Revelation 8 – How to Live Your Life

[0:00] Thank you to Bill for the most informative set of announcements that I think I've ever heard.

[0:11] ! And I'm so glad that they have, Bill and Norma have the same kind of relationship that Laurie! and I have when I'm talking, you know, you just kind of look and make sure that what you're saying you're not going to get told off for. So thanks for that encouragement.

[0:26] So this morning we're in the book of Revelation and you're going to need a Bible. And we, you know, I was going to think about kind of tackling chapter eight and nine together because they're one, it's one narrative, it's kind of one section that goes really, really well together. But as I was just kind of praying it over and just like a couple of weeks back, just thinking, you know, what do we need rather than, you know, what is the text? How is the text structured? What do we need? And I think next week I really kind of want to delve into spiritual warfare and how spiritual warfare affects us, how it affects the church. And so what I've decided to do is take one long sermon and make it two short ones. You know, that's a lie. So two long ones, one long one into two long ones. Is that okay? So we're in chapter eight this morning and we've come to actually the section of Revelation, which is the most dramatic, all right? We come to the stuff of films, right? And, you know, the end of the world scenarios that we see in films, we come to that this morning in our text. And what I was thinking, you know, it's very easy to open this text and to look at it and go, oh, you know, this reminds me of the day after tomorrow or apocalypse now or whatever, you know, whatever it is. And miss kind of what the reason it's here. Why is a book or a chapter like this and the contents of it, why is it there in the first place? Is it just to say, hey, this is what's coming?

[2:25] Or is there something for us spiritually in terms of our application for us today? And I think there is, and actually, I think there's three things that we can take away from this text. And you might want to write them down now before we kind of get lost in the text and before we kind of get lost in some of the big things that are going to go on in our text. Three things I think we can take away from this text today. The first is that we're going to be challenged about the way we live our own lives.

[2:50] Like if this text doesn't make us stop and go, how am I living my life today? We probably haven't understood the text, right? But it's also going to be, it's going to be an encouragement to keep praying.

[3:07] Like how many people need encouragement to keep praying? Right? I do. Like that, just that encouragement day after day after day to keep praying and not lose heart. I mean, how many times are we told in the Bible, keep praying, don't lose heart, keep going, don't lose heart, don't give up. Right?

[3:24] And we're told not to give up. Why? Because our propensity is to do what? Give up. Right? So there is an encouragement. We're going to be encouraged to keep praying. And then we're going to be exhorted to tell others about Jesus. Do we need that exhortation to tell others about Jesus? We do, don't we? Too often we kind of shy away. And so there's this threefold thing that we take away from our text this morning. We get to be challenged about the way we live our lives. We get to be encouraged to keep praying. And we are exhorted to tell people that this story in this chapter doesn't have to be their story. That there is a way out in the person of Jesus.

[4:07] So let's get into our text. And if you are new, what we will do is just go through the text. Okay, we'll start at verse one. We'll keep going until we get to the end of the chapter. And we'll deal with every verse as we go. So the first verse says this, when the Lamb opened the seventh seal. Now pause there. We didn't get very far. But just to recap and just to remind you that John, the apostle, is seeing this vision. And he's been transported, if you like, into heaven. And every so often he sees things that are going on in earth.

[4:45] And then he gets transported back into heaven and sees things that are happening in heaven. And then he goes back into the earth and sees what's happening on the earth. And here, in this part, he is going back into the throne room of God. So the previous chapter, he was on earth, or he was seeing things that were happening on earth. Now we're back in the throne room of God. So the Lamb, who is that? Jesus. He opened the seventh seal. And I remember that the seals were on a scroll. And they're talking about how the debt has been paid. And the rightful one is now opening this scroll. You might say it's the title deed to the universe, right? Jesus is taking ownership of that which is rightfully his. So the Lamb opened the seventh seal.

[5:38] And look at the unexpected result. If you've been following along or you know revelation at all, this is an unexpected result. There was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

[5:51] Doesn't silence make you uncomfortable? Are you the kind of person where there's silence? You kind of have to fill the gap. Like I quite like silence, especially if I'm driving home from work.

[6:02] Oh, listen to that. That's beautiful. But it's a strange thing to appear in heaven, isn't it? Like we've just witnessed in chapter four and five, all of this worship, all of this glory going to God. And now the seventh seal has opened.

