Well, just before I start, for
anybody listening to this, if this recording sounds a lot noisier
than normal, it's because we had the first really cold weather
of the winter the last couple of days. So the hot air heater
in the corner of the room's blowing away. So that's the noise in
the background that you don't normally hear. Anyway, we're
turning this week to Revelation chapter 8, and as Peter said
in his prayer, there are some difficult things here. Don't
underestimate it. It is difficult. There are some
hard things to understand. We need the guidance of God's
Spirit to get the sense and the application of these things. But first of all, a question.
You know we believe in the sovereignty of God. We say we believe in
the sovereignty of God. Everything that God wills comes
to pass, and nothing that He doesn't will comes to pass. So
why do we pray? Why do we bother praying? Does
the sovereignty of God ever make you doubt the point of prayer? What's the point of praying?
God's sovereign, he'll do his will anyway, irrespective of
what we pray for. Well, Revelation chapter 8 shows
us the place of prayer. It shows us the place of true
spiritual prayer, because I think, as I'll say more clearly later,
a lot of what believers, real believers, pray is not true spiritual
prayer. True spiritual prayer is what
it's about in the coming of God's kingdom. Thy kingdom come. That's what Jesus taught his
disciples to pray, thy kingdom come. Now before we get into
it, let me just quickly, I think it's important, without spending
half of every sermon going over what we've done before, but I
think it's important just to have a quick recap, just to get
your minds thinking where we are. Do you remember The first
three chapters were a vision of Christ in the midst of his
churches, and there are the seven letters to the seven churches,
representative of all the churches on earth. And then we got into
the second vision, which begins in chapter four. And chapter
four, up in heaven. Come up, come up here. John's
taken up into heaven for a spiritual vision of reality, eternal reality,
heavenly reality. And he sees a throne. and a sovereign
on the throne. God is sovereign on the throne.
What a vision. Look at the world around us.
Really, truly, what the scripture says, men's hearts are failing
them for fear. Are they not in the days in which
we live? Men's hearts are failing them
for fear. Look at it. This weekend, the
city of Brussels not much more than a couple of hundred miles
from where we are, has been locked down. Men's hearts are failing
them for fear in this world in which we live. John's had a vision
which is given to us as his believing people. There's one on the throne.
God is on the throne. All that happens, all that happens,
Archbishop of Canterbury, take note if you heard the news this
morning about his view of things, God is on the throne. Where are
you? God is in the midst of all these
things. He's unloosing the seals of his
eternal purposes. That's where he is. Chapter 5,
a seven-sealed book. Nobody found worthy to open.
Ah, but there is one. Who is he? He's a lion. The lion. of the tribe of Judah, the king
of God's people. He is worthy. How is he worthy?
Only in the capacity of a lamb. Because for a kingdom to have
citizens, for a kingdom of God to have citizens, you know Australia's
got a point system. You can't just go to Australia.
You have to have a certain number of points to get into Australia.
Well, do you know you have to have a certain number of points
to get into the kingdom of God? into that kingdom. And do you
know how many points you need? You need the righteousness of
God. That's the points that you need. How are you going to get
that? Only in the blood of a lamb.
Look at the lion, and he looks, and there is a lamb who sheds
his blood, who redeems his people from the curse of the law by
being made a curse for them, and pays the law's price, the
law's penalty, that they might be redeemed, that the kingdom
of God might be populated with its citizens, the people of God
from all eternity, sinners but saved by grace. And He unlooses
the seals of the book, which is the plan of the bringing about
of the kingdom of God. The seven sealed book, and we
saw six of the seals being opened, the first four being four horses,
the first one a white horse, which is speaking of Christ with
the gospel, coming in victory. The victory, the progress of
the victory of Christ's kingdom is what is envisaged by that
white horse. And then the red horse, what does God do? Why,
oh, give us peace on earth? No! If you read the book of Revelation,
God's purposes are that there will be discord between the nations
to bring about his kingdom. You know, those who say that
they're believers, they're actually supporters of the perpetuation
of the Tower of Babel philosophy in this world. They want the
kingdom of Satan to be a nice peaceful kingdom, which is what
Satan wants. No, God says his kingdom will come. His kingdom
of true righteousness and peace, not Satan's kingdom of false
peace, of false righteousness, of corruption, not that one.
