Gooding, David: The Silence of God

Of years since I last stood before you here. The memory of your kindness abides with me yet and gives me courage as once more I stand before you. We begin our readings this evening from the gospel by Luke in chapter eighteen, reading there from verse one. And he spake a parable unto them to the end that they ought always to pray and not to faint, saying, there was in a city a judge which feared not God and regarded not men. And there was a widow in that city, and she came oft unto him, saying, avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I fear not God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest she wear me out by her continual coming. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says. And shall not God avenge his elect, which cry to him day and night, although he is long suffering over them. I say unto you that he will avenge them speedily. How be it, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? Then let us continue to read in the book of the Revelation and chapter six. The book of the Revelation and chapter six, Beginning there in verse nine. And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. They cried with a great voice, saying, How long, O Master, thee holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth. There was given them to, to each one of them a white robe, and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little time, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, which should be killed even as they were, should be fulfilled. Chapter eight, verse one. And when he opened the seventh seal, there followed a silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stand before God, and there were given unto them seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense that he should add it to the prayers of saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God out of the angel's hand. The angel taketh the censer, and he filled it with the fire of the altar and cast it upon the earth, and there followed thunders and voices and lightnings and an earthquake. Chapter ten and verse one. And I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, arrayed with a cloud, and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as the sun, and his feet of pi- as pillars of fire, and he had in his hand a little book open, and he set his right foot upon the sea and his left upon the earth. He cried with a great voice as a lion roareth. When he cried, the seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write, and I heard a voice from heaven saying, seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the angel which I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his right hand to heaven, and swear by him that liveth forever and ever, who created the heaven and the things that are therein, and the earth and the things that are therein, and the sea and the things that are therein, that there shall be time or delay no longer, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the min- mystery of God, according to the good tidings which he declared unto his servants, the prophets. Chapter eleven, verse one. And there was given unto me a reed like unto a rod, and one said, Rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. And the court, which is without the temple, leave without and measure it not, for it hath been given unto the nations, and the holy city they shall tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the Lord of the earth. Verse seven: And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that cometh up out of the abyss shall make war with them and shall overcome them and kill them. Verse fifteen. And the seventh angel sounded, and there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, the kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders which sit before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, we give thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, which art and which wast, because thou hast taken thy great power and its reign. And the nations were wroth, and thy wrath came, and the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to thy servants, the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy them that destroy the earth. And now may God give us good understanding as we think upon his word. The book of the Revelation is by common consent an exceedingly difficult book, such that all undue dogmatism is surely unjustified. There are many ways, I suppose, of approaching this difficult book. One of them is quite rightly exceedingly common. It is the way of the systematic theologian. He takes the book of the Revelation as a kind of quarry from which he may quarry all sorts of invaluable information about things to come. That valuable information quarried from the book of the Revelation he puts together with other information quarried from sundry other sources throughout scripture, and uses it all to build a magnificent edifice of a systematic account of the things yet to be. That, of course, is an exceedingly valuable study, and we owe all our brethren who are systematic theologians a great debt indeed. Tonight I shall attempt no such profound thing. I doubt whether I could anyway, even if I tried. I