Thank you. Would you open your
Bibles to Revelation chapter 8? Revelation chapter 8. Here's
the first verse. Revelation 8 verse 1, And when
he had opened the seventh seal, This is what John says, there
was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And that's my subject, half an
hour. But I doubt it'll be a half hour
sermon. But it may be, I don't know. Let me begin this way. There
are four great truths of Scripture that give great, great comfort
to my poor soul. And here's the very first one,
God's eternal purpose of grace. And I'm speaking specifically
about God's election unto salvation. This is what I always fall back
on. This is my love, this is my hope,
that God will fulfill His purpose in grace to save unworthy souls
like all of us and an unworthy soul like me. Here's what I'm
trying to say. I'm thankful salvations of the
Lord. I'm thankful that God in His
infinite wisdom and in His grace chose a people unto salvation
before he made the world. In the book of 2 Thessalonians,
we read Paul wrote to the Thessalonian people about the mystery of iniquity
that was already at work in his day. He spoke about the wicked
one, Antichrist, who was deceiving multitudes. But he said to these believers,
he said to them they were safe. They need not be fearful. Don't
be fearful of the wicked one, and don't be fearful that that
God's going to send you a strong delusion. And this was the reason
He told them not to be afraid. He said, but we're bound to give
thanks always to God for you, beloved of the Lord, because
God had from the beginning chosen you under salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel unto the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ." That's good news to me that there was an election
of grace. As I read the Word of God, as
you read the Scriptures also, do you not find that it's sort
of a mirror in which you see yourself in your sinfulness. We read in the book of James
that the Bible is exactly that. It's like a looking glass. You look into it and you read,
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And you
say, that's me. That's me. You read when David
says, conceived in sin, in wickedness and depravity, I came forth from
my mother's womb speaking lies. And don't you say that's me.
That's me. When you read about man's guilt,
man's iniquity, you read In verses of Scripture such as in Genesis
chapter 5, every imagination of man's heart was only wicked.
His imagination is wicked all the time. Don't you say, that's
me. That's me. You read like in Ephesians
chapter 2, you read that, dead in trespasses and sin. That's
me. I see my depravity, I see my
alienation from God due to Adam's transgression and also due to
my transgressions. I have an individual personal
guilt. And as I read these things in
the scripture and as the Spirit of God takes them and He reveals
them to me, It's what I say in my soul. Lord, I'm glad there
was an election of grace. I'm glad you chose me. I wouldn't
have any hope. There's no way I would have chosen
Christ Jesus. Oh, I'd have been religious because
I was. I've been trying to do good because
I've tried to do that. But I wouldn't have seen that
salvation is altogether of grace. I wouldn't have believed on the
Lord Jesus Christ. I wouldn't have seen the necessity
of His death that God might be a just God and a Savior. I wouldn't have known any of
these things. I wouldn't be here worshiping
this morning. I wouldn't cherish the Scriptures. I wouldn't be
seeking to exalt God except for God's eternal purpose of grace.
It gives me great, great consolation. Here lately, I've been speaking
about the judgment of God that's coming, and I do urge you to
be reconciled to God. I read in 2 Corinthians chapter
5, where this is what the apostle said, knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord." We persuade men. I've read about God's judgment. I've read about God's hatred
of sin. I've read that the soul that
sins shall die. And He says, therefore I persuade
you. Be reconciled to God. Oh, I persuade
you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But I'll tell you this, as much
as I urge you to close with Christ Jesus, my hope for your salvation
and my salvation is not in us believing the gospel. Though
we must believe the gospel. Here's my consolation, God's
eternal purpose of grace. Because He's got a people who
will believe the gospel. They will believe. They've got
to hear it. They've got to hear about their depravity. They've
got to hear about who God is. They've got to find out that
God's a holy God and a just God. They've got to find out about
individual guilt. They've got to find out how God
in justice saves sinners through the substitutionary work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That He was God's offering for
sin. God did something for Himself
before He could do anything for sinners. We've got to hear this
Gospel. We've got to hear this Gospel.
And we must believe this Gospel. But if we believe this Gospel,
It's because of God's purpose of grace. That's what I'm trying
to say. There's a verse of Scripture
in 2 Timothy chapter 2 where it says, God has saved us and
He's called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but
according to His purpose and grace which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world was made. You know when God gave us grace?
