I want to begin reading here
in verse 1. As we read the book of Revelation,
one of the things that we realize is that it is full of symbols.
It seems like for quite some time, in the Old Testament, the
Lord dealt with us, and the ceremonial law taught us so many things
by symbols. The priesthood, the tabernacle,
the sacrifices, and so on. Then he began to speak plainly
to us in the Prophets and the Gospels and the Epistles. And
in the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelations, he was
pleased to go back and teach us so many things again by symbols. And we have to look at the symbols
and use our imaginations, and I'm glad for that, because we
can learn so much. We can relate to things by these
symbols. That's what I want to look at
with this morning to you. Let's begin here in verse 1,
Revelation chapter 8. And when he had opened the seventh
seal, there was silence in heaven about the face of Hagman And
I saw the seven angels which stood before God, and to them
were given seven trunks. 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.
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 censure, 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." Now, this seventh seal, you remember
if you've read this book. We begin in chapter 5, and the
Lord himself, thereupon his strong and glory, had this book, and
it was sealed with seven seals. And no one in heaven was found
worthy to loose those seals and open the book until the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, stood up. And he alone was found
worthy to loosen these seals. And he begins to loosen these
seals. And here you and I in chapter 8, we come to the final
seal that he's ready to loosen and open this book. And as he
opens this seal, we're told of these seven angels with these
seven trumpets. And as they begin to blow, peculiar
and particular judgments begins to take place upon this earth,
and it begins to affect every aspect of our lives, this universe. I want you to just look at this
in verses 7. Look in verse 7. When these angels
began to blow with these trumpets, they were trumpets of judgment,
and look in verse 7. The first angel sounded, and
there followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, and they
were cast into the earth, and the third part of trees was burned
up, and all green grass was burned up. See how that judgment affected
this earth? The grass and the trees. And then in verse 8 and verse
9, it affected the seeds. Look at this, the second angel
shouted, and that's It were a great mountain burning with fire, and
it was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became
blood. And the third part of the creatures
which were in the sea and had life, they died, and the third
part of the ships were destroyed. Then we have the third angel
in verses 10 and 11. Now, look what that affected.
It affected the grass and the trees. It affected the seeds.
In verse 10, when this third angel sounded his trumpet, 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 water. 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
became bitter." And in verse 12 we have the fourth angel sounding,
and look at what this judgment effected. And the fourth angel
sounded, and the third part of the sun was spitting, and the
third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars, so as
the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not, for the
third part of it, and the night likewise." And then we go into
chapter 9 and look here at the fifth angel as he sounded, and
it affected the light. And the air that you and I live
in and breathe. The fifth angel sounded, and
I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth, and to him was
given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless
pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit, And the smoke
has the smoke of a great furnace. The sun and the air were darkened
by reason of the smoke of the pit." Then if you read on, you'll
see where locusts came out of that smoke, and it darkened the
air. And then in chapter 9 of verse
13 is this sixth And the sixth angel sounded,
and I heard a voice from the four corners of the altar, which
is before God." And if you read on, you'll find out that these
angels were loosed out of the river Euphrates, and look in
verse 16. And the number of the army of
the horsemen were 200,000,000, and I heard the number of them,
and I saw the horses in the vision. And them that sat on them having
breastplates of fire, and of jason, and brimstone, and the
heads of their horses were as the heads of lions, and out of
their mouth issued fire, smoke, and brimstone. And by these three
were the third part of men killed, by the fire, by the smoke, and
by the brimstone which issued out of their mouth." And in verse
20, we're told that these judgments were plagues, and the rest of
the men which were not killed by these plagues. So there are
six trumpets, and in verse 10 and 7, look at this. And in the days of the voice
of the seventh angel," that's the last angel, "...when he shall
begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as he
hath declared to his servants the prophets." And look at chapter
11 and verse 15. And the seven angels sounded,
and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms
of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his
Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. And the four and twenty
elders which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their
faces, and worshipped God saying, We give thee thanks, Lord God
Almighty, which are, and was, and are to come, because thou
hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And
the nations were angry, and thy wrath was come, and the time
of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest
give rewards unto thy servicely prophets. and to the saints and
them that fear thy name, great and small, and should destroy
them which destroy the earth." Now, that shows us what these
trumpets were all about. As the Lord opened this seventh
seal, there were these seven angels with these trumpets, and
as each one began to sound, it had an effect on every aspect
