to that. There in Hebrews 10.19, having
therefore boldness, it says, to enter into that within the
veil with the Christ the forerunner has gone for us. And then again
Ephesians 3.12, in whom we have boldness, he says, and access
with confidence by the faith of Him Oh, what do we read here? We
read of much incense. There in the middle of the verse,
there was given unto him much incense that he should offer
it with the prayers. Now if, as I've said, the incense
directs us to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, the
one of whom it is said that God giveth not the spirit by measure
to him, the one whose name is anointment, warnment, incense
poured forth, isn't he here then in our prayers? We need Christ to take our poor
prayers and to present them. and as he presents them of course
they prevail they prevail before the very throne of God the Father
heareth him always and believers what are they?
they are to be praying priests look at what it says back in
that 5th chapter verse 10 on the earth. Believers are priestly
kings, and as priestly kings they reign on the earth. How do they reign on the earth?
Well, they rule this world by their prayers. That's what it's
really saying. That's how we reign on the earth,
by our prayers. God says concerning the works
of my hand, command ye me. Isaiah 45.11 I said unto the
seed of Jacob I said not unto the seed of Jacob seek in my
face in vain and there in that same 45th chapter in verse 19 we don't waste our breath when
we come to the Lord God in our prayers He hears, He answers
I will yet for this be inquired of you by the house of Israel
to do it for them. I'll do it for them but they'll
have to come and inquire of me. And so here in the text 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 then what follows? 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 of the altar and cast it into
the earth. And there were voices and thunderings
and lightnings and an earthquake. By terrible things, by terrible
things in righteousness will thou answer us God of our salvation
says David back in Psalm 65 and verse 5 and we see it. God does
answer the prayers of his people. All prayers and what a remarkable
gift is this that the Lord God has granted to us and we come
together of course tonight for that very purpose that we might
pray to him. Those who speak in prayer and
we desire to say our amens to those who speak but we can also
of course be praying in our own hearts we come in that prayerful
spirit to wait upon God and have that assurance that these hearts
which dear Dr. Gill says are the golden vials
or there's much incense much incense that's added to their
poor stumblings and stutterings in prayer And so they prevailed
there before the throne of God. Father Lord, help us as we turn
to Him in prayer. But before we do that, we're
going to sing that hymn of Newton's that we made some mention of,
397. The tune Weber, 519. in themselves as weak as worms
how can poor believers stand when temptations foes and storms
press them close on every hand the hymn 397 tune 519