Admonition Podcast

Let's begin with a word of prayer and then we'll get into our study.

Gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you've
blessed us with, for the opportunities that we have in this life to serve you.

We pray that we might always be diligent in that service, that we might be mindful of what
you would have us to do.

But we also pray that we might learn the lessons from this book uh of Revelation.

that we must live to be overcomers no matter what comes in this life, no matter what we
face, no matter the difficulties that arise or the persecution that may come, no what

quarter it comes from.

That we might always know and understand that you are in charge, that you are reigning
upon your throne, and that we must be faithful to you if we desire to receive that crown

of life.

Lord, we pray that you be with those who are away from us, those who are traveling.

those who are ill, those who are facing recovery and surgeries or medical related issues.

We pray that you give them strength.

Pray that you bring them back to us and their desired help.

Lord, we pray that you be with the work of the church throughout the world.

We pray that open doors of opportunity will be available to those who will boldly proclaim
the truth and stand firm for the faith.

We pray that we might never depart from it, even here.

All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

We were concluding chapter seven last week, but we'll go through just a brief
introduction, a brief review.

Chapter one of the book of Revelation is introductory.

Chapters two and three says what Jesus commands, what Jesus condemns, what Jesus advises,
what Jesus promises.

Chapters four and five is the groundwork for comfort.

Jesus said in John chapter 14 verse one, you believe in God, believe also in me.

That's the premise of chapter four and chapter five.

God is on the throne.

The lamb is is reigning and is victorious.

Chapter six, the six seals are opened in the uh scroll.

The first six seals that is, uh seal one, we see the white horse coming forth.

Seal two, we see the, or seal two, three and four, we see the progressive horses of uh
judgment, persecution coming after that.

the fifth seal is opened and the souls of those who are dying for the cause and the
testimony of Christ are under the altar and they're crying out like the words of

Zechariah, how long are you going to allow this to continue, Lord?

And their answer is, here are white robes, rest for a little while, and then you have the
sixth seal.

The sixth seal is open and it is almost a,

Forecast, you know, if you looked out at the weather today, you might have looked at a
forecast of what's coming.

The wind's coming, the thunderstorms are coming.

That's a forecast.

It's not here yet.

It's not gonna happen yet.

It's not happening right now, but you're looking at what's coming.

That's seal number six.

John opens the seal and he says, this is what's coming.

for those who are on the earth who are in opposition to God.

And the question at the end of the sixth seal is, who's able to stand?

When the forecast stops being a forecast and the storm arrives, who's able to endure the
storm?

Chapter seven opens and that is the answer to the question because God's people are going
to be sealed.

God's name is going to be written on their forehead.

And the ones who are bringing the judgment, the angels who are bringing the judgment, that
is the wind of God in the beginning of chapter seven, are holding back the wind from every

direction.

God's judgment is coming from every direction.

You know, one of the things that most armies don't like to do is fight a battle on
multiple fronts.

When you fight a battle against God, you fight a battle on all fronts simultaneously.

And as a result of that, you're going to lose.

Now, chapter eight, seal seven is open.

And inside chapter eight, inside the seventh seal, you're going to find seven trumpets.

Remember, I told you earlier on that if you were a preacher, you would love the book of
Revelation because it's all in outline form.

Here's six seals, inside the seventh seal, here's seven trumpets, inside the seventh
trumpet, here's seven bulls, it's all in outline form.

But as you're reading, bear in mind that everything you read from this point forward,

until the last bowl of God's wrath is poured out happens inside the seventh seal.

The rest of the book happens inside what John sees in the seventh seal.

So for the rest of the book, we're not leaving the seals.

We're not leaving the scroll that John wanted to know what was in it.

But the first six seals are opened in chapter six.

Then you have the marking of the people of God to declare God's people are not going to
get touched by this judgment.

Now we're gonna say something about that in just a moment, but God's people are not going
to be judged.

Chapter eight opens and now here comes the seventh seal.

Because the question was asked and answered, who is able to stand in the day of the wrath
of the Lamb?

And the answer was everyone that belongs to God.

single one of them.

And that's represented in the 144,000.

12,000 from each tribe of 12 tribes, okay?

So as we get into the end of chapter seven, I wanna read just a little bit of the end of
chapter seven, and then we're going to get into chapter eight.

Because we're gonna run into a few of those verses again.

where we've gotta be really, really honest with context and not just hear something we
associate with heaven and immediately assume we're talking about heaven, okay?

So we're gonna get challenged again before we get out of chapter seven with language that
describes what we think of as heaven, but the context isn't, okay?