[6:22] And normally we would have expected in the first six seals, something dramatic to have taken place. Like a white horse or rider going out, maybe a red horse going out, maybe something else, a plague or something.

[6:35] But no, here it is hush. And this kind of dramatic pause seems to be a type of breath.

[6:47] A type of breath where heaven is waiting for the next thing. There's a hush of expectancy that comes across heaven.

[6:57] And we recognize this, don't we? When there is something that requires us to stop and think and gauge the magnitude of something, what do we do? We tend not to feel the silence.

[7:08] We tend to have, we tend to take a moment of silence. I mean, think about the every year we mark Armistice Day, don't we? How do we mark it? Silence. There's a gravity and a magnitude of something.

[7:23] Last week I visited the Imperial War Museum in London. First time I'd been there and I'm planning to go back, but they have a whole floor dedicated to the Holocaust.

[7:37] And the most striking thing to me was that no one was talking. There were people talking in the World War I exhibition, upstairs in the World War II exhibition.

[7:53] You get to the Holocaust floor, no one is talking. I think it's just a natural response of weighing up and seeing the magnitude of what was going on.

[8:03] There's a sense that the truth of those horrific events takes your breath away, literally. And we see this a few times in the New Testament, an instruction to be silent before God.

[8:16] In Habakkuk chapter 2, we read that the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. Almost seems an unnatural thing to do, to go in before the Lord and keep silent.

[8:30] Like we want to praise, we want to worship, we want to adore, we want to make lots and lots of noise. And yet Habakkuk's instruction is the Lord is in his rightful place.

[8:41] And when the Lord is in his rightful place, everybody else better keep quiet. Twice, once in Zephaniah chapter 1 verse 7, Be silent before the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near.

[8:57] Zechariah 2 verse 13, And I think that's the kind of the setting here for Revelation chapter 8.

[9:09] The Lord has roused himself. He is getting up and he is doing something about sin. And so I suppose the question should be, What are they holding their breath for?

[9:24] Like half an hour is quite a long time. I'm not suggesting that they're all holding their breath for half an hour. But what I am suggesting is that it's absolutely silent. And there's an air of expectation about what is going to happen.

[9:36] So why is that anticipation there? Well, in verse 2, we're told. Then I saw seven angels, notice this, who stand before God.

[9:49] Seven angels who do what? Are standing before God? No. Seven angels who stand before God. Subtle difference, wouldn't you agree? Like in Jewish tradition, these seven angels are seven archangels.

[10:05] Right? And there's seven of them. And I'm going to pronounce all of their names wrong apart from two. And even with those two, I'm going to struggle.

[10:16] Uriel, Raphael, I know him. Raguel, Michael, probably is pronounced wrong too. Sarequel, Gabriel and Remiel. And I apologize in advance.

[10:29] Now, whether or not it's true that those seven are the seven, or whether those seven actually exist, we probably have no way of knowing. But it does seem that they were in a position before God and had been there for some time, like a special class of angel would.

[10:47] Because the text says that they stand before God. They haven't come and stood. They are standing. It's their place of position. Does that make sense? In Luke, Gabriel says of himself, in Luke 1.19, I am Gabriel.

[11:02] I stand in the presence of God. Make that of it what you will. There is a possibility that is true. What we do know is that the text says that he saw, John saw seven angels who stood before, who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

[11:25] Previously, we've seen seven seals were on the scroll. And as they were loosened, there was judgment sent to earth as God starts to reclaim the world for himself.

[11:36] So if you skip forward to chapter 20, we see Jesus coming back and he sets up his millennial reign, Jesus on the earth, ruling and reigning. What is God doing before that?

[11:46] He is reclaiming earth for himself, for Jesus to come back. And we've seen that time and time again as those seals are loosened. But in verse two, we get introduced now not to seven seals, but to seven trumpets.

[12:02] These seven trumpet judgments come out of the final seal. And you can see on this image I've shown you before.

[12:13] I hope this is helpful. We see the seventh seal there in the left-hand corner open up the trumpets. And then later on, we'll see the seventh trumpet open up the bowls.

[12:26] So it's quite easy to argue that the seventh seal here contains the trumpets and the bowls and lasts for the rest of this tribulation period.

[12:42] Okay? So they're all, if you like, in chronological order. There is a theory called the recapitulation theory. I don't hold to it. It's an interesting theory.