And he sends war, the red horse of war. And he sends the black
horse of socio-economic disharmony. You know the enormous gulf there
is between the rich nations and the poor, between in any one
nation, the rich and the poor. Huge socio-economic disharmony. God sends these things. Yes,
on an individual basis, every one of us should do unto others
as we would have them do unto us. Is that not what our Lord
Jesus Christ taught? If we see somebody in need, it
is heartless and cruel and a denial of our faith not to do something
about it. But the big picture, the big picture is that all of
these things are in the purposes of God to bring about his kingdom.
And then look, He slays, it says, a quarter. That's the proportion.
He slays a quarter of humanity. It seems to be the, it's picture
language, it's symbolism, that large swathes of humanity every
year are swept away by the curse of death. Christine and I are
going to a funeral in this coming week because another, not quite
a relative, but almost, has died. has gone on, has been taken by
this pale horse of death. And then we saw the fifth seal,
which was the conflict of Satan's kingdom with those who are God's
elect called out. And they're martyred for their
faith, and their blood is shed. We are killed also, literally
killed, many, many martyrs, and their blood cries out. But Paul
says, as the people of God, we're killed all the day long. by this
world, by this kingdom of Satan. Conflict between the two. And
the sixth seal was the increasing portents in the physical universe,
in the earth, with its earthquakes and cataclysmic events, that
as these come along, they are portents of the fact that this
is coming to an end. Believe it. Believe it. It is
coming to an end. This is what it's warning us
of. It's a promise of a final end. And all of those seals,
they're not one after another. Many erroneous interpretations
of Revelation are based on the idea that one happens, then it
finishes. Then the next one happens, then the next one. No. They're
all overlapping. and contemporaneous to a certain
extent, whilst successive towards the end. They're all there in
all ages, but as we get closer to the end, they all become a
bit more apparent. Our Lord Jesus Christ told his
disciples, look for the signs of the times. He said, you're
wise in the things of this world. You know, you look at the sky
at night and you see a red sky and you say, oh, it's gonna be
a nice day tomorrow. Look at the signs of the times. Look
how things are increasing. And then we get to chapter 7
and there's a pause before the seventh seal is opened. And why
is that? Because there are some terrible
things that are going to be revealed to us. There are some alarming
things that are going to be revealed to us. But, chapter 7, judgment
is restrained while all God's elect are sealed whilst they're
called out. Do you know what the elect of
God are? They are, according to the Acts of the Apostles,
those that are ordained to eternal life in the sovereign purposes
of God. That's the elect of God. Do you know what else they are,
according to Ephesians chapter 2? They're children of wrath,
even as others. They're dead in trespasses and
sins, until they are sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. They're
converted to Christ. They're called out of this darkness. Their deadness in sin They're
born again of the Spirit of God. You must be born again, said
Jesus to Nicodemus. They're sealed, and there's 144,000
of them in every period of time. And thus, sealed, they're spiritually
safe, and they're immune from the effects of judgment. That's
what the sealing is talking about. God's people are called out and
brought to belief, and they're sealed, and so spiritually, even
though physically they might be touched by these things, they're
spiritually immune and safe from the effects of the judgment.
And then, he moves on. in the middle of chapter seven,
and gives us a view of the church triumphant, all in glory. A multitude
that no man can number, a glorious picture of what we might call
the end game. This is what it is about, God
establishing his endless, eternal kingdom of glory and bliss, of
which, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are
a part. You're a citizen. That is your
status. You don't fear death. Yes, you
might fear the crossing of the chilly waters of death, but you
don't fear death, for beyond is bliss. God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes. There's no more sorrow, no crying,
no pain. God is in the midst of his people.
He will be their God and they shall be his people. And it's
the final certainty of the triumph of God's kingdom over Satan's.
And then we get to Revelation chapter 8 and we see the seventh
seal is opened. The seventh seal shows us seven
trumpets, seven trumpets of judgment. And when we get to the seventh
trumpet, which won't be this week, the seventh trumpet consists
of seven vials of wrath, seven vessels of wrath. This world,
the kingdom of Satan, all that opposes Christ and his salvation,
all of it is under God's judgment. Why? Because if you oppose Christ
and his salvation, there is none other name under heaven whereby
we must be saved. There is none other way whereby
a man must be just with God. whereby a man can get the points
needed to get into the kingdom of God. There's no other way.
