Thank you. Let's open our Bibles
to Revelation chapter 8. Revelation chapter 8. My subject
is silence in heaven. As we get to Revelation chapter
8, John sees the opening of the seventh seal. The seventh seal. And that opens to seven what
we call trumpet judgments or seven trumpet warnings. This is the third section, the
third vision that our Lord Jesus has given to John on the Isle
of Patmos. The first vision covering chapters
1, 2, and 3. The second vision covering chapters
4, 5, 6, and 7. This being the third vision,
it covers chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11. I would need to remind
you, I think, that the opening of this book that is sealed with
seven seals is the book of God's everlasting decrees. It's what God has purposed to
do. Everything that God has determined
that will ever be done, especially during this gospel age, during
this era between our Lord's first coming up into his second coming,
everything that's ever going to happen is in the book. John
saw the book, was indeed sealed with seven seals. It is perfectly
sealed. And there was just one person
who was able and worthy to open the book, and that's the Lamb
of God who slaughtered the Lamb who died for our sins, the Lamb
who gave His life's blood to save His people from all of our
sinfulness. So the opening of this, as it
says in verse 1 chapter 8, when he had opened the seventh seal,
the opening of the seventh seal reveals and manifests even more
of that which God has decreed, which God has purposed. That
is, every Every opening of the seals, we had chapter six, we
had six seals open. Now as we get to chapter eight,
chapter seven is like a, oh, sort of like a parenthetical
passage where John is enabled to see into the future again
and he sees all of the saints of God gathered together in glory. at the feet of the Lord Jesus,
magnifying the Lamb of God. So he sees the bliss of all of
the saints in chapter 7. But then he goes right back in
chapter 8. He goes back to another vision
that he received from our God. And this vision, like all of
the other visions and like all of the other seals that have
been opened and are being opened, It just manifests more of God's
sovereign purpose, what God has determined to do. You see, the
Bible says, all things are of God. Nothing ever happens by
accident, nothing ever happens by chance. The message of the
Word of God is this, our God reigns. Doesn't matter what the
subject is. Doesn't matter what you might
be speaking about. Doesn't matter what it is. It's
happening in the world. Over everything, our God reigns. He reigns over the issues of
life. He reigns over the issues of
death. He reigns over good. He reigns over evil. He reigns over the angels that
are his elect angels, and he also reigns over the fallen angels,
the demons, and the devil himself. Our God reigns in salvation. He also reigns in reprobation. He reigns in all things that
are light. He reigns in all things that
are darkness. He reigns throughout the world
that He made. He's not an idle observer of
the things that are going on in the world. I think that's
how most people envision God. They may acknowledge that in
some sort of way God kind of got things going, but then they
now think that He's just an observer. He watches and He sees what are
men going to do with this creation that I have made. And I think
most people believe that God He kind of hopes for the best.
I think that's the way most people envision God. He's one who hopes
for the best. He hopes that you'll do right. He hopes that you'll let Him
have His way with you. But that's about all He can do
is just hope for the best. That's not the God of the Bible.
The God of the Bible reigns. And you see in the opening of
these seven seals, everything makes known or makes manifest
that which God willed, that which God decreed even before He made
the world. I cannot tell you why different
things happen. I can't tell you, you say, well,
I'm sick or I've had a difficulty in my life. What's the reason
for that? I don't know. I just know back
behind everything is a sovereign God. I know that. And I know that He, in His infinite
wisdom and in His omnipotence, and the word omnipotence just
means He's got all power, In God's infinite wisdom and in
God's infinite omnipotence, He's working and directing all things
in this universe to the end that He Himself already ordained. And that's everything that has
to do with you, everything that has to do with your family members,
Everything that has to do with the good men and women of this
world, as we would call them good. And everything that has
to do with what we would call the evil men and women in this
world. There's no exceptions. No exceptions. All things happen by God's decree. His will is being carried out.
We know that before God made the world, He willed the salvation
of a great multitude, which in chapter 7 John has already been
enabled to see in a vision. He sees all of the elect there,
all of the redeemed of God, all who are regenerated by the Spirit,
all who are brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He
has already seen them all. You see, God has ordained that
all of His people be brought to Him in saving faith, all those
He chose in Christ Jesus, all of the elect will be confronted
with this question, how can God be just and justify the ungodly? And all of the Lord's people,
those whom He has instructed, know the answer to that through
the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, who satisfied God's law and God's
justice in our stead. Our Lord Jesus, based upon His
obedience unto death, has been exalted to have preeminence over
everything, and He's the one who's bringing all things to
pass today. You may like what's happening. You may not like what's happening.
