Revelation chapter 8 and verse
1. And when he had opened the seventh
seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which
stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. And
another angel came and stood at the altar having a golden
censer. 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. And the smoke
of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints ascended
up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the
censer and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into
the earth. And there were voices, and thunderings,
and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels, which had
the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound." Now in
these verses we find reference to the Old Testament order of
worship. It would be a great benefit to
you, having studied about the tabernacle and all the parts
thereof and the order of worship there in the Old Testament. There was a specific way, God-ordained
way, of approach unto God. There was the high priest, there
was the sacrifice, there was the altar of sacrifice on the
outside, and there was the altar of incense, the golden altar,
on the inside. And then, of course, other things
in this passage, the incense and the censer. Time would forbid us to speak
about all these things in detail as they occur in this passage
and in the Old Testament tabernacle. But here, taken all together,
Using that Old Testament order, it points to and finds its fulfillment
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, which Hebrews 4.14 calls
Him our Great High Priest. Our Great High Priest. about all most people have heard
in this day and hour about priest is that that's something associated
with the Roman religion. Roman Catholicism or you know
a few of the others have Lutherans and a few of the others have
what they call priests. Well guess what? The scripture
tells us, our Lord did, that in Him we are all, all believers
are made priests unto God. We come through our Lord Jesus
Christ. But He, Hebrews 4.14, is our
Great High Priest. And that's the title of our message
today, Our Great High Priest. Now this is in vision John is
seeing, and it's a unique setting here, both in verse In verse
3 we have both the altar, here it is a setting of worship, and
then the last word in the verse is throne. So we have the king's palace
in the picture, and we have the altar of worship in the picture. But it's all pointing to Christ.
We understand that in the initial setting of this scripture, Revelation
8, in the time of John the Apostle writing this, he is writing to
comfort and to encourage the saints of God suffering at that
time, being persecuted under the cruel arm of the Roman Empire.
But in that this writing is divinely inspired, It is God's Word preserved
by the Holy Ghost to this present hour. It is given to you and
I for the very same purpose, for comfort and for encouragement,
and how very needful it is for the troubled times in which we
live. Now, in the sixth chapter, the
suffering saints had cried out to the Lord, and even the souls of martyrs,
the voices of blood, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true,
dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
Crying out for vengeance. There is a voice of blood. Did
you know that? Remember Abel's blood back in
Genesis 4? God said to Cain, the voice of
thy brother's blood. Did you know blood has a voice?
The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground,
crying for vengeance. And so that's what these were
crying. Oh, how long, O Lord? Holy and true, dost thou not
avenge our blood on them that are on the earth? Well, the Lord
is about to intervene. Verse 1 says, and when he had
opened the seventh seal. Six of the seven seals had been
opened in chapter 6. And this is the Lord Jesus Christ
in John's vision in chapters 4 and 5. He had seen one on the
throne with a book, sealed book. And he said, I wept much because
there was none found worthy to open the book nor the seals thereof. But he said, I saw a lamb in
the midst of the throne as it had been slain. And he took the
book, and he's worthy to open the book and to loose the seals
thereof. So he's opened 6 in chapter 6,
and these seals were the revealing the fourth telling concerning
the persecution of the saints. What these people could expect
and what you and I could expect, not only in John's time, but
in all time. You see, this world has never
been a friend to God's children. And this sin-cursed world, while
she stands, never will be a friend to God's children. I'm telling
you, a popular religion has never been godly, and a godly religion
has never been popular. Count on it. Count on it. The
world has never been a friend to God's children. Now, I know
the ideal nowadays, and especially for preachers, it's to just march
right on through here with no setbacks whatsoever, and the
multitudes praising you as it goes. But when you open this
book, it's hard to find that picture. God's children have
had trouble all along and will have trouble until our Lord returns. I think Mr. Newton had an understanding
of this when he said, through many dangers, toils, snares,
I've been tripped up many a time, but I'm still here. I've already
come. The old hymn writer asks this question, is this vain world
