Revelation 8 (Part 1)

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Good morning. Andy, will you open this up with a word of prayer?
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Father, again, we thank you that we can come this morning to worship you. We pray,
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Lord, that you open your word and your blessings to help us to receive uniqueness, use it in our lives.
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So me and Brother Mike this morning, thank you for his diligence and preparation. And we pray,
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Lord, give us the ears to hear in Christ's name. Turn this around. Revelation chapter eight, short chapter, begin in verse one.
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When the lamb broke the seventh seal, there was a there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour.
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And I saw the seven angels who stand before God having seven trumpets were given to them.
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Another angel came and he stood at the altar holding a golden censer and much incense was given to him so that he might add to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar, which was before the throne.
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And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God out of the angels hand.
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And the angel took the censer filled it with fire of the altar and threw it to the earth. There followed peals of thunder, sounds, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
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And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound first sounded.
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There came hail fire mixed with blood and they were thrown to the earth and a third of the earth was burned up and a third of the trees was burned up and all the green grass was burned up.
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The 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 creatures which were in the sea that had life died and a third of the ships were destroyed.
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The third angel sounded and a great star fell from heaven burning like a torch and it fell in a third of the rivers and the springs and the waters.
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And the name of that star was called Wormwood. And the third of the waters became Wormwood and many men died from the waters because they were made bitter.
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The fourth angel sounded and a third of the Sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it and the night in the same way.
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Then I looked and heard an eagle flying in mid heaven saying with a loud voice,
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Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth because the remaining blast of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound.
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Well we are now obviously into another chapter and we have come to the seventh seal.
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If you back up when we go to chapter 4, you get in the throne room and you see these loud you could just go through there and count how many times it says loud or there was a noise or they were singing with loud voices and then you have in chapter 5 the opening of the handing of the scroll and then you would have the worship of the
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Lamb it says in there they were singing with a loud voice a new song worthy are you to take the book and break the seals and then you go down and it says that the angels were then beginning to exalt the
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Lamb in verse 11 and 12 and it says they were saying with a loud voice worthy is the
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Lamb that was slain to receive riches and power and wisdom and might and honor and glory and then you continue on and you get to chapter 6 and you hear a loud voice again saying come and it's summonsing the the first horse and then you have with another loud voice come the red horse and then come again you have the black horse and then you have come again with the pale horse and then you have the with the fifth seal you have this loud voice crying around the altar and I remember what was being said around the altar and how long how long will it be before you avenge and and make right and judge those who are on the earth and then you get to the sixth seal and you add this loud thunder the people crying out with a loud voice fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne this or this is the great day of the
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Lamb and then we got to chapter 7 we had the interlude or the parent the parenthetical statements being said about 144 ,000 the great multitude and once again what do we have we have
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I heard meaning there's something he's hearing again the number of those who were sealed and he goes through them zones are sealed when you get to the great multitude and that are coming out of the tribulation in verse 9 through the end of the the chapter you have with a loud voice and verse 10 they were saying salvation to our
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God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb and it says that the angel were standing around that throne the elders the four living creatures and these all fell on their face and they worship saying once again there's this reverberating sound of worship in heaven amen and blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to God forever and ever and then here we go again then again he heard something and that question was who are these who are coming out
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I'm sorry who are these who are clothed with white robes and he says Lord you know and if he continues on and then when we get to chapter 7 it says that the
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Lamb broke the seventh seal and there was silence I was actually waiting to see if it would give 30 seconds before somebody said anything and it didn't make it you know why because silence is odd we don't like silence we don't like to further to not be noise
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I mean we like I mean even now on TV you'll see hey when you're trying to sleep if you want white noise or green noise or something if y 'all seen that commercial that's on TV and it'll have this stuff in the background now download this app so that you can hear this junk while you're trying to sleep now look
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I'm not gonna lie I gotta have the TV on I can't one I don't sleep enough anyway and when the everything is quiet if I hear something in the backyard it's jump up and let's see what's going on in the backyard so I don't
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I gotta have something to block all that out but by and large we don't like quiet we want things going on we don't like our minds to be usually at rest or where we're actually thinking about stuff in this case this is silence in heaven this is actually very this is weird let's just be honest if we've been following the the flow since the beginning when he gets these starts these visions what has been taking place in heaven matter
