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Now, last week we didn't finish
the study, so I will be using some of the notes from last week,
page beginning, Sealed by God. So that last week there was a
note, if you happen to have those notes from last week, that would
be helpful, but Sealed by God. But I just do want to make one
or two preliminary things first. That is on the first page of
today's notes, just to really keep you on your toes and shuffle
a lot more papers. The vision of Christ writing
letters, we just go through where we've been. There's a series
of, not to speak to it, there's a group of seven letters that
are written. So the first three chapters are
dominated, if you like, by three letters preceded by a vision
of Christ who speaks those letters. And then there's chapters 4,
5, and 6, which again is dominated,
if you like, by the opening of seven seals. So you've got seven
letters and seven seals. And those seven seals are preceded
by a vision of God and the Lamb. So we've been through that, and
we're just finishing the seals today. And then the next section
is a group of seven trumpets that are blown, not actually
preceded by a vision in this case, but preceded, as we'll
see, by a little section at the beginning of Chapter 8, which
we'll look at shortly. But I thought it would be helpful
just to let you know, or just discuss briefly, the interpretive
way in which I'm coming at the book. There's all sorts of ideas
about how you can read the book. For years, I suppose, many of
us were brought up with what's called a futurist view. in which
there's the Church Age, which is the letters to the churches,
and then there was the coming of Christ, and everything happened
after that was after Christ came. So, funny that, you know, there
was no mention of Christ coming at the end of Chapter 3, but
Chapter 4 onwards is the period of the Great Tribulation, that's
the Futurist view. Then there was a Historicist view, which
was held by Jonathan Edwards, amongst others, great men. and
by numbers of reformed people for years. I'm not sure so much
now, but it was. And in which case, the whole
book is a story from beginning to end, and it starts with the
apostolic age and finishes with Christ's coming. So it's a historicist
view. And there's other varieties of
things which actually take the book in a linear fashion. This
follows this, follows this, follows this. So it's a historical progression.
There's great problems in doing that, particularly when it gets
to Chapter 12, as we will on the next series that I do next
term, because it just seems so obviously to be something way
back at the beginning. So it seems far preferable to
me to see it as a series of eight visions, and you can vary it
as to where you see the breaks coming, but in other words, he
takes you, he has Christ speaking to seven churches, and here you
have, if you like, typically all the kinds of situations that
the Lord addresses throughout the entire church age. So we
don't have any trouble at all reading this church or that church
or the other church and say, oh, yeah, OK, I understand. We're
being spoken to. So chapters 1 to 3 speak to us. But then you can come to the
breaking open of the seals. And I think, as we expounded
at the previous week, you can see how those breaking of the
seal is a situation that actually speaks directly to us. We say,
oh, yeah, I can see that happening. And I can see how the Lord's
speaking to us in the midst of that. And then we come to the
trumpets today. Then again, you can see that
the Lord is speaking to us. So I call it a progress of revelation. In other words, John did see
this after this, but he didn't mean to say this is going to
happen after this. It's the order of the vision, not the order
of the happenings. In other words, God wants to
actually open up this, and then when he's opened up, then your
minds are ready to say, now I've got another level I want to open
this up at. And today we will see how a similar event, under
the breaking of the seals and the blowing of the trumpets,
has got two different views of the same thing. And that's an
important thing for us to have, each of those eight visions,
each of which accumulate. And again, I'll check this as
I go on studying it for the next term, but it does seem to me
that as the book goes on, there's a mounting intensity in which,
as it were, God gets closer and closer to the actual, you know,
what's really going on. At the end of the day, it's God
and Satan. But he tells you a lot of other
things that build up to that. So that's my way of coming at
it, so I can then leave out the first part of the notes for today.
But I'm going back now to what we didn't finish last time, because
with the breaking open of the seals that took place after the
vision of God and the Lamb, There's the opening of one after
another of the seals, and then with the opening of the sixth
seal. After that, before the opening of the seventh seal,
there's an interlude, and that's what we're looking at now. And
then you come to the, and the seventh, then the seventh seal
is open, and the seventh seal opens up the seven trumpets.