So we read in verse 11 of chapter 7, all the angels stood around the throne and the elders
and the four living creatures fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,

saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might be
to our God forever and ever.

When, if we go back to chapter 4 and chapter 5, when do the beings

in heaven, stop praising God.

Never.

Never.

They never stop.

In the vision, in the vision every moment the beasts that are before the throne are
declaring God is worthy of praise and every moment the elders that are surrounding the

throne are taking their crowns and casting them before the Lord and bowing down and
declaring that he's worthy of praise.

The picture that John sees is God is always worthy of

praise, so much so that those who are in his presence, those who are in his very presence,
never stop praising him.

Now this is not intended to be a scenario where we start arguing with, a minute, what are
they doing right now?

Well if the beast is doing something else then he can't be praising, therefore John's
contradicting himself.

No, that's not the point.

The vision is to tell you,

If there's never a moment where all the beings in heaven stop praising God, then why would
there ever be a moment for the Christians to fear that God can't provide for them?

Do see it?

If there's never a moment where every creature in heaven, every being in heaven,
everything that God could send one of them out and destroy a hundred and eighty-five

thousand soldiers of the Assyrian army in one night...

That amount of power from one being in heaven can do that on the earth and these beings
never stop praising God.

then why would a Christian worry about what men can do?

Do remember Matthew chapter 10?

As we get into our study, Matthew chapter 10 verses 32 and 33, 31, 32 and 33 are an
incredible text to keep in mind as you're going through the book of Revelation because

they're really the point.

They are the thrust.

As Jesus sends out His disciples to go out into the villages, Jesus tells His disciples,
do not fear what men can do to you.

Do not fear Him who can destroy the body.

Rather fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.

Jesus tells His disciples the same message of the book of Revelation.

You have nothing to fear from who's on the throne in Rome.

You have nothing to fear from the persecutors that are surrounding you.

You have nothing to fear from the magistrates, from the governors, from the senators.

You have nothing to fear from the centurions and the soldiers.

You have nothing to fear from the marketplace.

You have nothing to fear because the most they can do.

is include you in that list of people who are crying out under the altar.

How long?

But the moment they do that, you're out of their grasp.

You're out of their hands.

They can't do a thing to you at that point.

As a matter of fact, that's when God's comfort takes over and God says, here, rest for a
little while and let me show you what's gonna happen to them.

Okay, so notice, then one of the elders answered me saying, who are these arrayed in white
robes and where did they come from?

And I said to him, sir, you know, so he said to me, these are the ones who came out of the
great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.

We went back last week and looked at Isaiah chapter 1.

We looked at the call of God to Israel to reason together with the Lord, to cleanse
themselves of their sin, to repent and wash themselves.

And God says, I will make you white as snow.

That imagery is being pulled forward here as John is told, these are the ones who came out
of the great tribulation.

What tribulation?

Is that some ancient prophetic thing that...

Chapter 6.

It's the ones who came out of the seals that have already been opened.

But how did they come out of it?

They came out of it because they washed themselves and became holy.

The question was asked, who can stand in the day of God's judgment?

The answer from the elder is the ones who wash themselves.

But notice what he says, they were made white in the blood of the lamb.

What New Testament washing occurs in which a person is in contact with the blood of the
lamb of God?

Baptism.

Remember Peter says, baptism doth also now save us.

Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh.

He says, you're not getting in the water to get the grime on your skin washed away, but
the answer of a good conscience towards God.

So these elders are telling John, you want to know who is able to be arrayed in white
robes?

Baptized, obedient believers in heaven because they've been washed in the blood of the
lamb.

Okay, now notice what he says, and I said to him, sorry, verse 15, therefore, they are
before the throne of God.

and serve Him day and night in His temple.

And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them.

They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore.

The sun shall not strike them nor any heat, for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne
will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of water, and God will wipe away

every tear from their eyes."

Now, in this imagery, the context of the number that are arrayed around 144,000, this is
the innumerable number around 144,000.

Because there's 144,000 that are representative of God's people on the earth.

There's an innumerable multitude in heaven that surround that number.

And these people are those who have come out of the Great Tribulation, who are washed and
have made their robes white and are made white in the blood of the Lamb, and they serve

God day and night.

and as they do so they serve Him who sits on the throne, they dwell with Him who sits on
the throne, they hunger and thirst no more.

Now does that mean that we are to immediately assume that they have left this world?

because they don't hunger and thirst anymore.

So they must be spiritual beings,

Remember John chapter 3?

