Revelation chapter 8. Our text is going to be found
in Revelation chapter 8. And it is my purpose this evening,
the Lord willing, to manifest the purpose, the purpose and
the effect of these seven trumpets that are about to be sounded
here in this chapter. But before I do this, of necessity,
I believe must recap our study in this book thus far. Now before
we enter into this text, we want to recount the vision. I want
to go over this with you. The vision given to John. Remember,
as we study this, always keep this first and foremost in your
mind, this is a revelation of Jesus Christ. That's what this
book is. It is a revelation of Jesus Christ. It is a gospel book. It should
be treated as such, and so as we go through this book, we will
be seeing the gospel, the gospel of Christ. And when John began
this revelation, this vision, the first thing you remember
that he saw was that Christ walked among the golden candlesticks
which are represented of His churches. And this should comfort
you that tonight He walks among us. He walks among us. He walks among all His churches.
And you know those stars in His right hand, those were the pastors,
those were His messengers. And you know He upholds me by
His right hand as I preach the gospel to you tonight. That gives
me comfort. That encourages me to preach
this gospel to know I am upheld by the Word of His power. as
I deliver these things." And what did John see when the Lord
brought to... what did he preach? He brought
rebukes, he brought comfort, he brought promises to those
seven churches. And isn't that what we do every
time we meet? We bring rebuke or promises or encouragements. That's what he did to those seven
churches, and I tell you, that's what he does every time. He brings
encouragements and promises to our attention. And then you remember
in chapter 4, the vision now turns. It turns from the present
tense to eternity past. The vision in chapter 4 turns
backwards into history, into old history of before the world
began of God's eternal purpose. And how those 24 elders, which
are representative of all of God's elect, They were all given
thrones. And you notice this, there were
24 elders, and guess how many thrones there were? There were
24 seats. Not one missing, not one more, not one less, but every
one that God has chosen. And then we see in chapter 5,
we see God's redemptive purpose. We see God's eternal purpose
of salvation of the elect. And then we see in chapter 4,
the redemptive purpose of salvation being accomplished by the Lion
of the tribe of Judah. and how He, when He had accomplished
being slain and redeemed us to God, how He obtained the book. That book at the right hand of
God is the salvation of the elect and all of the providences that
bring His people to Himself. And Christ, by merit, grabbed
the book. He got the book. That's joyful
news for sinners. For those who have no hope of
saving themselves, He's got the book. And you remember that book
was sealed with seven seals. And only He was able to open
the book and loose the seals thereof. This is the decree of
salvation, the mystery of the gospel as to how God can be just
and justify the ungodly. See, no man can know that. No
man could know that, except Christ opened the Gospel. And that's
what it is in chapter 6. We see Him opening the seals
of the Gospel. We see Him revealing the Gospel
by these six seals. And Christ opens these seals
to everyone that is born again of the Spirit of God. And what
does everyone born of the Spirit of God say? What's the first
thing we see? Christ. Christ. We see Christ
riding as the one on the white horse with the bow of the gospel
in His hands, and His arrow strikes into the heart of the sinner,
and the sinner falls under His feet and is conquered by Christ. And what does Christ do? He lifts
them up from the dead. He raises them up to sit on thrones. He conquered us. That is the
experience of every believer. So you have in eternity past,
you have the purpose of God and election. When Christ came, you
have the purchase of redemption by His blood, the ascension by
which He is at the throne. Now He's executing His purpose.
This is the execution of it by opening the seals. He's executing
what He purposed to do. And that is to save you. He purposed
to save you. Isn't that what He done for you?
And then, by the second, the third, and the fourth seal, what
is that? Those horses, the red horse,
the black horse, and the pale horse. The red horse is warfare. What follows after the believer
is conquered by Christ? Spiritual warfare. Warfare within
his own heart. Warfare within his own family.
Warfare against the world. Warfare against Satan. Where
he once was at peace with those things, now he's in conflict. You see, the black horse of poverty
because of the gospel. You know, because of the gospel,
you're going to lose. You're going to lose the things
of this world. That's all right. That's all right. God will give
you exactly what you need. That's what that seal means.