must content myself with humbler task. What I wish to do this evening is to take one particular part of this book and study simply its major underlying theme. I must leave it to the systematic theologians on due occasions to distinguish for us, as one ought to distinguish, the times and the seasons, to distinguish between this dispensation and another, and the various epochs in the ways of God. To the systematic theologians I must leave it. They, I'm sure, in their turn, will not mind a tyro at this book. Just this evening, and for the sake of our hearts as well as our minds, looking at one of these major passages and seeing underneath the details of the prophecy one grand theme applicable to men of all time, though, of course, as we can perceive, particularly applicable to men who shall live in the last days. Hence, I read to you at some length from chapters eight to eleven, and the general theme to which I refer seems to me to be this: the problem of the silence of God and the apparent delay in God's answering the prayers of his people. That, I say, is a problem that will grow in intensity as the age comes to its end. But it is not a problem that will then begin to be felt for the first time, rung from the hearts of countless generations of God's people, of some more than others. But from the earliest ages to this present, has from time to time been the cry of their souls, oh Lord, how long is it? And you do not answer our prayers. But so that our study shall not be altogether arbitrary, that is arbitrary on my part, and we may put it in its context, perhaps some of the context of this rich tapestry of the book of the Revelation, just let us help ourselves this evening by reminding ourselves of the allusions to the Old Testament, or some of them, that we find in this book. You will long since have observed, I am sure, that in the seven letters to the seven churches of this book, there is a stream of allusions to the Old Testament. And you will, I'm sure, have observed that those allusions, starting with the church in Ephesus and ending with the church of Laodicea, follow the order of Old Testament history, from the story of the Garden of Eden in Genesis to the story of Israel's exile into Babylon. Just let me remind you once more, therefore, how that is. And you may care even, perhaps even at this late hour, to look at your Bibles. I find it at this late hour of the night a distinct advantage to have to turn the pages of a Bible. It stops any premature desire to slumber. It wouldn't do for us, would it? Talking of things prophetic, to imitate those famous virgins who slumbered and slept. You will remember then, in the early story of the book of Genesis and in chapters two and three, God planted man in the Garden of Eden and told him he might eat of any of the trees of the garden, save of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There in that garden was the tree of life. Why did he not concentrate upon eating it? But in his folly, man and in their folly, man and woman took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and fell in their abysmal disobedience and were cast out of the garden, lest they should put forth their hand and eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. That was ages ago, but it is rather a melancholy thought, isn't it, to perceive that when we come to the first church named in the letters in Revelation two and three, the letter to the church at Ephesus, history, alas, is in process of repeating itself, as history will do on time. History has that funny way of doing things for the simple reason that sin is the same in all ages. It is the same disease and will manifest itself in the same ways, whatever dispensation it be. The first church is reminded from which it is fallen in their excessive zeal to sort out the difference between good and evil, and to try all who are evil and to banish them from their company, in their excessive zeal to deal with matters of good and evil. It would seem that they had let go out of their grasp the tree of life and its delightful fruit, and becoming unbalanced, had fa- fallen. Fallen so grievously that they were now a caricature of a Christian church, threatened with the removal of their lampstand. In that church, our Lord holds out to him that overcomes, that he should eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. You will remember, if you come a little longer into the book of Genesis, that eventually God had to start again. The descendants of Noah had once more proved themselves as corrupt as ever the antediluvians were. And from that vast sea of idolatry that was that ancient world, God had to start again with a new thing. The God of glory appeared to Abraham and brought him out of Ur of Chaldees and began the beginnings of a new nation, full of hope, with their vision of glory and their eyes set upon the city that hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God. It was right at the beginning of that period, wasn't it? When God was in process of covenanting to, covenanting to Abraham his worldwide inheritance, that he announced as follows: That thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and that nation amongst whom they are shall evil entreat them four hundred