Welcome to the To Faithful Men podcast. This project started in 2006 to preserve old sermon and study tapes of Wiley Flanagan, Hassel Wallace, and Mike Strebel. 2 Timothy 2 says, And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Chapter 8, verse 1. And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. Now the seventh seal, when it was opened, the following trumpets, the seven trumpets, are announced. Each angel blows his trumpet. You would think that there would be some reference to the opening of the book, but there is no reference to the book ever being opened. The book was, they worried because the book was sealed, and now when their seven seals have been released or removed, well there's nothing said about the book being opened, but evidently what we read in the seven trumpets and the seven bold judgments, and the remainder of the book constitutes the book. We may come in chapter 10, when we come to the little book, how to describe its contents or what does it signify, other than the fact that you might want to say that it begins a history from that moment in God's judgments to the destiny of the world and of the events, the last events. But before we notice the reference to the silence, which refers to the seventh seal, I want to point out two things that might be helpful. with reference to the seventh chapter. The seventh chapter is the chapter of assurance. It's a chapter of warning and promise. God warns first, then there is assurance that despite the warning, despite the persecution that's coming on earth, there will be safety. And then produces an illustration in the chapter 15, 16, 17, describes God's promise. Now, the assurance, the warning was, hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. Now, here is a warning to the angels that they are unable to hurt the earth or bring any judgment upon the earth until God seals his servants. So we have not only the warning there, but we have his protection in the seal. In the Old Testament, Joseph had a seal Pharaoh gave to him his signet ring, his seal, showing that he was prime minister, that he had authority. Then in the days of Asherus, the king, or Xerxes in history, gave his signet ring, you know, his seal. He had the seal on his ring. He gave it to Haman. But after Mordecai, After God revealed to the king in the night, you know, by his trouble, wouldn't let him sleep, the ring was taken from Haman and given to Mordecai. And Mordecai had the seal of the ring. Then in Daniel, the lion's den was sealed. In the New Testament, the Lord's tomb was sealed. So in these sealings, you see the idea of safety, security. There was a warning always preceding. Then you had God's protection, and then you have God's promise. Here in Revelation 7, the promise is, they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. for the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them and shall lead them." Now, we didn't notice that last time because we were rushing there. The seventeenth verse gives you the character of Christ as a shepherd. In the New Testament, of course, we're familiar with the usage that the Lord himself made. He referred to himself as a good shepherd, and that the sheep heard his voice, and the shepherd cared for the sheep. Well, in Palestine that was a great job. It was a task to care for the sheep. The shepherd put himself in danger many, many times to keep his flock together, keep them from falling over the mountains and so on. And it says that he shall lead them under living waters. Well, that's very familiar, the Gospel of John, because this is the same writer and he gives us kindred thoughts concerning the Lamb. Of course, in the Bible he is called the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, and the Chief Shepherd. Then verse 14 says, And he said unto me, These are they which came out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. You need to note what the rest of the Bible has to say about the blood of Christ. In other words, it's preaching material, is what I'm getting at. If you connect in Romans 3.25, the blood of Christ is said to be a perpetuation or expiation, a satisfaction to God. Then Romans 5 tells us that we are justified by his blood. First Peter talks about the incorruptible sacrifice, the blood, that it's without spot. And then Ephesians 1, 7 tells us that we have redemption through his blood. Hebrews tells you that their conscience is purged by his blood. Here in Revelation, the article is on the made white, that is these that came out of great tribulation. Now the 144,000 of course primarily directly refers to Jews of the Jewish tribe. In other words, if a man told me, suppose you said you were one of those 144,000, you were a Gentile. And I come back and ask you, what tribe are you? These are they that came out of great tribulation. Who were they? 12,000 out of each tribe. Now, tell me what tribe you belong to. If you can't tell me what tribe you belong to, how can you tell me you are one of the 144,000? Now, you can get yourself in that next group, see the great multitude. because they are seen, noticed, as out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation on the earth. And primarily, this will refer and have to do with people who are living on the earth at the time immediately preceding the return of Christ. Of course, that's because they are the ones come out of the tribulation, the great one. The definite article specifies it. Yet, An overall look of the book of Revelation and the point of time in which this occurs, I think you'll understand, we'll see later, I have no difficulty in realizing that it pertains to all who have come out of tribulation, whatever time they lived and whatever period they lived, and that it will include all of the saints of God. But I thought maybe we might make those comments, it might be worth it. Well, this right here will be the tribulation of the end time. What have they been tried for? This group here? These Jews, have they been preaching Jesus Christ? Or are they just going through trouble? These are simply the tribute to the praise of God's glorious grace of the doctrine of election. These, the 144,000 are the ones that have been chosen, elected of God from the foundation of the world. They do believe in God. Yes, they will at that time. They are marked. At the time they were sealed, they were already believers in Christ because they were called my servants. Seal my servants in their power. That doesn't have anything to do with salvation. Of