Revelation chapter eight. Now,
this chapter eight begins the third vision in the book of Revelation. You remember each one of these
seven visions throughout the book of Revelation is a vision
of man's entire history on earth. It's not seven different eras
of man's history or seven different kinds of things that will happen
right in the very last moments before Our Lord returns, but
each one of these visions are a vision of man's entire history
on earth. They're all a vision of Christ,
just from a different angle. Now here, Christ our Savior and
our mediator has been opening the seven seals of the book of
God's eternal decrees and purpose for his people. And as Christ
opens each one of these seals, he reveals something else of
God's purpose for his people. He reveals something else to
us of salvation. in our Lord Jesus Christ. At
the beginning of the third vision, it begins with Christ opening
the seventh seal, and it's going to reveal new events that happen
again and again and again all throughout human history. God's
people have always been a suffering people, and that has caused God's
people always, not just in the last time, not just in certain
eras of human history, God's people have been a praying people
always. And God has always heard the
prayer of his people. He's always heard the cry of
his people. And our prayers, the prayers,
the cries of God's people have always and only been accepted
one way. In Christ, our intercessor, we
pray and Christ intercedes with the prayers of his people. And
we are accepted. We are heard by God Almighty
in the Lord Jesus Christ because of his intercession for his people.
He hears us. He's pleased with his people
in Christ. And that's always been the experience
of God's people. And these verses teach us a second
thing. I can't completely explain it, but there's a connection
here between the prayers of God's saints and judgment upon our
enemies. Now, that does not mean that
we should pray that our enemies suffer and that God destroy them
and judge them. Our Lord taught us the exact
opposite of that, didn't He? What did our Lord teach us? Love
your enemies. Pray for them that despitefully
use you and persecute you. So we're not to pray for their
destruction or that God punish them in some way, but we should
pray to our Father. We should cry out to Him in our
need And God hears the cries of his people and he will eventually
handle all of these, all of these enemies. So verse one, what we're
going to look at this morning is prayer and intercession. Verse
one. And when he had opened the seventh
seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of a half an
hour. Now the seventh seal, and we'll
look at this in the coming chapter, is God's judgment on earth. And
that's not, I think a lot of this is actually speaking of
the final judgment, but God's always been judging the wicked
on the earth. He's always been taking care of those things.
But before this judgment comes, and again, this is not just final
judgment, this is God's punishment of the wicked in any way. Before
that judgment comes from God, there's silence for 30 minutes. Nothing happens, nothing's spoken,
there's silence for 30 minutes. Now, the saints in glory are
still worshiping. They're still praising God. We
read that they do it without ceasing night and day. But here,
they're silent worship. During this time of silence,
for lack of a better word, God is thinking about what he has
purposed to do. The angels, they're silent. They're
thinking about the mission that the Lord's given them to do.
And the saints are silent. They're silent. thinking about
all of God's grace and mercy to them. In silence, they're
thinking in wonder how we've escaped in Christ Jesus. The
church is being still, knowing that God is God in silent worship. And this time of silence is a
delay. Before God's judgment is poured
out, before You know, he gives any wicked person, you know,
what they deserve. He takes them out of this world.
Whatever God does, there's a delay before he does it. God delights
in mercy. He's slow to anger. He's plenteous
in mercy. God doesn't find pleasure in
the death of the wicked. God always, in every instance,
always gives men space to repent. So that if we're destroyed, whose
fault is it? Not God's fault. He gave us space to repent. He
didn't act rashly, did he? No, he's slow to anger. If we're
destroyed, it's our own fault. God gave space for repentance.
But yet this is also true. God's judgment is always sure. Always. It will come at the exact
appointed time. God's given us space to repent.
