Gooding, David: 5 - Why There Must Be Judgment

And good evening to you, and shall we preface our study of the book of the Revelation this evening by reading two other passages? The first of them is to be found in the book of Psalms number ninety. The book of Psalms number ninety. Sorry, Psalm um ninety four. Psalm ninety four is the number. Verses one to seven. O Lord, thou God to whom vengeance belongeth, thou God to whom vengeance belongeth, shine forth. Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth. Render to the proud their desert. O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? They prate, they speak arrogantly. All the workers of iniquity boast themselves. They break in pieces thy people, O Lord, and afflict thine heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger and murder the fatherless. And they say, the Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob consider. Let us then read from Psalm ninety six. Psalm ninety six, verse ten following will give us an inspired answer to the prayer that we have just read from Psalm ninety four. Psalm 96, verse 10. Say among the nations, the Lord reigneth. The world also established that it cannot be moved. He shall judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof. Let the field exult, and all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord, for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his truth. Those passages from the Old Testament, let us put now one from the New, the Gospel of Luke and chapter eighteen. Gospel of Luke and chapter eighteen, verse one: And he, that is our Lord, 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 man. 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. The Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge saith. And shall not God avenge his elect, which cry to him day and night, and 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. And with those scriptures as a preface, let us come now to our passage for tonight in the book of the Revelation, and begin to read there in the Revelation and chapter eight. Revelation chapter eight, Beginning again at 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 unto the prayers of all the 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. And 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 lightning and an earthquake. And may God give us to understand his holy word. Now, those of you who have been able to be present on previous evenings in our studies of the Revelation will have perceived one thing at least by now, and that is that your lecturer is not a systematic theologian. It is not because he despises systematic theologians. He would be one if he could. But the eminent heights of the systematic theologians constantly defeat all his efforts to climb thither. Now, of course, if he were a systematic theologian, then if he ap- when he approached this book of the Revelation, what he would do would be this. He would read its individual passages, but then taking them as suited him from their various contexts and joining them up with other scriptures from other parts of God's holy word. He would build what God has to tell us in the book of Revelation, what God has to tell us everywhere else in every other prophetic book. He would quarry his stones of theology from it and put them together in one tremendous system, and thus he would help us understand the full scheme of God's prophetic program. In so doing, of course, he would begin to chart for us the course of the ages. And then, as the chart got towards the future days that are yet to come, he would identify for us each period in the calendar of God's future program. And he would then very clearly distinguish between the different companies of people that shall be on the earth and in heaven in those last final years before the Lord Jesus comes in power and great glory to set up his kingdom. Very necessary and very helpful and very illuminating would be the result of the systematic theologian's study. As you perceive, as I say, I am not a systematic theologian, and even if I were, the few studies that we have this week would be altogether insufficient for even attempting such a penetrating detailed study of the book of the Revelation. What we are attempting this week is simply to take the book as God wrote it, and it will not have escaped you that God did not write the book of the Revelation as a systematic theology, did he? But wrote it as a drama, as a vision, and bids us behold as his appointed apostle and seer, John the Apostle, is taken up to perceive the great drama of the future days that is put before his eyes. And we have discovered, and you may notice it if you haven't been here before, by taking your sheaf of notes into your hand and turning to the second page. We have noticed that as John watches this great drama of future events, the drama itself is divided into six major movements of thought and activity. Beginning in movement two and going through all the movements to movement six, each movement begins by something being opened in heaven or heaven itself being open. So that we are following this great drama as best we can, and watching the various movements and thought and activity as they take place before the Apostle John. And we were noticing last night how once the theme of a movement is set, then that theme is carried through the whole of the movement, right to the final con- uh, comment that is made upon the movement. So our desire has to be to ascertain what the leading idea is of each movement of thought, and to seek to grasp, if nothing else, then that simple major movement of thought, that simple major theme that runs through each particular movement. And if we can do that, we shall done- have done a considerable something towards the understanding of this book. Now tonight, therefore, we come to the third movement, as I have listed to you on your sheet. It begins, as you see, when the Lamb opens the seventh seal in the series of seals that bound the book that he received from the hand of him that sat upon the throne. Between the opening of the sixth seal and the opening of the seventh, there has been a considerable interval of time. And now, as the third movement begins, the Lamb of God moves forward, and he opens the seventh and the final seal on the book that God gave him. Now, if you will notice again, last night, when we looked at the beginning of movement two, we saw a door opened in heaven and John summoned to arise to heaven to see things as heaven sees them. We observed that John was shown in heaven the very throne of the Creator, and it was that throne of the Creator that filled all the succeeding sections of movement two and formed its major theme. Now we come to movement three, as you see. This time, when the seventh seal is opened, John