of this universe. from the sun and the moon and
the stars that were darkened, whatever that means, to the earth
that you and I breathe, that we see and walk in, to the grass
and the trees, to the sea and the waters in the sea, and everything
under the sea. And what that simply is telling
us is that the judgment of God is upon every aspect of this
life. And if you and I will be honest,
we can't deny that, can we? We live in a world, as far as
you and I are concerned, every day of our lives, humanly speaking,
we have no idea what to expect. Either some plagues of diseases,
or either some hurricanes or winds to blow entire towns away,
or earthquakes. It affects us mentally, it affects
us emotionally, it affects us physically. The judgment of God
is upon every aspect of this life. And that's what these trumpets
are teaching us, warnings and judgments. And you and I can
see it all around us. And therefore it's so fitting,
before all of this begins here in verse 1, there was silence
in heaven. These mighty angels, this army
of angels, stood as it were in silence. You and I have seen
movies like this, haven't we? Where this mighty army comes
against a single town. And as you look around the town,
the realm of the hill is full with this mighty army. You have
these men on foot standing there with their spears at their side
and their shield clenched tight in their hands close to their
breath. And their eyes are looking straight down to the city below,
and you have your cavalry on their horses, and their swords
are raised and glittering in the morning's light. And they
look down to the city below, and their faces are set like
a flint, and they're silenced. Even the anxious breath of the
horses has been silenced. And they're looking on that city
that they surrounded, but it's a rebellious city, and it's a
defenseless city before this irresistible force. That's the
picture that we get here. These angels ready to blow their
trumpets of judgment and warning, and how fitting it is that before
those judgments start, here's this awesome silence. waiting,
the calm before the storm. Can't we see that picture? There's
silence in heaven. Because the task that they're
fixing to undertake is a solemn task. It's one of the judgments
of the Lord. And then in verse 5, as We see this silence. Suddenly
we're told here that this angel appears, and he has this bowl,
and he takes some fire off of this brazen altar, and he casts
it into the earth. And then the judgments begin. The judgments begin with sounds
of voices and earthquakes and thunders and lightnings. And brothers and sisters, what
I get from this, as I consider this this morning, that heaven
seriously contemplates the judgments that's upon this earth. Heaven
takes notice of God's judgment upon this earth in whatever aspect
that it follows. And how should it affect us?
If heaven takes notice of these judgments, how should it affect
us? If there's silence in heaven
concerning these things, if they meditate upon the judgments of
God, and they contemplate that judgment, what should be our
attitude here upon this earth? Listen to these verses of Scripture.
In the light of God's judgments, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted upon this earth. I will be exalted among the heathen,
saith the Lord. He will keep the feet of his
saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by
scrim shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall
be broken in pieces. Upon the wicked shall he thunder,
the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth." And he's doing
that now, isn't he? By sending his judgment upon
the sun and the moon and the air and the waters, the bodies
of men. The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord is in heaven, his eyes
behold, his eyelids try the children of men. The Lord tried the righteous,
but the wicked and those who love violence is so hated. Upon the wicked he shall rain
snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest." What should
be our attitude about these judgments? I think we'd be wise to seriously
contemplate these things. Listen to this Scripture. The
Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silent before
him. The Lord reigneth And he reigns
in grace to save and forgive, or he reigns in justice to judge
and to punish. The Lord reigneth, let the people
tremble. You and I should seriously consider
these judgments. That's all around us, if God
will give us eyes to see. Let all the earth hear the Lord,
and let the inhabitants of this world stand in awe of him, for
he spake and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. He brings the counsel of the
evil to nothing, and makes the devices of the people of none
effect." He's God, and His judgments are all around us. And in the
midst of these solemn judgments, here in verse 3 and verse 4,
we have this this morning that I want to look at for just a
minute. And it's so encouraging because of the context that it's
found in. Here in verse 3 and verse 4,
we have saints praying. What a wonderful thought. When
the judgment of God is falling upon this world in so many respects,
from the universe right down to our bodies, saints are praying. And this angel, we're told here,
has this incense that he mixes with their prayer, and he offers
it up to God. Now what a wonderful thought
that is. And first of all, who is this angel? We have so many
people speculate who this angel is. When you see this word angel,
sometimes we think of the elect angel, those holy spirits. But
we err when we think that, because a messenger is the name of angels. That's the definition of an angel,
is a messenger. And you're not told the nature
of the angel by just reading his name. You have to go to the
text or the context to find out the nature of this angel. It
could be a man, or it could be God. I want to take you to three
or four places, and take your Bible, and turn with me this
morning to the book of Genesis. You hold Revelation chapter 9,
and you turn with me to the book of Genesis, chapter 16. Chapter 16. You remember Agar, Sarah's slave,
when Sarah had sent her out into the wilderness with her son.