a friend to grace to help us on to God? And of course the
answer is no, never has been nor will be. Now if we read on
in this eighth chapter, we find that this seventh seal It opens in verse one and it
consists of seven trumpets sounding forth the judgment of God upon
this world both in a continuing sense through the generations
of time and then ultimately a great and final judgment. So preceding
this text we have the seals of persecution and following this
text the trumpets of judgment. And when John sees this, verse
1 continues here, upon the awesomeness of seeing God's judgment, the
fearfulness and the finality of it, he says there was silence
in heaven about the space of half an hour. Now, this is a
symbolism. John's heart is greatly moved,
awe-stricken. It's the sobriety, the seriousness,
the consciousness of the reality of God's judgment and calls for
a reverence, a time of quiet, silence. And I saw the seven
angels which stood before God and to them were given seven
trumpets. These seven angels are to sound
forth the trumpet. God's word, God's decree, God's
judgment upon this world. But verse 3 says, and another
angel came and stood at the altar. Before the judgments are described
in very extreme figurative terms, we have here a worship scene. The implication of this statement,
stood at the altar or stood before the altar, it means stood authoritatively,
stood with proper credentials, stood steadfastly. It was the one place where no
one but the high priest could stand. So this another angel,
messenger, minister, high priest is the Lord Jesus Christ having
a golden censer. The golden censer was a little
fire pan with coals from off the altar outside, the sacrifice
altar. which would be brought in, in
which he would sprinkle incense upon the golden altar, and then
he would take tongs like large tweezers and lift the live coal
with that incense upon the burning coal, and he would wave it inside
the tabernacle and create the aroma that God had prescribed. So in this setting, I want to
talk about three things concerning our great high priest. The identity
of our great high priest, the incense of our great high
priest, and the intercession of our great high priest. It's
all right here in this passage and can be expanded on many times
over in the Old Testament. So first, the identity. We've
already said and we already know you're in verse three. It's the
Lord Jesus Christ. But we find several things, especially in referring to the
Old Testament high priests, plural. that point to and find their
fulfillment in our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me just mention four things.
Number one, the Old Testament High Priest was singular, just
one, at any given time. Now there were many through the
generations who filled the office but only one at a time. Hebrews
7.23 says they could not continue by reason of death. One would
die and they'd have to appoint another. But that one man, singular,
was a representative man. He it was on the Day of Atonement
described in Leviticus 16 who would represent all the people
of Israel before God by offering a sacrifice and sprinkling the
blood to atone for their sins through that sacrifice, through
the blood of that sacrifice, and that atonement was good for
a full year. One man did it for the whole
nation of Israel. for the whole nation that was
a type of God's elect people. Not the whole world of Adam's
race, but the whole world of God's people. Not only was the
high priest singular, just one at a time, but the high priest
was selected. It was not such a common position,
an unimportant job, that men could apply for the job send
in a resume, not at all, not at all. It wasn't that any hireling
preacher or any politician who decided to dabble in religion
could get elected by the people. It wasn't like that. No, this
was God's appointment. It was God's selection for the
high priest. Remember back at the first He
appointed Aaron, brother of Moses, as the first high priest in Old
Testament Israel. And then from that tribe, from
the Levites, were the ordinary priest, Aaron's kindred, the
common priest. But from the descendants of Aaron
himself were the high priest. They were selected. A third thing,
the high priest was sanctified, set apart for the work God selected
him for. Exodus chapter 14 verse 13, And
thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him,
and sanctify him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's
office. And then the fourth thing, the
high priest was steadfast. He must be dependable. He must
be courageous, bold, serious in carrying out, even in minute
detail, God's instruction of how he should minister and how
he should approach God in behalf of the people. Now this steadfastness
is implied here in our text, verse 3, as he stood at the altar,
stood boldly, stood obediently, stood confidently approaching
God. So these four things concerning
the identity of the high priest are very important. His singularity,
just one. His selection. His sanctification
and His steadfastness. And we see all four of these
things clearly and gloriously in the person, in the identity
of our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me just stop right there
and say this, and I should have put this under the singular part.
In the Old Testament, there was only one High Priest at a time.