It kind of opens up the next part of the vision. And then you have the seven trumpets
blow and then there's an interlude after the six trumpets before
the seventh trumpet. And it's if these two interludes
at the end between the sixth and seventh seal and the sixth
and seventh trumpet are saying, let's just stop a while and say,
where are we? And speak directly to us as to
where we fit in all of this. So let's have a look at what
is revealed by reading chapters. chapter seven, or part of chapter
seven, I won't read all of it. So after the six seals have been
opened and all of the catastrophes have taken place, not least the
killing of many saints and the Lord telling them to wait a little
longer, and then this terrible manifestation of wrath in the
sixth seal. And now, before the seventh seal,
after this, I saw four angels. standing at the four corners
of the earth, holding back four winds of the earth, that no wind
might blow on the earth, or sea, or against any tree. Then I saw, you think of all
the tempests in the world, God saying, no wind. That's it. A picture, isn't it? We don't
have to sort of say to ourselves, when did this happen? It's a
vision, all right? And the vision is meant to convey
an impression to the mind. It's quite an event. Nothing. I mean, nothing happening is
quite an event, isn't it? Can you think of about two seconds
in your house when nothing happens? Sometimes you wish for it, don't
you? Then I saw another angel ascending
from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living God, and
he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been
given power to harm. So these angels are there to
release some harm. Don't harm the earth or the sea
or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God on their
foreheads. And then it lists the tribes
of Israel, Judah, Reuben, Gaddash, and Naphtali. It's interesting
there's no Dan. And Joseph's mentioned instead
of Ephraim further down there. So slight difference in the list,
but various tribes and so forth. And then verse nine, after this,
I looked and behold a great multitude. So he heard the number. He did say he saw another angel,
but he heard the number of the seal. He didn't see the 144,000.
Did you notice that? He heard the number. And then
he saw a great multitude that no one could number from every
nation, tribe, people, language, standing before the throne and
before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches. White robes can mean the righteous
deeds of the saints in Revelation, or it can mean wash them in the
blood of the Lamb. It's got two meanings. Clothed
in white robes with palm branches in their hands. crying out with
a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne
and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing
around the throne and around the elders and the four living
creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped
God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving
and honour and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. One of the elders talked
to me, saying, Who are these? A very down-to-earth kind of
little comment in the midst of something grand, isn't it? Who
are these? Clothed in white robes. Where
have they come from? John needs to get hold of this
point, and we do too. He said, you know, that's a good
answer. If you're out of your depth,
you know. And he said to me, these are the ones coming out
of the Great Tribulation. And we just want to inquire a
little bit about why this little quaint interchange happens in
the midst of a grand vision. They have washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore they are
before, this is the explanation to John, therefore they are before
the throne, serving day and night in his temple. And he who sits
on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall
know hunger no more, thirst no more, the sun shall not strike
them when he is scorching heat. For the lamb in the midst of
them there will be their shepherd and will guide them to springs
of living water God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. The opening of the seventh seal
is held over while something else is settled. Further harm
is going to come on the earth, but this time in a way that will
not affect those who are sealed. Don't harm it until we've sealed. So what's revealed by the seventh
seal, which is going to be the seven trumpets? Seven trumps
are not going to affect those who are sealed. You see? So were
the saints affected by the opening of the seven seals? You bet they were. Many were
killed. Will any be healed or hurt by
the seven trumpets? Not at all. See the difference? It's a different view, isn't
it? From one point of view, we're fair game in this world. We may
lose our lives. From another point of view, nothing
can touch us. You need both views. Can you see that? So here's the
ceiling. That's the ceiling that actually
takes place. In biblical terms, if you actually
look at all the occurrences where it says somebody was sealed,
it means to be owned, It can mean to be protected or
to be certified for service. Here's the seal of my boss saying
I'm permitted to do this. And for Christians, this happens
by the coming of the Holy Spirit. We were sealed, Ephesians 1.13,
by the Holy Spirit of God. That is, God has put his mark
on us and says, mine. Don't touch. Take notice of. Do you see? It's no small thing. It's not just a private enjoyment
to have the Holy Spirit. It helps you feel good when you
open your Bible or something. The Holy Spirit is God's mark
of ownership on your life. And that marks you out as special
to you in God's presence, but it also marks you out as special
to others. This man is my servant. You disregard him, you disregard
me. It's quite significant, you see. And in this case, it actually