He gave us grace before He ever made the world. And He's never
going to remove that grace. He's not going to take that grace
away. That grace was given us in the Lord Jesus. Every mercy,
every grace, every blessing that God's got for folks like us is
in Christ Jesus. And being in Christ Jesus, they're
safe and secure. And in God's eternal purpose
of grace, He said He'd save His people. I tell you, I'm thankful God
cannot be changed, and He is not going to change. He said,
I will work, and who shall hinder me? I will do all my pleasure,
and this is my consolation. This is my comfort. God's eternal
purpose of grace. You know, you read in the book
of Acts, the Apostle Paul went to a city, went to Corinth, And
when he got to Corinth, he met some opposition people who he
said opposed themselves. And there were some folks who
believed the gospel, but evidently he got dejected, got a little
bit discouraged, as God's preachers sometimes do. The Spirit of God
came to him, the Spirit of Christ Jesus, at night in a vision.
He said, don't be afraid. Just keep on preaching. I've
got much people in this place. I got much people in this place.
This is my comfort. As I preach to you, there are
some people who are going to believe this message. It might
not be you. I don't know. That's not my business. My only business is to tell the
truth. My only business is to declare
Christ Jesus. It's God's business to say. I will say this, it's your business
to believe. That's right too, isn't it? But as I set forth this gospel,
I do so knowing this, God's purpose of grace is triumphant. He can't
fail. And I can't fail. That's what
the apostles said in 2 Corinthians He said, we're a saver of life
and the life of some, death and the death for others. He said,
I'm always triumphant. I'm always successful. I know
the world judges success by how many people did you have yesterday?
That's what they'll talk about tomorrow. How many people did
you have in your service yesterday? How many people got saved yesterday? I'll just say this, we had a
very triumphant service. Because God's Word always is
triumphant. It always accomplishes God's
purpose. God's Word is not going to fall
to the ground. I'm not in a useless ministry. I'm not on a fool's errand. Whatever God has already decreed
for you, And for me, it is going to come to pass. And I tell you,
this is where I get my consolation. Lord, will anybody believe this
message? And here's what comes back to
me. Yes, my people will believe the
message. Just keep on preaching. Keep
on preaching. This gives me great consolation.
The purpose of God in salvation. I'll tell you something else
that gives me great consolation. And I always fall back on this. Substitution and satisfaction. The work of the Lord Jesus that
He did for me. Now listen, I only stand accepted
before God in Christ Jesus. That's right, isn't it? That's
the only way you can be accepted before God. And if we are accepted
now, guess what? We've always been accepted. In
Ephesians chapter one, it says we're accepted in the beloved.
And after that, you get to the subject of redemption. You see,
God accepts us in the Beloved on the basis of what the Savior
would do for us and who He is. You see, God gave us to Him in
that election of grace. He gave us to the Lord Jesus
as our surety, as our Savior, as the one who would be the satisfier
of everything that God demanded. Indeed, Christ Jesus came into
the world 2,000 years ago, and everything God required of you
and everything God required of me, He got from Jesus of Nazareth. Does God demand a perfect life? Look at the life of Jesus of
Nazareth. He was absolutely sinless. He was the perfect man. I mentioned
my son, this morning, I said he was full of compassion. Can
you imagine a man who is perfectly, perfectly kind? Perfectly tender
hearted. That's the way he was. And all
through his life, his life is my life. What did God demand? Well, God
doesn't just demand perfection. God demands a penalty be paid
because of our imperfections. I tell you, there's going to
be an answering for our sins. Somebody's got to answer. Right? Somebody has to answer. He answered
to God for our sins. And imagine all of our filth,
all of our sin, all of our corruption, all of it heaped upon the Savior. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. And divine justice sought Him
out and found Him, and judged Him to be worthy of death, because
He bore our sin, not His own sin. He didn't have any sins
of His own, but He made our sins to be His sins, all charged to
Him. As it says in Isaiah 53 verse
6, All we like sheep have gone astray. We've all gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid
on Him, literally made to meet on Him, the head of the scapegoat,
made to meet on Him the iniquity of us all. And what did He do? Just like that scapegoat over
in the book of Leviticus. Aaron confessed the sins of all
of Israel upon the head of that scapegoat. And a worthy man led
that goat out of the city, out of the camp of the Israelites
into a deserted area to where the goat would never be seen
again. That's the result of our Lord's
redemptive work. Our sins will never be seen again
by God. He's never going to judge us.