But there was never one in the Old Testament called Great High
Priest. That term only refers to one
person ever in all history. Hebrews 4.14, Christ Jesus our
Lord is our Great High Priest. All these things we see fulfilled
in actually perfect in him, the singularity. He's the only one
that's qualified. First Timothy 2.5, there is one
mediator between God and men, and only one, the man Christ
Jesus. Then the selection by God's appointment. He was the chosen representative
of His people before the world was created. And His people were
chosen in Him and represented in Him and by Him. The selection. Then the sanctification. The
Scripture says that He was anointed above all others. He was holy,
harmless, separate from sinners. The Gospel of John says that
he was given the Spirit without measure. And then the steadfastness. Never
has this world seen a man with the courage and the boldness
and the commitment and the endurance to stand in the middle between
a holy God and unholy men. as we see in the Lord Jesus Christ
or the identity of our great high priest. I promise you he's
in a class all by himself. There's not another like him.
You don't know anybody in this world, neither do I, that even
comes close to being in the class with our Redeemer and our Lord
and our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the second
thought would be the incense of our great high priest. Now, nowadays you hear that term
incense, it's associated with some kind of cult or some kind
of a heathen something, but we talk about the incense of our
great high priest. Still in verse 3 of our text,
and there was given unto him much incense. Now the incense in the Old Testament
used in the tabernacle, in the temple, it was a mixture of specific
things prescribed by God. And that's what it was throughout
the Old Testament. It wasn't like Avon and all the
rest of them coming out with something new every year. and
a different fragrance, and no, this was it. One time, one time. Prescribed by God Himself. Exodus
30 and 34, and the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet
spices, stacty, anica, and galbanum. These spices with pure frankincense. Of each shall there be a like
weight, an equal portion, and thou shalt make it a perfume,
a confection, a mixture, after the art of the apothecary." The
apothecary was the perfume maker. Tempered together, pure and holy. Now these ingredients separately
if you want to study them and collectively speak of the Lord
Jesus Christ. This incense was to be sprinkled
on those live coals and to burn in the holy place of the tabernacle
and create the perfume, the aroma, the fragrance that God himself
had prescribed. God is not interested in anybody's
religion of their own origin. All God accepts is what God has
prescribed. So now this specific mixture,
it was not to be used in any other way for any other purpose. Remember when the two sons of
Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, The Scripture says they offered strange fire
upon the altar, and God killed them instantly. They tempered with the mixture.
It was to be of equal parts. I don't know, they probably put
more of whatever was of an explosive nature, or more of whatever smelled
good by itself, but Anyhow, it made strange fire. That is, the
fragrance it gave off was not according to God's prescription.
Therefore, it gave off the wrong fragrance, and God killed him.
So it was supposed to be exactly according as God had prescribed
it. Now, when we read here in verse
3, that there was given unto him unto Christ much incense. When was it given? It's always
His. The picture is not, as in the Old Testament, something
that the high priest carried with him into the tabernacle.
That's the way they did it. To burn and to get this smell
on him in order to become one with the incense and the aroma.
But I want to say that Christ, our great high priest, is the
incense. Paul said in Ephesians chapter
5 and verse 2, as Christ also hath loved us and hath given
himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet
smelling savor. Fragrance. Christ himself is
the incense. He is the fragrance of God's
approval, of peace with God. He is that which in the nostrils
of God brings mercy, forgiveness, peace, comfort to His people. Christ of these incense. Now
a third thought, the intercession of our great High Priest. How
precious this is. Now look closely at verse 3. Christ takes the much incense
Himself. The purity of His person. The
much, by the way, points to His sufficiency. Much. He takes it that he should offer
it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was
before the throne. Notice it's not the prayers of
some saints, but all saints. It's not the prayers of those
we consider to be good saints, it's the prayers of all saints.