is shown not now the throne of God, but the altar of incense, and presently the large altar outside in the court. And we fasten on that now for a moment because it will prove a clue to what the major theme of this movement shall turn out to be. Let me show you the background, if I may, to this imagery that John is using. And here for you is one of these, uh, collections of modern art, such as I showed you last night. It's not for sale, it's going to the Tate, as I told you, but, uh, there it is. And, uh, it is just a skeleton picture of the ancient tabernacle that Moses and the Israelites built for God when they came out of Egypt. And as you will remember, the tabernacle building, uh, this is the entrance here, was in two parts. There was first the holy place, and then there was the veil, and then there was the holiest of all, or the most holy place. Among the items of furniture that were in the tabernacle was, of course, preeminently the ark in the most holy place. On top of it was the mercy seat, as it's called in English, the propitiatory covering, and from the ends of the mercy seat were the golden cherubim. There were two of them, one each end. That ark, as we are given to understand, was the very throne of God. In that ark was his holy law, his testimony as to his requirements and his covenant with Israel. When that ark was moved eventually into Jerusalem's capital city, then we have it described to us that the Lord God, the transcendent Lord of the earth, sat enthroned upon the cherubim of that ark. This then, the ark formed the throne of the living God in Israel's ancient tabernacle. Just outside the veil, there was another piece of furniture. There were, of course, three pieces of furniture in total in the holy place. Tonight we are interested in this one. It stood just outside the holy place, up near the veil, and is called the golden altar or the altar of incense. Because, do you see, at the time of prayer and morning and evening, Israel's priests, and in particular on occasions the high priest, came to that altar at the time of prayer. And on that altar, as he offered prayer to God in the name of Israel, on that altar he offered incense, that his prayers on behalf of his people might rise up to God and reach the very throne of God, enshrouded in the sweet smelling incense. You will remember, for instance, that when John Baptist's father entered the temple, according to Luke chapter one, his role it was that day to burn incense. It was accounted one of the chief privileges of the priesthood. That day, John Baptist's father had got this much desired office for the day he was allowed to enter in into the most holy place, to approach the golden altar of incense and to burn incense thereon, while as the people's representative, he pleaded before the throne of Almighty God that God would bless the people who were waiting outside. And as he was thus engaged in his prayers, the angel came and said, Zachariah, thy prayer is heard. So then, as the priest came to minister to that altar, you see by the very position that he was addressing the God who he believed dwelled here on this ark. Of course, there had in those days to be a veil between them, an intermediary, a mediator, because their sacrifices were not sufficient to allow them to enter the most holy place. But though the veil was there, see again from this simple diagram that he was facing the throne of God and addressing himself and his prayers to the God that dwelt enthroned above the cherubim, so that those two pieces of furniture functionally stand together. It is no accident, of course, is it, as we now return to our study of the book of the Revelation, that these two movements, movement two and then movement three, are headed, the first of them by the throne of God, and the second of them by the altar of incense. That is no accident, of course. The thing is being ordered in the book of the Revelation in an exceedingly logical way, and the thing is put together so that its major movements fit and make sense. So we come to our next observation. Last night we saw that not only is John shown the throne of God, throne of the Creator, at the beginning of chapter four, but he is shown that Creator's throne because God is beginning to explain to John why the judgments must fall on this world and will fall on this world at the end of this age. There the reason was simply this, that this world did not make itself. It is not a mindless accident, still less did we human beings make this world. This world is the handiwork of a personal creator, and ultimately he made up n- made it not merely for our enjoyment and good. He made it to serve his will and his pleasure. That is its logical purpose. Not until this world serves the will of him that made it will there ever come an age of lasting peace and prosperity? Therefore, because at this present moment, this world as a whole goes on in its unbelief and its rebellion against its creator, for all of us have gone astray like sheep. We have turned everyone to his own way. Because that is so, then presently God the Creator will have to take steps to deal with this earth, to bring back this rebellious planet to serve the will of him who made it. Hence the judgments that must fall at the end of this age. But now if we look to the third movement that we begin to study this evening, we shall find that it is headed not by the throne, but by the altar of incense. And at that altar, we are presently told, are offered the prayers of the saints. And once more, we are being shown this piece of heavenly furniture, not merely for sheer entertainment's sake, but for this self same reason. God is now going to tell us another reason why his judgment shall eventually fall on this wicked world of ours before the Lord Jesus comes. Why? Because of the prayers of God's saints. That is why the judgments will eventually fall. And as we have been reading together from Old Testament and New, we now remember how all down the long, long, long, long centuries, the people of God, maltreated, persecuted, oppressed, cheated, have silently or audibly raised their hearts and prayers to the throne of the universe. And they have cried, how long, O Lord? How long, O Lord? Do you not rise up and take vengeance on your enemies? Can you not see how the wicked oppress us? Can you not see how evil men oppress the widow and crush the orphan? How they torture faithful people, how the weak are shouldered to the wall, how they cheat. How long, O Lord, will you not rise up and avenge your people? Can you not hear, God, what the wicked are saying as they trample the poor under their feet, as they barge them out of the way? They say, and the Almighty does not see, and he cannot see. Some of them are saying there are no almighty eyes watching anyway. Now we begin to perceive