[12:53] If you want to go and look that up, you can go and look that up. But it's better to see this as kind of like a Russian doll, you know, where the seven seals cover the entire seven-year period and the trumpets and bowls come out of the seventh seal.

[13:08] I think it's called the telescopic theory. But I don't really like that theory because it's a little bit misleading. But anyway, I won't go there. So what makes this seal more dramatic is that from this moment on, things start to increase in intensity and severity.

[13:29] And that's really what we start to see in chapter eight. We're going to see three woes proclaimed at the end of the chapter by an eagle who knew eagles could talk.

[13:46] But a donkey talked in numbers, so if a donkey can talk, an eagle can talk. Don't have a problem too much with that. We're going to hear seven thunders. And for John to point out that there's thunders, I think those thunders are more than just kind of a weather pattern rolling in, all right?

[14:04] This is more than just a rumble of thunder. It's noteworthy. And so there is an intensity about what is going on.

[14:16] And notice this, as God is judging sin, there is an intensity about what is going on, about what God is judging sin. As I'm thinking about this, I think one of the reasons chapter eight is laid out for us like this is that it's not just telling us what is coming.

[14:35] Like, I think if we approach Revelation as only a book that foretells the future, I think we missed quite a lot of what's going on. It encourages us, again, to have those three responses that I talked about right at the beginning.

[14:54] Like, how do we respond to a chapter like this? And I think there are three ways. The first one is that in terms of our application, we should not downplay our own personal sin.

[15:07] So we should be challenged about the way we live our own lives. We should not downplay our own personal sin. Now, I'm not going to ask for a show of hands this morning who has personal sin.

[15:20] My hand will be quickest up and furthest high, right? We all have personal sin that we all struggle with, that we're all dealing with. But look at our text, Revelation 8 again.

[15:33] When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was a silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw seven angels who stood before God. Seven trumpets were given to them. Skip down to verse six. Now, the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.

[15:48] They didn't just blow them. They prepared. Can you see that everything, there's a purposefulness about what's going on. Like, there's gravity in those words, isn't there? And our response to those words should be not to make light of our own sin, not to rationalize our own sin, or even theologize our own sin.

[16:10] Like, if there's anything that we're good at as Christians, or like, can I just say, I just say me, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna suggest that you do this.

[16:22] If there's anything I'm good at as a Christian, it's making out that other sins are worse than mine. Like, I'm brilliant at that. Like, I should have a PhD in that, right?

[16:35] Like, if there's anything, I think just generally the church is good at is pointing the finger. And that's partly because we still believe in a meritocracy, that God accepts me because I'm not as bad as someone else based on my merit.

[16:54] Like, we have some idea that my sins are on a scale and someone else is on the other side of the scale. And so long as mine are better than theirs, I'm okay. But look, what the book of Revelation is telling us is that God will judge sin radically.

[17:12] And if you want proof of that, you just go to the gospels. Look at what Jesus, God did to Jesus. He judged sin there, didn't he? God will judge sin radically and it won't be pretty.

[17:27] God will judge sin. God will judge sin. God will judge sin. God will judge sin. What we learn is that sin is never okay. Now, I know that there are many reasons why we do and think the way we do.

[17:40] I'm not discounting that. I can't deny that sometimes the way we think and act is the result of sins done against us. Absolutely. Right? Some of the short circuits that we have, we have because someone has done something in the past to us and that is the way we now think and act and behave.

[18:01] Absolutely. Can't agree more with that. There are reasons for our sin other than we are sinful people. But it never makes it okay.

[18:11] I also think that we're pretty good at theologizing our sin. And what I mean by that is that we are good at having a theological position that removes us dealing with what we need to deal with.

[18:31] For example, let's go to our text. As you can imagine, every man and his dog has a different view of Revelation 8.

[18:45] Okay? So if you have 10 scholars, ask them about Revelation 8, you probably have 11 different views. Okay? So, but look, the issue isn't probably necessarily our theology, but what we do with our theology.

[18:59] Right? So, for example, one theological position about this chapter says that this chapter, the trumpet judgments, are a series of invasions against the Roman Empire that ended with the fall of Constantine in 1453.

[19:14] Now, if you take that view, it's pretty easy to downplay the intensity and severity of God's anger at sin. Because what happens in our text is way in the past.