years, and after that they shall come out. Which statement must both have perplexed and encouraged Abraham. Dismayed him at the thought that there in the future before him and his seed there was that period of tribulation, grievous to bear. Encouraged with the thought that before it happened, God had foreseen it, and God had allowed it, and God had already determined the limits of that persecution. He who determined, who controls the roaring of the waves of the sea, controls the periods in which he allows his people to be persecuted. So perhaps it is not a surprise, is it, when we come to the second letter to the churches, the letter to the church at Smyrna, that so early on in the history of the Christian churches, our blessed Lord has to stand and warn his people that presently they shall have persecution. And Satan shall cast some of them into, uh, tribulation and into prison, and they shall have tribulation ten days. We mark the parallel. There will come tribulation, but he who foresees it has allowed it and has measured the time beforehand. For Satan never does exactly as he pleased with God's people, but in their trials has first to ask permission. As our Lord said to his apostles, did he not? Satan has asked to have you. He has to ask permission. The faith of God's people is such a precious thing, more precious than of gold that perishes, that while God will allow it to be tried and tested, sometimes beyond all limits that we had thought were endurable, yet is always the time set beforehand, and Satan must ask permission before he attacks. Israel went into that persecution, did they not? That time of tribulation in Egypt and came out of it. Came out of it with new hope once more, with the glory of redemption behind them and the promise of the land of Canaan before them. They started to march their foot-slogging marches across the Sinai Peninsula to their inheritance beyond. When Balaam taught Balak a dastardly thing to do, to cast a stumbling Stumbling block block. and And to to ent- entice Israel with a permissive morality. Many in Israel were tempted and sinned and fell under the disciplines of God. Ancient history, you say. Yes, and we might well wish it were only ancient history. Still to this present, but then take our Lord's word for it as he addresses the third church, the church at Pergamon. Thou hast there, son that hold, the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel and to commit fornication. So is it that the church at Pergamon, and from time to time the churches ever since, have been plagued and stumbled by the preaching, uh, of such permissive morality, even among the people of God. Would God, I say, for only ancient history. Alas for the permissiveness that takes the color out of young lives and spoils God's people's testimony for him. That is a sorry story. Perhaps it is nothing to what happened later on in Israel. For you will remember that when at last they got into the promised land, and after some years, and now the kingship was established, there came that fearful time when Ahab, son of Omri, ruled in Israel. He had no lesser distinction than be having the daughter of the king of, uh, of, of Tyre, Jezebel, to wife. And she led Israel into outright, downright disobedience, idolatry. And in the place of the worship of Jehovah, she introduced the worship of Baal. Pure idolatry. Instead of the worship of the Lord. Our Lord, as we know, has to remind the fourth church in this list of seven. I have this against thee, that thou sufferest the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches my servants to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication. And once more we say, don't we, we wish these things were old ancient history and had nothing to do with our time and day and generation. And then I was hearing of a bishop the other night, not a bishop in your church, to be sure, here in Redditch, but a bishop nonetheless, who told his Indian inquirer, who happened to be a believer, that for his spiritual solace he was in the habit of reading the Indian sacred texts. When the Indian dear brother inquired why on earth the bishop didn't read the New Testament, said he, oh, I get nothing out of that. And as we know, Christendom is riddled, is it not? With secret societies who to this very present day, though they be grown up men, worship their bull and bell and on and Osiris and what have you. After those times in Israel, after Ahab and Jezebel, and moving on into history, we come to the reign of such people as Jeroboam II. It was a time when two Kings thirteen and fourteen tell us that Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness wherein, of whereof he died. And he said to the king of Israel, who had come to visit him on his sickbed, smite my good man upon the ground. And the king of Israel smote thrice and stayed. And the man of God was wrath and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times, then had thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it, whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice. Began well, didn't it? Picture the good king smiting upon the ground with unaccustomed zeal. But he didn't carry on as he began. And Elisha found no works of his complete before God. In those