again the reasons why these two movements stand side by side. Because the third movement introduces us to a very big human problem. A problem that has exercised the hearts of many believers and a lot of unbelievers. And the problem is this. You say you believe there is a throne in heaven. Movement two asserted it to us last night. There is a throne in heaven that one day will judge this earth. Ah, but the question comes, does it not? And if there's a throne in heaven, why is it taking so long about it? Have you never been asked the question? I'm sure you have. During the last world war, where while Hitler was gassing six million Jews and stamping out millions of lives, people were constantly asking Christians, why does God allow it? And if there's a God, why doesn't he stop Hitler? I have an elderly Jewish friend in Belfast. He was born in Vienna, managed to escape Hitler, and came and settled in Belfast. Why Belfast? Who would know? Now very elderly, he does me the favor of coming to have dinner with me from time to time and attending some of my lectures. And just when I think he's beginning to see that Jesus might, after all, be the Messiah, says he to me, David, he says, how can your Jesus be the Messiah? Where was your Jesus, he says, when Hitler was gassing six million of my fellow Jews? Where was he then? Gone on holiday or something? And you may be shocked at his unbelief, but pray consider his pain and the pain of his nation. And you can multiply it millions of millions of millions of time, right from the remote age when Cain rose up and slew his brother. Multitudes of millions of lives that have perished, other multitudes that have been made a torturous agony by wicked men. The question arises, then if there's a God, if there is a throne, why doesn't God deal with evil? We are to observe then this evening that this is a problem that didn't first surface when atheists began to read the Bible. The Bible itself has seen the problem. God knows how you feel, if you feel that same problem in your heart. And here in God's word, as in many other places, God begins to answer the problem. We have seen then how this is not just a problem that will relate to the future, though of course in future times this problem will reach unprecedented heights. There will come a period in world history when the problem of the silence of God becomes almost insupportable. We are, of course, prepared for it at the very opening of this third movement of the book of the Revelation, are we not? John says, when the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven. Half an hour. Now, I don't know if you've attended the Armistice Day ceremonies recently. When we're asked to stand still and say nothing, some of us, it's very difficult for a whole two minutes. To get a vast concourse of people absolutely silent for two minutes, it seems an eternity, doesn't it? You just imagine what it felt like for John standing with the whole of heaven and its myriads upon myriads of superintelligentsia, and God himself absolutely silent for thirty whole minutes. It must have seemed an eternity, yes? Yes, but it does reflect not merely a problem that shall arise to its com- its highest height in the future, but a problem, as I say, has haunted God's people all down the ages. We have heard the psalmist asking, why, God, are you silent? Why don't you rise up and see that justice is done? But come now to our blessed Lord and the parable he told, recorded for us in Luke chapter eighteen. Luke chapter eighteen of necessity follows Luke chapter seventeen, does it not? And in Luke chapter seventeen, our Lord outlined to his apostles the signs of his coming kingdom that would prepare the way for the coming of our Lord in power and great glory to take the reins of government of this earth and to destroy them that destroy the earth. And in that context of the prophecy of his second coming, he told this parable. He said, you know, there was as in a certain city, a, a, a, a widow, and there was a judge, and the widow had been oppressed, doubtless, by the businessmen of the city. They weren't like the businessmen in your town, of course. Perhaps they were like those nameless businessmen in the stock exchange that managed to fiddle a few millions away from the stocks and shares of widows and orphans, but never mind. They had grievously oppressed and cheated this widow. And the widow, as was understandable, had come to the local judge and asked him would he please take her cause in hand and see that justice was done. It wasn't that she wanted the oppressors to be horsewhipped or anything like that. She simply wanted justice to be done and fair play, and what was hers to be given her, instead of being siphoned off constantly into the coffers of these, uh, rich men. But said our Lord in his parable, though the widow came, the judge, unprincipled rogue, he cared neither for God nor men. He was on the side, I suspect, of the aforesaid businessmen, and he refused to listen to her cry. And had she been a lesser mortal, perhaps she would have given up, but she was a woman to start with, and then she was a widow, and she had no other resource. You'll see, if the judge didn't help her, she was lost indeed and ruined. So she kept coming, as they have a way of doing, she kept coming to the judge and talking to him and pleading with him, knocking on his door, be it breakfast, dinner, or supper at night, till the poor man, in our Lord's colorful words, was beaten black and blue under the eyes by her constant coming. In the end, he couldn't stick it anymore, and with a tremendous sigh he said, if I don't do something for this woman, she'll absolutely bash me to pulp. So though he cared not for God nor man nor her either, simply for his own convenience, in the end he rose up and gave her what she desired and delivered her from those that were oppressing her and gave her justice. So far the parable. Then our Lord applied it. He said, if the unjust judge who cared neither for God nor man could in the end be moved by the prayers of this widow, shall not God, the perfection of all justice and love, shall not God hear the prayers of his elect that cry unto him day and night. Our Lord's answer is not in doubt, is it? Yes, indeed, he will hear their cry. Yes, indeed, he will rise up and avenge them and see that justice is done. But then he added, even though he is long suffering over them. It seems to be a long, long while before he eventually rises up and puts things straight. So said our Lord, men must always pray. In the context, it means men must always pray, faced with the evil, the injustice of our sorry world, at all levels, both at the level of the individual, of the city, of the business, of the school, of industry, or the question of international justice between the nations. Faced