And the kingdom of Satan denies that. And everything to do with
the kingdoms of this world, deny it. They will not have this man
to rule over them. They want nothing to do with
Christ. They oppose Christ and his salvation. And as a result,
they're under the judgment of God. and it's revealed and it's
manifested, this judgment of God, bit by bit, as it intensifies
towards the final coming of Christ. This is the picture. Don't be
alarmed at what we see. I tell you, the wars of the last
century, the great worldwide cataclysms, the strife and the,
you know, you think we've solved war. Isn't that right? You know, end of the Second World
War, we've finally solved war. We've got a United Nations, we
can deal with all, and look where we are in 2015. We're terrified
of a horrible terrorist threat, which is not just a nation over
there outside our borders, but it's infiltrated every Can I
call it civilized society in the world? It has. Every. So
that airplanes are blown out of the sky, so that all of these
dreadful things happen. This is the world in which we
live. But children of God, don't be afraid. Because who is on
the throne of the universe? God. Our God is on the throne
of the universe. Our God is the one who rules
over all things. He protects his children. He
keeps his children. He will take his children to
be with him in glory. So when this seventh seal is
opened, look at verse one, there is a silence in heaven. When
he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about
the space of half an hour. This is actually the start of
the next of the seven revelations. This is the third revelation
of Revelation. It goes on chapters 8 through
11. This is the start of it, the
opening of the seventh seal. And there was silence in heaven
for the space of half an hour. Isn't it odd language? You know? There was silence for the space
of half an hour. Half an hour. It's a spiritual
vision. Remember that. Always remember.
It's a heavenly vision. It's a spiritual vision. It has
to use the language of this world, because that's the only language
we understand. But it's symbolical. It's spiritual. Silence for half an hour. Surely
not literal, but it has symbolism. What's its symbolism? Now, obviously,
I cannot be definitive. I've read different commentaries.
I look at what different people say. I balance the one against
the other and try and get the message that is right for us. Decide to agree with me or come
to different conclusions if you want, but don't move away from
the basic principles. This is a spiritual vision, a
spiritual vision. The silence for half an hour
is not literal, but symbolical. Of what? Well, isn't half an
hour a meaningful interval of time? What do I mean by that?
I find it very hard to describe, but let's say for example, right?
We're very familiar with TV and radio. How many TV or radio programs
are half an hour long? If you listen to Radio 4 on the
BBC, virtually everything they do is in half hour programs all
through the day. Half hour long. It fits with
what we are. It's a meaningful interval of
time. Something happens in half an hour that's worth doing. Is
that a reasonable way of putting it? Something happens in half
an hour that's worth doing. And yet, it's not a huge infinite
amount of time. It's a meaningful snippet of
time in which something worth doing happens. Seven angels are
about to blow seven trumpets of judgment. You know, we always
find that judgment is associated with trumpets. War is associated
with, you know, a trumpet, generally speaking, isn't a quiet instrument.
You know, I imagine in Stephen and Sam and Michael's household
that when Michael was first learning the trumpet, it's binary. It's either not doing it or it's
noisy. And skillful trumpeters playing
the trumpet quietly, that's hard, isn't it? To play it quietly
is hard. But to play it loud, I mean,
as we discovered with the Welling Garden City Orchestra in the
quiet. Once the French horns started,
it was like a traffic jam in a Spanish street. There's great
popping noise going on. They're very loud. They're symbols
of judgment. They're symbols of wake up. At Jericho, remember
Jericho? Joshua and the Battle of Jericho.
What happened? Walked round seven times, blow
the trumpets and they blew the trumpets and the walls fell down
and the city was overcome. But that's about to happen, but
there's silence for half an hour. Judgment will certainly fall,
but here's a brief but significant stay of judgment. Listen. This is an evangelical call.
Listen to this. Are we not in a symbolical half
an hour of silence at the moment? Are we not? It's a symbolical
half an hour of silence before the trumpets. They're going on
all the time to a measure, but before they finally blow, there's
a half an hour. We're in a half an hour. of a
stay of judgment. God says now this, he says this,
Joel 2.13, rend, tear, tear your heart and not your garments.
You know, as a show of penitence, as a show of religious penitence,
orthodox Jews would take their clothes and rip them, people
would, you know, an outward show and God says, tear your hearts
and not your garments. Don't just do it on the outside,
make it inside. Make it a matter of the heart.