It's not the prayers of those we consider to be spiritual saints,
it's the prayers of all saints of all time. Those we think are strong saints,
those we think are weak saints. The prayers of all saints. Now
what we find here is the greatest encouragement for you and I to
pray that we find anywhere in the Scriptures. You see, in the Old Testament,
under this order of worship, common people were not left to
themselves to try and get through to God on their own. That was
the high priest's job. in their behalf. Christ is our great high priest. We are not left to try and get
through to God on our own. But here, our great high priest
offers up to God, along with our feeble prayers, his incense. His fragrance, the purity and
perfection of His person and it's a sweet smelling savor,
fragrance in the nostrils of God. Now this
is really good news for those of us who feel like we don't
really know how to pray. Now some of you may, you may
not need this. But I repeat this is really good
news for those of us who feel like we don't really know how
to pray. You listen to some folk pray
in public and seem like the words just flow so smoothly and so
eloquently and they never say anything wrong, they never hesitate,
they never stutter. And we think, boy, what a prayer. Surely God hears that kind of
prayer. But then my feeble efforts to
pray, that's another story. I stutter, I stumble, I mumble,
and just say, oh Lord, I need help. Oh Lord, what a mess I am. Oh Lord, what a mess I'm in. I don't know how to pray. I'm not fit to be heard anyway. That is all very true. But here's
the beautiful part. Our great high priest is fit
to be heard, and he is heard all the time. Back in Exodus 30, those spices
to make that incense were to be beaten very small, crushed
to a powder. Our Lord was beaten very small. Very small. He said, I am a worm, despised
and rejected of men. Well, in all that being beaten
small, he became the incense. the sweet-smelling
savor. And he takes our feeble prayers
and offers them with himself up to God. Let me read it again.
Did you see that? It's in verse 3. He takes the
much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints
upon the golden altar which was before the throne, and the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of
the saints ascended up before God out of His hand. He intercedes for us and with
us. This is such a beautiful picture. And when we think about it having
this effect, Christ in His very person and purity, perfection, merged with, mixed with our prayers
having this kind of effect. It's beautiful. Now here's the
way everything else works when you mix it. If you take a few
drops of filthy water, and pour them into a glass of pure water. The pure water does not purify
the filthy water. The filthy water defiles the
pure water. And you have to pour out the
whole glass. It's no good. That's how it works. In the scriptures, you find all this in the Old
Testament the priest and the law and were forbidden to touch
a leper. People were forbidden to touch
a leper. What would that do? That would make you unclean. Wasn't allowed to touch a dead
body. That would make you unclean. But it's just the opposite with
our great high priest. He could touch a leper and not
only did it not make him unclean, it would make the leper clean.
See the difference? He could touch a corpse. Not only would it not make him
a corpse, it would put life into the corpse. When we pray We feel like lepers
and we feel like corpses, so unclean, so unfit, so dead. But when those prayers are merged
with the incense of Christ's person, our great high priest,
Our prayers do not pollute the incense. The incense purifies
our prayers. Oh, this is so big, folks. You
know, we cannot manage to rid ourselves of the mindset
of works religion. You think, boy, if I lived like
so-and-so, I'd be able to really pray. Well, so-and-so is not the one standing before the altar that's
going to make our prayers accepted. It's our great High Priest that's
there. It's the Lord Jesus Christ that's there. And He invites
us to appeal to Him with everything. We say, well, sometimes I just
need somebody to talk to. Hey, all the time we've got somebody
to talk to. Casting all your care upon Him,
for He careth for you. Not only are we without excuse
in our negligence to pray, but right here is the greatest motivation,
the greatest encouragement to prayer we could ever have. We're not praying by ourself. Get this now. Our great high
priest is not taking what you are, along with your prayer,
and offering it up to God. No. He is taking what He is,
along with your prayer, and offering it up to God. It makes all the
difference. Our Lord taught us to pray. In
Matthew 6, where the Scripture reading was this morning, He said, it's not the publicity. It's not the length. It's not
the loudness. It's not the eloquence. It's
just the sincere pouring out of our hurting and helpless hearts. And our great High Priest will
take it from there with the sweet incense of His person and offer
it to the Father. You say, well, I'm not very gifted
to pray. Prayer is not a gift. It's a
God-given privilege to be cultivated by we, His children. It's not a gift. You think it's
a gift when a little child climbs up on daddy's knee, mama's knee,
and wants to be held close and lean on the breast. No, that
just comes natural. That's not a gift. That's a child's
privilege, or should be. That's what prayer is. We just
crawl up on our Father's knee and want to be held close, and
want to lean on His breast, want to hear His heartbeat, That's
prayer. A heart connection. A heart connection. Someone said
real prayer may be heart without words, but it cannot be words
without heart. When a little child comes running
to daddy, running to mama, they say, What's wrong, honey? Just tell me what the trouble
is. What are you tore up about? The child pours their heart out.