means that they will not be touched by anything that's revealed by
the blowing of the seven trumpets. In biblical terms, we've read
that, okay? We need to know we're sealed because we are so marked
as belonging to God, the things that are described in the next
section will not apply to us. Now, I've said that, then we
have, he looks this time, he's heard a number and told, oh,
that's 144,000, which seems to be saying there's nothing lacking. God's people have been brought
to perfection. You know, there's 12 tribes of
Israel, and I don't know, but it's just multiplied out, 12,
12, and plus 1,000, you know, multiplied by 1,000, and you get this 144,000,
as if to say, here's complete company of God's people. and the entire people of God
is represented. And then you see here another,
well I can say another group, or is it the same group? I'm
going to put it to you that it's the same group. And the reason
we say so is because later on in chapter 14, the 144,000 is
mentioned again, and they're called the redeemed from the
earth. And here we're talking about a group of people thanking
God for their redemption. So there's no clear biblical argument
in biblical terms. I mean, this is a book of the
end things, all right, of how things look ultimately. And in
the end, you can't say that, oh, here's the Jewish section
of history, of heaven, and here's the Gentile section of heaven. We're just one people. So if
you've got a part of Revelation that's telling you there's a
separate part for Jews and a separate part for Gentiles, then somehow
that doesn't seem to fit with other parts of Scripture. So
I'll put it to a stat, the 144,000 out of the great company of the
redeemed who sing this song, It's one and the same group of
people. The number is 144,000, but the site is innumerable. So John hears the number of people
of Sheol, but sees the great company of the redeemed people
praising God. They appear to be the same company,
and I've just spelled that out a little bit there. With John,
we also need to see God's people giving exuberant praise to God
for their redemption. We heard that being spoken. They
come from all nations that sing one song. They are before God
and the Lamb, whom they love. They wear a white robe. They've
got nothing to be ashamed of up there. Isn't that glorious?
Nothing to be ashamed of. And they are ready to herald
their King. This is heaven. They now lead the worship. You
remember earlier it was, we had sang, we used that line, angels
help us to adore him, you know, and the great creatures and the
24 elders gave some lead and then all the rest of the people
joined in. Well now it seems to be reversed. There's a great
crowd from all nations that are actually singing the praise of
God and the angels say, oh, and they get in on the act. Which
is interesting, because you remember in 1 Peter it says, angels in
heaven long to look into the things that are actually happening
on earth. You know, we might think that it must be great being
in heaven, seeing Christ in the land. Well, I'm sure that would
be absolutely amazing. On the other hand, where is God
working? Where did Christ die? Where did
Christ rise from the dead? Where is he actually... Where
is he already beginning to create a new heavens and earth? By bringing
people to life. Right here. And angels are looking
down this end. Things into which Peter says
angels long to look. Things that are happening amongst
us. No small thing going on down here. So here I've started off
with the angels who help us to adore him and now the angels
say, oh, look at the way they're worshipping God. And in they
come again. It's quite an antiphonal, as
the word, you know. On this, now the singing and
now the singing. But you remember the little interchange
between John and the angel. We need to see God's people giving
this, because we've been shown this happening and we've been
shown it for a reason. They now lead the worship and
the angelic company say amen. The earlier scene where those
who suffered asked for vengeance. Remember the earlier ones when
the fifth seal was broken? Said how long before you'll avenge
us for our blood that's been spilled on the earth? They're
in heaven, but they're still asking why God hasn't fixed it
up. Suggest that there may be some
qualification in regard to God's goodness. Not so. Not here. Can you see? Here's the crowd
that now see the redemption. The nature of God has been fully
disclosed by the blood of the Lamb and by their being freed
from slavery. This is what they're singing
about. Freed from sin. Just think of that. Can you feel
within yourself the joy of just being free of all the dirtiness
that mucks up your life and that keeps you justifying yourself
and making your pain to yourself and everybody else? Isn't that
wonderful? You can just be forgiven and
then you can say, oh, I'm sorry, I did it wrong. And you can move
another day because you're clean. There's nothing quite like it
anywhere. under the sun. The nature of
God's being fully revealed, free from sin, from wrath, free from
the world. I sometimes think, well, all
this stuff's happening in the world, I don't have to get across
all that's happening in the world. I can be free of it. It's interesting,
at the end of the book of Revelation it says, let the evil still do
evil. You don't have to feel responsible
for all the rot that's happening in the world. You don't have
to feel overly put down by all that goes wrong. It's interesting,
isn't it? There's a sense in which you
can weep over people that do wrong. From another point of
view, you can say, well, let the evil still do evil. You don't
have to take it on board. You're free from sin. You're
free from the world, the flesh, and the devil. You don't have
to give way to your temptations. You can kick them in the face.