And verse 7, Genesis chapter 16, and look here at verse 7.
When you see the name angel, look into context and see what
the nature of that angel is. And look what he says in verse
7 of Genesis 16. Agar had gone out into the desert,
and here's what happened. The angel of the Lord found her
by a fountain of water, an angel of the Lord. She was there in
the wilderness by the fountain in the way of Sherlock. And he
said, Edward, Sarah's maid, whence comest thou, and where wilt thou
go? And she said, I flee from the
face of my mistress Sarah. And the angel of the Lord said
unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself unto her hands. And the angel of the Lord said
unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall
not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said
unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son,
and shalt call his name Ishmael, because the Lord hath heard thy
affliction. And he will be a law man, and his hand shall be against
every man, and every man's hand against him, and he shall dwell
in the presence of his brethren." And look at this. She tells us
here in verse 13 the nature of this angel. And she called the
name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me. It wasn't what you and I think
of an angel at all. Who was it? It was the Lord.
Let me show you another place in Genesis 22, just over to your
right, in Genesis chapter 22. And look here in verse 15. This
is where Abraham went up to offer Isaac upon the altar. And just as he was ready to Take
out Isaac's life with a knife. Here's what happened in verse
15 of Genesis 22. And the angel of the Lord called
unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, I swear
by myself have I sworn saith the Lord. Now this was the angel. And here's what the angel said.
By myself have I sworn saith the Lord. For because thou hast
done this thing, hast not withheld thy son, thy only son, that in
blessing I will bless thee, and multiply thy seed as the stars
of heaven, as the sand which is upon the seashore, and thy
seed shall possess the gates of his enemy, And then thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou
hast obeyed my voice." Who was this angel? It was the Lord. Let me show you one more glance.
It's a very familiar one over in Exodus chapter 3. The nature
of these angels was not the nature of a mere creature. Even though
they were called an angel, the nature of these angels was God. The everlasting God. Do you remember
in Exodus chapter 3, you begin in verse 2, Moses saw this bush,
this burning bush that was on fire. And he turned aside to
see this bush. In Exodus 3, verse 2, the angel
of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the
midst of the bush. And he looked, and beheld, and
the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And
Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, while
the bush is not burned. And when the Lord saw that he
turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of
the bush, Moses, Moses, and he said, Here am I. And he said,
Draw not near hither, put off thy shoes off thy feet, for the
place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said,
here's the aim, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and Moses in his face,
for he was afraid to look upon God. So what do we see from this? When we see the word angel, you
have to look in the context to find the nature of that angel. The nature of this angel that
we looked at was God Himself. Now, coming back over to our
text, I just wanted you to see the nature of angels, that they're
God. It's God. Not always. Sometimes
it's a man. Sometimes it's one of those Holy
Spirits, elect angels. But look here in Revelation chapter
8, and look here in verse 3 and verse 4 again. What's the nature
of this angel? Now, we're told something here
about this angel that reveals to us its nature. And we're told,
first of all, this, that this angel is a mediator between God
and man. Did you see that as I read it
to you? And another angel came and stood in the altar, having
a golden censer, and there was given to him much incense, that
he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden
altar which was before the throne." He offered incense. And who did
he offer it to? Verse 4 tells us in the last
part that this incense ascended before God out of the angel's
hands. This angel was a mediator. He took the prayers of the saints
in his hand, as it were, he put incense on them, and he offered
those prayers with this incense to God. He's a mediator. Now, brothers and sisters, when
you read the Scripture, do you ever find anywhere in all the
Word of God but where there's only one mediator between God
and man? And that is the man, Christ Jesus. There is one mediator between
God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. I am the way, he said. I'm the truth, I'm the life.