And then the seal of death, the pale horse. Every believer is
going to die. But we know this, that's as far
as death can take us. That's the only power He has
over us. He can only take this body. He
can do nothing else. Why? We're under the authority
of Christ. We're under the altar. That's what the next scene is
when He opens that fifth seal. That's a picture of all who are
gone into heaven. Those of our loved ones who have
gone into heaven, this is their picture. You want to know what
they're doing? They're under the altar. They're safe. To them has been given white
robes. To them has been given palms in their hands. Everything's
well with them. There's nothing wrong with them.
They're fine. They're perfectly at peace. But you know what the good news
is? So are we. Everything's fine with you. That's
what that fifth seal tells you of. Everything's well with you.
Nothing's wrong. You're under the altar. You're
protected. You're in the refuge. You're
in Christ. If you're in Christ, all is well.
It doesn't matter what happens outside of this. You're in Christ.
Everything's well with you. You know, I like that song, A
Debtor to Mercy. And one of the last lines of that song is, concerning
those who have gone on, he said, they are more happy, but not
more secure. They're more happy right now,
but they're not more secure than you are. You're just as secure
as they are. And you remember the sixth seal
was that of the death, the promised demise of all our enemies, all
those outside of Christ. And then in chapter 7, you see
the Lamb. In chapter 7, you see now that
the judgment is prepared and ready to go, but then comes the
angel of the covenant, and he comes in for this purpose, that
he should seal all of the elect of God. That's that 144,000 that's
mentioned in chapter 7. That is all the elect of God,
a definite number determined by God, yet it is a great multitude
we see in verse 9 of chapter 7. A great multitude of people. And you know judgment won't come
until they're all sealed. That's what that chapter reveals,
that vision. It reveals that none of these
judgments, the final judgment of God will not come until the
last elect soul is brought in to Christ and sealed. And only then would judgment
come. And I tell you, this is what's
now happening. You want to know where you are in the book of
Revelation? It is the seals being opened. You want to know where
you are in the book of Revelation in this present time? Right now,
Christ is sealing His people. That's where we are. We're in
the dispensation of grace. It's the time of grace. The door
is still open. The gospel is still being preached.
Come in. This is the message. Come in
to sinners. Come to Christ and be you saved. All the ends of the earth. For
I am God and there is none else. There is no other God. There
is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved.
That's where we are in this dispensation. And you know, all of these that
are sealed, you know what the evidence of our seal is? Faith. I like this. In verse 14, he
asked, who are these? These 144,000, who are these? And he said, The angel asked John, he said,
who are they? He said, I don't know, you know. And he said,
these are they which came out of great tribulation and have
washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Have you washed your robes in
the blood of the Lamb? Have you? Oh, you've got a seal
on you. You've got a mark. Brother Bob, I know your cow's
got branded. You're branded. You've got a
mark on you. You don't belong to yourself.
You belong to Christ. And He's sealed you. He's marked
you. And He's marked you by this. You believe on Him and Him alone. There's the mark. And the other thing about these
is they come out of great tribulation. Every one of them come out. Every
one of them are truly in this world in tribulation. But the
good news is every one of them come out. I'm going to give you something.
This was good to me. Do you realize you came out of great tribulation
today? Do you still believe? Do you not know that everything
in the world oppose you to believe today? Everything. Your flesh,
the world, everything opposes you daily that you should go
away and not believe Christ. And yet here you are, more than
conquerors, still believing. You've come through great tribulation.
You've come through many troubles, many trials. And those trials
that make others fall away only make you more to press in on
Christ. And so now we've come to the
last seal. Okay? This is it. The last seal that's
to be opened is verse 1 of chapter 8. And he says he opened the
seventh seal. the seventh seal. And there was
silence in heaven for about the space of half an hour. And I
saw seven angels which stood before God, and to them were
given seven trumpets." Seven trumpets. Now, these trumpets that are
to be sounded are in chapters 8 through 11.