And you're free from the fear of death. And from this freedom
comes true humanity, and from this comes true praise. This
is eternal life. An elder checks to see if John
understands what he's seeing, and John ducks the question.
You know, I think that's funny. Lovely. He and we need to know
that people who've come up out of the Great Tribulation can
sing this song. This is what people think of
God when they wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb. The
elders, and not just they, but the elders and creatures can
think of seven gifts worthy for the Lamb, powered. That's exousia,
if I remember rightly, which means the right to rule. Nobody's
going to be afraid of this one. He's got the right to rule. He's
got wealth. He's got all the resources. He
can do anything. He's got wisdom. He's not going to make any mistakes.
He's got might. That's, if I'm remembering right,
Kratos. It just means pure power. Nothing's going to stop him.
Honor. He's worthy, worthy of everything
he's got. Glory. Everything you use can
pour out and there won't be any glory as an outshining of holiness
and blessing. He deserves to be blessed and
praised. So there we are. They think of
all these words. Stories coming to us from countries
where Christians are persecuted, bear witness to the truth that
joy in the Holy Spirit comes because of the truth of Christ
and His forgiveness, not from circumstances. It's been so heartening
to me, not just to say, oh, look at all these terrible things
that are happening, but to see the joy they have. Sometimes
joy that you and I don't have. The Holy Spirit's been poured
into their hearts. They know what they've got that's
eternal. We're sometimes so sated with our little, you know, accoutrements
to life, you know, we miss the real thing. And here they are
telling us what the true life is, that joy comes from being
forgiven and knowing God, not from circumstances. This vision
does not tell us what we'll be, but what can be so right now,
and is so now. There's much to come by way of
exposing, opposing, and destroying evil, but already we're given
a picture of the age to come. We'll serve God, God will shelter
us, the rigors of life, that no heat will strike them, You
think of people in refugee camps, out in the middle of some desert
areas sometimes. You see little pictures of them.
I call it the rigors of life. I mean, life's just plain tough
and hard and desperate, isn't it? Right now, and including
many people who are Christians, God will shelter them and the
rigors of life and life still infused with sin
will all be gone. And they are aware of this and
they are delighted in God who is doing such great things. The
Lamb will shepherd them to springs of living water. And God will
wipe all tears away. I think it's one of the great
statements of the Bible. God will wipe all tears away. You have a man, his wife died,
and the grief of it is just enormous. And some of the things that happened
along the way are sad too. It's not just the pain, it's
lots of things. Given the sadness of this world
and the view of this world given in Revelation to wipe away all
tears is the final testament that the Lamb has won an eternal
victory over all evil. Heaven will have no lament. No regrets. No damaged memories. And we don't have to wait until
the end of the book to know that it's going to have a good ending.
I'm talking about Revelation. Weep now, and be a very unusual
person if you don't, but know that there'll be a day when there'll
be no tears. Astonishing. There'll be no... It was great
now, but you know, I remember none. And yet it could only be
the case if you actually realise that everything that's happened
had to be so, and was good that it was so. Otherwise there'd
still be tears. True? It's astonishing. That is a testament to the complete
victory of God over the evil world. When the Lamb opened the seventh
seal, Remember the interlude that we
had when the Lamb opened the seventh seal of a silence in
heaven for about half an hour. Have you wondered about that? It's a fascinating line, isn't
it? I saw the seven angels who stand
before God and seven trumpets were given to them. So it's a
silence in which there's things to see. I gather that the silence
doesn't finish and then we see these things, but during the
silence, that's my way of reading it anyway, during the silence
he sees these things. Seven angels stand before God
and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came
and stood at the altar with a golden censer. He was given much incense
to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden
altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense
for the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand
of the angel. And then the angel took the censer
and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the
earth. There were peals of thunder,
rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. So it started
quiet, but it ends rowdy. Seven trumpets. The seven angels
who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them. First angel blew
his trumpet. that followed hail, fire, mixed
with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth, and a third of
the earth was burned up, a third of the earth was burned up, and
a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned
up. Second angel blew his trumpet, something like a great mountain
burning with fire was thrown into the sea, so the land, now
the sea, and a third, so again a third of the sea became blood,
a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third
of the ships were destroyed, That puts a dent in the commerce. Third angel blew his trumpet.
