Well, welcome to our eighth talk in Revelation, a message for our troubled times. And we come now to chapter eight, and this represents or introduces to us the third section of this book that has seven sections. We've looked at section one, and that was Christ in his church, amongst his church. During the gospel age, he's always dealing with his church to improve it, to refine it, to rebuke it, to make it a faithful witness in this world of his gospel and of himself and of his lords. and so that they will bring the wonderful gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to the world, to a needy world that needs to repent and turn back to God. And the second section, as we've just finished, is Christ and his church in a hostile world. It's hostile to the church because The world itself is a hostile place, it is a fallen world. But it is also hostile because the world turns against those warnings of God and his gospel. And God in response sent his warnings down upon the world that he will not tolerate this, that he will not have the world turning against his gospel and his wonderful invitation to come and repent and be saved. And that the world must do that. It must listen, it must heed his warnings and come and repent and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. God is ever dealing with this world. And the third section is his punishments upon the world as we see them represented by these seven trumpets sounding. and the results of these seven trumpets. And when we will not listen to the warnings of God, then God sends down punishments, increasing the hardships that we experience to make us wake up to our deep and our desperate need of Him. And these things will increase as the world increases in its rebellion against God and increases in its sin and its wickedness. So God will increasingly send down punishments and judgments upon the world and they will increase during this gospel age and we should expect them to increase. during this gospel age. Why is God doing this? Is he doing it because he's malicious? Is he doing it because he hates us? No. He's doing it because he loves us. And he's full of compassion and full of mercy. He's not willing that any should perish. So what does he do? Rather than immediately sending down judgment, which he could do, because he is a righteous God and our sin demands his judgments and his wrath? No, he doesn't do that. First, he warns us. Secondly, he punishes us if we do not heed his warnings. Then, thirdly, if we do not heed those punishments, then he sends down judgments. And finally, we will be taken to his judgment seat and there we will pay for our sins if We haven't heeded him, haven't listened to him, and haven't turned to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Now, as we come to the third section, these sections represent seven trumpets being sounded by the angels in heaven. And they bring down the wrath of God upon the world. They bring down punishment for sin. not just warnings now, but punishment. We must realise that sin is sin in God's eyes and that all sin must be dealt with by a righteous and a holy and a good God. Now this is no new picture in the Word of God. Just let me read you from Ezekiel and chapter 33, where we read this again in a different circumstances. This is dealing with Israel and its rebellion against him. Again, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of your people and say to them, When I bring the sword upon the land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning. His blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. And so we see here a picture of what is happening also in Revelation. There they choose a watchman. God has chosen his church. They sound out the warning in the world. The church is sounding out the warning to the world and calling upon the world to repent and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, showing the world that there is a saviour in heaven, a saviour that can save them from their sins. If they heed the warning, all well and good, salvation and new life in the Lord Jesus Christ, eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ. But if they will not heed the warnings, then the consequences is upon their own heads. And so it is with us, isn't it friends? If we will not heed those warnings of God, if we will not heed the punishments of God, then we only have ourselves to blame. We can't blame God for being righteous and holy and just and true and true to his word and keeping his word, can we? We only have ourselves to blame and we as a church Our job is to be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ in this fallen world and to sound out that gospel so that the world may hear, so that the world may know that there is a saviour, that there is forgiveness for sin. that there is cleansing from all their sins in the Lord Jesus Christ. If only they will turn back to Him. If only they will come to Jesus Christ for their salvation. And so, we have now the third section. As we come to the third section, we have seven trumpets being sounded out by seven angels. But they don't sound out straight away. They're waiting for something. They're being held back by God. And then they will sound out in response to that very thing. What is that thing that they're waiting for? Let's just read the first six verses of chapter 8. When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour, and I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Then another angel, having golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense. that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense and the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake. So the seven angels, who had the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound. So what are these angels waiting for? They are waiting for God's command. And God gives the command and he allows them to blow when he in response to the prayers of the saints. Those wonderful prayers of the Lord's people are precious to him and important to him. How beautiful this picture is, this beautiful picture of prayer. The prayers are called incense before God, a sweet smelling aroma before God. He is pleased with them. and they are important to Him. He wants to hear them. He waits to hear them. That doesn't mean that God only acts according to our will. Not at all. What it means is this, that our prayers are written into God's plans and purposes and He responds to our prayers because they are part of His plans and purposes. That He would answer our prayers and that he will bring judgment upon the world and punishments upon the world according to the prayers of the saints. Now we're not told here what that prayer is, but we are told before this in the warnings of God exactly what the prayer is. And in chapter six, in verse 10, we read this. Then the third angel sounded and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch. Sorry. We're on verse six. Now chapter six and verse 10. Then they cry with a loud voice saying, how long O Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth. And that's the cry of the saints. Now the saints aren't crying for retribution, they're crying for justice. And they're crying for an end of all wickedness in this world. They're crying for the things that we should all be crying for. For a world free from wickedness and sin and violence and those things that are against God's laws. God to act justly. on behalf of his people and to deal with the world according to their sins and their wickedness and according also to how they have dealt with the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and that wonderful invitation of the Lord Jesus Christ to come and to be saved through him, through that wonderful sacrifice that he has made on the cross of Calvary. You see how powerful prayer is? The prayers of the saints are heard on high. And there is another prayer that is heard on high, and that is the prayer of a penitent. One who comes to the Lord Jesus Christ, repenting of his sins and crying out to God for salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. That sincere prayer