days, Syria began to cut Israel short and would have obliterated them completely. But God had mercy on them, and the king was allowed to restore the border of Israel because, says the Old Testament, the Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven. So in his patience, he didn't blot them out. He gave them time for recovery. And with those Old Testament phrases ringing in our ears, we cannot, uh, we cannot forget, can we, the message that our Lord had penned to Sardis. Be watchful and establish the things that remain which were ready to die, for I have found no works of thine fulfilled before my God. Much talk, much early zeal, much promises of work for the Lord, but all petering out and coming to nothing. It's the middle church, or thereabouts, just over the middle, like a lot of us middle-aged. The promises and zeal of our youth has not necessarily been fulfilled as it ought to have been. Yet how merciful is our Lord. He says even to that church in Sardis, that he that overcometh shall be thus arrayed in white garments, and listen, and listen yet again to God's mercy. If he wouldn't blot Israel's name out because he had said he wouldn't, then listen to what our Lord says to those of Sardis, and I will in no wise block his name out of the book of life. Were it not for his promise, it would go hard with us sometimes, wouldn't it? After those days, the ten kingdoms were removed, but there remained in Israel Judah. And under its king Hezekiah, even in those last days, they experienced a certain revival. They were stirring days. When the king of Assyria came up and challenged the men of Judah and challenged the reality of their God and told this, uh, Judah that their God was nothing other than the God of all the other little nations, all of whom, being idols, had succumbed to Sennacherib. And Hezekiah, faced with that great challenge, would he surrender? Would he publicly admit that the God of heaven was no more than a God of all the other nations, a little tin pot idol, unable to save? Or would he stand? And would God prove himself to be the true and living God? And there came a message in those days to Eliakim, head over the household of Hezekiah. He ran like this, Eliakim, the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder, and he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open. The very words are repeated, are they not? By far greater than Aniakim as he addresses the s- penultimate church, the church, uh, at Philadelphia. These things says he that has the key of David, that opens and nobody shuts, and shuts and nobody opens. I have set before you an open door. For our blessed Lord, who to Smyrna must say, you shall have tribulation, and you shall be imprisoned and hear the prison door clanking shut behind you. This selfsame authority can tell the church at Philadelphia, I who hold the key have set before you an open door, and I shall save you from tribulation. And if we could stop there, what a lovely story it would be. Can't stop there, can we? When Israel first entered the land of Canaan, then God in his grace gave them certain warnings. Don't you behave, says he, with the abominable practices typical of the Canaanites, your predecessors in this land. For their practice was so evil and vicious and cruel and contaminated in the extreme, and so abominable were their practices that the land spewed them out. Now, says God to Israel, you beware, lest you indulge the same practices, for if you indulge the same practices as the Canaanites, the land will spew you out as well. Alas, in the end, that is precisely what Canaan did. The land spewed Israel out. The two tribes were taken off to Babylon, as the ten tribes had been taken to Assyria. And that again we might dismiss as mere ancient history, mightn't we? Were it not for the solemn word of our Lord to the last church, Laodicea. Because you are neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth. You say, Mr. Preacher, we didn't ask you to come here tonight to dampen our spirits with such gloomy reports. If that is what the book of the Revelation is about, well, so be it, but why mention that to us of a pleasant Tuesday evening when we're tired from work and would fain hear of happier things? Oh, I've got some happier things. Or you see, if the book of the Revelation in its chapters two and three, in its Old Testament allusions, covers, so to speak, and recovers the ground from Eden to the exile. That's only two chapters, isn't it? And all the other chapters? They too are brimful of allusions to the Old Testament, but mark where those allusions are taken from. I suppose ninety five percent of them come from the prophets of the return and the restoration. Oh, praise God for that. Ha! If the end of chapter of uh, the of the book of the Revelation ends with the warning that this church will be spewed out of the mouth of Christ, like Israel was spewed out of the land. Oh, then the rest of the book says, but lift up your hearts. God has a great program of restoration. The Lord will restore his people and everything else. When Israel found themselves at last in exile, the ten tribes in Assyria and the two in Babylon, it didn't last forever, did it? There came a return. Oh, thank God, there came a return. And