Remember, Christians are not affected by any of this. The
third angel blew his trumpet and a great star fell from heaven,
blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers.
Now you've got the potable water, as we call it, the drinkable
water, and all the springs of water. Consider the significance
of drinkable water and you've got Huge thing there, a third. The name of the star is Wormwood,
a bitter plant, and a third of the waters became wormwood, and
many people died from the water because it had been made bitter.
Fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck,
a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so you know the
whole cosmos. So that a third of their light
might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from
shining, and likewise a third of the night. Then I looked and
I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly
overhead, woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the
blasts of the other trumpets, not the three angels that are
about to blow. Perhaps we'll make a stop there
and just read that part of the notes. The 7th seal. Section 8.1-6 begins with silence
and ends with a lot of noise. Storm and earthquake and trumpeters
making ready to blow. Silence is notable because heaven's
been busy and loud. If you just, you know, when you
read silence and you think, oh yes, and you read back all the
loud or huge, huge noises, thunders and lightnings and earthquakes.
None of them are quiet, are they? The silence, but something happens
in the silence. Trumpeters appear, prayers are
offered, with incense and then the noise begins again. Clearly
prayers are central to the action and they're central to the action
of the seven trumpeters because the seven trumpeters are there
at the beginning and they make ready to blow at the end. You
see, so in between, so the trumpets are directly related to the prayers
of the saints. Can you follow that? Now if there's
a difference, you remember before the action happened to the Christians
And they prayed. Fifth seal. Here the saints pray
and things happen in the will. Opposite? Sometimes just things happen
and all you can do is cry out. Other times we pray and things
happen. You need both views. Is this God's response to the
prayers of the masses back in chapter 6? Together with all
those on earth who suffer because they belong to the Lamb, Christians
pray for the kingdom to come. And this is where this section
ends, because when the seventh trumpet blows, it makes this
marvellous statement, the kingdom of this world, kingdom not a
singular, the kingdom of this world, in other words, the whole
world against God is one kingdom. Kingdom of this world has become
the kingdom of our God and of his cross. That's where we get
our title from. the world, God's kingdom. You see that? This whole
vision, both this week and next week, we're calling it the world,
God's kingdom. It's all about these trumpets.
And where are the Christians? The Christians are not the victims
of this action. The Christians, dare I say it,
are not the cause of the kingdom, but they are the occasion of
the action. God is the cause, but we are the occasion. We pray
and God acts. Did you see that? So there's
a difference, isn't there, between the seals? You need that view
of history. And now the trumpets? You need that view of history
as well. Praying martyrs in the previous
vision were told to wait. But God does not ignore the cries
of His people. These prayers are presented to
God with incense, suggesting the priestly ministry of Christ
Himself, taking and sanctifying the prayers we offer. Dear me,
we muck around with our prayers, don't we? But in the midst of
all the prayers we pray, there are just some cries from the
heart that are 100% real. And God can pick what's real
in our prayers, and He can deal, He can It sanctifies those prayers,
adds his own input to it, if you like. That's the ministry
of intercession of Christ. Picking up our prayers and taking
them to the Father and saying, Father, you've got to do something
about this. Are you getting the picture that
we might be reading the papers and reading the answer to your
prayers? We thought answers to prayers
only happen in churches with conversions and things like that.