Tear your heart and not your garments in penitence and turn
unto the Lord your God. Why? Listen, there's a half an
hour of silence before judgment comes. For he is gracious and
merciful and slow to anger. Half an hour of silence. and
of great kindness. Will you heed his voice? Unbelieving
world out there, will you heed his voice? But there's another
reason for the half hour of silence. It's the prayers of all the saints. Look, they're given the trumpets,
then in verse 3, 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. It's the prayers of all saints
is the reason for the half an hour. All saints of all times,
who? The elect of God. To be offered
and mixed with much incense, a lot of incense. And just as
in the Old Testament temple, and they try and mimic it in
Catholic cathedrals now where they get their pots of incense
and they set it on fire and they waft the smoke around, but it
was symbolical in the Old Testament temple of the prayers of the
people ascending to God. And the angel mixes the incense
with the prayers of the people and ignites it so that it goes
up. He takes coals from the altar
of burnt offering and mixes it and takes it into the Holy of
Holies where on the altar of incense the smoke arises to God. It's the prayers of God. The
silence is reverence for the time of prayer. And while judgment
starts to fall and to increase to a final climax, there's always
space, there's always silence in heaven for the prayers of
the saints to reach his throne. Remember what I said about does
the sovereignty of God make you think there's no point in prayer?
There's point in prayer because in the purposes of God he calls
for it. Jesus told his disciples, Jesus
himself, the man, prayed to his father. He went to pray, to commune
with his father. He tells us to pray. Here we
have the prayers of the saints, all saints, mixed with the incense
which the angel in front of the altar mixes and goes in and Before
the golden altar, he ignites it and the smoke of the incense
rises up to God. Who are these saints? Who are
these saints? They're the sanctified ones.
They're the set-apart ones. Who are they? They're believers.
You look at all the epistles. Who are they written to? The
saints. Are the saints just the ones that some pope in Rome says
should be saints? Some convocation of cardinals?
No, of course not. They're all believing people.
All God's people are saints. All God's believing people are
saints not because they themselves in their flesh are holy, not
because they have done a miracle, They're saints, they're sanctified,
they're set apart for the service of God because God has called
them. God called them in eternity. Whom he justified them, he also
glorified. Romans 8, you know, whom he called,
he foreordained them, he foreknew them, he called them. It's all
in his eternal purpose. The ones that the Father gave
to the Son, the sheep that the Father gave to the Son before
the beginning of time. You know he said to the Pharisees,
he said, you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. Not
the other way around. He didn't say, oh, if only you
would believe, then you would become my sheep. He said, you
don't believe because you're not of my sheep. Because in the
beginning, God chose a people in the Lord Jesus Christ and
gave them to Christ before the foundation of the world. And
they are the ones, and they're born like anybody else, dead
in trespasses and sins, without any knowledge of God until they're
sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. They're sealed, the 144th
act, they're sealed by the Spirit of God. They're given spiritual
life. They're given spiritual sight.
He that has ears to hear, let him hear. He that has eyes to
see, let him see. Do you see these things? Blessed
are you. Many people have wanted, but
haven't seen. But your eyes have seen. Blessed
are you, said Jesus. It's all of them. All of God's
elect, in all ages. justified from before the beginning
of time, and all of them pray. All of God's people pray. How
was Ananias to know that Saul of Tarsus, who had come breathing
fire and violence against the believers, the disciples of Christ,
God said to him, behold, he prayeth. He's prayed. All God's people
pray. God's spirit puts it into believers'
hearts to pray. God's Spirit does that. David
says this, 2 Samuel 7.27, Therefore hath thy servant David found
in his heart to pray this prayer. How did he find it there? The
Holy Spirit put it there. The Holy Spirit puts it in the
heart of believers to pray. These saints, these redeemed
of the Lord, these redeemed from the curse, these You know what
the gospel says, you know what the scripture says, it says,
cursed is everyone that does not continue in all things which
are written in the book of the law to do them. Cursed from God. But he says two or three verses
later, Galatians 3, 10 and 13. 13 says this, but Christ has
redeemed us. The elect, those he set apart,
the sanctified. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law. How did he do it? By being made
a curse for us. He was made a curse for his people,
that his people might not be made a curse for their own sin. So these are the prayers of true
believers, but you know, a lot of what, as I said earlier, a
lot of what even true believers pray is not the prayers spoken
of here, that are mixed with incense. Because, do you know,
Isn't much prayer tainted by the lusts of the flesh? I know
what Philippians 4 verse 6 says. Let me just turn that up now.