even before the exile started, God, through Isaiah, through Jeremiah, through Ezekiel, told his people, yes, there must come judgment, there must come discipline upon the nation's sins. But in the very same breath as he told them of the coming discipline, he told them of the restoration. There should come restoration. Oh, what a merciful God we have. That when he must discipline his people by the most stringent disciplines, then lest their spirit should fail and their hope give up. He tells them that there's coming a restoration. God is a God of restoration. See it written in the first chapter of the Gospel by Matthew, as Matthew traces the three major periods of history that led to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ into our world. There was the period from Abraham to David, when on the whole the people were up and up and up, like you in your youth. And then there's that middle period, wasn't there, for from David to the exile, when, with notable exceptions, they were on the down and down and down. And thank God there weren't just two periods in Israel's history ending in abysmal failure in the exile. There were three periods. And what's the third one about, you say? Why, the third one was about the restoration. Writ large in ancient history is that God is the God of restoration. It means more than we can tell, doesn't it, to our individual souls. We have known our ups, the joy of our newfound faith, the zeal of our teenage and twenty-year-old years. We've known our downs. We thank God that we can say, of God Jehovah, he restoreth my soul. The God of restoration. He will restore Israel one day, as he restored them beginning with Ezra and Nehemiah, and had them rebuild city and rebuild temple. Even though that restoration in the end petered out and ended with the lamentable murder of God's own Messiah, yet God will restore his people again. He's the God of restoration. I tell you more, there is coming the time, as Peter informed his fellow Jews in Jerusalem, there's coming the time of the restoration of all those glorious things that the prophets have spoken of. The heavens must, for the time being, receive our blessed Lord, but they receive him only until the time of the restoration of all things. Tell me, if you must, that the church is going into the decline and will be s- Christendom be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord, then I shall make leave to turn to chapter four onwards in the re- book of the Revelation and leave you behind while I go on to enjoy the fact of a coming restoration. Ah. But then the time when Israel was re- uh, uh, restored in Old Testament days, beginning with Ezra and Nehemiah and the return o- o- of the people from Babylon. Was not all plain sailing, was it? And it didn't turn out to be the restoration, but only a prototype of it. And though they rebuilt the temple, and they rebuilt the city, and the high priesthood was installed again and restored, and valiant things were done for God. Yet, the nation departed again. That particular period of restoration eventually experienced a test of faith, the like of which perhaps Israel had never experienced before, though they will do again. For when the temple had been restored, then some centuries later, they came to the period around one hundred and sixty BC. What happened then? To that restored temple came Antiochus Epiphanes' offices. In collusion with some of the apostate high priests in Israel who wanted to turn Jerusalem city into a Hellenistic city. Antiochus Epiphanes had the temple in Jerusalem taken over and turned into a Hellenistic temple. Daniel's prophecies, many of them you will remember, see, foresee this fearful outrage. Antiochus's men came, and they took away the continual burnt offering. On the altar in the temple, they erected what Daniel was pleased to call the abomination of desolation, a pagan altar, uh, idol on the altar of the Lord. Into those holy courts they introduced temple prostitutes, like any heathen Greek temple had. Antiochus and his men forbade the possession of scrolls of Holy Scripture. The circumcision of infants according to the law of Moses became a- an offense against the state, punishable by death. And Jews were forced, where they could, to eat the abomination that was the pig. Women that had their children circumcised were flung over the ramparts of Jerusalem City, babes and all, headlong onto the rocks below. God's holy word and copies of it were destroyed, systematically. And in all that sad happening, as if their sufferings were not enough, there came this fearful experience when Antiochus's men stopped the burnt offering in the courts of the Lord, erected the abomination in the temple of the Lord, and sacrificed their pig and filled its courts with prostitutes. There came no voice. Nothing happened. And all was silent. There came no thunderbolt to strike dead this impious human being. There came no miraculous voice out of the temple, no lightnings, no earthquake, no nothing. Nothing but a silent heaven. And a silent temple. What could it mean? You can imagine the proud scorn of the Hellenist soldiers, can you not? The I told you so of the apostate theologians and high priests. We always said it was a yarn that Almighty