is heard by God and God responds by forgiving and cleansing that sinner and making him right before Him in Jesus Christ. So if you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ then come to Him, come to Him in prayer and God will hear and answer your prayer if it's sincere and true. The seven trumpets are now waiting to be sounded. And God, in response to the prayers of his people, cast down wrath upon the world. And that is pictured as this earthquakes and these terrible sound in heaven and thunders and noises and lightnings. Those things that represent God's wrath sounding out in all the world. And here in this section, it comes in the form of God's punishments upon the world. So the first angel sounds, and we hear this, verse 7. The first angel sounded, and hell and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grasses were burned up. So what we have here is a picture. It's not literal, it's a picture. Things like this do literally happen. The world is struck by fires and hail and terrible hailstorms. You see sometimes hailstorms with hail as big as footballs, don't you, sometimes these days. But it's not to be taken so literally. What it is, could strike those things on our land that's essential to our food supply. What are they? Crops, fruit, trees. We depend upon trees, don't we, for life. Those things that are essential to us in life. and those are struck. God is warning us, God is punishing us for our sins through this and making us realise that he will not tolerate our sin. But he is merciful too, even though he's punishing, only a third is struck. That's a significant number, isn't it? But not all the world is struck by these punishments at any one time. And as we see, it's increased from the warnings. The warnings, when they came, struck a quarter of the world. and the people in the world. Now it's a third, it's increasing because we will not listen to the warnings of God, the punishments must come and they've come with increasing wrath from God. So our comforts are being taken away, our necessities are being taken away. The second trumpet sounds in verse eight and nine, then the second angel sounded And something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea. And a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died. And a third of the ships were destroyed. So when our food source on land becomes affected, we can always turn to the sea, can't we? The sea is full of life and full of those things that we can eat. And yet, it's being struck here. And the sea is becoming an inhospitable place for us and for the creatures that live in it. And much of it is dying out. This is the picture that we have here. And this is what we see in life too, don't we? Once you could go throughout this land and you could find all around the coast small ports where armadas of trawlers were waiting to go out in the early morning to fish. Now most of them have gone. There are still some but most have gone. Now they just aren't the fish to support those jobs and to justify those trawlers to go out and to fish. What's happening? Resources of the world are dying, are being taken away and this is part of God's punishment upon the world for what we do and because we will not heed those warnings of God. He's striking at the very necessities that we have. Well, the third trumpet, what does that represent? In verse 10, then the third angel sounded and a great star fell from heaven burning like a torch and it fell on the third of the waters and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood and a third of the waters became Wormwood And many men died from the water because it was made bitter. So here is that last essential of life, which is water. We need to eat and we need to drink, don't we? We cannot survive long without either of those things. And so here, fresh water is represented as being struck. It's drying up, it's becoming undrinkable, it's becoming unpalatable, and people die from the pollution that is in these waters, from the droughts, from even floods that bring down pollutants into the waters. Things are affecting the various essentials of life and God is allowing that to happen so that we wake up to realise that there is punishment to come. and the fourth angel sounds. Verse 12. Then the fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. And I look and I heard an angel flying through the midst of the heaven saying with a loud voice, woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth. Now, this fourth angel sounds, and we see the sun, the moon, and the stars being struck, and there is darkness in the earth, and that darkness increases by a third. What can that represent? Does it mean that the sun will stop giving out its light? Well, that is happening, isn't it, friends? We know that the Even the sun has a finite length of life. And it's burning up. And it will come to an end one day. But that's not what's being said here. What else does it represent? It represents the coming of darkness upon the world. And what does that itself represent? It represents the hours of evil and when crime is committed, or much crime is committed, the hours of darkness. And that is increasing. As God strikes at us and brings down punishments upon us, he brings it in the form of allowing more wickedness and more sin to happen in the world. Now that is a direct result of our rebelling against him, isn't it friends? Because if we rebel against what is good, then we must be doing those things that are wrong and as that increases so does wickedness and crime and sin as people become more selfish, as people become more evil, as people revel crime and wickedness happens. More darkness descends upon our world and that will increase as the world increases in its rebellion against God. Woe, woe, woe, says the angel to the world and to the inhabitants of the world. What a picture we have here of all those things that bring misery and heartache to us. Why do we have them in the world? We have them because we will not listen to God. We have them because we will not heed his warnings. We have them because we are hostile towards his church and towards his people and towards the gospel that the church proclaims, that wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ. We have them because we will not have his saviour and we will not return to him and we will not repent of his sins. What has God to do, friends? Is he to sit back? and allow us to continue in our delusion that there is no God and there is no punishment and there are no consequences for what we are doing and the way that we are living? No. He is merciful and he will deal with us. And if that means that he has to Allow us to be uncomfortable in this world and to experience things that will make us miserable and hurt us, to wake us up. That's better than allowing us to live on in a delusion that we'll end up in our utter destruction in hell for all eternity. In that living hell where we will be punished for our sins, by our sins, for all eternity. What would you rather have? God to leave us, to perish? Or God, a God who is merciful and cares about us and does not want and is not willing that any should perish. Well, our God is merciful and full of compassion and our God will save those who turn back to him. The question for those of us who are not saved this evening, today is, Will we turn back to Him? Will we have Him as our God? And will we have Jesus Christ as our Saviour? And for His people, it is this. Will we be His faithful witnesses in this world? Will we stand for Him? Will we tell the world that there is a Saviour? Will we warn the world before it is too late? If we do not do it, who will do it, friends? It's our calling. It's what our God has left us here to do. Let's be up and doing it for the glory of our God and for the sake of mankind. Thank you. If you'd like to hear more of messages, then please do visit us at Uxbridge Road Tabernacle and you will find messages there on various subjects and things to do with seeking the Lord and things for Christians to build them up in their faith. And please do listen in to our next talk next week. Thank you.