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I mean this has been a place of worship it's been a place where the lamb has been put on display as the one who has been slain before the foundation of the world it's the one sitting on the throne and there's all of this worship we've got this constant 24 elders up and down on their face throwing worship to God and then all of a sudden we get to the seventh seal and it is absolute quiet I don't think there's anybody in here who's ever been to a place where there is zero sound there is a place in the
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Midwest you can go and you can pay and it has I think it's it's below 20 decibel in sound it is a completely soundproof room you can go in there and there is nothing they said everybody goes in there nobody has they they offer a reward for those that can stay in there for eight to ten hours and nobody has been able to stay in there because they say it's weird it just is weird being that quiet but in this case you imagine being around a throne room of heaven you obviously the lamb is here this is a vision now understand this is not actually what heaven is this is a vision in that vision the the father's on the throne in his vision he is the lamb has been opening these seals you've got all of this death and destruction that has taken place between the first and the fourth seal that you have the crying out of the souls to how long before you're going to judge these people that have been murdering us and then you have the sixth seal which then is peels of lightning thunder all of this the cosmic upheaval and then boom quiet silence is actually pretty important in the
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Bible even in we were all probably pretty familiar with Psalm 46 where it talks about where he though the mountains may fall into the sea and the oceans foam and it's all of these tumultuous things happen and then you get down toward I think it's first nine or ten and depending on what translation you have it says either be still or be calm or and that's actually not as accurate as it should be it really means be quiet just be silent don't say anything and worship the
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God who is here to save you so why don't we look through we'll do some flipping so that you can see that I'm not making this up out of thin air let's go let's go to Psalm 62 and this will help us try to get an idea why this silence because there are some different views of this silence is this silence the calm before the storm some people believe that it is some people believe that because if you if you believe that the opening of the seven seals is the sequential now opening of the blowing of the seven trumpets well then you
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I could see how someone would come to that conclusion that this is the calm before the storm that's not my position my position is that the seventh seal if you remember a number of weeks ago that I believe that the seventh seal is a continuation of the sixth seal which is final judgment and I'll hopefully we'll be able to show you how come to that conclusion and at least if you disagree with me you will know how
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I got there remember anytime there's salvation there's judgment what comes with it salvation and judgment they come together they come together when when
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Adam and Eve sinned in the garden he stayed their life by doing what by killing an animal and providing covering for them in other words who got judged in their place that animal that he killed however
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God did that to make an atonement for them to cover them the judgment on all of creation when he flood the earth was that not judgment yes and who got saved through that Noah and we could just go right on down the line how many times every time there was judgment there was salvation judgment and salvation even with the exiles those who that were hauled off into captivity were they they were saved from the judgment of God we a lot of people didn't understand it that way but Shadrach Meshach and Bendigo Daniel you know by God sending them into captivity he preserved their life to be can to consistently worship him and for Daniel to teach those that would come up after him so Psalm 62 says this in verse 1 it says my soul waits in silence for God alone for him is my salvation he is the rock my he is my rock and my salvation he is a stronghold and I will not be shaken so what is this what's the psalmist saying here this is
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David he is saying what I'm going to be silent I'm gonna stand in worship before God and wait for him to save me and then if you flip over he says the same thing again in verse 5 he says my soul waits in silence for God only for my hope is in him he is my rock and my salvation my stronghold and I shall not be shaken
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Oh God my salvation and my glory rest the rock of my strength for he is my rep for God is my refuge once again we see here
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David in silence quiet not speaking waiting in worship for the salvation of God then if you look over to Psalm 65
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I'll explain this here in a second verse 1 there was silence before you old and praise oh let me there will be silence before you and praise in Zion Oh God does anybody else say
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Mike what is your say none of the verses that you've read I've had quiet in really verse 1 we're just I know well
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I'm gonna explain why this one's different the other ones didn't say that either praise waited for the
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God and Zion what did you're saying the new King James until my in in chapter 62 it didn't say that is that yours is
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King James and yours new King James silence it is okay
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I thought so I know why the King James though I'm gonna make this in just a second is uh who else had anybody have the
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SD what is your say in 65 65 1 praises do you okay
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I'm gonna I'm gonna explain to you why the
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New American Superior Bible I mean standard Bible I'll explain to you why you and I think the
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I think the maybe it's the American Standard Version and the New American Standard is the only one that uses the word silence because the all the other
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English translations in this particular text use the Septuagint and the
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Septuagint doesn't use the word for silence they use it for praise and I understand why they do it the
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New American Standard I think it's the American Standard Version are the only ones that use a Masoretic text here
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I think using the Masoretic text and you you've done biblical I think the Masoretic text is probably the the one that should have been used here not the