with the colossal crimes of mankind, injustices large and small, men ought always to pray. Why must they pray? Well, because to leave off would have very serious implications. You see, the old judge in the parable was a wicked scoundrel, but if you kept on coming, as the widow proved, you could move even an old scoundrel to rise up and execute justice. Do not think it worth your while to pray, therefore, to God? Oh, I know you've prayed once and twice, when you personally have been in the fix and have been smarting from some injustice done to you, and you've prayed to God, and why doesn't God deal with it? And you have said in your personal consternation, I don't know, I don't know, I tried to serve the Lord, and like the author of Psalm seventy three, you've been obliged to confess, I've tried to serve the Lord, but look, look, it's the ungodly that prosper in the world. Hasn't God got eyes to see it? And you prayed, but then you've lost heart and given up. See what that would imply. That would imply that God is more hard-hearted and unprincipled than that old judge, wouldn't he? You say, yes, but he hasn't answered my prayer yet, and the world's evil still goes on. I know, but give up praying, my friend. And you are saying it isn't worth praying. And God cares so little for justice. It's not worth my breath and time asking him to intervene. And that would be a slander on the name of God, wouldn't it? A very serious slander. Now we begin to see what this problem is doing. The fact that God doesn't immediately intervene all down the centuries, whatever the age, has been a means in God's hand of testing and trying his people's faith, and indeed trying and testing his people's faith in God, and in the very character of God. So much so that our Lord says, yes, God will most certainly avenge his elect. Though he is long suffering over them, therefore, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith in the earth? Will people still be believing, one, that there is a God, and two, that the God of heaven is concerned about justice and And injustice. injustice? So tonight we shall not take much time defining the various and distinct companies of believers that we shall see in these prophetic scriptures. What we shall be doing is aiming at this basic theme. It has been a problem ever since the world began. When we heard the psalmist complaining in Psalm ninety four that God wasn't dealing with evil, then we heard the psalmist answering that charge in Psalm ninety six and Psalm ninety seven, if you will, and Psalm ninety nine. And the answer is this: one day he will. He shall rise up for courage. The Lord is coming, and the Lord is coming to judge, and the Lord has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. Clap your hands, all the forests, and tell everybody the world through that injustice shall not last forever, for the Lord is coming to judge. Looking forward prophetically, the psalmist cries, the Lord indeed reigneth. That is, he has begun to reign. He has taken up his great power and established his kingdom on this earth so that it cannot be moved. So said the, the psalmist, inspired by the spirit of prophecy. Problem is, isn't it? That it's taken a long while for the prophecy to get fulfilled. So let us notice one other major theme in this part of the book of the Revelation, not only the question of the prayers of the saints, but also now this emphasis on the matter of time. No stunning artwork here, you will forgive me, but uh, now you'll see it. The uh, beginning of the vision, there was one half hour. Come to the great vision of the strong angel, and as the angel lifts up his hand to heaven and swears by him that liveth forever and ever, he promises that there shall be delay no longer, but in the days of the seventh angel, the mystery of God shall be fo- f- finished, and God's great purposes for earth brought to their consummation. Or take that other great vision that is given us, the vision of the two witnesses that at the end of this age will witness for God in Jerusalem, and the effect of their witness will be worldwide. And we are told that when they, uh, prophesy, it will be at a time when the holy city, far from being delivered, is trodden under foot by the Gentiles forty two months, and the witnesses shall be required to prophesy twelve hundred and sixty days. And then there shall come that supreme and fearful test when God's special witnesses have been killed by the man of sin, the beast from the abyss, their dead bodies shall lie in the street, and heaven will be silent. And the world will go mad with delight. Proved at last. There is no God. There is not such a thing as supernatural power. From For three and a half days, heaven will be silent. And in the final comment at the end of our movement, by the, the comment by the elders, they are full now at last of jubilation. They thank the Lord God Almighty that he has taken to himself his great power and set up his kingdom to deal with the nations. They say the nations were off, but the time came. Praise God, it will come one day. The time came for the dead to be judged, for rewarding servants, prophets, and saints, and all who fear God's name. The time came for the des- for destroying those who destroy the earth. Here then is the problem. We call it the problem of evil. It follows from your belief that there is a throne in heaven, and it says if there's a throne, why doesn't it deal with evil and put it down? But here is God's promise that one day it shall be put down. And in the meantime, what has God to offer his people when they suffer? It will be that question that will fill our minds in our second part of our study this evening. But now... all world religion. Because it won't be in loyalty to the Lord Jesus. Some years ago, I was invited to a congress, to a meeting of the World Congress of Faiths. That is every religion under the face of the sun. In their letter to me, they said they invited me on the assurance, of course, that I would have the courtesy not to say anything offensive to other people's religions. I said I wasn't in the habit of jumping down people's throats, but I said, would I be allowed in my lectures and in my conversations to make the Christian claim that the Bible makes with Jesus Christ, there is no other name under heaven given amongst men whereby you must be saved. For I said, if I came, I should want to be free to make that claim undiminished. My invitation was withdrawn. So God warns us in his word of where religion will go at the end of this age, with all her show, false to God, false to his son, compromised with the world, and compromised with atheism and unbelief. And it raises us the challenge, doesn't it? Where do we stand? There is an alternative to Babylon. That is to be found in the true woman, the bride and wife