Today is the day of grace. But that day of grace won't last
forever. Soon the Lord is coming. Soon. He's coming soon to gather
his people to himself. He's coming soon to destroy the
wicked. Soon. Suffering saints, you take comfort. Soon it'll be over. Soon the
Savior is coming to gather you into His bosom, and you will
forever be with the Lord, seeing Him face to face in peace and
joy soon. And those of you who have not
yet believed, if you have not yet believed on Christ, if you
have not yet bowed to Him, right now, right now, you believe. Right where you sit right now,
you come to Christ. Right now, you bow and surrender
to him. This is the day of grace. You
know how I know it's the day of grace? The gospel's being
preached right now. This is the day of grace. You
bow right now because it won't last forever. All right, verse
two. John says, and I saw seven angels
which stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.
Now, these angels are not the angels of glory, the created
beings. These angels that stand before God, they represent the
messengers of God. They represent God's preachers.
And the trumpets that they're given to blow, that trumpet sound
is the gospel sound. That's what trumpets represent.
Throughout the Old Testament, trumpets were used. They would
blow on the trumpet and call the people to assemble to hear
from God, to hear thus saith the Lord that when the children
of Israel before Mount Sinai, Moses told him, when you hear
the trumpet, everybody gather before this Mount to hear what
the Lord has to say. That's when he first gave them
the law. It's the trumpet was blown to
call the people together to assemble on the day of atonement to come
before God in worship on all the ceremonies and pictures of
Christ on that day. Trumpets were used to call people
to war, to call them to battle so that they would know what
to do, where to go in battle. That's the gospel calling us
to battle, calling us to Christ, calling us to victory in the
captain of our salvation. Joshua, who is a picture of Christ,
he's a picture of the captain of our salvation. He used trumpets
to blow, to knock down the walls of Jericho. Then look in Ezekiel
chapter 33. Ezekiel 33 trumpets are used
as a sound to warn people, to warn God's people. Ezekiel 33 in verse one. Again, the word of the Lord came
unto me saying, son of man, speak to the children of thy people
and say unto them, when I bring the sword upon a land, if the
people of the land take a man of their coast and set him for
their watchman, If when he seeth the sword come upon the land,
he blow the trumpet and warn the people. Then whosoever heareth
the sound of the trumpet and taketh not warning, if the sword
come and take him away, his blood should be upon his own head.
He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not warning. His blood
should be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall
deliver his soul. The gospel is a warning. That's
the trumpet sound of the gospel. It's a warning. It's warning
of God's judgment against sin. He's coming to judge sin. But
then trumpets were also used to announce freedom and joy. The year of Jubilee began with
the blowing of the trumpet. And that year of Jubilee, every
slave was set free. Everyone who was in debt, their
debt was canceled. The year of Jubilee. That's the
gospel. The gospel tells us that there's
freedom. in Christ, that our sin debt
has been paid by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the trumpets being blown here in Revelation chapter eight.
They're trumpets that warn us of God's judgment. He's coming
for his enemies and he's coming to bring freedom to his people. And as we look through these
next chapters, that's what we'll see when all these different
seven trumpets sound out. But before all that takes place,
Another angel appears. He came and stood. And this angel,
he's not a created being either. This angel is the angel, the
messenger of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look here
at verse three. 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.
This angel is Christ. He's our great high priest. And
it'll be helpful for us to understand this verse and the next two or
three verses if we remember something about our study on the tabernacle
in the wilderness. Remember the altar of incense.
It was placed in the holy place. It was placed right before the
entrance, right before that curtain hanging, separating the holy
place from the holy of holies. And that golden altar was put
there for a purpose to show us you cannot go into the presence
of God. except going through this altar,
through what this altar represents. And that altar represents the
intercession of Christ for his people. Remember, they would
take coals from the brazen altar. As soon as you came in the gate
of the outer court of the tabernacle, first thing you came upon was
the brazen altar. That's where the burnt-off The
sin offering was made. It was a place of slaughter,
bloody slaughter. They'd slaughter all those animals.
Blood would be all around that place and they'd burn those animals
on that brazen altar as sin offerings, burnt offerings to God. And they'd
take coals from that brazen altar and they'd take those coals while
they were hot and they'd put them on that golden altar, the
altar of incense. And it was teaching us this.