[19:27] It's really got nothing to do with me. It's detached from me. Another theological position says that the four trumpets that we'll read about correspond to the disasters that took place, was inflicted by the Romans on the Jews in the four-year-long war in the Jewish war, in 66 to 70.

[19:49] Again, it's easy to diminish God's anger at sin because it's in the past. It doesn't affect us. It actually only affects a really, really small area of the world when you compare it to everywhere else.

[20:01] God can't be that angry at sin. Likewise, the futurist approach, which is actually the one I hold, actually has the same problem. So this is not like, oh, that theology is bad and my theology is better because, like, you know, my theology is better.

[20:18] My theology suffers from the same problem. Because the theology that says the trumpets represent calamities that will be endured during the seven-year tribulation period that haven't happened yet.

[20:32] And since Paul says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 that we're not appointed to God's wrath, this isn't for us either. So then what you do with it?

[20:43] Do you see what I'm saying? Do you see what I'm saying?

[21:14] This is not angry about me. This is about them. You see what we just did. And what we need to do and what we should do is, as we read a chapter like this, is feel the weight of what God is doing here.

[21:32] And then apply it to the sin that is so prevalent in our own lives. Like, God is coming to judge sin. Like, and I might have an issue, theologically, if you are not a futurist.

[21:49] We might argue that point. But look, the issue is, God is judging sin. And in this text, I feel God is judging sin on a worldwide level.

[22:05] And as we read and we go, my goodness, God is dealing with sin. Like, that should affect my life. I should go home this afternoon and I should wonder how I'm living my life.

[22:20] How I'm dealing with my own personal sin. And then I should start to repent of those things. And so the reason for the silence in verse 1, we're doing brilliantly, by the way, in 1, is because the gravity of what is going to take place begins in verse 2 and then takes place in verse 6.

[22:45] There is a woe about it. There is a, my goodness, God is really judging sin.

[22:55] What about me? And then in verse 3, we get another response. Verse 3. In verse 3, we're encouraged to continue on in prayer.

[23:09] So we're not just challenged about our own personal lives. But we're also then encouraged to continue on in prayer.

[23:19] And I love it that it comes that way around, aren't you? Like, that we're not challenged in prayer and encouraged in the other, you know?

[23:30] There is a challenge. Deal with sin. Oh, be encouraged. Come on, let's pray. Let's continue praying. Take courage is the idea.

[23:41] So another angel, verse 3. That is another angel in addition to the seven angels who are holding the seven trumpets, came and stood at the altar with a golden censer.

[23:51] And he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel.

[24:04] Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth. And there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

[24:18] So what is taking place now in chapter 8 is, you could argue, the answer to the prayer that has been repeated throughout all of the ages.

[24:36] Just one prayer. I nearly did a whole Old Testament Bible study on this, but I just thought that would probably be too much.

[24:48] But I think it's probably the prayer that Adam prayed when he realized that sin had separated him from God. I think it's probably the prayer that Noah prayed as he witnessed the rise of wickedness across the land.

[25:02] I think it's probably the prayer that Abraham prayed as he turned his back on the land and looked for the land that God would show him. Almost certainly it's the prayer that David prayed.

[25:15] Absolutely true that it's the prayer that the disciples prayed. It wouldn't surprise me that Jesus prayed it from the cross. The martyrs around the throne in Revelation 5 who cry out, How long, O Lord, pray it?

[25:31] It's a prayer of the ages, yet no one has seen it. It's the prayer, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[25:44] That prayer has never been answered. We have not yet visibly seen God's visible kingdom on earth. Invisibly and partially, yes, there's an argument for that in the church, seen in the rule of God over the affairs of man.

[26:02] But visibly, this prayer has never been answered. But here in Revelation 8, this prayer is beginning to be answered. Thy kingdom come, Your rule come.

[26:18] And you can only pray that prayer if you're certain about the beginning of that prayer. How does it begin? Our Father. Anything else is judgment.

[26:30] If you can't approach God with our Father, everything else, you're in trouble. But the encouragement is that when God moves to judge sin, and this is the encouragement.

[26:47] I know it doesn't sound very encouraging at the moment. We're getting there. The encouragement is that when God comes to judge sin, He also remembers His people. When God judges sin, He remembers His people.

[27:01] He remembers His children. He remembers that He is our Father. That's the story of Genesis 18. When God goes to judge Sodom and Gomorrah, He hears Abraham who says, Surely you wouldn't do such a thing.