course, those that believe in salvation and in ordinances, efficacy of ordinances, tell you that to seal A baptism, of course, is included here. Now the Bible speaks about the person being sealed, but when it talks about the seal, it is with reference to the Holy Spirit, and by the Holy Spirit. That's when reference is made to a person's regeneration, or to salvation, as we commonly call it. Does this mean that you understand the Bible as if there would be a huge of preaching Jesus Christ as we now know it before his return? Does that indicate that? Well, of course, it would be for a short period. They won't have much time as far as that's concerned, and I doubt whether there will be too much preaching by. Now, of course, the dispensationalist tells you that this 144,000 are the creatures that produced the great multitude uh in the uh the last half of chapter seven but there's no authority for believing that i mean there's no biblical authority but they do believe in god to the extent that they stand up to be counted oh yes yeah that's right and that is that shows you uh that uh the assurance and the completely, that God will not cast off, and he has not forgotten whom he has, even though up to this time they had been enemies on account of the gospel, with reference to the gospel. They didn't believe it before, but yet they had been marked out by God, and this 144,000 represents that sum total of all of the Jews that will be on earth that are redeemed and they were so by the blood of the Lamb, made white in the blood just as Gentiles. Well, now we come to then verse 1 of chapter 8, and there are some 27 theories about what happens here in this silent period. 30 minutes time, well, first place It certainly is not a description of the eternal state or heaven because there wouldn't be any women there. It's silence. But most people tell you that you wouldn't have that many people in silence at one time unless it was done, performed, or at the command of God. And there's no reference here to God commanding the silence. There's nothing here, no inference anywhere, that God says, now listen, wait a minute, something's fixing to happen. Let's all get quiet, see. Many of the more orthodox interpreters of Revelation tells you that the silence is indicative of the fact that the saints on earth are praying, and that the angels in heaven are receiving their prayers, adding to their prayers the incense off the altar, and that part is true because the Bible mentions that, and they come up before God. And of course they argue on the basis that while here in religious services we'll get quiet when a man or person begins to pray, and quite so much so that a pin drops remind your ears but a man can read God's word and they'll run all over the house they'll keep walking on it and they'll come right on down the aisle but you let a man pray while they stop at the door see all right some take on the basis of that uh say that there's silence in heaven see because of the prayers uh coming up to God then a great number tells you that this silence represents is a prefiguring the rest at which the saints enter, the eternal rest of God. And that those who advocate the seventh day tells you that this is typical of the rest of the Sabbath. But no one knows, whatever you would say would be a guess. But from the setting of the book, that this occurs in the midst of God pouring out his judgments upon the earth. And now this seventh trumpet, the sixth seal, reveals much greater persecution and trouble upon the earth than the previous seals did. Therefore, when the angel, the seventh seal is released, it's a lot more in keeping the book to assume that the silence was produced because a whole heaven was overcome by the extremity, the intensity of the suffering that was to be inflicted, poured out upon the earth, that it was a moment of silence. And because of that judgment, in other words, literally, as we would say, their breath was taken away because of what followed. Now, of course, no one knows it's silent. There was silence in heaven for 30 minutes, and every time anybody preaches on what the 30-minute silence means, of course, he just gets it. Now anyway, verse 2 now, notice he says, I saw the seven angels which stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. And then verse 3 immediately says, I saw another angel. Now verse 6, chronologically, or with reference to the subject matter, belongs after verse 6. I mean after verse 5, between verse 5 and 6. You see, verse 2, John is seeing the seven angels which stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Verse 6, and the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. That makes a continuous, a smooth reading. It may be that God wanted John to have this right at this point, and it may not be that it has been misplaced. In other words, John saw the seven angels which stood before God, and to them was given seven trumpets, and that's all he saw about it. He leaves that subject abruptly. And verse 3, 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 the 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 off the altar and cast it into the earth. and there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake. And then he changes to the seven angels, see, that have the seven tribes. But the first five verses, outside of, I mean, verse three and verse four and five, verses three, four and five, deal with an angel officiating or performing his ministry at the altar. Again, you can read just dozens of interpretations as to who this angel is. Well, what difference does it make who this angel is? It's an angel. It's an angel of God. It's one appointed in the service of God. And to go beyond that, even though, well, they say, well, it can't be an ordinary angel, not even an archangel. And of course, you know, in the apocryphal books, you have the seven angels Raphael, and Rubiel, and Sariel, and Gabriel, and Michael, and Uriel. Well, that's Rubiel too. That's the seven angels that the Jews thought of as archangels. And yet, They thought of a pious Jew, a very devout Jew, as being much higher than these seven angels, because these seven angels had to work day and night. And according to a pious Jew, no man violated the Sabbath, see? So they even put a rabbi on earth higher than these angels that had to work day and night. John saw seven angels, and we'll skip verse 2 until we get down to verse 6. But now, the angel stood at the altar. What altar? Well, some tell you that it's