All right, if you will turn to
Revelation chapter 8. In chapter 8, we're told of the
opening of the seventh seal. And the seventh seal is the last
of those things which the Lamb took from His Father to reveal
and accomplish and make known to His church. And as the seal
is opened, we're told of the seven trumpets of judgment which
shall come upon the sons of men all during these last days as
a result of the holy and just God whose character demands retribution. Judgment is almost totally ignored
in our day because men and women are too ignorant to know what's
the judgment of God and what's what they call the freak of nature
or a string of events due to change in weather and so on and
so on. But these things according to
the scriptures are providential judgments of God. And over the
next four chapters here, God the Holy Spirit will reveal these
awful judgments against those who persecute his people. and
mock his person and power and refuse to submit to his word
and his way and his authority. The final and complete retribution
for sin is reserved for that great day of judgment at Christ's
coming. But those judgments are active
even now. One man said this, one of the
old writers, he said, even now the seals of persecution are
followed by the trumpets of judgment. And if I understand what this
book is teaching, these trumpets of judgment do not symbolize
an isolated event or a space in time, but rather they're describing
or picturing things that's going to come across the whole of the
last days. And it's going to be repeated.
It's going to come over and over and over and over again. It's
just like when our Lord warned them in, I think it's in Matthew
24, that there's going to be wars and rumors of wars. Well,
what he's saying there is those wars which were done in about
50 A.D. or 100 A.D., those things are
not done. They're going to continually
be these wars and rumors of wars. And I believe it's an awful mistake
to write God's judgments of men off to some circumstance like
a freak of nature or bad luck or being in the wrong place at
the wrong time and whatever else men have to say about those things.
Do you know that even the insurance companies, when they can't explain
how something happened, what do they call it? An act of God. And they're exactly right. That's
what it is. It's an act of God. And Brother
Don said this in his book on Revelations, he said, every act
of divine judgment in time is a warning of the eternal judgment
to come and call for God's enemies to bow to Christ in repentance
and faith. Did you know in the first part
of Isaiah, our Lord tells Israel that very thing? That he'd smitten
them with mildew and drought and all kinds of things and he
said, why should you be smitten anymore? You won't repent. You
won't bow. And from the top of your head
to the sole of your feet, you're just covered with bruises and
wounds and putrefying sores. And he said, no matter how much
I beat you, you won't come to me. You don't see what these
things are about. You don't heed the warning. In chapters eight through 11,
God sends his holy messengers to blow their trumpets of warning
concerning these things which shall fall upon this present
evil world. And all through the scriptures,
the trumpets, are tied together with the preaching of the gospel.
Now, I don't have time this morning to go back through all the scriptures
and show you these things, but if you've got a concordance at
home, all you have to do is look them up. Every time when he talks
about the trumpets, the trumpets when they surrounded Jericho
and they blew those trumpets and the walls fell down, those
trumpets were the preaching of the gospel. It's the preaching of the gospel
that God's pleased to use to overcome that old man and bring
him down. And so it is all through the
scriptures when you hear those trumpets. Those trumpets have
to do with the preaching of the gospel. And so as we look at these seven
angels, or these seven messengers of God, I believe our first thought
ought to be toward the seven angels of his churches, which
he's already revealed to us, which have already... These are
the pastors and preachers of the gospel, and they're going
to blow this trumpet. They're going to warn men. Every
time something happens like that big hurricane that came through
and hit New Orleans and all those people died and the catastrophes
that followed and all of those things, somebody's going to have
to stand in the pulpit and say, hey, God sent this thing. And it's a warning. It's a judgment
on me. And so on. And these things happen
all over the world. And they're not freaks of nature.
They're judgments of God. While these men serve Christ
and are to feed his church, they also carry a warning to this
world. The hearing of the gospel is
a serious matter. Though most are not aware of
it, the judgment of God follows the preaching of the gospel.
He that believeth not, what's it say? Shall be damned. Shall be damned. And then John
3, 36, he says this, he that believeth not the Son. The Son
has come and manifested these things. The Son has come and
declared these things. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life. He's never going to see life.
The only way you can see life is to believe the Son. He is
the testimony. He is the preacher. He is the
Word. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
That's the judgment of God. Now, in Revelation chapter 8,
we're told of the first four of these warnings. First, let's
look at the angels which bring to us this warning. Actually,
there's eight angels in all. Seven who are trumpeters. and
one who's engaged in the duties of the high priest. In Exodus chapter 30 verses 1
through 8 is a detailed picture of this altar of incense of which
this is alluding to here in Revelation 8. There's a detailed picture
of it in which the high priest was to burn incense as a perpetual
thing before the Lord which makes our prayers and our offerings
acceptable to the Lord. It's a picture of our Lord Jesus
Christ in his mediatorial office intervening for his elect. So
he is the angel when it talks of this single angel that comes
and offers this incense. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so as we see the seven messengers about to blow their trumpets
of doom, we're assured by the angel of the covenant But we
shall be spared those judgments. So as the preacher declares these
judgments of God, which are going to come upon this world, yet
the church, his people, his elect, they have one in heaven who's
their mediator. And he makes intercession for
them so that these plagues are not going to fall upon them and
do them any harm. The second thing I want you to
see is that as the seal of judgment was opened, there was silence.