[27:17] Destroying the righteous along with the wicked. Why? You would be treating the righteous with the wicked exactly the same. Surely you wouldn't do that, Abraham says. Should not the judge of all the earth do what is right?

[27:30] There should be an encouragement to us. Israel cried for deliverance when enslaved to Egypt. And what is Moses' response that God says to him?

[27:42] God heard their cry. He turned aside and instructed them about the Passover lamb and how if they kill the Passover lamb, they wouldn't be killed.

[27:53] Picture of Jesus on the cross. The psalmist said in Psalm 34, When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all of their troubles. And Psalm 145, He is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.

[28:13] The interesting thing here is that the prayers rise to God and come back down in judgment. Do you notice that? The prayers of the saints go up and judgment comes down.

[28:26] 19th century Anglican Archbishop Trench once said this, Prayer is not getting man's will done in heaven, but getting God's will done on earth. And that's what we're seeing in these verses.

[28:41] And again, it's not the first time we've seen this idea in the Bible. In Exodus 19, Moses consecrates all the people. Three days later, there's thunder, lightning, earthquake from Mount Sinai.

[28:52] In Ezekiel chapter 10, there is a man clothed in linen who fills his hands with coals and scatters them over the city. So this is not new. It's not new information if you know your Bible.

[29:05] I'm reminded so easily, you know, that we can have this propensity to take matters into our own hands. And that is something I know that I've struggled with for many, many years.

[29:20] Like being a father of four daughters, you know, I want to fix things. You're a fixer? Like I want to have a strategy. I want to have an answer. And so often, in my own war, God has had to rebuke me and tell me, you know, it's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit.

[29:43] And maybe, you know, we're like that. We take matters into our own hands. Or maybe we are on the end of, the wrong end of someone who has wronged us. Maybe we complain and grumble about it.

[30:01] Maybe even we're a little bit, I love this phrase, passive aggressive. And I know you guys don't do that in traffic. Like none of you do that in traffic. I do that in traffic.

[30:12] But Paul reminds us in Romans chapter 12, friends, do not avenge yourselves. That's so hard, isn't it? Do not avenge yourselves.

[30:24] Instead, leave room. I just love how the CSB version puts it. Leave room for God's wrath. Like if you get all angry about something, all upset about something, or you, you know, maybe you're prone maybe to have a little bit of a gripe about something, or maybe you are a little bit passive aggressive about something.

[30:43] What, what Paul is saying is there's no room left for God to work. God's much better at stuff than I am. He's much better at stuff than we are, including getting his own way.

[31:00] A day is coming when God will make things right. And the trumpet judgments are part of God's plan to do that. And whilst we wait, we are to trust, which means to give things to him, let him do what he's going to do.

[31:18] We are to trust that he hears our prayers. He's actively involved in hearing our prayers. He's not like, so often I do, like I read my emails and I go, I read my email and I'm not going to do anything with it.

[31:33] That's not God. He hears our prayers and he knows what we're praying before we've prayed. And he's already working in those prayers to bring his will on earth.

[31:48] So don't give up praying. Keep praying. Be encouraged to pray. Now, verse six, the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.

[32:04] And what we're going to, what they're going to do, at least four of them, is going to recap for us the plagues of Egypt. Only, it's not Egypt.

[32:15] It's the entire world. Each of the judgments that we read about come against a different aspect of life that we take for granted.

[32:28] Like, you know, when the sun rises, sometimes it's hard to tell when the sun rises, but when the sun rises, most of us don't go, huh, who would have thought?

[32:39] Sun rose today. That's novel. Most of us don't even, most of us grumble about that, don't we? We're like, oh, already? So early? You know, we take things for granted.

[32:53] And we see the moon, we see the stars, we see the sun. And none of us go, well, sometimes probably we do about the sun. But most of the time we don't go, huh, the sun's there.

[33:05] Who would have thought? And so each of these come against an aspect of life that we tend to put our trust in. And I'm always, I always kind of go back, I haven't got the text, but I always kind of like to go back, Lamentations talks about how the mercies of God are more sure than the dawn.

[33:27] Like, you know, we wake up in the morning and we don't even give that a second thought, do we? We don't go to bed worrying that perhaps that, I wonder if the dawn is going to, I wonder if there's going to be a dawn.