Nobody comes into the Father to pray to Him, to seek Him,
to be accepted of Him, except He comes through me. He's the
only mediator. He said, if you ask anything
of my Father in my name. Who is this angel? Well, His
very nature tells us that this is the Son of God Himself. This
is the mediator between us and God, the man, Christ Jesus. Yes, he's called an angel. So
is God. And here's the Son of God, who
is very God, who is a mediator, standing there. And where's he
standing? And you're in a marvelous thing.
He's a man, but yet we're told here in these verses that he's
standing before the throne. And in verse 13 we're told again
that he's standing there at this golden altar before God. So here you have a man that is
standing before God. Not a spirit, but a man. Now who among us this morning,
brothers and sisters, could stand in the immediate presence of
God? None of us could. David said this, Lord, if you
should mark iniquity, who, O Lord, could stand? I could not stand,
and you could not stand, and as we are this morning in our
weak, vile flesh, I would be afraid to stand before Him, and
so would you. But here we have a man. We know
He's a man because He's the Son of God in our humanity, the mediator
of the man. And yet, He is so holy. and so full of merit and worth
that he can stand in the immediate presence of God in his body. What kind of man is this? He's
holy, he's harmless, he's undefiled. He's a mediator that you and
I need, that we must have to go into the presence of God.
We're told here about these two altars, and we're told the Lord
stood before both of them. Our mediators stand before both
of them. We're told here about the altar in verse 3, that He
stood before it, and this is the brazen altar where they burnt
the sacrifices for sin. And some people said, this verse
here, He stood at the altar. They said that word at is on. He stood on the altar. But both
of those are true. Because Jesus Christ stands at
the altar, because therefore the priests stood to offer their
sacrifices and burn offerings for sin. That's where Jesus Christ
stands as our high priest to offer. But what did He do? He
offered Himself of only offer. So He's the priest who stands
before the altar to offer to God, but He's the sacrifice which
has been offered to God. And listen to these precious
verses of Scripture. He did all of this right before
the immediate presence of God. Even when He was upon this earth,
upon the cross, He did what he did in the immediate presence
of God. When you think of the throne
of God, it's not always there in heaven. The throne of God
depicts His rule, and His rule is universal. Wherever He is,
that's where the throne is, because He ruled by His presence. But
listen what the Lord Jesus did in God's presence. Not by the
blood of goats and bulls, he said, but by his own blood. He entered in once unto the holy
place. Who was that holy place? It wasn't
that tabernacle. That's where that silly priest
was that day, trying to minister. Who's the holy place? It's God's
presence. Christ entered unto God's presence,
not with the blood of bulls and goats, but by his own blood he
offered himself without spot to God. He did that as our high
priest. And listen to this, Brethren,
walk in love, as Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself,
and offer him a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. So here we have this angel standing
before this altar, and he offers himself upon that altar, right
before God, in the presence of God. And it's like this sweet
perfume, and God smells it, and it's a sweet smell unto him.
Now the Lord Jesus Christ is in heaven, and all that he does
there, he does as a man. And you know it's amazing to
me, and I want you to turn just a minute over in Psalms 24. Look
here in Psalms 24. And this is amazing, that what
Jesus Christ did, and what He's doing now, He does as a man in
our humanity. Everything He did in this world,
He did in our humanity. And that's the amazing thing
about a man. can stand before God and minister, do everything
that he does, and everything that he does is accepted before
God. He's the only man holy enough
and full of merit enough to be holy and completely accepted
of God. We talk about works for salvation.
You talk about working your way into God's presence by your own
merits. He's the only man that ever did
it. The only man that ever did it. And God accepted everything
he did. And look at this amazing scripture
here in Psalms 24. Look at this. Psalms 24, verse
3. This is speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Who shall ascend unto the hill
of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy
presence? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart. And who hath never lifted up
his soul into vanity, or sworn deceitfully." Who among us can
say that, brothers and sisters? Who among us can say, I've made
my ways clean? I've never sinned. I have no
sin. None of us can say that. We've
all sinned and come short of the glory of God. But there was
a man who was clean and had a pure heart and never lifted up his
soul to that. And that's the man, Christ Jesus,
who took our sins in His own holy body. and offered Himself
upon the cross of Calvary to God, and died with our sins,
and put our sins away, and raised in that body. He raised in that
body. A glorified body had Him put
our sins away, but He's still a man in that body. And what
happened to Him when He raised from the dead? Look here in verse
6. Look in verse 7. Look in verse
7. Here's what happened to him. When the disciples saw him received
out of their sight, he was going up to heaven. And here's what
he said. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted
up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come
in. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord strong and mighty, The Lord mighty in battle. He just fought
a battle. There on Calvary's cross, where
He defeated His enemies, destroyed them who had power of the devil.