a brazen altar. Some tell you that it's the altar of incense. Well, it certainly has to do with incense. And it might be proper to refer to it as the altar of incense, because incense throughout the Old Testament scriptures, that was the purpose of it, is associated with the prayers of the saints. And here incense is added. You know, we've seen once before that the prayers of saints in a bowl presented before God. Now, what are they crying for? Previously we've seen that they cried, How long, O Lord? In other words, they're wanting the end time to come. They're wanting the time when vengeance would be meted out upon them. That's been the prayer of a righteous Jew, the persecuted Jew, all these ages. And it's also been the cry of martyrs to Cullen. You ought to read a book that he wrote. in his writings, two or three chapters, where he is longing for the time to come when he could see those people that was taking the Christians, the children of God, you know, all over and putting them and dumping them down in hot oil and pulling them up and putting them back down and laughing and ridiculing them and holding them up, burning them and making light torches. And Pertullum says the day is coming when we'll get to look down on you. as being burning, and he laughed. And a lot of people say, well, if they're telling one Christian, you'll take these modernists today, these do-gooders, and they say, oh, that's not Christian. You ought to pray for your enemies. Well, Christ did teach that. Paul preached that too. And yet, it's God that says vengeance belongs to God, to me, and God's going to repay it. And that venus here is simply the cry of the martyrs. They are crying the prayer of the ages, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. They are conscious of the fact that there is injustice on the earth. They are conscious of the fact that they are persecuted, as the Lord said, just simply because they profess his name, they are his followers. But here are these prayers, and he takes the coal and then sends it to the earth, which symbolically, apparently, signifies that God has answered their prayers now. And the prayer that is answered by the prayers of the saints is what we are fixing to read. Notice in verse 5, He took the censer and filled it with the fire off the altar and cast it into the earth. And there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake. That signifies as a result of casting the coal into the earth, the fire, which is the fire of judgment. And by these sounds, these noises, thunderings, lightnings, earthquakes, typical of judgment, and God speaks unto him to pour it out upon the earth. Now, verse 7. Q. Could I say something about verse 5? A. Yes. Q. You know, when Paul and Silas prayed in prison, it was earthquake. They were praying and singing. A. That's right. Q. Could that be used as reference here? A. Well, as to the earthquake, as to God intervening, and I'll make that statement right here. Now, when the angels take the trumpet, see? Now every time that we, in this, with reference to the trumpet judgment, or in time past when there was an earthquake and the trumpets connected, it was always the act of God intervening in the world. God from heaven coming, personally, directly intervening, taking part. holding back the ordinary laws of nature in order to work his will, in order to give something. I, for instance, will look at some of them. In Exodus 19, verse 16 and 19, God gave the law. Well, what was it? There was an earthquake at the giving of the law, at the blowing of the trumpet. Trumpet blow, that's it. And Joel 2.1 says, blow ye the trumpet, you know. Well, the trumpets were blown in the older times, of course, for various reasons. And I put a note sometime ago on this page to denote the types or the meaning of the trumpets. And here they are. assembly, arrival, attack. In other words, it was sounded, the bugle was sounded, the trumpet was sounded to give alarm in case of an enemy or a beast or anything disturbing the peace of the camp when it was at rest. Well, at the same time, whenever the camp was, the people were engaging in warfare, why the trumpet was blown to attack the war. It was blown when after having marched for certain periods of time, if they wanted to assemble, congregate, stop, why it was blown to assemble, to gather together. And then it was blown in biblical times for the arrival of some important personage, like a king, or a prime minister, or a foreign representative, some man of dignity. They toot their horns. Well, we salute his flag, we'll sing the anthem, and then we'll sing the anthem for the country from which the man comes. Well, in the New Testament, Every time that you have the trumpet blowing, you have God intervening. You have an act of God out of this world into this world, from heaven to earth. In 1 Thessalonians 4, when the trumpet blows, the trumpet sounds, you have God returning from heaven to the earth. In 1 Corinthians 15, 51, 52, 53, long there, you have a record of the Lord raising the dead. There is God manifesting, exerting his power over the dead, see. Now that's a direct act of God. That's not man in cooperation with God. or God incorporation of a man, it was purely solely the act of God. Then in Matthew 24, 31, when the trumpet's blown, you have the angels were sent throughout the world to gather together his elect from the four corners of the earth. worthy of notice to note those points. But now, verse 6 says, And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. But now put verse 2 before it, And I saw the seven angels which stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets, and the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. You see how It reads when you bring verse 2 down immediately after ahead of verse 6, or if you put it ahead or below it, it really sounds better to put it before verse 6. But anyway, the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. Now, how did they make preparation? Well, I don't know, maybe it was get an arm room, you know, to get elbow room. get ready to blow might be getting a deep breath out of all anything that people write and they just feel books was with tomfoolery like that on what is the preparation of the angel well uh they got ready anyway and when the time when god warned him to well he was ready to to let that uh let that thing sound Thank you for listening. Don't forget to subscribe and share with a friend. Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.