of the Lamb. In In our our first session, then, we have tried to sketch in what is the major movement of thought in this particular passage of the Revelation that begins in chapter eight. Now, in these closing moments of our study, we shall look at three of the major visions that were given to John to encourage and prepare the hearts of God's people. Just let me say a word or two before we begin. Sometimes you will see it suggested that the prayers of the saints that here arise before God in chapter eight of the book of Revelation are in some sense not Christian prayers. Because they are prayers for God's vengeance to descend upon this world. And therefore, some commentators suggest that these are prayers simply of Jewish people, not members of the church, for they would say that members of the Christian church must pray for their enemies and not against them. The intention of theologians who so say, of course, is correct. Our blessed Lord told us in his Sermon on the Mount that when Christian people are persecuted, they are to love their enemies and pray for those that affli- afflict them. But then, of course, we must not so emphasize that side of what he taught as to suggest that other things he taught were not quite Christian. It was our Lord, wasn't it, who taught the parable of the widow and the unjust judge. We mustn't say that that's unchristian, may we? Our Lord the Christ taught it, can't be unchristian. And he taught that his people were to have faith in God, that God would one day intervene in this world and insist on justice being done. Not only did our Lord teach that, but Saint Peter tells us that when our Lord Jesus went to the cross, in his heart there nestled that absolute confidence in God the Judge. He committed himself to him who judges righteously, says Peter. And there you will learn something of the strength of our Lord Jesus' heart and character. How did he find it in him? When they spat upon him, when they cursed him, when they beat him, when they crowned him with thorns. Being reviled, he reviled not again, and when he suffered, he did not threaten. Oh friend, how terrible a moment that would have been if in those solemn moments the man of Nazareth, for all his thorn-crowned brow, had threatened with his divine power the enemies that were crucifying him. Planet Earth would have shook to its foundations. The fact is that he was led like a lamb to his slaughter, and before his shearers he was dumb, and he opened not his mouth. How so? Was he saying that it is wrong ever to punish evil, and that God will never punish? No, indeed he wasn't. He committed himself to him that judges righteously. One day justice shall be done. It shall be universally done. And earth wrongs shall be righted and the wicked punished. And in that confidence, our blessed Lord went to the cross. The inspired Apostle Paul tells us who are Christians likewise. He says, my beloved, avenge not yourselves. Why not? Because vengeance is a wrong thing, and there will never come any vengeance. No, no, the very opposite. Avenge not yourselves, for vengeance is mine, says the Lord. I will repay, I will do it, and I will do it. It is no part of our Christian attitude to, to say that God will never take vengeance. One day this planet is going to be run justly in all its ways, financially, economically, ecclesiastically, religiously, and every other way. Justice will be done. In the meantime, God asks us, his people, to dare trust him and commit ourselves to him that judges righteously, and leaving to him the avenging of our wrongs, ourselves to be free to do like our Lord did, and to pray for our very enemies that they might be saved. It's a hard thing, isn't it? At least I find it a hard thing. When I feel I've been unjustly treated, I want to get my own back, to be honest. Hard to trust and to leave it to God. What comfort may I have there? What consolation? What fortifying of my faith in the justice of God and in the coming of the Lord and in the day of judgment? Here in the revelation we have pictures that will be of special help to the people of God that shall live in that day, here described. But surely we may borrow from them comfort for ourselves. And the first vision of comfort is this, that your prayers, my brother, my sister, your sobs and your tears are heard in heaven. No one of them has been lost. You have kneeled at your bedside and prayed to the living God to see what folks have done. How your heart smarts and is wounded, the injustice as you see it. You feel that nothing has happened, and the wicked prosper. Ah, but your prayer hasn't been lost. As the vision opens, there comes this terrible silence. Will God never answer? Will God never rise up? But at last the silence is broken. Oh, what a dramatic moment after thirty minutes of complete silence, the whole of heaven through. What a dramatic moment, and you say, what, what breaks the silence? What starts the movement? I saw an angel come to the altar of incense, says John, and there was given to him much incense that he should add it to the prayers of saints, and in that moment those prayers began to be effective. What a comfort to our hearts. Your prayers and your tears are not lost. God has your tears in his bottle. One day he shall rise up and answer your prayers and ensure that justice shall be done. Says somebody, who is that angel that takes the prayers of the saints along with the incense and offers them? Oh, some say, I have no doubt it is the Lord Jesus, and others say, I have no doubt either, and it isn't the Lord Jesus. So what shall we do when the theologians disagree? What shall be? Well, here we can start at least, can't we, that we know what the incense is. Ah, thank God we do. In ancient Israel, they used literal incense when they prayed, you know. They weren't being childish. It was God in the infancy of the race illustrating things to an Israelite. When an Israelite came to pray, he didn't stand in the presence of God and say, look at me, you know, I am such a perfect, uh, character. I've never done anything wrong. Please, God, look how good a man I am and avenge me of all my enemies. No, indeed not. Who could pray like that? Israel had to be taught that they never got any prayer because of their own personal righteousness or merit. So in symbol, when they prayed, they added incense, and the prayer, so to speak, went up to God in the cloud of that fragrant incense, and God smelled the incense, and for the flavor and fragrance of the incense, he granted them their prayers. Well, ladies and gentlemen, you mustn't think the Israelites were unintelligent babes. When they thought about it, even they perceived that God didn't grant their prayers because he liked the smell of nice smelling incense. I like that. Oh, that's marvelous. Oh yes, I think I will answer