But I can tell you this, I know who's governing every single
thing that ever happens. Our sovereign Christ. God has exalted Him based on
His fulfillment of God's purpose of redemption. God has exalted
His own Son to His right hand. The Lamb of God has taken the
book of God's eternal purposes out of the hand of the Father
Himself. And during this age, the Lord
Jesus is opening up these seals. He's bringing to pass, He's bringing
to fulfillment, He's bringing to accomplishment that which
God long ago purposed to do. And all of the events now, all
of the events that are happening are always bringing us closer
and closer to the final day and to the final judgment when every
knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. I know all of God's preachers
have been preaching this. The Apostle Paul preached this
about 2,000 years ago. It's recorded there in Philippians
chapter 2. And all of the servants of God
ever since Ever since we've had a full understanding in the New
Testament of the exaltation of Christ Jesus upon the basis of
doing the work the Father gave Him to do, all of the saints
of God and every preacher of the Gospel has been saying, there
is coming a day when every knee will bow to Christ Jesus and
acknowledge that He's the Lord. The leavers we bow in this life. Unbelievers will absolutely be
forced to bow at the judgment. But every day that we live takes
us a step nearer to that day of judgment. That final day. These trumpet judgments or trumpet
warnings, they happen throughout this age. They don't represent,
now get this about these trumpet judgments or warnings. They don't
represent individual or isolated events. And they don't go like
one, and then another one happens, and then another one. They're
all happening throughout this age. Now they have to be open
for us to see them one at a time, but all throughout this age,
there are these warnings that God continually gives. And every one of them says, You're
not going to live. You're going to die. And you
go into the judgment. How is it with your soul? These seven trumpet judgments
are symbolic of God's providential warnings that He sends to this
world and the individuals in the world. He's sending them
to you. Oh, He has sent to you many,
many warnings. Many, many trumpet judgments
have been sent to you over and over again, and they all say,
you're going to meet God one day. Now, you're going to face
the ultimate storm in life. Throughout our pilgrim journey,
we face one storm after another, don't we? And some of you, you're
in a storm now. Some are coming out of the storm,
some are going in a storm, and others will say, I think I'm
in a storm all the time. But all of these storms of life,
all of these difficulties of life, they're sent by God, and
they're warnings. Listen to them. They're like
the sounding of a trumpet. And this is what they're saying.
You're going to meet God one day. You better pay attention. That
sickness you just got over, hey, that's a warning. Because one
of these days, God's going to send you a sickness you're not
going to get over it. See, that's what the trumpet
warnings, trumpet judgments are about. God in His infinite wisdom, He
has many trumpet soundings, many trumpet warnings that come to
us throughout our lives. All the hardships of life, all
the wars, all the troubles, all the disasters, all of the destructive
earthquakes, all of the devastating volcanoes and hurricanes, they're
all warnings of another judgment, the last judgment that we're
going to face. That's the seventh trumpet. You
hear the first six. The first six trumpet judgments,
they're all the time sounding out notes of warning. Be warned! And in that sense, this morning
is another trumpet warning. Because you're being warned.
You're not always going to live. You're going to die. Death is real. And death is coming
for you. And when death comes for you,
He won't take no for an answer. And all of these sicknesses,
all of these things that happen to us individually, if we would
listen, if God would give us ears to hear, they're saying,
you're not always going to live in this world. How is it with your soul? How
is it between you and a holy God? All of the wars that happened. North Korea. That's really a
hot spot in the world now. And all eyes are on it. Will
there be war? Will war break out? I don't know. If it does, I know who appointed
it. But you know what that all warned
us about? We've gone to war against God.
That's what we did in the fall. We went to war against God Almighty. We lifted up our hands in rebellion
against our Creator and we went to war with Him. Our brother
read to us. Why do the heathen rage and imagine
a vain thing? They've lifted up their hands
against God. They've said, let us break their
bands asunder. What have we done? Oh, with our
wisdom, so-called wisdom, we've gone to war against God. And
that's a war you can't win. The best thing you can do, if
God would give us grace to do it, is to stack our shotguns
in the corner and bow before the Lord and say, I surrender!