About 30 minutes, he says, in heaven. Nobody spoke. The angels didn't
speak. The elders didn't speak. Preachers
didn't speak. Church didn't speak. God didn't
speak. There was silence in heaven for
about the space of 30 minutes. Why? Because judgment, which is, as
the old writers all agree, is God's strange work. His judgment. It's a terrible and awful thing.
Our Lord said it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God. It's a fearful thing. And it
just proves to me when I see men who don't tremble before
the Lord and who who hear things and just so flippantly regard
them. I look at these things and I'm
thinking to myself, here's the evidence of the depravity of
man right here. He's so ignorant, he don't fear
God. There's no fear of God before
his eyes. He just hears these things and
sloughs them off like it was nothing. But not in heaven. There was
silence in heaven. And it's a terrible and awful
thing and a thing which God himself says he has no pleasure in it.
He said, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. It's
a strange work. And when we contemplate the love
and mercy and grace of God upon chosen sinners, we're filled
with joy. Here in a little bit, we're going
to open a hymn book and we're going to sing praises to the
Lord. And we should be filled with joy regardless of what's
gone on before you come into here. You ought to be filled
with joy if you have hope in Him. And when we contemplate,
and that's what we do when we come in here, we contemplate
the love and mercy and grace of God upon chosen sinners. And
then we're filled with joy and singing and praise to God. But
when judgment's contemplated, our mouths are shut. Everywhere
where it talks about it, That's what it says. It's basically
right there in Romans 3. Those things, whatsoever things
the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped. And I tell you, a true sight
of that law and of God and His justice, it'll shut your mouth.
And you'll sit and tremble. So this silence is to show us
what a serious matter it is to hear the preaching of the gospel,
to hear these trumpets blow, and to hear the revelation of
God's justice and righteousness. And then thirdly, I want you
to see this, that the angel of the covenant filling his censure,
I want you to see that. He fills his censure. He put
the incense on the altar and the incense rose up to heaven. That's the prayers of the saints.
That's what he tells us plainly in this chapter. Then he takes
that censure and he takes the fire from the altar, that righteous
fire, and he casts it into the earth. The fire is the fire of God's
wrath. taken from that holy altar and cast into the earth in the
form of judgments. Now listen as he describes them,
Revelation 8 verse 5. He said there were voices and
thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake. These are the
Well, let's just look at them. Voices, that's the first thing
he tells us. There were voices. These are the warnings of the
prophets and the apostles, and they are the warnings of every
faithful preacher sent of God. These are warnings, they're voices.
He cast that fire into the earth. We want to make men aware of
that. You know most people don't know that this world is condemned
of God. I'm just going to take a stab
in the dark because I'm not trying to name any particular thing,
but I'm going to say 95% or more of this world is totally ignorant
that this world is under the judgment of God. And that all
these years, all these centuries that have passed by, he's been
gathering up his elect out of this world. And the rest of them
are condemned. They're on their way to hell,
the multitudes hell had to enlarge its borders, our Lord said. There's
a broad way, real wide, broad way, and it leadeth to destruction. And there's a narrow way. Narrow
way, you just barely go down the way. It's a narrow way, but
it leads to life everlasting. So there's voices, there's warnings,
the warnings of the prophets and apostles You want to know
about these things? I read one out of Luke, I think,
chapter 21 to Kathy the other day, describing in detail exactly
what we're experiencing right now today around the world in
a political sense with the nations. It's so vivid. It's just like
reading yesterday's newspaper. There are going to be voices. It'll be the testimony of all
God's elect, and they are the pillar and ground of the truth.
And then he says there's going to be thunderings. The apostles,
I read that to you a few weeks ago, were called the sons of
thunder. They sounded out a threatening
voice to all who would seek the Lord on the basis of law and
works. They try to make men to understand,
and I believe this is the biggest error in our day, is that people
don't know how to seek the Lord. They want to seek the Lord by
their own righteousness and by the law to their own glory. And as there were thunderings
upon Sinai at the giving of the law, so there's warning still
of the danger of approaching God by your own works and righteousness. And then he says there's lightnings.