There's a lot more than that. Where are we? Our prayers give rise to action
on the earth, action that heralds God's victory. Now you can take
trumpets as a warning sign and I think you could say these trumpets
are warnings because the Lord along the way says you didn't
repent or presumably he wanted them to repent so if you like
the trumpets were a warning. The trumpets can also be a call
to war The trumpets can simply be heralding a victory, and I'm
putting it to you that the nature of these trumpets is heralding
a victory. I'll give you my reasons for
saying so. This recalls the days when seven priests, remember
there's seven trumpeters, ready to blow trumpets? There were
seven priests who carried trumpets. And I had to check this, you
know, back in the Exodus story. They carried trumpets as they
marched around Jericho's walls for six days. On the seventh
day, they blew them. Comparison. I mean it must be
quite strange if you're in Jericho. Wouldn't it? What are they up
to? It would have been laughing. It would have been laughing.
Okay. Here's their trumpets, down by their side. No heralding
of war or anything like that. Silence. And on the seventh day
they blew them. And of course the walls came
down. The quietness in heaven before the trumpets are blown
is a comparison, if you like. God's victory then involves the
judgment of those who oppose the purposes of God, but it heralds
God's coming victory. Do you see why I'm saying that
they are, if we take the connection with the seven angels and how
you had seven priests, and some people say, well, the angels
have a priestly-like vestments or something or other, they can
be connected with that. So they're like those seven trumpeters,
if you like, that were marching around. So from one point of
view, it does involve judgment. As we have read these trumpets
coming out, there's terrible judgments happening on the earth.
But what are the judgments about? Are they just making life difficult
for people, or are they actually saying, no, I do rule? And at the end of the whole process
of the seven trumpeters, what's the final cry? The kingdom of
the world has become the kingdom of our God. So I call them heralds
of the coming victory. Do you see? That's why we come
to that particular point of view. Now I connect that with Luke
21 where you remember the Lord was describing in those very
famous a little apocalypse it's called sometimes where the Lord
says this is going to happen and this is going to happen this
is going to happen to Jerusalem and says after this Jerusalem thing
then there's going to be all sorts of troubles in the world
and you need to describe some of the troubles that are going
to happen in the world and then he says when you see these things
taking place lift up your eyes because your redemption is drawing
nigh I think that's the way to read the trumpets when you see
these things natural catastrophes. When you see these things taking
place, lift up your eyes because your redemption is coming now. Somehow or another, and don't
ask me how, everything that's happened is not only inevitable
but indispensable. There need to be these things
happening in order that it be clear that the kingdom of this
world is the kingdom of God and will be the kingdom of our God.
The whole world will be the kingdom of our God. In fact, the kingdom
of this world, that is the organized world, will be the kingdom of
God. There's an important difference
between the opening of the seals and the blowing of the trumpets.
In the first, Christians are martyred and they pray, and we've
already looked at that, so I'll leave it. First four judgments
release turmoil in the creation, and the next two, demonic afflictions
that touch the souls of those who reject Christ. So there seems
to be a difference between the four and the next two. One writer
calls these trumpet judgments a controlled descent into chaos. Hmm, let's have a look at them.
The similarity between what happens when the trumpets sound. I just had a connection with Jericho
earlier. Now if you like a connection
with Exodus, the parallels are unavoidable. In those days the
cry of God's people came up before God. Remember Exodus 6? God heard
the cry of the people being terribly abused by the Egyptians. So here
God hears the cry of his people. At the time of the Exodus, plagues
included hail, water turning to blood, darkness, locusts,
and human deaths. Also here God called on Pharaoh
to repent, and he would not. Again, as here, for all this
they did not repent. These judgments are then penultimate,
not final. They are limited to a third of
the population, They have in mind that men and women will
see that the world is God's, and that His Son, confessed by
Christians, is in fact the face of God. The doctrine being contested
today is not the deity of Christ or the effectiveness of the Atonement.