John chapter 3, Jesus is speaking with Nicodemus and he will talk to him about being born
of water and of the Spirit.

in John chapter 4, Jesus speaks to a woman at a well and he asks water from her and he
says, you knew who it was who was asking water from you, you would ask water from them and

you would drink water and you would never what?

Thirst again.

In John chapter 6, Jesus is going to speak to the people about the bread of life.

He is going to declare Himself to be the bread of life, and if they will eat of that
bread, they will never hunger again.

In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus is going to tell those disciples and those present, those
Jews, that if they will hunger and thirst after righteousness, they will be what?

Filled.

All throughout Jesus' ministry, Jesus is making the point that the sustenance that a
person needs isn't bread alone.

You remember that phrase?

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

When Jesus said, if you knew who I was, you would have asked water from me, what type of
water was he going to give her?

living water, which is what?

The Word of God.

When the individuals who had been fed, those 5,000 who had been fed, who then chased down
Jesus halfway around the Sea of Galilee so they could be fed again, showed up, Jesus

rebuked them because what they were interested in was the earthly food.

What they needed to be interested in was the heavenly food, which was what?

Word of God.

The point that is being made when you see they shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst
anymore is not that they're in heaven.

The point is that they have followed the commands and the instructions of God so that they
have been filled, they are nourished forever by the Word of God.

They don't hunger.

They don't thirst because what Jesus brought, they received.

Notice he says, the sun shall not strike them nor any heat, for the lamb who is in the
midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eye.

We have a song in our songbook about no tears in heaven.

There is a reminder in the book of Revelation that for the person who has taken Jesus up
on his offer of living water, and for the person who's taken up on his offer of living

bread, and the person who has accepted Jesus' command to be obedient to God and is living
faithfully with God,

There's no tears here either.

You say, wait a minute, Aaron, I'm pretty sure that if nothing else there's going be tears
because somebody's going to hit their hammer or hit their thumb with a hammer and they're

going start crying over it.

Somebody's going to get cancer and somebody's going to be in pain and it's going to be
excruciating and they're going to be crying.

And somebody's going to lose a loved one and somebody's going to go through a trauma and
they're going to be crying.

Those aren't the tears we're talking about.

just like by the way the food they have to eat and the water they have to drink every day
isn't the food and the water we're talking about.

The context is who will have to mourn because of the wrath of the Lamb of God.

Go back to chapter 6.

I looked, verse 12, and he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great
earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood,

and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is
shaken by a mighty wind.

Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was
moved out of its place.

and the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men,
every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the

mountains and said to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of
him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.

Why are there no tears in heaven?

Because you don't ever have to face the judgment of God.

Why are there no tears on earth for the church?

Because that's the picture you're going to get in Revelation 21 and 22

because God's always on your side.

You remember what the psalmist writer would write in Psalm 23?

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

For you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You makest me to lie down in green pastures.

You leadeth me beside the still waters.

You restore my soul.

And what did he want?

What did he say was the blessing that concluded that, will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

psalmist writer as he writes that psalm looks straight forward to the church to the
blessing of the assembly of God led by the Good Shepherd which Jesus proclaims himself to

be but now let's continue Let me skip a few of those things we're gonna

catch up here to chapter eight.

All right, seventh seal.

As the lamb is in the midst of the throne, he's going to shepherd this multitude.

God will wipe away every tear from their eye.

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Now, I had one teacher that said this is proof there were no women in heaven.

But I'm convinced it's proof there's no preachers in heaven.

You can't have silence for half an hour with preachers or women in heaven.

So no preachers and no women.

What does silence do for us?

I love the illustration that one of our instructors gave as they were teaching the book of
Revelation ah in school.

They said, try this.

Get up to preach a sermon.

Go stand behind the podium and say nothing.

Everybody who was fidgeting with something in their lap quits fidgeting.

All the kids suddenly go, what?

What's going on?

Everybody who was paying attention to something else suddenly starts paying attention not
because you've told them to pay attention but because there's an absence of anything going

on.

And our brains go, wait a minute, that's not normal.

Silence is a focusing attention technique.

because everybody's waiting, remember?

Angels are holding back the wind, chapter 7, verses 1 and 2.

They've been told to wait!

And in chapter 8, when the seventh seal is finally opened, God just says, hold on, we're
going to pause for about 30 minutes.

How long is 30 minutes in heaven?

nonsense question, isn't it?

So why does John describe it as 30 minutes?

Because it is a vision.

And in a vision you can have a bunch of things happen simultaneously and you can pause for
30 minutes.

But the question for us is, what does 30 minutes tell us?

This is a span of time where there's silence.