their prayer. Of course not. It was only a symbol, wasn't it? But a symbol of what? What is that reality that moves God to answer our prayers, whether now or in the coming day? Oh, we have no need to quarrel neatly. Our prayers are answered not on the basis of our personal merit, but as our blessed Lord taught us, we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus and for his sake. Oh, what a tremendous message. Justice will be done on this earth and will be done to God's people, not simply for their sakes, but for the sake of the merit of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Oh, pray remember it. Shudder with the shame of it, if you can still do it. This planet has witnessed an ugly old gibbet erected in its soil, and on that gibbet God's fair son spiked to the wood. The only man who lived a perfect life, done to death, in indescribable injustice. You don't suppose that our planet's going to get away with it forever, do you? One day the merits of Christ shall come up before God, and for Christ's sake, were there no other in the universe, justice will be done here on Earth. All thank God for the merits of Christ. In that moment, the prayers of all God's saints down the ages, stored up in the memory of God, shall be included in the merits of the Savior, and they shall at last be answered. Pray on, my brother. You have a faithful God, and you have a wonderful, meritorious Savior. And as we Christians think of these things, we can't help adding other things, can we? We think of our Lord's challenge, when the Son of Man comes, will he still find faith in the earth? Have you come to a position, even you, and we're far off these final times, aren't we? You come to a position where you say, I can't believe that God really cares anymore. You can't. Be a bad thing if you gave up believing, wouldn't it? What keeps us believing? Why, we have a great angel, and you can see how I interpret the passage, can't you now? We have a great angel. Not only are his prayers granted for his merit and our prayers granted for his merit, but the Bible says he ever lives to make intercession for us, as he did for Peter in those centuries gone by, when Peter was to be assailed of the very devil, then Christ prayed for him that his faith fail not. God is faithful. Who will not allow you to be tr- ta- tested beyond and above what you are able to bear. Second vision. Vision of the strong angel come down from heaven. For you notice we have skipped over now those other visions of the inrush of demonic forces upon earth. What hideous days they shall be. But we come swiftly to a vision to comfort our hearts. The vision of the strong angel come down from heaven and planting one foot on the land and one on the sea. You will find it at the beginning of chapter ten of the book of the Revelation. Once more, the theologians argue as to who the angel is. So I better respect the systematic theologians and report to you they differ in their opinions. Regard it, if you will, as the Lord Jesus, as the angel of the Lord. Regard it as one of his chief ministers. Perhaps in the end it will not make all that difference. But we should remember, as we think of this vision, its Old Testament counterpart. For in chapters ten, eleven, and twelve of the prophet Daniel, the prophet Daniel was given to see a similar vision. Read it at your leisure if you cannot remember it now. Daniel, as an elderly man, was standing by the great river Hiddekel, the Tigris. One of the chief rivers of the imperial powers that in his youth had raided his kingdom, smashed it to smithereens, and dragged him off into captivity to their imperial headquarters. The great vast armies of the ancient world had overflowed their banks and flooded his kingdom with all the consequent distress and disaster for his people. Now, for years he had lived as an expatriate in the imperial civil service of these imperial powers. Now was an elderly man, and he stood by the river in his advanced age, and I think I stand with him. He saw it go. Have you ever stood by a river and thought? I stood by the River Rhine once, my first experience of the River Rhine, and I said to myself, is this the Rhine? Is this the Rhine of Germany, Hitler's Germany, from which the bombers came to bomb and blast England? Daniel stood by the River Tigris, and the waters were going until they disappeared over the horizon. Where were they going? Oh, what a lot of water had gone under the bridges in his long, long days. Now the water was disappearing over the horizon. Where shall life take him? What lies ahead in history for his beloved people, Israel? While he thought on these things, his eyes were opened, and there was a man standing above the waters. He was immovable. The waters were going on, he stood still. And they began to talk to Daniel about the future, where the waters disappeared over the horizon, and what should happen? He told Daniel of the terrible times of suffering that would come upon, upon his people. He warned Daniel that at the end of the time there should come a brief period of unparalleled, uh, pain and sorrow and affliction for the nation of Israel. It is yet to come, of course. It shall come. Fearfully dark things did the man above the river tell Daniel. Until Daniel, as he heard them, came to the angel and he cried, tell me how long the end of these wonders, that is, how long the end time, how long will this period be of unprecedented and terrible tribulation that shall afflict my people Israel? He saw as the man standing above the river lifted right hand and left hand to God, and swear by him that liveth forever and ever that shall be a certain period, that much and no more. The thing. Then he said some lovely things. For as he stood above the river, he could see what Daniel couldn't see. He could look forward beyond the period of trouble to the coming resurrection. And he told Daniel that all those that were written in the book should certainly be delivered, and there would come a resurrection, and the righteous would shine in the glory of the kingdom like stars in the heaven. Daniel, he says, you go your way, you shall stand in your lot at the end of the time too. An elderly Daniel died in the faith, having seen the promises from afar. Yes. It's wonderful to see that man above the river of time, isn't it, who can see the end from the very beginning. My brother, however little or much you see of tribulation, this I can tell you. There stands one still above your river. He sees you not merely as you are now sitting here before God. He sees you as you shall be. He sees you at the resurrection. He sees you in your glorified state. He sees you in your eternal inheritance. Are you not glad too, if it is the fact that your name as a Christian is written as Daniel's name was as a Jew, written in the book? That