There's a connection between that brazen altar and the altar
of incense between the golden altar. There's a connection between
them. And the connection is this. Christ
can only make intercession for his people through his sacrifice. It's through his bloody, awful
slaughter of sacrifice that he can make intercession for his
people before God. And the priest would take incense. It was a specific incense. You
couldn't have strange incense. It couldn't be incense you made
up a recipe for. It had to be the incense that
God gave a recipe for. There is a specific instruction,
a specific recipe for this incense. And they'd beat it very small.
And the high priest would take a handful of it, and he'd put
it on those hot coals on the altar of incense, and a sweet
smoke would go up and fill the room. All of that is a picture
of Christ, our intercessor. The incense that was beaten small
that the priest had in his hand. That's a picture of Christ, our
savior, how he was beaten and battered for the sin of his people. And the sacrifice, the sufferings
of Christ were a sweet smell to the father. They are sweet
smell to the father because the sacrifice of Christ put away
the sin of his people. The death of Christ satisfied
God's justice. And God's holy, he said, that
satisfies me. I'm satisfied in that death.
I'm satisfied with that sacrifice. There doesn't have to be another
one. They offered thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands
and thousands of sacrifices. And they always had to do another
one. Morning, noon, and night, they had to do another one the
next day. Morning, noon, and night. Every year, the day of
atonement, they offered that sacrifice. Guess what happened
next year? They had to offer another one. The sacrifice of Christ satisfied
the Father. He perfected forever them that
are sanctified. There's no more offering for
sin. Sin's been put away. That's what all that represents.
So that that sweet smoke, that sweet smell that filled the room,
that's the intercession of Christ for His people. When He makes
intercession for His people, He always pleads His sacrifice,
His blood, And that intercession, the intercession of Christ for
his people is always accepted of the father every single time,
because the father's pleased with the sacrifice of his son.
The father can only be pleased with us in Christ. And he is,
he is well pleased with us in Christ because of his sacrifice.
And notice verse three, unto him was given much incense, much
The sacrifice of Christ is sufficient. It's enough. He is all we need
to be heard, to be accepted of the Father. There's redemption
in Christ, and Scripture says it's plenteous redemption, much
redemption. Christ ever lives, always. He never takes a moment off.
He never sleeps. He ever lives, making intercession for His people.
The power of Christ, the power of His intercession, never runs
out, ever, because his sacrifice for sin never loses its power.
Christ, our Savior, Christ, our mediator, our high priest, he
prays for his people. As he's there at that altar,
he's making intercession for his people. He's praying for
them. What's he saying? What does he
pray? What is he saying to his father
as he makes intercession for his people? We'll look back at
John chapter 17. We have here the great high priestly
prayer of our Lord. Here is the Lord's prayer, what
we typically call the Lord's prayers, the disciples prayers,
the prayer our Lord taught his disciples. Here's the Lord's
prayer, the prayer of the high priest. And when he prays, he's
praying for his people and only his people. Look here at verse
nine, John 17. I pray for them. those that thou
hast given me, I pray for them. I pray not for the world. I'm not praying for everybody
in the whole wide world, but for them which thou hast given
me, for they are thine. So here in this chapter, this
is Christ praying for his people. What does he pray for? Well,
he prays his people have eternal life. Look at verse two. As thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given him. And He has given eternal
life to everybody the Father gave Him because He's died for
His people. He died that His people would
live. Then Christ prays His people be kept. Verse 11, and now I'm
no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come
to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine
own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one
as we are. Father, keep them. The Father
granted that prayer. Every one of Christ's people
is kept because Christ made him perfect in his obedience. His
sacrifice washed their sin away. He died so they could never die.