I surrender. I'll be at war no longer. You can't win that war. I don't
know what will happen to these earthly skirmishes, but I tell
you, you go skirmish against God, The Lord said, let the potsherds
of the earth fuss and fight among the potsherds of the earth, but
don't you fuss and fight with God. Look at chapter 8, verse 1. When He had opened the seventh
seal, there was silence. Chapter 8, verse 1. Silence in
heaven about the space of half an hour. The Bible says there's a time
to rend and a time to sow, a time to keep silence and a time to
speak. And all of the angels in heaven
and all of the saints of God who've gone to glory, they're
absolutely silent. Silent. Habakkuk 2.20 says, but
the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence
before Him. Back in chapter 7, John heard
the angels singing. He heard the saints of God shouting
about salvation being of the Lord. And now he says, everybody's
quiet. No angels singing. No choirs
of the saints praising the Lord. All are silent, because when
judgment is about to be poured out, every mouth is stopped. Zechariah 2.13, be silent, O
all flesh. Be silent before the Lord, because
He's raised up out of His holy habitation. He's raised. What's He raised up for? Why
is God standing up? Judgment! Everybody gets quiet. Tell you what, if you realize
God's going to judge you, you're going to stand before the Lord,
and you're either going to stand in your self-righteous rags or
in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, you'll be silent before
Him. That's what he said. Be silent,
O flesh, before the Lord. He's raised up. God's raised
up. I think the saints of God are
silent here in Revelation 8.1. They're silent in worship and
they're silent in thanksgiving. This is, I think, the silence
of a very quiet reflection. sobering silence as the saints
of God. Think about this, the only reason
we're spared judgment is because somebody else bore the judgment
in our place. The only difference, the only
difference between the saved and the lost, the only difference
between the righteous and the wicked, The only difference between
those in heaven and those in hell is the sovereign grace of
God. And here, all of those in heaven
are absolutely silent. And I think it's the silence
of thanksgiving and adoration. And they know, Lord, the only
difference between us and those that are going to feel your judgment
is your grace given to me in Christ Jesus before the world
began. And the saints of God are silent.
I tell you, the trumpets of judgment
are about to be sounded. It's time to be quiet. There
is a time to talk. There's a time to lift up your
voice. There's also a time to shut your mouth. and open your
ears and pay attention to the things of God. Go with me to
a little book in the Old Testament. The book of Amos chapter 5. You
know where Amos is at? Find the book of Daniel. He's
the last of the major prophets. Daniel, then you'll get to Hosea,
and then Joel, and then Amos. Third minor prophet. And I'll
give you A little bit of time to get there. Amos. And I'll
go first of all to chapter 4, and then we'll go into chapter
5. Amos chapter 4. First of all, this is actually
a portion of Scripture that Ron read to us a couple of weeks
ago about all the things that God had sent to Israel, all these
warnings that they paid no attention to. They just said, well, it's a
natural disaster. Who do you think sins? Who sins
these natural disasters? Who is it that sins these things? It's God. They don't just happen
on their own. Amos chapter 4 verse 6, he said,
I've given you a cleanness of teeth. That's famine, lack of
bread. But look what it says at the
end of verse 6. You didn't return to Me. I sent you that warning.
I sent you that warning. I sent you a famine. Did you
pay any attention to it? No. Did you consider it's the
Lord who sent this? Boy, this ought to get my attention. No. The Lord said, you didn't
return to Me. In verse 7, He said, I held back
the rain just before about three months to harvest. Then I caused
it to rain on one city, and I didn't send any rain to another city,
because He sovereignly directs that too. Verse 8, two or three cities
wandered into one city, that we need water, y'all got rain,
we didn't, we're coming over there, and weren't satisfied,
there's a lack of water, there's not enough water to go around.
The Lord said, I did that, but you didn't return to Me, you
didn't pay attention. That didn't upset you and cause
you to fall on your faces before me. In verse 9, he said, I've
smitten you with blasting and mildew. Your gardens died. Your
vineyards died. Your fig trees died. Your olive
trees died. The worm devoured them. But did
you pay any attention to that physical judgment? No. You didn't
return to me. You haven't returned to me. He
says in verse number 10, I sent lots of pestilence. I sent bugs. They ate up all the grain, the crops. You're a young man. I killed
them with the sword. I raised up wars. I caused wars to come up. You
saw your young men dying. But did you seek my face? No,
no. In fact, they laid, their bodies
laid in the camps till they stunk. Did that cause you to fall on
your faces before me and sue for mercy? The Lord said, no.
You haven't returned unto me, saith the Lord. He said, I've
overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were a firebrand plucked out of the burning. I put you
in really difficult, difficult situations and then I pulled
you right out. I rescued you. I came to your
rescue. Did you pay any attention? No. No. Yet you haven't returned
unto Me, saith the Lord. Verse 12. Therefore, thus will
I do unto thee, O Israel. And because I will do this unto
thee, you get ready. You're going to meet God. I wonder if I'm talking to somebody
this morning, and now you're reflecting about, well, all those
warnings God's been sending me, I haven't been paying any attention.