God dwelled in that temple. We always told you it was a yarn that the revelation to Moses is special and different from all the other gods and religions in the world. Now it's proved, look. Where is your Jehovah? There came no voice. And then the Israelite mother had to make up her mind what she was going to do. Well then, if heaven was silent... was it worth risking her life, giving her life in order to circumcise her child? And for three and a half years it lasted. What do you suppose the Jews in Alexandria thought? Wealthy Jews who from time to time were in the habit, as some are today, of putting their hand deep into their pocket and pulling out a lot of shekels or dollars, and supporting the high priesthood and the temple in Jerusalem. What do you suppose they thought when they heard the story? That the temple had been desecrated. And God had done nothing and hadn't even spoken a word. How did you then explain it to your fashionable friends in Alexandria when you were invited by the head of the civil service to have dinner? And after the olives, then conversation drifted onto religion. You Jews, you take rather special position, don't you? You say your Old Testament's inspired and that you're the only ones that know God really. Hmm. How do you explain what's been happening this last day or two in In Jerusalem. Jerusalem? The problem of a silence of heaven and the delay in answering the prayers of God's persecuted people. Among all the allusions to the Old Testament that are to be found in the book of the Revelation from chapter four onwards, here in the chapters eight to eleven are allusions to that fearful time of Antiochus Epiphany. In chapter six, we hear the cry of the persecuted under the altar, do we not? O Lord, how long do you not avenge us? And the answer begins to be given as chapter eight opens the third major section of the book. There we see the incense altar and the prayers of the saints, and much incense added to the prayers of the saints, and God at last begins to intervene on behalf of his praying people. We don't have to live in those end times to know the problem, do we? In times of suffering, be that come they from persecution, come they from what source they might. They come to all God's people at times, mysterious periods, and they cry, and heaven seems silent. Was it not that that tortured Job? It wasn't just the loss of family and home and business and health. Job, in the courage of his heart, had found those things comparatively easy to stand. When his friends started to slander him, and it became exceedingly difficult to see the why of his sufferings. And in his distressed mind, he tried to think it through and called on God. He was silent. Why doesn't he come and speak to me, says Job? If I could find him, where is he? If only God would come and face me, then I could explain it to God, and I would argue my case, and I would prove these fellows wrong. But I go forward, and he's not there, and behind him he's not there either. And the silence of God over the head of a suffering saint. That's the torture at last, isn't it? You say, yes, and for all that we oughtn't to pray that our enemies be destroyed. So I must turn aside just for a few seconds. For serious scholars and theologians, far better than I shall ever be, have urged upon us to think that in chapter eight the prayers of the saints cannot possibly be the prayers of Christian folks of this age. Why not? Because they say Christians, you know, oughtn't to pray like that to start with. And certainly not like those in chapter six who are heard crying, how long, O Lord, dost thou not avenge our blood? They say, you know, that's that that can't be Christian. Because Christians are supposed to pray for their enemies, not to be avenged. So perhaps the theologians are right. But then... What exactly does Romans chapter twelve say? To believers now who are indubitably of this age and not of the final. What does it say to them? Beloved, avenge not yourselves. Why not? For vengeance is mine, says God. Don't you do it, I'll do it. Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And the consideration that is to keep the believer from avenging himself is the consideration that one day God will avenge Avengence. him. How did our blessed Lord go to his suffering and death? First Peter chapter two tells us distinctly how he went to his suffering and death. You say he prayed for his enemies. Yes, the ones that knocked the nails through and didn't know what they were doing. And says Saint Peter, as he went through his suffering, he did not retaliate. He did not threaten, but he committed himself to him that... Oh, judges righteously. In the sure and certain knowledge, as he told the women of Of Jerusalem. Jerusalem. And one day God will judge them for this. But to put matters more clearly, can I remind you of that parable we read at the beginning of our study? Our Lord Jesus told us that we are always to pray. You won't disagree with that, I'm sure. And not to faint. Why mustn't we faint? Why must I always go on praying and not give up praying? Well, it was like this, said our Lord, and he told a parable to illustrate it. There was in a certain widow, in a certain city, a widow, and she had a complaint against