The father keeps them because of who Christ is. Then he prays
his people be sanctified. Verse 17. Sanctify them through
thy truth. Thy word is truth. and every
one of them is going to be sanctified. They're going to be made holy,
set apart for holy use because when Christ died, out of his
wounded side came forth blood and water, blood to justify,
water to sanctify. We're sanctified in Christ. Then
verse 20, Christ prays all of his people be given faith. There
is no salvation without faith, without believing on the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing. I'm telling you right
now where you sit, you believe Christ. Believe it. There's no
salvation without it. Every one of his people will.
How can I tell if I'm one of his people? These elect, those
that the father chose and gave to Christ. How can I tell I'm
one of them? The only way I can know is do I believe? That's
how you make your calling and election sure. Do you believe?
Every one of his people will believe. Verse 20. Neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word." The Apostle John, he was there. He heard
this prayer. This is the Father speaking.
Those who are going to believe through their word, that's you
and me. Read this chapter right here. Read the revelation that
the Apostle John wrote. Every one of God's elect are
going to believe. They will believe because Christ
died for them that they have life. If you have life, you can't
help it. You'll believe. Then Christ prays
his people be glorified. Verse 24. Father, I will that
they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory which thou hast given me. For thou
loves me before the foundation of the world. Father, I will
that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that
they be glorified. And they will. They will be glorified. They have to be. Christ's death
made them perfect. Christ died for them that he
would have them to himself. He's going to have them. His
death satisfied God for them. Now notice everything Christ
prays for his people. This is the high priest praying
for his people. What does it all depend upon?
It all depends upon him. Who he is and what he's accomplished
for his people. The Savior is praying as the
high priest of his people. But you know what? He's not the
only one praying. God's people are a praying people. We pray. In verse 3, back in
our text, Revelation 8, says that Christ adds that incense
he was given to the prayers of his people. And that incense
he's added to the prayers of his people makes their prayer
a sweet smell to God. That incense goes up with the
prayers of his people and the Father sees it as a sweet smell.
That's the result of the result of Christ's intercession and
the prayers of his people is, our prayers are always heard.
Look at verse four. And the smoke of the incense
which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before
God out of the angels hand. That intercession of Christ makes
the prayers of his people accepted. Now I find some encouragement
there. I would imagine that I'm not much different than you.
I don't feel like there's very many times in my life that I
have really prayed. I go through the motions of prayer
several times every day. I really don't feel like I've
truly prayed very many times. My prayers are selfish. They're filtered through this
body of sin. I don't feel like my prayers
are a sweet savor to God at all. But the only reason any of our
prayers could ever be accepted, could ever be heard of the Holy
Father is Christ intercession is mixed with them. Look at first
Peter chapter two, the smoke of Christ intercession came up
with the prayers of the saints and they were accepted because
of him. First Peter chapter two, verse five. Ye also, as lively stones, are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God, how? By Jesus Christ. That's how our prayers are accepted,
by Jesus Christ. Let me give you some encouragement
in prayer. You know, when we pray, We plead
Christ. We plead His righteousness. We
plead His merit. We plead His blood. Those prayers
are heard. So remember this. When we pray,
we're not heard for our much speaking. No, we're heard in
Christ, aren't we? And we're not heard because of
how well we word our prayer. I'm not heard in prayer because
I can turn a phrase. No, we're heard how? In Christ,
because of who He is. If you want to be heard in prayer,
just come to God in Christ. And again, I would imagine, you're
very similar to me, that not just many times, but most times,
I'm faced with a situation. I'm thinking about a situation
I'm in or someone else is in. I don't know how to pray. I don't
know what the Lord's will is in different situations. I don't
know what to pray for. I have no idea. I don't have
any suggestions to offer the Lord what he should do, you know,
with this situation. Well, when you find yourself
in that situation, which if you're like me most times, just pray. Just pour out your heart before
God. Christ intercession will make
your prayers accepted. I can show you that. Make good