Now, remember what these things are the result of. He took that
censure, he dipped those holy coals from that isle, and he
cast them into the earth. And when he did, there were voices. Those voices are the result of
that. And there was thunderings, and those thunderings were the
result of that, and then there was lightnings. Lightnings to
me speak of the fire of God's wrath falling upon the unsuspecting. Lightning don't kill the whole
nation. Lightning takes out an individual. I remember years
ago up in Kentucky during tobacco season, they'd gather that tobacco
in and the size of the barn was known by how many rails there
were in the top of it to hang tobacco. And they'd drape those
leaves over those rails and dry that tobacco in those barns and
get it ready for market. And it come up a pretty good
thunderstorm and they all went inside and they were sitting
up on the rails inside the barn and lightning went through that
door There were six or eight of them stretched out on a rail
and took out one individual off that rail inside the barn. To me, that's what lightnings
speak of. The fire of God's wrath falling
upon the unsuspecting. And then he says, an earthquake. What are earthquakes? Well, earthquakes
are known because they shake the earth, and they shake it
violently enough to kill and destroy. And while scientists
tell us these things are the result of tectonic plates building
up pressure over time and all these things, it may very well
be, but somebody's controlling the tectonic plates. Somebody
is setting the time when this thing is going to break loose
and tremble. Somebody's wanting things. It's not the result of
chance. And here he plainly tells us
that these are the results of God's casting that fire into
the earth. And these natural disasters are
both spiritual and physical, and in both ways are the results
of God's judgment upon his enemies. And then fourthly, we now have
the First four angels blowing their trumpets and being followed
by the judgments of God. And he tells us here in verse
seven, the first angel sounded and there followed hail and fire
mingled with blood and they were cast upon the earth and the third
part of the trees were burned up and all the green grass was
burned. And again, I remind you, don't
limit these things to the physical. It seems to me that in the physical,
he's describing a great storm. And I think California might
be the perfect example of this. A storm comes, lightning ignites
the forest, and the forest gets on fire, and there's nothing
but total destruction. One time, Kathy and I had a satellite
that would pull in from all over the world. And I enjoyed that
probably more than any other TV thing I've ever had. But we
were watching the fires in California and watching them for weeks and
weeks and weeks on end. But when those things would start
and those dry winds would blow into it, it was devastating. It would just go through and
catch people unawares and burn their houses to the ground. I
mean, you just almost have to see it to believe it, and how
quickly it run across. And so in the physical, he's
talking about things like this. These things are sin of God.
And they leave nothing in the wake. The trees are gone, the
grass is gone, everything's gone. There's nothing there but black
silt. But in the spiritual, it describes
storms of pestilence and drought and war and economic upheavals,
which I believe shall be present till the end of time. These things
are going to go on and on. And often as the judgment of
God is revealed in the scriptures, and this is something else I
want you to see all through the book of Revelations especially,
but you can find it also in the four gospels. As often as the
judgment of God is revealed in the scripture, he uses the most
vivid and terrible things that there is to describe it. Fire, I mean, I burnt myself
in the past, pretty good on stuff, different things that I was doing.
Welding and burning steel and different things, and I burnt
myself, but not all over. But fire, the pain of fire, you
think about how that word just immediately, if you've ever been
burnt, man, you know what he's talking about when he uses that
word fire a lot to describe the judgment of men. But here he
talks about hail and fire mingled with blood. Those are horrible things, terrible
things. verse eight and then the second
angel sounded and as it were a great mountain burning with
fire was cast into the sea and a third part of the sea become
blood I've listened in the past to men uh... talking about a
time that they call the uh... the great tribulation and during
that tribulation they're going to be all kinds of monsters and
fire and freak things and all these I don't believe that's
what revelations is about to me right here this word as
it were tells me that these things are symbolic and he's talking
about a mountain well what is a mountain? a mountain is something
big We used to call those hills up
there in eastern Kentucky mountains. Those are not mountains. You
won't see mountains go out west, go up to Alaska. Those are mountains. Huge, huge mountains. You don't just run around one. They're huge. There's something
big, there's something powerful, something that can be seen from
way off, and something which stands in the way of the traveler. He said these mountains shall
be burning with fire. Now, what's he talking about?
Well, these mountains, and we're talking about the judgment of
God on this world. These trumpets are judgments,
okay? So these mountains are great, and to me, great and idolized
spiritual leaders. That's what he's talking about.
He's talking about people like the Pope. He's talking about
people like Billy Graham. And if I could go on and on this
morning and name you these famous preachers, Russell was talking
about one this morning. And all of these men, these mountains
are great to me. They're great and idolized spiritual
leaders, men like the The Pope and Billy Graham and some of
these other ones are any number of men of great influence upon
the world in a spiritual sense. And these shall continually arise.