[33:40] The writer of Lamentations, he just goes, you know what, the mercies of God are even more sure than that. Anyway, tangent. Verse seven, the first angel blew his trumpet and there followed hail and fire mixed with blood and these were thrown upon the earth and a third of the earth was burned up and a third of the trees were burned up and all green grass was burned up.

[34:01] Four times this kind of thing has happened before. but there is an intensity and a severity that we haven't seen before. So Genesis chapter 19, Sodom and Gomorrah, Exodus 19 on Egypt and the Pharaoh, Ezekiel 38 to Gog and Magog and then Psalm 11 is a picture of judgment in general using the same kind of language.

[34:22] Here it's to a third of the earth, a third of the tree and all green grass is burned up which means that this isn't a natural occurrence. Like God is sending judgment via an angel and we shouldn't link this to a natural occurrence like climate change or something like that.

[34:42] Right? Because God is particular about judgment. It's a third. The second angel blew his trumpet verse 8 and something like a great mountain.

[34:54] Now notice that and we're going to make notice of this in the next chapter in chapter 9. I think it's chapter 9 where we have these locusts released from the bottomless pit and it says they had something like you know a head of a horse something like the armor of this and you know some people go well that's an Apache helicopter.

[35:25] Like it's not an Apache helicopter because it says it's something like it. It's not it. Like I think God is able to go there's Apache helicopters coming out the pit. Like I think that there is room for that kind of revelation in the Bible and the fact that he doesn't leads me to conclude it's probably not.

[35:44] Anyway it's just one of my bugbears. Here it's something like a great mountain. Was it a great mountain? Probably not. It was something like a great mountain. Burning with fire thrown into the sea.

[35:58] A third of the sea became blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea died. A third of the ships were destroyed.

[36:10] And a third angel blew his trumpet and a great star fell from heaven blazing like a torch. And it's unclear whether this star is physical or spiritual. Is it an asteroid?

[36:20] Is it an angel? Is it something else? We don't know but what we do know is that the effects of it is that it fell on the third of the waters and on the springs of water and it had a name.

[36:33] And the name of the star was Wormwood. Again lots and lots of speculation in those who think and I've said this before that Men in Black is a documentary.

[36:44] Right? Wormwood is a shrub used to make absinthe the drink so strong that it's actually banned in many many countries.

[36:57] And some have actually said you know made a lot about this word Wormwood because the Ukrainian word for Wormwood anybody know what it is? It's Chernobyl.

[37:09] So all of a sudden everybody's like oh must be a nuclear reactor melting down. Well yeah you could take it way out of its context and talk about that I'm not convinced that it has much bearing on our text.

[37:24] Can I just say that? Like it might be kind of oh that's interesting but I think that's probably where it ends. What we do know is that the name of the star is Wormwood or bitter is the actual translation and a third of the waters then became Wormwood.

[37:41] They became bitter and many people died from the water because it had been made bitter. I don't think we need to go out of context and go it must be a nuclear reaction from the reactor that melted down in the 90s in our text.

[37:55] What is fascinating about this judgment is that in Exodus chapter 7 God struck the river Nile and made the water undrinkable. Do you remember that? And it's kind of a parallel to that but also when the children of Israel were wandering in the desert in Exodus 15 it tells us the bitter water God made drinkable.

[38:14] He reversed that. in Jeremiah chapter 9 God spoke to Jeremiah about his people in that day and said that because of their sin he would judge them and that he would feed this people with bitter food and give them poisonous water to drink.

[38:33] So we come to a chapter like chapter 8 and if you know your Old Testament and if you know your Bible none of this is really a surprise. it's just the magnitude of what it is the scope of what it is.

[38:46] God is God is recapping everything everything and making everything just bigger. Then the fourth angel verse 12 blew his trumpet and a third of the sun was struck a third of the moon a third of the stars so that a third of their light might be darkened a third of the day might be kept from shining and likewise a third of the night again this judgment looks like either you know the plague that we read about in Exodus chapter 10 like we believe those plagues were actual plagues yes they were actual things that God did to Egypt and God is promising the same thing here but we also read about this judgment in other places in the Old Testament again that probably shouldn't surprise you in Isaiah chapter 13 verse 10 God says that the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light the sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light