Philippians 4 verse 6, where the apostle says to the Philippians,
be careful for nothing, don't worry about anything, don't be
filled with care. It doesn't mean be slapdash and
sloppy, he means don't be filled with cares for anything. But
in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God. What did Jesus tell
his disciples to pray for? That which is in accordance with
the will of God. Not the lusts of your flesh,
not the things that you want, but that which is in accordance.
He said, whatever you pray in accordance with my will, it shall
be done. Praying in accordance with the
will of God. How do we know the will of God?
Teach us what to pray, they said in Luke. And he did. He taught
them what's called the Lord's Prayer. We'll come to it in a
moment. But a lot of what is prayed is not that, is it? We have to confess in our flesh
much of what we pray for is tainted by the lusts of the flesh. We
hear believers, I believe they're true believers, but we hear believers
say this, oh you know, we're praying what the Lord's will
is for us, regarding the house we're going to buy, or the car
that we're going to buy, or what we should do. I mean, I'm not
saying that it's wrong to have guidance in those things, but
that's not spiritual prayer. That's not what the Lord taught
his people to pray for. You know, how many prayer meetings
I used to go to in years gone by where nearly everything that
was prayed was, please, can I have prayer? Our kids are coming up
to their mock GCSEs this week. Can we have prayer that they'll
all pass them and get good jobs with pots of money in the city
and then we'll all be able to retire nicely later on? I'm not
joking. You think I'm making flippant
glib comments about it. It's absolutely true. Help our
kids pass their exams. Oh, we're going on a journey.
Oh, please make sure that all the traffic lights are green
when we get to them and we never have to stop for a red traffic
light. Oh, let's pray that we'll go through life in health, wealth
and happiness all the way. Oh, yes, can we pray for sunny
weather for our picnic next Saturday so that we can all have such
a nice time together. That's not spiritual praying,
is it? It isn't what's talked about
here. It's fleshly. Yes, we pray, give us this day
our daily bread, but that's about our needs. And God knows what
we need before we ask. Give us our needs. Yes, he gives
us our needs. But that's not the same as praying
for all of those, you know, what a contrast to what Paul said,
I have learned. in whatever state I am therewith
to be content. And there are many that would
say, oh no Paul, no, no, you didn't have enough faith and
you didn't ask to be let out of prison and you didn't ask
to not be beaten with stripes and you didn't ask not to be
drowning in the sea. If only you'd had a bit more
faith you would have got out of all of that stuff. Read 2 Corinthians
chapters 10, 11, 12 around there and you'll see what Paul thinks
of that view. No. The saints prayers are the ones
that ascend There may be the ones that the Spirit has to intercede
for us. Do you know what it says in Romans
8, verses 26 and 27? He says this, Likewise, the Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities, our weaknesses, our frailty. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought. We don't, do we, in the flesh,
so often tainted by sin and by fleshly lusts and desires. We
know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit
itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered." Groanings that can't... These are the prayers of the
saints. Look at the Lord's Prayer in Matthew chapter 6 in the Sermon
on the Mount. The Lord's Prayer as it's called
there in verse 9. After this manner, therefore,
pray ye, Our Father. Teach us what we should pray.
John taught his disciples to pray. Teach us what we should
pray, in Luke's account, that's what it says. After this manner,
pray, Our Father. You know, you're coming before
God who is holy, who is a judge, into whose hands it is a fearful
thing to fall if you're in sin, but you're coming as a child
to Abba, Father, Daddy, our Father, the children of God, come, our
Father, who art in heaven, the one who dwells in heaven, who
dwells in unapproachable light, who dwells in that eternal realm
of bliss and purity. Hallowed be thy name. Holy is
your name. Oh, how our prayers ought more
to be filled with reverence for God. And then look at the next
phrase. Thy kingdom come. Bring about
your kingdom. We're not happy with this here. We're not contented. Yes, we're
content to be in your will, in this wilderness world, doing
your will, being fed in the place where you've put us. But don't
make this our permanent residence. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done in the earth. Everything that you've purposed,
bring it about, for you surely will, as it is in heaven. Oh
yes, give us our daily bread, we need that, and forgive us,
forgive us, for we need forgiveness more than anything else, and
make us forgiving to others. And as he prayed in John 17,
keep us from evil, lead us not into temptation, deliver us from
evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. Are
they not the sort of prayers that are mixed? And who's doing
the mixing? You see the prayer, read on to
Revelation 22 verse 20, even so come Lord Jesus. This is the
spirit of it. These spirit motivated saints
prayers through all the ages of all the saints. Look, they're
seasoned with Christ's atoning blood. That's what this is picturing.