Why don't He judge Christ Jesus for them? That's my hope. Go back 2,000 years ago, you
see that one dying on the metal cross? We sang hallelujah for
the cross. Here's what the Apostle Paul
said, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He's not talking about a cross
that you wear. He's not even talking about the
cross that our Lord hung on. He's talking about the doctrine
of the cross, and the doctrine of the cross, the theology of
the cross, the truth of the cross. He took the place of His people
and satisfied God's justice for us. And everybody in whose stead
He died are debt free. Debt free. We don't owe anything
to God. We don't know anything about
that by nature. And so this also brings me consolation. The Spirit of God has revealed
Christ Jesus to me. And I tell you this morning,
He's all my hope. He's all my confidence. I just firmly believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and His work of redemption for me. Well, you're a preacher, you
study the Bible, you lead us before the God's throne of grace. None of those things enter into
my hope and confidence for salvation. Christ is all. And wouldn't you
say, Christ is all. He's all God requires. He's all
I need. He's all I want. He's all the
subject of this book. And in the day of judgment, my
only hope and plea in that day is my only hope and plea this
day, that the Lord Jesus Christ died for me. I really believe in substitution. I really do. I really believe
in satisfaction. And I know that Mr. Spurgeon
was absolutely right. That's how you sum up the gospel,
those two words. Sadly, most people don't know.
Most people in religion don't know anything about substitution.
And they don't know anything about satisfaction. And then here's the fourth thing
I fall back on continually. It gives me some comfort. Divine providence. Divine providence. I'm all the
time falling back on this. All things are of God. That's what's being revealed
to us in the book of the Revelation. As we come to chapter 8 and the
opening of the seventh seal, this is just the Lord Jesus,
our Savior, the Lamb of God who was once slaughtered for us,
that one who redeemed us to God by His blood. He's just executing
God's eternal purpose. He's bringing to pass everything
God's ordained. That's kind of the long and the
short of it. That's kind of a summation of
it. If anybody ever asks you, well, I don't understand about
that book sealed with seven seals, and then Jesus, the Lamb of God,
is opening the seals, breaking the seals. I don't understand
what that's all about. Just tell them this, well, that
book is all of the decrees of God, and our Lord Jesus opening
the seals, that's Him bringing to pass everything God purposed.
There it is, right there in a nutshell. All the things that are happening
every day. Are the actions of our God and
Savior, the Lord Jesus, executing God's eternal purpose? John has already seen the opening
of six seals. Now he sees the opening of the
seventh seal. And there's silence. We've already
said it's the silence of all. It's the silence of thanksgiving. And the scripture says it's silence
in the space of heaven about a half hour. Half hour. And I said to you last Sunday,
this is what I take from that. It's short. It's short. I remember when we used to take
trips when the kids were small, David and Susanna. Not this David. The other David. They say, how long is it going
to take to get there? Well, David's favorite program
was A-Team. How long does the A-Team last?
Well, that program lasts an hour, I said. About time and what it
takes to, because when we're going to Louisiana, I said, if
you watch that 10 times straight, that's about how long it'll take. You think a half hour. This is my understanding of this. Brevity. Brevity. That which is short. Here's a
time period that is short. Scripture says that there was
silence in heaven. It's like somebody hits the button,
pause. There's been joy in heaven, singing
in heaven, and now there's an interruption of that. Silence. Thirty minutes. Thirty minutes. Go back to Psalm 62, that psalm
that our brother read to us earlier. Psalm 62. You know, somebody said this
is the only psalm And I think that's what I wrote
in my Bible. It's the only psalm. Only in quotation marks. It's
the only psalm because that's the key word in the psalm. It
starts off, Psalm 62, David says, truly my soul, and you know if
you look over in the margin, you know what it says? Only.
Only. Only my soul waiteth upon God. In other words, I only trust
God. I can't trust anybody else. I
really can't trust you, and I know I can't trust me. I want to trust
you, but I dare not trust myself. But I can trust God, and what
he's saying is, I only, I truly, I verily rest in God. That's the first only, because
our translators have decided to translate this word truly,
but it's also the word only because here's what David is saying.
The Lord only is my hope. I only rest in Him and I'm telling
the truth. So that's the reason they translated
it truly. But there's the first only. Look
at verse 2. He only is my rock. I don't have any other rock but
Christ Jesus. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand. Look at verse 4. They only consult
to cast Him down from His excellency. Now David is speaking about himself,
but he's also speaking about, more importantly, Christ Jesus. You know what the men tried to
do? Cast Him down. from His excellency, from His
exaltation only. Look at verse 5. Now He speaks
to His soul. My soul. Do you ever have to
talk with yourself? He's talking to Himself. My soul.
Nancy's daddy used to always talk to himself. Nancy's mother would say to him,
why do you always talk to yourself? He said, because there's nobody
else intelligent enough to carry on a conversation with. Well,
David is speaking to himself. My soul! Sometimes you need to
talk to yourself, don't you? You need to reason with yourself.
Wait thou only, only upon God, for my expectation is from Him.