These chapters encompass the seven trumpets and what takes
place after each of the trumpets. These seven trumpets indicate
a series of calamities that must occur throughout this dispensation
of grace from before, when time began, as soon as Adam had sinned
until the time Christ comes back. That's the duration of these
trumpets. That's the duration of these
trumpets. Now, these trumpets do not Listen
carefully. These trumpets do not symbolize
a single or a separate event, but these trumpets refer to the
woes that may be seen in any day of the year in any part of
the world. You may see these trumpets blown
every single day of your life. Just look around. When we read
them, you'll see them. You'll see them. These trumpets
are to be seen as occurring at the same time and in sequence
with the seven seals. Now, we have a mind to think
orderly, don't we? We have a mind to think in chronological,
timely order. This is a vision. This is not
something that is put there so you can say A, B, C, D. This
happens, this happens, and this happens. No, what's happening
with these trumpets, it's happening at the same time. Today, these
trumpets are being blown. And today, these seals are being
opened. These seals, people are being,
those elect are being called and Christ is conquering them,
that they're going through many troubles and many trials, but
at the same time, these trumpets are sounding not against believers,
but against those who are not believers. Let me illustrate this. War. Just pick one, it doesn't matter.
War. Physical war. Famine. Floods. Earthquakes. That happen to the just as well
as the unjust, do they not? Is that not right? Scripture
says the rain falleth on the just as well as the unjust. The
sun shines on the just as well as the unjust. The calamity that
happens, happens to them both at the same time. To the just man, it's a seal.
To the lost man, it's a trumpet. To the just man, to the saint
of God, to one that is sealed, it is just as painful in the
flesh as it is to the unjust man, is it not? Yeah, it's just
as painful. It hurts just as much. But listen, that calamity for
the just man is not meant for his evil, but for his good. It's
meant for his spiritual growth. It is meant to cause God's saints
to draw closer to Christ, to lean more heavily on Christ,
on His perfect person, on His perfect power, and on His perfect
propitiation. Is that not what happens every
time you're tried? Believer, is that not our experience?
Every time we are tried, we draw closer. We are brought closer
to Christ. Why? We need Him more. in the midst of our trials. So
we're pressed in. But what is a seal to you, a
revelation to a child of God, is nothing more or less than
a warning to the unbeliever. A warning. See then the glory of God in
the same providence to work good for His sealed saints and to
warn the wicked. Another illustration in the Scripture
would be Sodom and Gomorrah, wouldn't it? There you had a
full city of lost, depraved men and you had one just man, Lot. Now, did Lot escape when those
kings came and conquered Sodom and Gomorrah? No, he suffered
the loss just like everybody else in Sodom. He suffered the
pain, the anguish, just like every other man in that city. But what was a warning to the
rest of that city of the judgment that was to come was a lesson
for Lot. Now truly, he failed in his learning
of the lesson. as many of us do. But you remember,
when judgment fell, who was the only one to escape? Just Lot. Lot. Even so, every calamity
on earth, believer, God is generally calling the wicked and ungodly
to repentance. Isn't that what's happening right
now? Listen to me. You that are saved and you that are lost,
this gospel is doing something. It's doing something. It's warning
you. It's warning you. It's blessing you. It is a savor of life unto life
to some and a savor of death unto death to others. You see,
God does it both at the same time, at the same time, same
message. So then to these trumpets, These
trumpets that we are going to clearly see are not the final
judgment, but rather they are calamities and troubles for the
wicked as warnings of the final judgment. Warnings of the coming
impending judgment of God. So God is by these generally
warning the lost. He is warning them. And we may
see this to be true because these trumpets are limited. Now, I want to show you this.
I'm telling you again, what are the trumpets? Trumpets are for
warning. That's what they're there for. That's what trumpets
do. In the Old Testament, Ezekiel
33, he said, you send a watchman on the tower and he has a trumpet. And when the enemy is to come,
he is to what? Blow the trumpet. Warn the people. And that's what these calamities
are. They are warnings. Warnings for
the lost. But listen, they are limited
in their scope. Look at verse 7. Verse 7, the
first angel sounded, And there came hail and fire mingled with
blood, and they were cast upon the earth." And how much of the
trees were burnt up in the green grass? A third. A third. Look at verse 9. Verse 9, a third
part of the creatures in the sea died. A third part of the
ships were destroyed. Verse 11, and talking about the
rivers named Wormwood. He said, many of them died in
bitter waters, not all of them, not all of them. Verse 12, And
a fourth angel sounded, and a third part of the sun, and a third
part of the moon, and a third part of the stars, and a third...