There's attention, there's focus, there is something about to happen and everybody needs
to be paying attention.

So chapter eight, verse two, and I saw the seven angels who stand before God and to them
were given seven trumpets.

Have we seen these seven angels before?

Not specifically by name, not.

not drawn out in reference, but now again John sees the throne of God and look, just like
before, he saw the throne and he saw the one on the throne.

Then he looked at the throne again and he saw something in the hand of the one who's, then
he saw the throne again and then he saw the lamb before the throne.

Every time John looks back at the throne there's something new.

This time he looks and he sees seven angels that stand before the throne and to them were
given seven trumpets.

What were trumpets used for quite often in Old Testament history?

A couple of different things.

Alright, Cold War.

What else?

All right, to herald something.

They were also used for a call to worship.

So they were a call to declare God's power going forth.

They were a call to declare God is worthy of praise.

Seven trumpets are given to these angels.

Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar.

He was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon
the golden altar which was before the throne.

just want to harp on one thing before we get too far into the text.

Are we dealing with a vision?

Yes.

So when we get to heaven, are we going to be terribly worried about whether or not there's
physical gold in heaven?

No, I don't think so.

You know, we read about the streets paved with gold.

You go, I'm looking forward to walking the streets paved with gold.

Gold is a physical object, isn't it?

It's a visionary tool.

But in this text, it connects them back to an Old Testament object.

Because what you're seeing here, you're seeing trumpets, sensors, altars.

What does that sound like?

the tabernacle, the temple.

These are visionary tools because even what the Hebrew writer tells us is that the things
that were in the Old Testament were pictures of the real thing in heaven.

So, another angel, this is an ape angel by the way, having a golden censer came and stood
at the altar was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the

saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the
angels hand.

Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar and threw it to the
earth and there were noises, thunderings, lightnings and an earthquake.

Now as you notice this, you have first the seven angels.

They've all got seven trumpets.

They haven't sounded their trumpets yet.

They blown any of their trumpets yet.

They've handed their trumpets, but before anything else happens, here comes an angel with
a golden censer.

He's given much incense, and what does he mix it with?

prayers of the saints.

Now wait a minute, where did we last see saints praying?

Under the altar.

They're the ones being persecuted and killed for the testimony of God.

And so the angel takes the prayers of the saints that are being persecuted, mixes them
with incense, and offers them before God.

And the aroma, as it were, goes up before God, and then what does the angel do?

He takes a sensor.

and he filled it with fire from the altar.

and threw it to the earth.

Watch it.

Here's the picture.

The persecuted Christians are crying out.

They're praying.

They're asking for God's help.

They're asking for deliverance.

The prayer comes up to God.

in the form, visionary form, of the angel with the incense offering the prayers of the
saints as a sacrifice before God, and God's answer comes back.

because the angel grabs the fire out of the altar and casts it down on the earth and the
events of judgment commence.

You remember when the sixth seal was open?

Sorry, the fifth seal was open?

The Christians that were praying, the Christians who were dying, the Christians who had
already died and made it to heaven were told, rest for a little while.

Just wait.

Just wait.

God's going to have an answer.

This is the beginning of the answer.

This eighth angel cast the fire to the earth and notice there's noises, thunderings,
lightnings, and an earthquake.

So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

This is, if you were to imagine this as a military action, this is the first barrage.

This is the initial shot.

from heaven in judgment to the persecutors of God's people.

And the seven angels are being told, all right, it's time.

Now the seven angels with the seven trumpets are going to bring partial judgment.

You're gonna see that as we get into the text.

There's going to be complete judgment that corresponds.

But as you watch these judgments come forth here in chapter eight,

You're gonna go, wait a minute, wait a minute, I've seen some of these things before.

Where have I seen them before?

that's right, Egypt and Exodus.

because this is Old Testament imagery.

This is scriptural imagery.

And the people of God are going to go, wait a minute, I know this story, and I know how it
turns out.

Okay, so notice what we read.

Trumpet number one, you're going to have hail and fire, and it's going to destroy a third
of something.

If you have a third of something, what do you not have?

You don't have all of it, all right?

It's partial.

We know this.

Go make a recipe.

It'll say have a half cup of this.

When you put that half cup in, what did you not put in?

A whole cup.

We know how this works.

They knew how it worked in ancient times.

Notice what we read.

So the first angel, verse seven, the first angel sounded and hail and fire followed,
mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth.

and a third of the trees were burned up and all the green grass was burned up.

Was there a plague in Egypt of hail?

Did it include hail and fire mixed?

Yes, it did.