is the background of the vision that we find in the Revelation chapter ten. But notice the differences now. This strong angel comes to encourage John to his final prophecies and what he has to say about the fearful time of tribulation that shall fall upon Israel and upon this world. The angel lifts up one hand to heaven and swears by him that lives forever and ever that there shall be delay no longer. Now, the very briefest of times will come, and the tribulation will be finished. For in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound, says the angel, then the mystery of God shall be finished, and all God's promises to his saints down the ages shall come to their fulfillment, and the great purposes of God and redemption shall climax in the coming of the Son of Man. So to comfort his people that shall then be in that time of tribulation, the angel comes down and puts one foot on the sea and claims that for God, and the other foot on the land and claims that for God. It's God's earth anyway. And he lifts up one hand to heaven to swear by Almighty God, in faithfulness to his people, that the time of vindication shall be soon. And as he does so, he has a book in his hand. Its primary meaning, of course, is the message that John must preach, the message that will be preached in those final days just before the Lord comes. But tonight we leave that, for our interests are personal, aren't they? Can you use your visual imagination just for a minute? A mighty angel, one hand lifted to the very throne of God, swearing by the oath of God, and one hand outstretched with a book. Guaranteeing to God's people that the purposes of God would be fulfilled. Forgive me my impiety, if it be such, as I adopt the stance to you this evening. See your Lord, if you can, you in this age. Some of you will be gone to heaven pretty shortly, won't you? Forgive my saying it. But your faith in God is still the thing that the Lord is working at, isn't it? He's got to bring you home to heaven with your faith refined but unbroken, in spite of life's injustices. He's got to bring you home to God with your faith in the purposes of God untarnished, unshaken. How will he keep your faith? Oh, see your blessed Lord tonight, one hand lifted up to the very throne of God and swearing by him who cannot lie, and in the other offering you a book. These are the true sayings of God. We will be wise people, whatever temptation and oppression and persecution or injustice awaits us in our day, assailing our faith. We do need to know God's book, don't we? It is a cruel thing to send believers out into this ungodly world where Satan will be out to destroy their faith, to send them out in ignorance of God's detailed word. As you love their souls, my elders. All follow the Lord's example and buttress their faith. They need to know not just one verse, they need to know God's detailed word. Knowing his divine program, they may not be surprised when things happen, but dare trust the God who wrote it, assured it would be fulfilled. We need to know it. Our Lord stands offering it in one hand, and the other grasping the very throne of God, guaranteeing by the divine oath that every promise in the book will be fulfilled. And finally, there is the vision of the two witnesses. I shall have to keep you a little late tonight, at least five minutes more, while I tell you about it. The vision is in chapter eleven, and it tells of two witnesses, like two olive trees, who stand before the Lord of the whole earth to witness for God. This vision too has a background in the Old Testament, and I relate it to you. In Israel's history, before the coming of Christ, there were three major periods. From Abraham to David, we know about that one. From David to the exile, that was a second. But there was a third, and it was from the exile to the coming of the Lord Jesus. On that third period, I concentrate your attention now briefly. Why? Because it was the period of what we call the restoration, the period of the return. Israel had been taken into exile, their city Jerusalem destroyed, their temple destroyed, their king lost. But as the prophets had promised them, there came the day of restoration. Cyrus the king gave them permission to come back. Nehemiah and Ezra did it, and Zerubbabel and Joshua did it, and they came back, and they rebuilt the temple, and they rebuilt the city wall, and Jerusalem was measured. It was the day of restoration. It was a marvelous day, and some at least of Israel were back in their own land. But when Israel had got back in their own land, there were a lot of little nations around. I shall not name them for uncomfortable similarities with the moderns. A lot of little nations around Israel that kept barking and biting at their heels and trying to get them stopped, you know. And they wrote letters to the great imperial power and demanded to have Israel stopped. And for a while, the building of the temple was interrupted. But then God sent uh Zerubbabel a vision, and he showed them this great lampstand and two olive trees joined to it, who poured their oil into the lamp to keep that lamp burning miraculously. And the message conveyed by the vision was this: not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. And little Israel, a remnant of the nation, a few thousands of men and women in that devastated country, trying to rebuild Israel's testimony to the living God and build that temple, and harassed on all sides with the Syrians and the Ammonites and the Moabites and goodness knows who what. And the big imperial power out there and the United Nations. God came to their hearts with assurance. I shall do it, Zerubbabel, he says, not by human might, not by power, but by my supernatural power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. A demonstration in this godly, ungodly, idolatrous world that there is a living God in heaven, and Israel is his chosen people yet. So the temple was built, and all went well. Except this, that as the years went by, it became obvious that this restoration wasn't the final restoration. Things once more began to go bad again. There were in Israel, so we are told, priests that had gone modernist and liberal. We know the types. And, uh, uh, they wanted to turn Jerusalem into a Hellenistic city and have a gymnasium, have Greek education. And they held it was very narrow-minded to suppose that Jehovah was the only God. Surely the, the, the worship of the Syrians was just as valid. They used a different name for God, that's all, but it was the same God, Jehovah or Baal, Shaamim or Zeus. It didn't matter. All religions were the same, and all roads le- led to somewhere anyway. So why couldn't they, uh, drop their distinctives of Jews and all this silly business about circumcision and, and, and fancy believing our Old Testament