accomplished fulfilling the justice of God, bore the wrath of God,
our enemy, put it all away, defeated all of them, made a show of them
openly, won the war, and now he's ascended back and he says
to those gates of heaven, open up, I'm coming in. Who are you? I'm Jesus Christ. I've been down
there and been in battle. Look at my garments. I'm red
with my blood that I shed for my people. And he says to those
gates, open up! Verse 9, lift up your heads,
O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the
King of Glory, the Lord of Hosts, shall come in. Who is this King
of Glory? He's the Lord that's got a lot
of people with Him. He's the Lord of Hosts, the King
of Glory. And he's the man. He's the man. And this is the very same one
in these symbols that you and I read about here in the eighth
chapter of the book of Revelation. And everything this angel is
doing, he's doing it right in the very presence of God. What's he doing? Look back over
here at our text again. He has this incense, this perfume. And the scripture says it was
given to him. Much incense, much perfume was
given to him. Now, brothers and sisters, we
know what that is, because I've done read it to you in Ephesians
5.1. That perfume is his own leaves. It's his blood. It's his death. He offered himself without spot
to God. And God looked upon him and smelt
this sweet smell. It's much incense. God made a
covenant with his Son before the world. Gave him a great host
of people to redeem, to save them. Gave him a name. gave Him
a work to do, gave Him commandments to fulfill, and gave Him a body
to do it in. And Jesus Christ came to this
earth and did the work of His Father, fulfilled all of His
law, satisfied judgment and the justice upon sin, and now His
obedience and His blood and His death is this sweet incense. And what does he do with it?
He mixes it with the prayers of the saints. And here's what
David said. Listen to this. I love this because
we're here on this earth, poor people we are, and when we pray,
our prayers are so weak and they're so vile. But when we read a passage
like this, what we realize when our prayers get to God, They
have much of Christ upon them. They smell just like Him, because
He's put His obedience upon them. His incense, His sweet smell
of incense. And David said this, Lord, let
my prayer be set before Thee as incense. And let the lifting
up of my hands be as the evening sacrifice. In other words, smell
Christ upon my prayer. And I love this passage in 84a. Hear my prayer, O God, O God
of Jacob, O God my shield, hear my prayer, listen, look upon
the face of thy anointed. See what he says. Look upon your
dear Son, look upon my Mediator, and hear my prayer." Ain't that
the way it is? That's the way it is, brothers
and sisters. So we have this Mediator, this Lord Jesus Christ,
and when we go to prayer to God, our prayers go through Him because
He takes them in His hands. As it were, sprinkles His obedience
in His blood and His intercessions upon our prayers. And then, out
of His very hands, out of His hands, that's what He said, wasn't
it? Out of the angels' hands, He
offered these prayers to God. And you know what His hands look
like, don't you? We know, don't we? And out of
those hands, those prayers go left to God. And God receives
them. Well, no wonder. Three quick
things about this. First of all is this. Isn't it
encouraging that in the very time, even to this day, when
you and I can look around us and see men die everywhere. We
see all kinds of judgments of God. We see it. Other people
call it accidents. Oh, a hurricane accidentally
hit Louisiana. I don't think that was an accident.
This snow storm accidentally hit the East Coast and all these
people died. Folks, that's not accidents.
It's not accidents. When you and I look around us
and we see how bad things are in our time, in our own country
and in the world, and we just don't know what's going to happen
next, and we're so concerned about it. And we see the diseases
and the plagues, and we don't know what awful plague is going
to hit us next. In all these catastrophes, isn't
it wonderful to know that we still have a mediator? We can
still pray. Want to plead and maintain our
cause. That's encouraging to me. What
are we going to do if it's awful day? How about praying? God is
still a God who hears prayer because we've got a mediator.