some of the businessmen that had been cheating her. The world has changed little. So she went to the judge and she cried, avenge me of mine enemies. She wasn't saying destroy my enemies. She was merely asking for justice, for her rights to be given her and not filched away from her. And the judge wouldn't listen. So he played golf with the aforesaid businessmen. She kept on coming, you know what ladies can be like. She kept on coming and coming and coming and coming, till the poor judge got beside himself and he said, I must deal with this woman or she'll drive me black and blue. So in the end he avenged her and gave her her due rights. And you mustn't give up praying, says Christ. Why not? Well, if you give up praying, that implies you think that God is less concerned with justice than that old wicked old judge was. Scoundrel as he was, it was still worthwhile keep coming and keep asking and keep praying and keep pleading, because in the end he did it. Do you suppose that God is less interested in justice than that judge? My good friend, the very character of God is at stake, and what you think of God, and whether you think he cares for justice. To give up praying and not to pray is to say that, well, perhaps after all, God doesn't concern himself with justice then. That would be a slander on the name of God. If that be so, there's no restoration ever. We have our Lord's word. We must carry on praying because... our Lord will avenge his elect who cry to him day and night. Though he is long suffering, that is, he takes a long while, but he will avenge them, and in according to his timescale, he will avenge them speedily. Which I still don't think we ought to pray for judgment on our enemies. Who said you were? Judgment on the enemy, it's for ourselves to be avenged. And let me ask, I wonder, can I see you sitting in a Russian camp with your fingernails pulled off? Can I see you, young person, because you're a believer, told by your school teacher that you'll never get, you'll never get higher education. And then must I tell you that you shouldn't pray for the persecution to stop, for God to intervene and release you? Well, I fancy if we were in persecution, we would pray hard, and I think you do pray hard, don't you? For God to intervene and let them out. And why doesn't God let them out? We say he does sometimes. Yes, praise the Lord, he does. But sometimes it seems to some of them a long while before they get out. Then comes the great test of faith. Can you still believe there's a God who cares for justice and And hears hears you? you when you pray. Chapter eleven of this book tells us of a fearful time that will come. When the temple being restored, the man of sin will arise. And bringing the whole panoply of that modern and advanced scientific civilization to bear upon it, he will des- try to destroy its testimony. And under the figure of the similar vision that was given to Zechariah in Zechariah chapter four, when Zerubbabel was trying to rebuild the temple of the Lord in Palestine, and all the little nations around were yapping to the Uni- not to the United Nations, to to Persia. And the Persians had said that the building had got to stop. And there was given to Zachariah a vision, wasn't there, of a candlestick and the olive trees and the oil maintaining that testimony in Israel among that little remnant of Jews that had come back again. And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah saying, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. The testimony will be maintained and the temple rebuilt and tells Zerubbabel so, and a great mountain of opposition will be flattened. So it was, and the temple was rebuilt. So shall it be in a coming day. Two olive trees that stand before the Lord of the whole earth are pictured in the vision of Revelation eleven, and it is given to them to employ miraculous supernatural power against the forces of the, of the man of sin of that day. And he keeps them at bay, they keep them at bay, they keep them at bay. And then... the beast that comes up from the abyss shall destroy them. And their dead bodies lie in the street. And no voice comes from heaven. And the world goes mad with delight. QED, proved at last. All this Christian talk, this Jewish talk of miracle, and there's a God out there who can intervene in our planet. All the old things that have taken us in and deceived generations that are supposed to be miracles, we can now explain it all through atomic science. There is no God. No such thing as divine intervention. Our world is moving towards the great showdown. The issue being whether there is a God at all, and whether he can intervene, be it in raising the dead body of Jesus Christ our Lord, or the incarnation, and alas, the forces that fight against it these days are some of them be colored. Christendom in the name of God, denying God's ability to intervene, and denying the resurrection. You say, why will God allow his believers to be thus tested? Why does he allow the believers of any age to be tested? Because in the end, faith, to be faith, must be tested to its limit. If we could come to God in prayer, put our prayer in the slot like we put our fifty pence fees into the telephone kiosk and get immediate answers. In