Most people don't care about that. Not yet. You see, there's
prior work to do. We pray for a little Johnny to
be a Christian. Why wouldn't you? That's what you want, so
that's what you pray for. God says, all right. But you
see, what will bring Johnny to be a Christian? Well, that's
a mystery. But God's real. We just like
to work on the surface of things, but God really gets things to
happen. What needs to be asserted is
that God is God. And these trumpets address that
need. Hail and fire, with blood, produce
disasters on land, as trees and grass. Then something like a
collapsing volcano produces disasters in the sea, marine life and shipping. Then something, sorry, what was
it? Tsunami. Tsunami, yes, like a tsunami,
isn't it? I mean, we have little things that take place, little
things, I call them, and they involve thousands of people being
disoriented and dead. There's something like a massive
asteroid destroys a third of potable water. Then a cosmic
disturbance causes partial darkness. Now, again, you people have pointed
out that apparently several hundred thousand years ago, or thousands
of years ago, tens of thousands of years ago, there was a catastrophe
where a half of the species of the Earth were obliterated. Now,
how on Earth they worked that out, don't ask me. But it's interesting,
isn't it, that even scientists can see that there's been some
cosmic events that greatly changed how things are on Earth. Here
we are well out of the range of climate change, and certainly
out of the range of things we can remedy. The imagery could
cover any one of many acts of God that send our insurance companies
into a frenzy. Or perhaps, and this is more
to the point, leave populations devastated and spiritless. Well
may we look with dismay at the disbelief that such things could
happen. whether they be fires, whether
they be natural disasters, there's no help that can get to people
quickly and so forth. Jesus asked if someone on earth
whose tragedy, someone on whom tragedy fell, remember they said,
do you think that the people on whom the Tower of Siloam fell
were worse sinners than others? He says, no, repent or you likewise
shall perish. In other words, what is to be
a proper response of the world, or us for that matter, to natural
disasters? Don't talk about what you deserve.
Repent, lest the worst thing befall you. And this is sweet
Jesus. Pardon my irony. Jesus is real. I mean, he's going
to end up on a cross. You see, God's dealing with real
things. And really dealing with them.
And we're out of our depth. And I'm not trying, nobody here
can be smart. God is God. And we're human beings. And sometimes all we'll have
to do is cry for what has taken place, won't we? And repent if
something happens that shows we've just been playing games. We like to think we can make
the world where nothing will go wrong. This will never happen
again. Remember that was said about World War I? The war to
end wars? What did the Lord give us? World
War II? That's in our own lifetime. Well,
it's in my lifetime anyway, so it might be some of yours, or
most of yours, or probably. There. And, of course, we should try
our best to make it so. Why wouldn't you make a product
that won't let people down? I certainly hope the buildings
I go up in, in a nice big lift, will work well engineered. And so forth. Why wouldn't you
make the world the safer place as you can? So there's no excuses
here. But what will it take before
we see that it is God who provides for us, and not we ourselves?
There's a verse I've just left there, you can look at it yourself,
Isaiah 26, but it has the line in it. Your signs are in the
land, probably signs that God looks after the country. Your
signs are in the land, but they don't see it. God's looking after
Australia wonderfully, but we don't see it. Deeper troubles are to come,
and they are demonic in nature. The fifth and sixth trumpets
now. I'll read some of them. 9, chapter 9. A fifth angel blew
his trumpet, saw a star fallen from heaven. He was given a key
to the shaft of the bottomless pit. He opened the shaft of the
bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke
of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with
the smoke of the shaft. From the smoke came locusts on the
earth. So bizarre, isn't it? And they were given power like
the power of scorpions. Scorpions reputedly have one
of the worst pains that can be produced for a human being. Agonizing. They were told not to harm the
grass, but only the people. But only those people who do
not have the seal of God on their foreheads. It's what we were
talking about earlier. They were allowed to torment
them for five months. It's limited. But not to kill
them. And their torment was like the
torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And then those
people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to
die. that death will flee from them. Various things in that description
seem to say that we're dealing here with more than just cosmic
events, that is, natural nature events, but with something that's
purely demonic. The fallen star suggests Satan
fallen. Jesus said, I saw Satan falling
like from heaven. The abyss is a place of foul
fiends that the people, the demons that were cast out of pigs wanted
to go. to avoid being sent to the pit, to the abyss, to place
foul fiends. It's the lair of the beast soon
to be revealed." And all those references are there. Satan is
described later as bound here. And in the present case he can
only use his own domain if given the appropriate key. Interesting. The creatures that arise can
only touch humans, not the natural world, in this particular set
of, in the previous one they did, but here it said, and only those who do not belong
to the land, and they can only torment, not kill, but they are
unnatural in appearance, like hair of a woman, but the teeth
of a lion, and so forth. terrifying in their coming and
agonizing in their effects. Such is the reign of the God
of this world. When God lets Satan have his
way for a little while, this is what happens. This is what
he produces when permitted to do so, and the nature of his
creation is evident. We have a nice little word for
it, we call them despot in a human term, but here it seems to be
more than just that, it seems to be demonic. In one sense this
is all God's doing, but God often acts by giving up us to our own
wills and delusions and guilts. The pain of never being good
enough, the unnatural lengths this drives us to, to prove we're
someone, and then the death that hangs over us, unrelieved with
hope, may well be excruciating. We are meant to know God as Father
and to be at peace with him. But if we won't come to him through
the Lamb, Satan not only has a field day, he is given this
task, if only to show the world that Satan is no father. How
many times you could actually go through that and show, get
your own way, and you find out what you can produce. And it
ain't nice. We need to be under God. The
sixth trumpet sounds, accompanied by a voice from the Golden Altar,
where the prayers of the saints have been offered up, and the
voice says certain angels are to be unbound, presumably because
they've been fallen angels and had to be bound. They've been
reserved for this task. Just as the death of the firstborn
was the final plague in Egypt, so here it is announced that
a third of mankind will be killed. Fallen and unbound angels command
an overwhelming number of soldiers and their horses are deadly instruments
of death. Is this the war to end all wars?