Look at verse 6. He only is my rock. But go back to verse one. He
says, only truly my soul waiteth upon God. Now go back to the
margin again. Waiteth is in the Hebrew, silent. My soul is silent before God. Silent before God. The Lord's in heaven, you're
on earth. Scripture says, let your word
be few. Be silent. Lord, be still, God says, and
know that I am God. Be quiet. And for a little bit,
for a little bit this morning, be quiet. And listen. Be silent. Be silent before God's
Word. You know, there's so many churches
today, and you can go back to our text in Revelation 8, so
many churches today that we have sharing times. Well, I don't
find that in the Bible. I find in the Bible that God
tells us by the preaching of the Gospel, God saves sinners.
It's not by having testimony meetings, just preaching the
Word of God. We're silent before God's Word. I'm silent. Oh God, shut my mouth
and open my ears and I might hear You. And then watch what
He says. Let me get to this. So He opens His seventh seal.
Absolute silence in heaven. About the space of a half hour.
A half hour. Let me tell you something. Our time in this world is short. It's short. Oh preacher, how
long? About a half hour. About a half
hour. There are people in our congregation
this morning who are nearly 90 or 90 and above. And in many
ways, you could say, well, I've lived many years on this earth.
But you know what? Really, it's short. Because you'd
say, where'd my life go? And all of us, all of us who
are older, we can attest to that. We remember back in school, you
know, I didn't have a watch, but I looked at the clock on
the wall and said, when will this school day, will it ever
end? And now I can't even hardly remember
being in school. You know how long life is? About
a half hour. That's all, about a half hour.
I'll tell you who knows time short. Go over to Revelation
chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12. I know
somebody who knows time short. And that's Satan, the dragon.
In Revelation chapter 12, the Son of God, the man-child, has
defeated all the forces of evil. in fulfillment of what He said
in John chapter 12. He crushed the head of Satan
in fulfillment of Genesis chapter 3 verse 15. That's when He cast
the dragon out, that old serpent. That's when the Word comes out
in verse 10. Now has come salvation and strength
and the Kingdom of God. When was that? When Christ died. When Christ died. How do we overcome? By the blood of the Lamb, verse
11. Now look at verse 12, Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that
dwell in them, but woe to the inhabitants of the earth and
of the sea. For the devil's come down, he's
come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that
he has but half hour. That's all he's got. He's got
just short time. Tell you what, you may not know
how short the time is, but he does. And He is ever vigilant. He is always in opposition to
the Gospel. He will have you to be religious
without Jesus Christ. Put on morality, put off immorality. Stop your bad habits and do some
good things in life. He just wants to keep you away
from Christ. He knows His time is short. He just got a half hour. He doesn't ever rest. He doesn't
ever rest. Satan stirred up the heart of
Judas. He stirred up the leaders of
Judaism. They all ganged up on the Lord
Jesus. They all killed the Lord of glory. But in that death, Satan met
his defeat. And ever since then, he is a
defeated lion, but he's dangerous. They said defeated, a wounded
animal, is especially dangerous. And nobody can deal with him
but the sovereign Christ. He knows his time is short. James
says this. Go over to James chapter 4. Look at James chapter 4. Look
at verse 13. We're talking about half hour,
half an hour. James 4 verse 13, he says, Go
to now, or oh come on now. That's literally what that says.
Oh, come on now, you that say today or tomorrow we will go
into such a city and we will continue there a year and buy
and sell and get gain, whereas you know not what shall be on
the morrow. What is your life? I'll tell
you what it is. Half hour. That's what it is. Half hour. Watch it. He said it's even a vapor. A
vapor! It just makes a brief appearance,
and then it vanishes away. And I'll tell you something,
this world, our race has been in existence roughly 6,000 years.
There have been billions and billions of people who've lived
in this world, made a brief appearance. They lived their half hour. Just a vapor that vanishes away. You're going to be gone, I'm
going to be gone. That's why it says in verse 15,
you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this
or that. If the Lord will. Don't you think that's the reason
in Isaiah chapter 1? Remember that wonderful passage
of Scripture? Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18, the
Lord speaks. He says to Israel, He says, Come
when? Now! and let us reason together."