Are you getting the point? It's not final judgment. Final
judgment encompasses everything. These are only partials. These
are only limited in their scope. And see these trumpets of judgment.
I want you to see that they affect only the earthly things, as of
right in the first four trumpets, and yet in the last three are
spiritual things, spiritual things. Of these seven, the first four
are divided to warn the wicked by physical calamities, while
the last three are warnings against spiritual calamities, such as
hell itself being unleashed upon them in their hearts and minds."
Now that we've seen the purpose then of the trumpets, God's providential
judgments. We should ask this. Why at the
beginning of this is there silence? Have you noticed that? That little
verse in the front there. There was silence. Before these
trumpets were blown, there was silence. I've thought on this. And this comes to mind. Judgment with God is His strange
work. Scriptures bear that out. It
is His strange work. Therefore, God is slow to anger. He's slow to anger. Is not God
been long-suffering with the wicked from the beginning? God is patient and long-suffering
Yet behold, God sets the wicked even in these prosperous times
in slippery places. He feeds them with prosperity
and pleasures of the earth so as to bring His judgment for
their rebellion and rejection of His Son. Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth have set
themselves against the Lord and against His anointed, saying,
Let us break their bands asunder, cast their cords from us. He
that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, and have them in derision. But though God may for a time
withhold His judgments, you be sure of this, They will come. Though God is long-suffering,
yet He is a just God, and He must judge. He must bring His
judgments. You be sure that they will come.
You be sure that though there is silence in heaven, there may
be peace right now, but you be sure of this, it won't last long. There is a set time for judgment. Has not every nation that's gone
before us been judged and cast out? Are we any different? Do you suppose this nation will
last forever? No! It may be silent now, but judgment's
coming. Judgment's coming. Therefore, you who do not believe,
you should repent. And you should believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. But now you church, you who are
the believers in Christ, God does not mean for you to fear
by these judgments. He does not mean for you to fear. Because believer, you are exempt
from judgment. Why? You've already been judged.
No more judgment for you. You were in Christ when Christ
was judged and God poured out His wrath on Christ for you.
So when these trumpets sound, believer, when these judgments
come, when these troubles come, when these earthquakes or famines
or wars or pestilence or spiritual woes come upon the land, fear
not. These judgments are not for you.
These judgments are against the wicked. These judgments are against
the lost. They're not for you. Your judgment
is passed. There is therefore now no condemnation
for you. None. God holds no animosity
towards you whatsoever. He loves you with an everlasting
love. Does your perception of you change
daily? One day you look in the mirror
and you think, oh man, boy I'm sure my faith is strong today. It's as though I could walk on
water today. As soon as you step out of the
door, so many sins flog your mind that you can't even bear
to look yourself in the mirror the next minute. God don't see you that way. God's
perception of you doesn't change. It's always the same. So when
these judgments come, they're not for you. They're not for
you. And so when they do come, when they do come upon you, believer,
you should be encouraged by this. Now, these judgments then are
not for your hurt, are not for your hurt. The tornado that passed
through Henryville a few years back. You listen, that's a warning. That was a warning. That was
a trumpet. It sounded. Divine judgment brought loss
and they suffered the loss of their family, their friends,
their homes, their cars, their property. But what happened to
the lost? After it was all over, when the
homes were rebuilt, the cars were brought back, they stopped
mourning the loss of their loved ones, what happened? As a dog
returns to its vomit, so they return to lap up their sins once
more. They all saw the warning. They
all heard the trumpet. God's coming in judgment. God's
coming in judgment. And what did it do to the lost?