the end, it wouldn't be faith, would it? And faith to be faith will have to be allowed its times when prayer prays and God seems not to answer and seems not to care. Then the question is, what do I really think of God now? Where then can I find encouragement to carry on praying? Two scenes are painted before us. They require little exposition. Let us leave them in our imagination as we go. I saw, says John, there came an angel to the altar, the great big altar with its fires, and he had a censer, and he took the coals from the fires, and there was given to him much incense that he should add it to the prayers of saints. The prayers of saints went up before God, and God at length answered them and began to avenge them. They are not lost. Those prayers you prayed. For every prayer that has been prayed based on faith in the character of God, that he cares for justice. Those prayers must at length be answered, and answered they will be. You say, who is that angel to whom there was given much incense? They say, you know, it can't be our Lord because he doesn't need anybody to give him incense. Oh, come. Could that be a little shallow argument? We have to start first with the great drama that John was given to see, and in the drama, someone or other gave him incense. Who was it? It doesn't say who was given, who gave it to him. Some lowly servant or other? John doesn't even tell us who it was. It's beside the point. For the purposes of the drama, as he stood there in all his dignity, someone or other undescribed gave him some incense, and all you see is the angel with the incense, adding it to the prayers of saints. If you can't believe it is our Lord, well, don't. But being seeing the hour is late, don't rob me of the thought upon which I may pillow my head tonight. To all our prayers and praises, Christ adds the sweet perfume and love. The sense erases their odors to consume. In your trial. While heaven is silent and God doesn't seem to care, there is a glorious angel of the Lord, our blessed sovereign high priest. And he watches the time, and he measures how long, and he knows what you can stand. There comes the moment when all the merit of his own praying is added to your prayers, and your prayers shall be answered. Another vision, and we're finished. There came a strong angel down from heaven. Who is he, you say? Well, I personally think it was the Lord Jesus. No, it can't be him, you say. Oh, you cruel theologian, but then probably you're right. But never mind, just allow it to me for the three hours that are Tuesday night, and I shall go to sleep happy and face your argument in the morning. Yes. But he came down from heaven. Like that great angel that Daniel had seen stand above the waters, only this angel came down from heaven. He put one great foot upon the earth and one great foot upon the sea, bestriding both as his sovereign Lord, who owns both in the name of God and claims both for God. In one hand he had a book, and in the other hand, the other hand was upraised to heaven, and he swore a great oath. Very soon now God would fulfill all his prophetic promises, and the saints would have their reward, and even men would be judged. Can you see him in your mind's eye as, as you depart this evening? That sovereign Lord of sea and land, with a book in his hand, stretched out to John and stretched out to you. These are the true sayings of God, he says. Dare believe them, John. And if you can't trust the naked word of God, then hear the great angel swear by him that lives forever and ever, by a God who cannot lie, and he has promised he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. The time is fixed and will come to its end, and your faith shall be rewarded. Now your patience must be rewarded. So let us commend ourselves to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we have lingered long at thy holy word this evening. We thank thee for the interest of thy word to our minds. But Lord, this evening we need more than that. We need the encouragement to our heart and the strengthening of our faith. We praise thee for the good circumstances in which thou hast so constantly placed us. We pray for our dear brethren and sisters in many countries, at this moment suffering fearful persecutions. Lord, in thy mercy, sustain their faith, we beseech thee. But Lord, as we think of them tonight, we think of ourselves, and temptations come to us too, and doubts and attacks of the evil one. Lord, in those times when thou must test our faith, when it cannot be that thou shouldst answer our prayers at once, then, Lord, look upon us, we beseech thee. Help us to remember our great high priest and his intercessions at thy right hand. Help us to take from thine open palm the gift of thy holy word and dare believe it against all comers as the true sayings of God. As now we thank thee for thine oath, unbreakable and sure, in which it is impossible for thee to lie. We sing our praise to thee. His oath, his covenant and blood, support us in the whelming flood. Though all around our soul gives way, thou still art all our strength and stay. On Christ, the solid rock we stand. All other ground is sinking sand. And so we praise thee and ask thy needling blessing through Jesus Christ our Lord.