What effect does it produce in those who are spared this overwhelming
destruction? That's two-thirds of the population
still. Nothing. They are still enthralled to
demons, idols, still committed to their disregard for human
life, for truth, that is, they would prefer to have sorcery
than the reality, for purity and property they disregard it.
The trumpets are given opportunity to repent and know the grace
of the Father, but sin has mastered those who have not turned to
the Lamb. We'll come to an interlude next
week after this, but is this what our prayers are about? This
is where we need to finish. We pray that our Father's name
will be hallowed. Jesus said that's what we're
to do. We pray that God's kingdom will come. That's what we're
to do. Does this just mean a few conversions
or an improvement in our discipleship? Well, it may be part of it, but
it means God will bring It means God's will being done in earth
as in heaven. It means the mystery of God being
fulfilled. 10.7, it's there. In the seven
days of the seventh angel, the mystery of God will be fulfilled. God will do what he's doing.
God knows the meaning of our prayers better than we do ourselves.
I love that. I can pray, God bless so-and-so
and so-and-so and I cheer to the Lord, I just love this guy
and I'd love it to change. That's all I can pray. I can't
pray for earthquakes and stuff. That's not in me to do that.
But God understands the meaning of my prayers. He understands
how evil and stubborn our hearts are. And He knows that nothing
will serve other than the ministry of the land, washing this filth
away. and all the ministry of the Lamb,
including this wrath, is directed towards the world knowing Him.
And there's a little bit, a couple of verses of a song I wrote years
ago. You can have a look at it. I think you'll know it already.
But I'm reminded of Romans. The righteousness of God is being
revealed from heaven. through the preaching of the
gospel. Romans 1.17 or something there. Four, the righteousness
of God is being revealed through the preaching of the gospel.
Four, the wrath of God is being revealed against all unrighteousness
and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the
truth. Two revelations are happening simultaneously. Romans 1. You
don't have to go to Revelation. Do you see that? Don't be frightened
of this. We're not about this. God is. We're about the preaching of
the gospel. And God is revealing his righteousness. And here,
God is about revealing his wrath. And they've got to be together. Just let it be. And don't try
and encompass it. We're not God. But he has pulled
aside the curtains to say, I'm looking after things, Grant.
It's good enough. Father, thank you that you reveal
things to us, and we certainly need them revealed, and we pray,
our Father, that we may be humbled by these things, and at the same
time be humbled by heartened by them, to know that you're
not slack when we pray. And we thank you, in Jesus' name,
amen.
The World: God's Kingdom (a)
Series Things Are Not What They Seem
Christ teaches us to pray, ‘Your kingdom come’. For the most part, we see God’s kingdom in terms of what is going on close at hand, but God hears us from the point of view of his ‘big picture’. Revelation shows us that ‘Things are not what they seem’. Whole word events are set in motion by the cries of God’s people around the world.
| Sermon ID | 32718172310 |
| Duration | 51:30 |
| Date | |
| Category | Teaching |
| Bible Text | Revelation 8 |
| Language | English |
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