is inspired in any special sense, uh, or that Israel is a special nation. And these false teachers were none other than the high priests of Israel themselves. Alas, how history repeats itself, doesn't it? Then there came a great Gentile emperor. His name was Antiochus Epiphanes. And for a whole set of complicated reasons, he came to Jerusalem, and in collaboration with those modernist priests. And he defied the God of heaven. He took away his daily burnt sacrifice. He put an old heathen idol on the altar. He sacrificed the abomination, a pig, upon the altar to Jehovah. He filled the courts of the temple with temple prostitutes in the Greek and pagan manner. If he caught Jewish mothers practicing circumcision on their children, he had them thrown over the mountain and down on the rocks to smash their brains out and their children's brains out on the rocks below. He forbade possession of Holy Scripture. He set up altars in all the streets. He set out to prove, one, that the Jewish nation is not a special nation. Two, that Jehovah is nobody special at all, and you can mock him with impunity. And the sad, solemn story to relate is this, that with the apostate liberal priests standing by, and the people of God being persecuted, and the old emperor defying God Almighty in his very temple, and setting up the abomination of desolation for three and a half years, heaven was absolutely silent. How could you explain it? Imagine the people that came parading by the Maccabees, the faithful Jews of the time, and says, where's your God now? Eventually, of course, God did intervene, and the temple was vindicated. That is the background now to our vision. And the Spirit takes us in thought to Jerusalem City, not please to the church, but to Jerusalem City, the place where also our Lord was crucified, says chapter eleven of the Revelation. That is Jerusalem City. And to the temple in the city. But, says the writer, leave out the court, don't measure it, because Jerusalem City shall again be in the hands of the Gentiles, Forty two months downtrodden by the atheistic imperialistic power. Once more the question will be, is Israel God's people? Is there a God in heaven at all, so that Israel could be his people if they wanted to be? And apostate Jews shall agree with the atheist powers, like some of them are doing already. And I tell you what, by that time Christendom gone absolutely apostate. Shall agree with them too. They're doing it already, aren't they? There is one theologian in the University of Cambridge. I say it to my sorrow, I'm a Cambridge man myself. In the name of the church, he tells people there is no God. And there's another cleric, isn't there, not far distant, who tells the people that while he believes the resurrection, he doesn't believe in the possibility of divine intervention. Why, a book appeared not ten years ago, written by some of the leading theologians in Britain. They entitled it The Myth of the Incarnation. They said it was impossible to believe in the incarnation. Why impossible? Because the incarnation would imply a divine intervention in our world, and we cannot believe, they said, in the possibility of divine intervention. And this in the name of the church. Apostate Christendom and apostate Judaism shall agree. Then shall come a hectic time such as never was before. In those days, God will raise up two witnesses again, empowering them by visibly supernatural power. They shall witness to that temple in its apostasy. Like Moses witnessed to the Israelites and Elijah witnessed to the Israelites. Moses, you may remember, made the water into blood as he defied the Pharaoh that would have kept Israel in her bondage. And Elijah called fire from heaven as he called back Israel from the folly of their idolatry to recognize and serve the true God of heaven. So shall these two witnesses, smiting the earth and turning the water to blood and scorching the place with fire as invisible, supernatural power. They shall demonstrate to the world through its TVs. Yes, there is a God in heaven. Then comes the terrible crisis. And the beast that comes up from the abyss shall war against them and overcome them, and their bodies shall lie dead three and a half days in Jerusalem City. What will that mean? Why, the world will say, QED, quad erat demonstrandum. There is no God, and what you thought was supernatural power, ladies and gentlemen, and it seemed so at the time, didn't it? Now I have demonstrated that our scientists can do the same thing in their laboratories, and we can do even better. Our laser beams and all our mind manipulation has shown that what they superstitiously thought was supernatural power isn't supernatural power, and there is no God, and religion has finally been proved to be empty and a lie. The world will, world will go mad with delight. Now AIDS isn't a divine punishment anymore. Now the moral code has no absolute God behind it. Now our world is our own. Now we have no need of ju- fear, to fear judgment. And what do you think the believers of that time will be feeling? And for three and a half days, heaven is absolutely silent. Ah, thank God the silence doesn't last forever. But after three and a days, ha- days and a half, they'll be caught up to glory, and then shall the end come. As you go home, you'll probably be asking yourself, if you should think of the thing, why will God allow that to happen? That's an interesting question, isn't it? I don't propose to answer it in those terms tonight, but simply to put another question to you. Why are there times when you cry to God against the injustice that you have suffered, and he seems silent to you? Why? One answer surely is this. The faith in God does not mean that God featherbeds his people. Faith in God, if it's going to be real, must be prepared to believe God. Not only when the evidence is good, but when there seems to be no evidence, and indeed when the evidence seems to be contrary. Like Job on his dunghill, driven to say, if only I could find God, if only God would answer me, I could, I could convince God. The trouble is, says Job, he remains silent. We know why, don't we? Because the devil was attacking Job's faith. And if the faith was genuine, God had to allow the faith to be tried. But not longer than Job could endure it, and in the end he vindicated Job, and his faith was strengthened, and he blessed Job beyond computation. So will he do with us all who are believers, before he takes us home to heaven, proving of our faith, much more precious than of gold that perishes, will come through the fire, daring to believe our God, even when he's silent, even when he doesn't appear to answer our prayers, so that when the Lord comes, that faith shall be found to praise and honor and glory at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Guys. Christ.