Number two is this. It's always encouraging to pray
without ceasing. Pray always. Pray without ceasing. Prayer is a laborsome thing. But if our prayers, brothers
and sisters, have Jesus Christ sprinkled in them, don't that
encourage you to pray? Sure, it's laborsome to pray.
And as soon as you start praying, the devil says, that's enough.
Ten seconds, fifteen seconds, that's enough. Go on about your
business. And you have to just stay there
and pray. Let this encourage you. This prayer that's going
up before God has much in Christ on it. Therefore, pray much. Pray. Let this encourage you
to pray. If you didn't have a mediator,
all right, despair. If your prayers left you and
went straight to God, you better despair. Don't pray a prayer,
for it will be condemned, just abomination. But oh, if Jesus
Christ, this angel of God's presence, is there offering his sweet incense
to your prayer, then pray often. Pray always. Be much in prayer. Thirdly is this, should not this
teach us how to pray? Some people think when they read
that verse, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord won't hear
me. They think regarding iniquity
means I'm lusting after something. Well, it could mean that too,
I know that. If I'm seeking the Lord in prayer and I'm lusting
after something else over here. But I'll tell you one thing that
means that people very seldom think about. If I think my prayer is going
to be heard because of my own marriage, or how pretty my prayer
is, or how earnest my prayer is, or how dedicated I've been,
that's regarding iniquity in my heart. That man stood there
in the temple to pray, and he said, God, I thank you that I'm
not like other men are. That's regarding iniquity in
your heart. God won't hear it. Solomon, when
he was dedicating the temple, remember this? And he was praying
to the Lord, and he prayed for the Jews, and he prayed for the
Gentiles. And he said, Lord, if a stranger prays unto you,
and he knows the plague of his own heart, and he looks towards
this temple, he looks towards this house, then hear thou and
tell him, and forgive and do. We sometimes are so sinful, we're
so wretched, and we see so much sin in our prayer. That's good. That's good. This teaches us
how to pray. Our prayers are heard because
they're strong. Our prayers are heard because
we're so sincere. Our prayers are heard because
we've got a mediator that mixes His obedience with it and presents
it to the Father. That's how we pray. I love to
hear men pray. I tell you, when you hear people
pray, that tells more about those people than when they start talking
to you. I like to hear men pray. You listen
to a man pray and see if Christ is in his prayer. See if he knows
anything about the plague and the sinfulness of his own heart.
See if he knows anything about needing to mediate between him
and God. This teaches us freedom. Oh,
I feel so wretched and so sinful. Good. Go to the throne of grace
that way. It's not your goodness, it's
His. It's not your faithfulness, it's His. It's not your merit,
it's His. It's not your obedience, it's
His. And lastly is this. We learn
from here our unity one with another. Whose prayer does Christ
put his incense upon? Did you notice that as I read
it to you? All saints. Ain't that wonderful? All saints. Not Baptist saints,
not Presbyterian saints, but all saints. There's some of you, bless your
hearts, you know who you are because you've complained to
me about it. You can't hardly pray in public at all. You can't
hardly farm your words to pray in public. You get up and you
just can't pray. Some people have the gift of prayer. They
edify you when they get up to pray. We've all seen them. And
there's other people who get up and pray and you can't understand
what they have to say. They just grumble and growl. There's no farm to their prayer
at all. But you know something? That person's prayer has the
incense of Christ's intercession upon it as well as anyone else's. This encourages me to sit and
listen when my brothers go into the throne of grace to pray.
If Christ listens to it, and He puts His incense upon it,
I'm going to listen to it. And I tell you what, dear soul,
you may be the weakest believer you're at this point, And you
may have difficulty praying, and you don't want anybody to
hear your prayer, because it's made up mainly of grown humans. But I'll tell you this much.
If you're a saint, then your prayers are accepted. And I'm
going to love you, and I'm going to heaven with you. That gives
me some unity with you. If you are a saint, your prayers
are heard. Though you be despised and rejected
of many, your prayers are heard. And just as precious in God's
sight as the greatest saint, the greatest preacher, the greatest
prophet that ever lived. Because it has Christ's intent
upon it. God bless His Word this morning. Let's pray.