on it. Romans chapter eight. Romans 8, verse 26. Likewise, the spirit also helpeth
our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as
we ought, but the spirit himself maketh intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because he maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God. Now, I want to pray
according to the will of God. But most times, my problem is
I don't know what God's will is in a certain situation. But
the Spirit knows. He knows what God's will is,
because He is God. And He maketh intercession for
us according to the will of God. And that encourages God's people
to pray. Look at James chapter 5. God's
people are a praying people. Yet sometimes we find ourselves
lax in this matter of prayer. But here's what encourages God's
people to pray. James chapter five, verse 15. And the prayer of faith shall
save the sick and Lord shall raise him up. And if he have
committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults
one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Now do you know why the prayer
of faith, it's not just any prayer, is it? James said the prayer
of faith. Do you know why the prayer of faith brings the forgiveness
of sin? Because faith is in Christ. Sin's
forgiven in Him. The prayer of faith brings forgiveness
of sin, because we pray in Christ's name, for His sake, based upon
His merit. Do you know why the fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much? because Christ is making intercession
for that man, that man who He made righteous in Him. And the
prayer of faith is heard in heaven. And more than just heard, it's
accepted. It's counted by the Father as
sweet. Now you think of that. I think
about my prayers. They're weak. Oh, just pitiful. But when we are under, I mean,
under so that all we can do is groan. The Father hears that
prayer. We can't even put it into words.
We can't even put our, our desire, our pain, our anguish, our heartache,
our desire. We can't even put it into words.
We just groan. He knows. He knows what we're
saying. He knows what we need and he
counts that as sweet. The cry for mercy. and forgiveness
for Christ's sake is always a sweet cry, a sweet groan to the Father. You parents, think about your
own children. I thought about this this morning. How often are my prayers, they're
a cry, but how often are they the cry of a selfish brat? Your children can cry, can't
they? In different ways. You fix them dinner. You put
a good layout of vegetables in front of them. They say, I don't
like that. I don't want that. They start crying. I don't like
that. That cry's not sweet, is it? No, that's not sweet crying. When that child's sick, they've
got a fever. They've been throwing up. Oh,
you're worried about them, and they just lay there and groan. That brings your heart and brings
straight to him, doesn't it? The groaning, the cry for help,
the cry for comfort, the cry for mercy for Christ's sake is
a sweet sound of a crying child to our Father. He'll not let
that prayer go on in. You just mark it down. I see
some good parents out here. Our Father's perfect. He won't
let that prayer go on in. Look back in our text, this is
a promise to every child of God throughout the whole world. The
intercession of Christ is spread across the entire world. Verse
five, and the angel took the censer and filled it with the
fire of the altar and cast it into the earth. He cast it upon
the earth and there were voices and thunderings and lightnings
and an earthquake. The smoke of the intercession
of Christ for his people is spread across the whole world. This
is put upon the whole world so that, child of God, no matter
where you are, no matter what you're doing, the intercession
of Christ for his people is upon you, that you cry to the Father. And when the intercession of
Christ is applied to the prayers of his people, buddy, there's
results. There's results. There are voices,
thunderings, lightnings, and earthquakes. But what on earth
is that? Well, the voices are the answers
of Almighty God to his people. They're the voices of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit speaking comfort to the hearts
of his people. It's the voice of Christ speaking to his Father,
making intercession as we pray. The thundering and the lightnings,
those are things that come from heaven. This is the answer of
God to the prayers of his people. And the earthquake, the earthquake
is when God Almighty, who rules heaven and earth, moves earth
for the good of his people and the glory of his son. The prayers
of God's people cause him to move heaven and earth for the
good of his people and the glory of his son. Shouldn't that encourage
us to pray? Does that give you comfort to
pray? The prayer of faith, pray believing
God. He'll comfort the hearts of his
people. He's gonna answer, he's able,
he's in control of this thing. He'll hear, he'll answer the
prayers of his people because of the intercession of Christ.
I hope that gives us encouragement to go to him in prayer. All right,
Lord bless you.