Soon as one dies or another one takes its place, they're going
to continually arise in the last days and continually to be thrown
down by the Lord, being publicly exposed and disgraced. And you
can see it over and over and over. And great men have a great
public following. And when they fall, they take
their followers with them. Their followers, at the very
end of the book of Revelations, when he's talking about that
final judgment, he said, all of these unbelievers and the
false prophets with them were cast into the pit. So in verse
eight, we're told that they should be cast into the sea. Now this is a saying that's synonymous
with the judgment of God all through the scriptures. Pharaoh
and his army was buried in the sea. So in a sense, cast into
the sea. Jonah was cast into the sea. The disciples were in a ship
about to be swallowed up in the sea. And you go all through the
scriptures, and he tells you that. To offend one of these
little ones, he said, you'd be better off to tie a millstone,
one of them big giant millstones, around your neck and cast it
into the sea. And when famous false prophets
are judged of God, they're publicly exposed to their shame and the
shame of their followers. And the fact that a third part
of the sea become blood, to me, is evidence that their followers
were cast into the sea with them. All right, verse nine of Revelations
8 tells us that their death and judgment have collateral damage. You think, well, that man, he's
gonna be judged. Yes, he is. And so is everybody
that supports him and sits and listens to him and tolerates
him. Many are affected by the judgment
of these men. I know some right now whose famous
relatives are dead and gone. They were famous in their day.
You used to attend church with them. Famous man, everybody knew
who he was. Their relatives are dead and
gone, and who are them still, still dying under the effect
of their ministries. All right, verse 10. The third angel sounded, And
there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a
lamp. And it fell upon the third part
of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters. Verse 11. And the
name of the star is called Wormwood. And the third part of the waters
became Wormwood. And many men died of the waters
because they were made bitter. Now to me this scripture speaks
of a man whose had his beginning in the true church of god he
won them like you did that come in on wires unnoticed and he
had his beginning in the church of god and he become a bright
and burning star in the church of the lord i think i think they've
been there charismatic and they uh... jude described them as
a shooting star it moves Stars of God don't move. When he put
the star in the sky, that north star is right where it was when
God put it there. When God puts his star in a place,
that's where he means for it to stay. But shooting stars move. And as they move, they become
brighter and brighter, and all of a sudden, they go into eternal
darkness. And that's what he's describing
here. Speaks of a man who's had his beginning in the church,
and then he becomes a bride, Burning star to the church of
God, he's a great speaker, he's an intelligent man and a man
who rises to the place of renown and prominence in the church,
but a man whose heart is not right with God. And falling into
heresy, he begins to do great damage to the souls of his hearers,
and he causes the sweet waters of Christ to become bitter. Bitter. Those who once rejoiced in his
message now sit and can't drink the water. Can't drink the water. And all those who do drink from
the water, which is his doctrine, they die. They die. There's some men that I knew
30 years ago who were prominent in the church. When we went to
a Bible conference, I wanted to make sure that they were there,
because I really enjoyed them. I liked to hear them. Some of
them sang, and some of them preached. And I mean, they're just very
prominent in the church, well-known, respected by all the churches,
who are now nothing but poison to the soul. They're still around. Still around. But they're not
serving God. And there's no light in them.
Our Lord said, if it were possible, even the very lick might be fooled
and drink from that pool and be deceived by these men. God's
judgment has fallen upon them and they've been given strong
delusion to believe a lie and be damned. Verse 12, the fourth
angel sounded and a third part of the sun was smitten and a
third part of the moon and a third part of the stars So as the third
part of these were darkened, and a day shone not for a third
part of it, and the night likewise. Now we don't have to guess about
what these figures represent. Peter tells us that we do well
to take heed to the Word of God until that day star arrives.
The day star is the sun. That's Christ. That's Christ. And the moon is the church, reflecting
the light of Christ upon a dark world, and the stars are his
preachers. And when the light of Christ
is smitten, and that's what these men do, Paul said, If our gospel
be hid, it's hid to the lost, in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them. And to
their hearers, I'm not talking about in an effectual way stopping
that which God is purposed to do, but I'm talking about in
a general way to their hearers, these false prophets smite the
light of the sun. When you smite the light of the
sun, you smite the light of the church, it has a domino effect.
Who do we get our light from? Christ. Christ. And it has a domino effect all
the way down. Heresies shall multiply, and
as it does, it will engulf the church and leave her hindered
with her ministers by their darkness. But even then, we're told that
only a third part shall suffer damage, only a third. The foundation
of God stand assured, He knows His own, and He's given to them
eternal life and they'll never perish. Neither shall any man
pluck them out of his hand. He's given them faith, and they're
not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe
to the saving of the soul. And what is judgment to some,
now listen to me, is purging to others. Those heresies, when they're
exposed, they purge that church of that error.