Nothing. But for you who believe, what
did it do for you? It only drew you closer. It only
caused you to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Believer,
under the same judgment, as I said, was a trial of your faith. And
it only caused you to press more upon Christ. It caused you to pray. Now, does
not these troubles and trumpets do that for us? Does it not cause
us to increase our prayers? Increase our prayers? I know
when trouble comes, that's the first thing we do. We bow the
knee, plead for mercy. We increase in our prayers in
affection. Our prayers increase in fervor
and zeal for the presence of Christ to be with us. We confess
that we are His sheep, and He is our shepherd. Well, look what
happens when these trumpets blow for you, believer. Look at verse
3. They were given these trumpets
to sound, 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 the
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 from
the altar and cast it into the earth. And there were voices,
and thunders, and lightnings, and an earthquake. Believer,
this should give you comfort to know this. Before the first
trumpet ever sounded, your prayers were already heard. They were
already heard. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
is the intercessory angel here. He is the mediator that intercedes
between us and God. And we confess that if our prayers
were to ascend by themselves, they would be vanity, they would
be empty, they should not be heard, because we cannot merit
such a thing as God to hear our prayers. But the glory of this
is, your prayers do not ascend alone. They ascend mingled with
the offering of Christ. God hears you because of Him. Not because of you. He hears
you because His offering is acceptable. It's acceptable. Rejoice then in the midst of
these trumpets, believer. In the midst of these afflictions
and calamities. Amidst of these warnings. Believer,
rejoice. For our prayers never ascend
to God alone, but are always offered up with the sweet smell
of God's offering. Therefore, the throne of God
is surrounded with a sweet smell of our prayers for grace and
faith. And he hears all your sighs and
groans. Now, do you often feel your prayers
fall to the ground? As though they go not higher
than the ceiling. You hear your voice, it hits the ceiling and
echoes back to your own self. Oh, that's how we feel. It doesn't
matter how you feel. What God says is there's an angel
that's interceding for you. It's Christ. Christ is interceding
for you. The Spirit intercedes for you
with groanings that cannot be uttered. You who are afflicted
and tried and pressed down to death thy God is not blind to
you nor will he allow your Your prayers to go unanswered
nor will he allow your persecutors to escape Behold then the goodness
and severity of God upon you goodness upon the lost severity
Seeing our prayers are ascended to the Father and heard of Him,
He then pours out the ashes upon the earth. Believer, what is the target
of all God's thunders and lightnings? It's not you. He pours it out
upon the earth. He pours that out upon the men
who will not come, who will not believe, who will not honor His
Son. Over in Psalm 78, I'm going to
read this to you. Psalm 78, verse 49, We can go back to verse 48, "...and
He gave up their cattle to the hail and their flocks to the
hot thunderbolts. He cast upon them the fierceness
of His anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble by sending evil angels
among them." He made a way to His anger. He spared not their soul from
death. He gave their life over to the
pestilence. He smote all the firstborn in
Egypt, the chief of their strength and the tabernacles of Ham, but
made his own people to go forth like sheep. and guided them in
the wilderness like a flock. Do you not see what happens to
you during these thunders, during these trials, during these calamities,
during these difficult afflictions? God gave them over to a reprobate
mind, but he led you like a sheep in the wilderness. Therefore, these judgments are
not to be feared. This is the whole point of it.
Fear not these judgments to come and that are now in the earth. None of them. Why? You're sealed. Your prayers are
heard and interceded for by Christ himself. And none of these things
are meant for your hurt. But I tell you, they are warnings
for the lost. They are warnings for the lost. And the sad thing is, none of these warnings will be
heated. I'm not going to go over the
trumpets this time, but I will next time. But look at verse
20 of chapter 9. We're going to go through all
of these calamities, all of these troubles, all of these difficulties
that are pictured here. And I want you to see the result
of them. and the rest of the men that
were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works
of their hands, that they should not worship devils and idols
of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, which neither
can see nor hear nor walk, Neither repented they of their murders,
nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their
theft." What is the result of these thunders? They will not
repent. Why? Because that's not the means
God chose for repentance, is it? What is the means for repentance? Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God." Through the preaching of the
gospel. This is the means that God has chosen to save sinners. Not warnings. All that does is double their
guilt for not repenting. It only proves the depravity
of their own nature. Isn't that what Abraham said
to the rich man who was in hell? He said, Father Abraham, send
Lazarus back and warn my brothers. And he said, they should not
believe the one would rise from the dead. But what was the means? He said,
they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. The Word
of God. which you've heard and which
you believe. And you are sealed. And what
is to them warnings is to you blessings. I pray that God would bless this
to you. I pray that He would give you this and let you hold
on to this in the midst of the darkest judgments and thunderings
of this world. Hold fast to these truths. They're
for your comfort. Because though it may be silent
now, judgment will come on them, on you. Blessings. May God bless this
to your heart. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
and pray.