[39:47] I don't know any other period of history where that's ever happened do you in Joel chapter 2 a day of darkness and gloom a day of clouds and thick darkness like blackness there is spread across the mountains of a great and powerful people their like has never been before nor will again after them through the years of all their generations Amos chapter 5 woe to you who desire the day of the Lord why would you have the day of the Lord it is darkness and not light Jesus said in Mark chapter 13 in those days in Revelation chapter 8 days after the tribulation the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and then I looked verse 13 and I heard an angel crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead woe woe woe now we don't use that phrase very often only when we're perhaps watching

[40:59] Southampton football club you're welcome it is a it is a phrase again of magnitude and I have no answer to the issue of the talking angel eagle angels talk eagles don't right there's a couple of times where we see it in the Old Testament in Ezekiel we see it but Ezekiel is a difficult book as it is and we should probably not try and interpret a difficult book with another difficult book we get ourselves in trouble doing that so there's no real answer to the eagle crying but what the eagle is crying is woe watch out devastation trouble ahead even more problem ahead and woe to those who dwell on the earth at the blast of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow like it wasn't bad enough the first four now we get an eagle saying there's still more to come and what is to come is worse than what has come before and so as I thought about that the third response that we saw that we saw originally is about telling telling others and this is what the eagle is doing the eagle is warning the eagle is saying look what is about to happen is not desirable it's not a good thing and as I was thinking about that you know the endeavor of our lives should really be to tell people that there is a way out of chapter 8 in the person of Jesus and we should give ourselves to it we should be open to sharing with people that we know as well as financing those who go to different places in the world to people that we don't know it fills me with immense amount of joy that as a church we've been able to support a church in

[43:19] Ukraine got a message from their pastor yesterday 10 of their men small church smaller than ours 10 of their men are on the front line fighting they have a vision to do what to preach the good news that the war is not really that terrible compared to what is coming but there's a way out in Jesus and so we should be doing all of those things you see the goal of the Christian life is really twofold if you think about it the goal of the Christian life is to become more like Christ and to invite others to do likewise if we keep those two things at the forefront of our attention we won't go too much far wrong is to become more like Christ by his help like we can't do it on our own right to become more like Christ and to invite others to become more like Christ that's why we gather and that mission is whether you were born in the 5th century or the 21st century to become more like

[44:27] Christ as we repent of our sins and we invite others to do likewise as we tell them that there is a way out of judgment that judgment is already taking place for the Christian in the person of Jesus hanging on the cross Jesus was judged there in our place condemned he stood sealed my pardon with his blood and so our response should be a renewed heart to grow and to go and let me encourage you that in this morning that you know there is rich things here for us in Revelation not to argue about dates or prophecy or the past or whatever but are we living the Christian life do we know what it's like to deal with our own personal sin are we encouraging one another are we building one another up in what specific area in prayer we were just praying about it last night in our leadership team meeting how we need to pray with each other more and we do and then to go and tell people look

[45:36] Jesus has done what we could never do paid that penalty received that judgment so that we can walk free so let's pray together father thank you that that is true thank you that if we know you declare you as our lord and savior that judgment that is coming on the whole world against sin has already been paid for in the person of Jesus Christ lord thank you that when you went to the cross lord that was that was our cross that was my cross that was my sin and each one of us should have been there each one of us deserves to receive the judgment against our sin and so we're thankful this morning lord that we have a message a good news message to talk about and that is that you took my place and set me free lord we thank you this morning lord that your hand is currently right now withholding your restraining you are giving us time to turn to you your word says that today is a day of salvation and so lord would we heed your word this morning lord as you have challenged us in our own personal sin and what we do with that lord we know that it's not good enough just to say well i have an excuse i have a theology i have a reason lord would you heal us would you restore us lord as we attempt to walk in repentance lord would you help us to do that lord would you encourage us to keep on keeping on praying to coming before you lord we need you just as we sang earlier and lord would that so well known phrase be applicable to us that they had been with jesus lord would people know that we had been with you lord as we are becoming more like you lord would we be able to tell people more about you so the things that we are reading about in our text this morning lord would not be applicable to them lord we thank you for your word lord we want to worship you and praise you lord for saving our sins saving us from our sins we thank you lord this morning lord that that invitation invitation is for today and is free even though it cost you everything and so we come before you again lord and we confess our need for you lord our we confess our sins to you lord and we don't leave this place feeling grieved or ashamed why because you have set us free lord would you restore us to us the joy of our salvation lord we ask this in jesus name amen amen amen as