I tell you what, you better pay attention. You better pay attention,
because you're going to meet God. Well, then he gets over
into Amos chapter 5. Amos chapter 5. And the Lord,
the Lord who is so merciful, He says this to them in chapter
5, and I don't have time to go through all of these verses,
but it says in verse 4, Amos 5 verse 4, For this saith the
Lord unto Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live. Oh, that's
mercy. You seek me and you'll live.
Where do I seek Him? Seek Him in His Word. Seek Him wherever the gospel
of redeeming grace is being proclaimed. Seek Him in Christ Jesus. Seek Him on His throne. The Lord
said, seek Me, you'll live. You think He means what He says?
I know He means what He says. He said, seek Me and you'll live.
But verse 5, don't seek Bethel nor enter into Gilgit. These
are places where false gospels are being preached. He said,
don't go over there. He said, don't seek Me over there because
I'm not over there. You see, we're to seek the Lord,
but you better seek Him in the right place if you're going to
find Him. And you're not going to find Him where a false gospel
is being preached. You're not going to find Him
when a preacher says, do the best you can, you'll get by.
You're not going to find Him where a preacher says, go into
the baptismal waters and be baptized, wash your sins away. You're not
going to find Him there. You'll find Him where the gospel
of God's grace is being preached. You'll find Him in His Word.
You'll find Him in Christ Jesus. You'll find Him on the throne.
He says, stay away from those places. Look at verse 6, the
Lord repeats it. Seek the Lord and ye shall live. But now he attaches something
to it. Lest he break out like fire in
the house of Joseph and devour it. And there's nobody left to
quench it. Look at verse 8. Seek him. that one who maketh the seven
stars in Orion, that turneth the shadow of death into the
morning, and maketh the day dark with night, that calleth the
waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the
earth. The Lord is His name! This is
the one you seek. The Lord is His name! The Lord. God who saves. God who saves,
God who's gracious, God who saves through Christ Jesus. But look at verse 10. They hate him that rebuketh in
the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. You
know who he's talking about? Preachers. Like Amos. Amos was a preacher of the gospel.
He was a farmer. Come from the South. Went up
to the North to preach. They said, who are you? You're
just a farm boy. You're just a farm preacher.
You're just a country preacher. They hated him. And Amos rebuked
them. Amos said, you better seek the
Lord. You better get serious about the things of God. and
made fun of him. I tell you, God took note of that.
He took note of that. And then they didn't treat the
people right. The leaders especially didn't
treat the people right. In verse 12, God says, I know
your manifold transgressions. I know your mighty sins. I know
them. Now look what He says in verse
13. It's what I'm building up to
right here, verse 13. Therefore, he says, the prudent,
the wise shall keep silence in that time, but it's an evil time,
an evil time. What do you mean the wise, the
prudent shall keep silence? When God begins to send judgments
upon those who hate His name, who hate His gospel, who don't
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, those who are wise will keep
their mouths shut and not say anything about God being unjust
or God being unfair. The wise will keep their mouths
shut. See, the vast majority of the
people despised the Lord and His gospel. God sent a man like
Amos, enabled by the Spirit to preach Christ and Him crucified,
Christ who would come. People wouldn't listen. They
wouldn't listen. Just like some of you probably
aren't listening. Oh, you're hearing but you're
not listening. Maybe it's somebody watching
on the internet. I don't know why God has laid
these messages about judgment on my heart, but I am burdened
for people because people just don't care about their souls.
They don't care about the glory of God. Not really. Not really. And some of you, bless your heart,
I'm so thankful you're here this morning, but do you really care
about the things of God? You've been listening to the
warnings God's been sending you through the years. Let me tell you something. God's
going to send judgment, and He does send judgments every day.
He takes people out of this world. And when He sends judgment, you
better keep your mouth shut. Let me show you a passage of
Scripture, and my time is going quickly. Look over Leviticus
chapter 10. Let me just give you this. Leviticus
chapter 10. Here's a story about two of the
sons of Aaron. And they deliberately rebelled
against God. And God sent judgment. In fact, there wasn't any warning.