They don't go into a formal discourse. No, it's just daddy. It's just
mama. It's not some stranger. Daddy
don't care how I tell him. Just tell him. I'll tell you a secret about
our great high priest this morning. Right now, right now, his ear
is tuned to the prayers of his people.
And I want to tell you what he's not listening for. He's not listening for religious
success stories. He's listening for distress cries. from his little ones. He don't have time for religious
success stories. He don't have time for religious
folk who don't need him and just want to report their success
and flaunt their professionalism and showmanship. No. He's too
busy. He's booked up. inclining his
ear to his little ones that have
trouble and can't handle their trouble and would cry to him. So let this proud religious world
march on in all their success. I am so glad this morning we
really do have a great high priest. He's there for us. He ever liveth
to make intercession for us. Hebrews 7.25, wherefore He is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him. That word uttermost means to
the furthest extent. Wherefore, he is able also to
save them to the furthest extent that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for us. He ever liveth. Unlike that Old Testament high
priest, he's not going to die and need to be replaced. He's
already died and risen again. and he's alive forevermore. He
ever liveth to make intercession for us. The old song said, are
you weary? Are you heavy hearted? Tell it
to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Are you grieving over joys departed? Has your world fallen apart?
Has the devil thrown you a curve? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to
Jesus. He is a friend that's well known. You have no other such a friend
or brother None will stick by you like He
will. Tell it to Jesus alone. Oh, the encouragement to pray.
One night this past week, I stepped out on the porch about three
o'clock in the morning. It was very dark and very quiet. And to my surprise, I heard a
bird singing. And I thought, how can anybody
or anything, even a bird, sing when it's this lonely and this dark? And I was feeling the loneliness
and the darkness in my own heart. It's pretty easy to say I don't
have anything to sing about. That's pretty easy. But I really knew where the song
came from. I really knew exactly where the
bird was coming from. Job 35.10, where is God, my maker,
who giveth songs in the night? He does. He did. Oh, how effectual is the intercession
of our great high priest. Look back at our text, Revelation
8, 4 and 5. And the smoke of the incense,
which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before
God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer
and filled it with fire of the altar and cast it unto the earth. And there were voices and thunderings
and lightnings and an earthquake. It was judgment. It was judgment. How long, O Lord, holy and true,
dost thou not judge and avenge our blood? Well, in this vision,
he says, how about right now? And God pours out judgment upon
the earth. Hebrews 8 verse 1, Now of the
things which we have spoken, this is the sum. We have such a high priest who
is set at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle. which
the Lord pitched and not man. We are represented by one whose
purity and perfection outranks, overrules all our impurities
and imperfections. What an encouragement for us
to pray. Why would our Lord say men ought
always to pray and not to faint? Because we are most prone to
do so. Can I say time spent in prayer
is never in vain. God will use it to change you.
He will use it to change me. Prayer is not only talking to
God, it's also attacking our own flesh. That's what makes
it so hard for us. Why is it that your mind wonders
when you try to pray and you can't concentrate? Why is it that you get sleepy
and can't stay awake when you try to pray? It's because it
does not come natural. to the natural man to pray. It is a conflict between flesh
and spirit. But all the needfulness of it,
the value of it, we need to pray and cultivate prayer in our lives. Schedule a time and a place daily
to pray. so very valuable. If you had
a representative at the bank ready to exchange all the rocks
you could bring him for gold, would you hesitate to rush to
that bank with all the rocks you could carry? No, you wouldn't.
No, you wouldn't. That's what we have in our great
high priest. He is ready to exchange our worthlessness
for His worth, our helplessness for His help, our hopelessness
for Him who is our hope, our rejection for His acceptance. What a privilege, what a treasure
that's ours, the privilege to pray. That's the message. Stand with me.