This angel is not one of the seven to blow the trumpets. This
is an interceding angel. Who must it be? This is the Lord
Jesus Christ in one of his offices. You know, you say, well he's
not an angel. Yes he is. The messenger of the covenant,
that's Christ. The messenger, the angel of the
covenant. Another angel, the angel of the
covenant, the messenger of the covenant. He comes and stands
by the altar. We have an altar, he is our altar.
And he's got a golden censer, a pot. And there was given to
him much incense. Much incense. The incense is
picturing his atoning blood. The prayers, the weak, the fallen
prayers of fleshly believers in this earth, still in the corruption
of their flesh, are mixed with his incense. To rise to the throne
of God. To go up before him. He is that
angel. Christ is in his mediatorial
office. There is one God and one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And through Christ,
the prayers of God's saints for the coming of God's kingdom and
the glory of his name are answered. And verse 5, then, The angel
took the censer, and filled it with the fire of the altar, and
cast it into the earth, and there were voices, and thunderings,
and lightnings, and an earthquake." Do you know what? I think that
just simply tells us this. It tells us that our prayers
are answered. If we pray, thy kingdom come,
God is answering our prayers, and he's doing it even today.
Even today, in the events of the world, in the economy of
the world, in the politics of the world, in all these things,
he's answering our prayer for thy kingdom come. Oh, the error,
do you not, have you ever been guilty of it yourself? I'm sure
I have, where something happens where your toast lands jam-side
up for a shame rather than landing jam-side down. You know, they
say, the cliché is that you drop your piece of toast with jam
on it and it will always land jam-side down and pick up the
fluff off the carpet. Always, always do. But just once
in a while, you drop your toast and it lands jam-side up. Oh,
oh, and you go, oh, that was an answer to prayer, wasn't it?
And what you mean is, I got what I wanted. That's not true prayer. That's not true answers to prayer.
Oh, that traffic light was green, I got what I wanted. No, all
things are in God's hands. Think of Israel in Egypt. If
Israel in Egypt had identified itself, had aligned itself with
Egypt, which was Christless, absolutely Christless, would
its cry for deliverance have been answered? If you read Exodus
3, 9, where Moses goes to the burning bush, and for 40 years
since he left Egypt, he's an 80-year-old man, and God's there
in the burning bush, speaking to him. Take your shoes off your
feet, where you're standing is holy ground. God tells him he's going to go
and take his people out of Egypt. How am I going to do that? Tell
them that I AM has sent you and they'll come out. Why is God
going to take them out of Egypt? He says, now therefore behold,
The cry of the children of Israel is come unto me. What was their
cry? Take us out of this kingdom into your kingdom of the promised
land. That was their cry. Symbolism, I know. Old Testament
real nations, I know, but it's symbolical. of the people of
God in this world. If they had identified with Egypt,
do you know when the plagues of God fell, if Israel had been
identified like most of what calls itself the church is identified
with this fallen world and kingdom of Satan, they would have been
praying for the plagues to cease. wouldn't they? They would have
been praying for the plagues to cease. We're not praying for
specific catastrophe. We're not reveling in particular
human suffering. In fact, as believing people
we should do whatever we can, wherever we get opportunity,
whether it's helping out with money in some cases, to do unto
others as they would do unto us. But take the bigger picture
and look and see that these are God's plagues on the world of
Satan, on the kingdom of Satan, answering the prayers of his
saints, that thy kingdom come. We shouldn't be alarmed at what
we see. We're rapidly running out of
time and I'm going to cut this short and come back to it next
week. But I just briefly want to look
then at the four trumpets, the first four trumpets that we see
in Revelation chapter 8. Because this is the unleashing
of the judgment of God. Remember, seven symbolizes the
union between God, number three, and his people in the world.