He just took them away from there. They had just gone. They had had a glimpse of the
awesomeness of God. Chapter 9, verse 24. Leviticus. There came a fire out from before
the Lord, consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat,
which when all the people saw, they shouted and fell on their
faces. And Aaron's two of his sons,
Nadab and Abihu, as well as the other two, but these two particularly,
they were there. They saw an awesome display of
the power of God. That Shekinah glory that come
up out of the Ark of the Covenant, like a fire that lit up the camp
of Israel at night. It came and devoured the sacrifice. And those men watched that. They're
in the presence of God. And all the rest of Israel, they
fell on their faces together before the Lord in fear and in
worship. Chapter 10, verse 1. And Nadab
and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer,
and put fire therein, put incense thereon, and offered strange
fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. There went
out a fire from the Lord, and devoured them. And they died
before the Lord. And then Moses said unto Aaron,
This is that that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified,
I'll be regarded, treated as holy in them that come nigh me,
and before all the people I'll be glorified. And Aaron held
his peace." Aaron was silent. He's silent. God just killed
his sons. Is Aaron going to raise his voice
and say to God, you're too severe, Lord! This wasn't right! It wasn't fair! No, sir! He's silent. He's silent. Listen, when God sends somebody
to hell, it's fair. You better keep your mouth shut.
When God sends a rebel, these men were rebels. They were rebels. They dared to burn incense with
strange fire. First of all, they weren't commanded
to burn incense except on the Day of Atonement. And then when
they did burn incense, they would take the hot coals off the brazen
altar, the altar where the sacrifice was offered. Because that, you
see, that symbolized and pictured the substitutionary death of
the Lord Jesus. Everything we do for God is based
upon the death of Christ. Everything. Our prayers can't
go to God except through the bloody sacrifice of the Lamb
of God. Don't bypass Christ. God will
kill you for that. That's exactly what these fellows
did. They sought to bypass Jesus Christ. You can't do that. You better
listen to this warning. Because if you do the same thing,
if you miss Jesus Christ, God's going to judge you too. God will
judge you too. And Aaron, he didn't say anything. He held his peace. He's silent. He's silent. Look at verse 4. Moses called Mishael and Elphazon,
the sons of Uzziel, the uncle of Aaron, and said unto them,
Come near, carry your brethren, from before the sanctuary out
of the camp. I mean, God killed them dead
right then. He just burnt them. And Moses called these and the
uncles of Aaron said, take these bodies away. So they went near
and carried them in their coats out of the camp, as Moses had
said. And Moses said unto Aaron and
Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons, two other sons, He said, uncover
not your heads, neither in your clothes, lest you die, and lest
wrath come upon all the people. But let your brethren and the
whole house of Israel bewail the burning which the Lord hath
kindled. And don't you even go out of
the door of the tabernacle, because you've got work to do. You've
got work to do. The Lord said to Aaron and his
sons that were in the tabernacle working, The Lord said, now don't
you even give any indication that you're grieving. Now you
know Aaron, he's a father. And two of his sons just met
off the land. And you know his heart's breaking.
Even though his boys was rebels. He's weeping on the inside. But
Moses said, don't you give any outward indication that you're grieving or sad about
what's happened. If you're grieving, you better
keep that inside. Because God did what was right. Whew, that's tough, isn't it?
Yep. And I'll tell you what. If you
don't worship God through Christ Jesus, you're going to come to
an awful end, too. And while we'll weep for the
fact that you've left us, if God sends you, if He sends you
to hell, we'll just say, Lord, you did what was right. There's
a passage of Scripture, actually, in Revelation chapter 19, After
God judges Babylon, all the saints of God shout hallelujah. Oh, I wish we'd get serious. I wish we'd get serious. And
you know what? Most people are not serious about
the things of God. And I don't know about you. I can't read your heart. But I
tell you, if you're not serious, you better say, oh Lord, make
me serious. I want to know this Christ. I
don't want to perish. I don't want to perish in my
sins holding on to the Bible, having attended worship services
in great number. but all along just have an outward
perfection, but no real love and confidence and faith in Jesus
Christ. And you know what we need. We
need the grace of God to come to us. That's what we need. Lord,
deal with us in mercy, for your glory, through the merits of
your Son, the Lord Jesus. And wake us up. Don't you know
the time is near? I think that half hour, silence
for half hour, what does that stand for preacher? I can't give
you a full understanding of that. I tell you what it says to me,
the time is short. That's what it says to me. That's
what it says to you, the time is short. I tell you, here's
what the apostle Paul said in the book of Romans. Now, I tell
you, it's high time to wake up out of your sleep. Don't you
think it's time to seek the Lord? Don't you think it's time to
be serious about God, about Christ, about your soul? I tell you,
it's high time. That's why He said it's high
time. Well, let's sing a song.