Not come later. Not think about it. You need
to mull this over for a few days. He says, come now and let us
reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they'll be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. Come now! Because you only got
30 minutes and you don't have many of that you got left. That's
what he says. Come now! Now! In the book of Acts, chapter
17, that's when the apostle was preaching on Mars Hill. He said, the times of this ignorance
God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent
because He's appointed a day in which He's going to judge
the world in righteousness by that man, that man Christ Jesus,
that man you crucified, that man whom God raised from the
dead. God says, Repent now. God now commanded, God right
now, to you, each of you individually, everybody watching on the internet,
you, yes I'm talking to you, I'm talking to every one of you
and I'm talking to me, God right now commands us to repent. Right now. Don't say like those
people said to Paul, well, when I have a convenient season, I'll
call for you. No! Right now! That's what the
Bible says. Right now. Go over to Luke chapter 6. You know, this is Luke's rendering
of our Lord's Beatitudes. Luke chapter 6. Luke chapter 6. Look at verse 20. Luke 6 and
20. Let me get a sip of this water. Luke chapter 6 verse 20, and
He lifted up His eyes on His disciples and said, Blessed be
the poor, blessed be ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye that..." Watch it. "...blessed are ye that hunger
now." Did you get that? "...blessed are ye that hunger
now." Hunger for what? Hunger and thirst for righteousness.
That's what he said in another place. Hunger and thirst for
righteousness. "...blessed are you that hunger
now." Well, I hope I'll be hungry one day. I hope that God makes
you hungry right now. Right now. Because you'll be
filled. You'll be filled with life, with
forgiveness, with salvation, with righteousness, with everything
God demands. Right now. Blessed are ye that
hunger, now you'll be filled. Watch this. Blessed are ye that
weep, now. Weep over your sins, now. Broken
hearted, now. Right now. Ye shall laugh. You'll
be joyful. Another day, we're joyful now,
but not near like the joy that Buddy is now experiencing in
glory. Watch this, look at verse 25. Woe unto you that are full! You're
full of yourself, you're full of your works, you're full of
your self-righteousness. There's going to come a day when
you're hungry, And that's not going to be satisfied, Dan. That's
going to be too late. Read chapter one of the book
of Proverbs on that. God says, I've called, you wouldn't
hear me. Day's going to come, you're going
to call, and I'm not going to hear you. That's what God said. Now when
He said Proverbs chapter one, you need to go home and read
it. He says, woe unto you that laugh now. You just go merrily
through life, eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage.
There's going to come a day when you're going to mourn and weep.
You're going to mourn and weep. Half hour. That's all. And you know, we live, most of
us, we live as if we think we're going to live here for good. That's the way most people are.
They don't give any thought to death. Back when Buddy was in
the nursing home, one day was talking about it. He's kind of
working on some things about his obituary, just some things
he wanted in there. But you know, most people, they
don't want to talk about death. It's too morbid a subject. Well,
I'll tell you what, when we're made to realize we've only got a half hour, that's when you'll get some thought,
hopefully. And even then, it's going to
have to be by effectual grace. Look over at Romans chapter 13.
Let me give you two more references
and then we'll go or we'll sing. Look at Romans chapter 13. And this is for God's people,
really. And while you're turning there,
I'll just read you another one. John chapter 4, the Savior said,
the hour cometh and now is when true worshipers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to
worship Him." Worship now. Worship now. Look here, Romans
chapter 13, verse 11. And that knowing, knowing the
time, that now it is high time, it's high time to wake out of
sleep. For now is our salvation nearer
than when we believed." And this is written to God's people who
become somewhat apathetic. You get spiritually lazy. He said, it's high time to wake
up now. It's time to wake up. And you
know, all of us, it's true of all of God's people, we run cold
and hot. Don't we? We run cold. You know,
oh, the Gospel is so wonderful, and then other things just kind
of crowd into our minds. It's what the Apostle Paul said. It's high time to wake up! Because
the ultimate salvation is nearer than when you first believed.
Here's the last reference. The book of Ecclesiastes chapter
9. Let me tie it to this. Ecclesiastes
9, verse 10. Chapter 9, verse 10. Boy, you ought to mark this if
you haven't already. At least mark it in your mind. Jot it down. Remember this. Ecclesiastes 9, verse 10. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to
do, Don't procrastinate. Do it. Do it. With all thy might. And here's
the reason. There's no work, there's no device,
there's no knowledge, there's no wisdom in the grave where
you're going. In other words, the body is going
back to the grave and there won't be any more activity for the
body. So if there's something you need
to do, you better do it now. Right now. Is there a salvation
to be gone after? To be sought after? Seek it now. Seek it now. Is there a gospel
to be believed? Believe the gospel now. Is there
a Lord Jesus to be trusted? Trust Him now. Is there a Bible
to be read? Read it now. Is there a preacher
to be heard? Hear Him now. Is there a God
to be worshipped? Worship Him now. Is there a heaven
to be gained? Seek the heaven of God right
now in the Lord Jesus Christ. Right now. Thirty minutes. That's
all we got. Thirty minutes. Well, I hope God will take these
things to our hearts and make us to realize about half hour. Let's sing 125.