World, number four. Three and four, seven. And the
effect of God's grace, three, acting on his elect, four, three
times four equals twelve. Twelve tribes of Israel. Twelve
apostles. All the twelve elders that you
see, it's all symbolical of God's grace, calling his people out
and making his church. Now, there are many different
interpretations of these four trumpets. And when we read it,
you must have been thinking, wow, this is getting into weird
language. I mean, I don't understand this.
You must have been thinking that. And I've seen different interpretations
by different men who I respect as God's true ministers, and
yet they have different views on them. So that's why I am not
going to be specifically definitive. And I don't claim to have a definitive
interpretation for you. You know, it's nice to have a
great big jigsaw puzzle where you put every piece, and at the
end of it, there's not one bit missing. It all fits perfectly
together. You see, some people interpret these first four trumpets
as great forces of natural destruction unleashed on the earth. That's
the first one, it's vegetation. The second one is on the sea
and the food supply that's in it and the transport, the ships.
You think about it, the way to get around the world is by ship
and a third of the ships are taken out of commission. The
rivers and the waters are poisoned The astronomical bodies, it looks
like sunshine is impeded and all of those sorts of things.
Some interpret them as just literal effects on this world and this
universe in which we live. Others interpret them spiritually
as apostasy and error becoming more and more rampant. And I
can accept aspects of both of those things. But the trumpets
are an answer of God to the prayers of the saints for Christ's kingdom
to come. the coming of God's triumphant
kingdom will see the progressive downfall of Satan's kingdom.
I'm only going to be a minute or two, don't worry. Do you know,
you know we're sort of told that everything's going on like it
always has done, and yet all of the evidence points screamingly
to my mind that things are not going on like they've always
done. Can I just give you a statistic? As the world population balloons,
natural, political, economic, climatic disasters seem to underline
and mark out the fragility of the kingdoms of this world. Do
you know in the year 1800, 215 years ago, the population of the earth is
estimated to have been 1 billion people. In 1927, it was about
2 billion people. In 1960, it was 3 billion people. In 1974, the year Peter was born,
it was 4 billion people. 87, 5 billion. 99, 6 billion. Today, it's 7 billion. Do you
know, in Peter's lifetime, the population of the Earth has increased
by three quarters. Is that not a phenomenal statistic
that everybody just seems to disregard? So what am I talking
about? You see here there's the indication
that things are coming to an end. That there's cataclysmic
things to happen. That the fundamental things that
we rely on are going to be fundamentally affected. Now I know they talk
a lot about climate change and I personally think they're going
to find, they're going to prove in the end to have got it the
wrong way round. But nevertheless it's clear that the fourth trumpet
is about something drastic happening to sunshine and the ability to
grow food and feed all these billions of people in the earth.
You think, what would happen? Some effect, some great volcano
goes off. And it's happened in the past.
And the sun's light is reduced. There was one, wasn't there,
in the early 1800s. And food crops were drastically hit because
the sunshine was greatly reduced. All of these sorts of things,
pollution, poisoning of natural resources. Think about this one. Let me bring it a bit more up
to rear. You know we've got planes flying all over the world and
I know they're under terrorist threat all the time, but planes
flying all over the world, but think how easily diseases spread
around the world now. Think about endemic diseases. and antibiotic resistance that
we keep hearing about in the news, and all the effects of
terrorism. You see, I'm not trying to fit
every word in here to a particular view, but is it not clear that
things are heading for an end? That this lovely Tower of Babel
peaceful society that this world thinks it's made is coming to
an end. And you'll see in chapter 8,
and I'll come back to it next week, that whereas the fraction
of that which was destroyed was a quarter, in chapter 8 it's
a third. Now, those of you that struggle
with maths might cringe at this question, but which is the bigger,
a quarter or a third? Well, I know most of you know.
It's a third. And that means it's getting worse.
As we go from chapter six where it was a quarter, it's now a
third of things are hurt. It's getting bigger. It's getting
towards the end. What do we conclude from this?
Believer. If you are true, Christ's kingdom
is your goal. This world, you know, we used
to sing a chorus glibly and not have any idea what we were singing.
This world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. Well
we are. That's it. This world isn't my
home. I am just passing through. It's
just for a while. And God is answering your prayers
for his kingdom to come. Unbeliever, unbeliever. Alarm
bells. Look for the signs. Look at the
signs. Flee from the wrath to come.
Where to? Hide in Christ. For in Christ
is a cleft in the rock. Hide in Christ.