Oh, look, here's the Egyptian, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, and 13.

imagery that's about to get thrown in the book of Revelation because the book of
Revelation is an Old Testament message in a New Testament book.

So the first angel sounds, and one third of all the trees are burned up.

Now do you think that what we have here, because this is 100 % literal according to some
people, that somebody went around the planet and just calculated, here's how many trees

there are, and here's how many got burned up, so we're at one third.

If we got up to half, God's prophecy's wrong.

If we only did a quarter, God's prophecy, no.

partial judgment.

right, number two.

Second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown
into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood, and a third of the living creatures in

the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

You've got this great object.

It's like a mountain.

Doesn't say it's a mountain.

It's like a mountain.

and it's cast into the sea.

And what happens to the sea?

turn to blood.

Can anybody remember anything that happened in Egypt that might be a figure of this?

that's right.

The entire Nile River was turned to blood.

It say it looked like blood.

It was turned to blood.

So, God takes through the angel, through the second trumpet, He sends this great object
into the sea and the whole sea gets turned to blood.

But it only kills a third of the creatures.

But it also destroys a third of the ships.

Who made their living off of the creatures in the sea?

Fishermen!

Who made their living off of the ships?

fishermen and the people who transport goods.

God's creating impacts.

Okay?

Who creates, who makes their living off of the forest?

people who dwell in the land, people who harvest the wood, people who use it for homes,
people who need it for the creatures that people who hunt, all those people are being

affected.

There's partial judgments.

The third angel.

Verse 10, the third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven burning like a torch,
and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.

The name of the star is wormwood, a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died
from the water because it was made bitter." Now this one isn't exactly a picture from the

judgment in Egypt, rather it's a picture of the experience in the wilderness where they
couldn't find any water.

and all the waters that they could find were Mera, they were bitter.

So they cried out to God and they complained to God, okay?

So you still got Old Testament imagery, it's just mixed between the Egyptian experience
and the plagues and other events, okay?

So it falls on the earth.

Now what fell?

A great star.

Now question, since we all know the book of Revelation is 100 % literal, which one's
bigger, generally speaking, stars or planets?

Stars only by, I don't know, a few hundred million times.

So this was a great star, which means not a small star, and this great star, that's
hundreds of millions of times larger than the planet Earth, fell to the Earth, but it only

affected some of the water?

Do we see the point?

If you're going to come into this book and you're going to get literal things, you're
going to go, well, it's not really a star, it's a nuclear weapon.

You know, if we're not going to take it literal and physical in our own interpretation of
it and accept what it says, then why don't we just be honest with it

and let it interpret itself.

You know earlier on in the text we had a star, had seven stars actually, that represented
seven churches.

Why can't the star here represent something else?

It does.

It represents a judgment from God.

Doesn't have to be a comet.

It doesn't have to be something that impacts with the earth in a physical sense because
the judgment is not going to come in that way.

notice here as this star comes it is named.

What is it named?

Wormwood.

It's named for something that is connected with bitter water.

Okay?

You spend a little bit of time in your own study doing that just for the sake of time, but
the fourth angel sounds, verse 12.

and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that
a third of them were darkened.

A third of the day did not shine, likewise the night.

And I looked and I heard an angel flying through the midst of the heavens, saying with a
loud voice, Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts

of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound.

So this angel sounds, and a third of the sun is darkened, and a third of the moon is
darkened, and a third of the stars are darkened.

Now wait a minute.

Did we have an Egyptian connection here?

What was one of the plagues?

Darkness.

This is partial judgment.

It's like Egypt, but it's not all the way there yet.

Now, question.

Why does God ever deliver partial judgment?

If we were to step back into Old Testament history and into Israel's history, why does God
ever deliver partial judgment?

because if God delivers partial judgment and the people who are rebelling against Him
realize who they're in opposition against and what they're up against and the fact that

they're bringing this upon themselves and that they have done wrong and they repent, what
is headed off?

Full and complete judgment.

all throughout the Old Testament history.

The prophets would tell them, if you don't observe this, if you don't pay attention to
this warning, then God is going to bring complete judgment against you.

So the nations, the persecutors of God's people, even in spite of their heinous
persecution of God's people and their killing of God's people, they're still being given a

chance to repent.

As the chapter closes, an angel flies through the midst of heaven.

And again, Old Testament language.

Woe, woe, woe.

When you repeat something three times, it means pay attention, pay attention, pay
attention.

because the first four trumpets were not nearly as severe as the last three are going to
be.

And they're being warned in advance.

More judgment is coming.

Okay?

Put a marker in it there, we'll pick up.