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Septuagint the Septuagint wasn't they use it to inform the
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Hebrew text you may don't say a bit of Septuagint is right Septuagint is the
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Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible so if you want to if you're going to translate something from its original language don't translate it from the
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Greek because it was the Old Testament written in Hebrew so where should you look at the
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Hebrew text now we should we can use and I do I use the Septuagint as a commentary to say okay what were they trying to say and I understand while some that the the
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English translations some of them use this as praise right praise praise praise
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Andy New King praise I understand why silent seems weird doesn't it let's just be honest does it if you're if you're praising
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God are you normally silent no what are we doing
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I mean I know we're the frozen chosen but by and large we're raising our hands we're praising
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God our hearts are singing songs to him so and this
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I think it's not just because numeric and standard I think this is a better translation because it uses the
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Masoretic text and he says here 165 there will be silence before you and pray so what has he done he's taken silence and praise and coupled them together as being silent before God is praising and we'll we'll look at a couple of more turn over to let's go to the prophets there's a
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I could we could go through a ton of them let's see here let's go to let's go to the back or have a cook that's actually the
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I was supposed to be pronounced as have a cook there was a guy that I was very good friends with and every time
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I said her back and he said have a cook have a and I remember what her back it was about this is a conversation this was actually not a book written to the people of God it's actually a
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I mean obviously it ends up in the canon but this is a conversation between this guy and God and he has said you know what our people are wicked they're evil they're idolaters they're adulterers and God they need to be judged and God says you know what
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I think you're right you know I've been thinking about you're right and you know what
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I'm gonna do I'm gonna send the Chaldeans I'm gonna send the Babylonians and her back it says whoa hold on now they're more wicked than us he goes
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I know he says you ought to see what they do when they come through these cities they'll have their their blades will be flashing and they'll be riding horses through there they'll be cutting people up it's awesome when they come through there and then he says well hold on God you can't do that and then her back it then gets rebuked and he's
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God basically says look I'm the God of all creation I can do what I want and if I so choose to use these people to judge my people
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I can do that but then when I get done I'll judge into you let you let me handle this so he goes on and you get to chapter 2 verse 20 he says but the
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Lord is in his holy temple let all the earth be silent before him let all the earth be silent before God this is actually the last statement he says before he goes into God now fixing to make an oracle of judgment on his people the the covenant people and what he'll do to Babylon when he's finished using them so once again we see this act of silence before and as active of praise before God and in this specific case we're seeing an act of silence and praising
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God before what judgment before judgment turn over to Zephaniah you probably just go over and when we were talking about the great days of the
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Lord I read this passage here and I said we would come back because of what it says in in verse 7 remember
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Zephaniah contemporary of Habakkuk and the coming judgment of God on his people for their disobedience and here's what he said beginning in verse 7 he says be silent before the
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Lord God before the day of for the day of the Lord is near so what is he said here be silent why because God's judgments near God's judgment is coming he says for that for the
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Lord has prepared a sacrifice he has consecrated his guest then it will come about on that day of the
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Lord's sacrifice that I will punish the princes the kings the sons and all who clothe themselves with foreign garments and I will punish all on that day who leap on the temple threshold who fill the house of their
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Lord with violence and deceit and then skip over to verse 14 nears the great day of the
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Lord near and coming very quickly listen the day of the
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Lord in it the warrior cries out bitterly a day of wrath is that day a day of trouble and distress a day of destruction and desolation a day of darkness and gloom a day of clouds and thick darkness a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified city and the high -cornered towers
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I will bring distress on men so that they will walk like the blind because they have sinned against the
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Lord and their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung and on that day neither silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the day of the
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Lord's wrath and all of the earth will be devoured in the fire of his jealousy and he will make them to a complete end and indeed a terrifying one of all the inhabitants of the earth so here it is he's saying be silent before God why because impending judgment is coming and what does he say this impending judgments going to do there's no
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I don't see how you can say anything other than this is absolute complete destruction what does he say nobody's silver or gold is going to be able to help them in that day and what does he say is going to happen they're going to be consumed he says their blood is going to be poured out and then their flesh is going to be poured out like dung and it says and indeed the last thing indeed a terrifying one to who not part all the inhabitants of the earth all of them so here it is the
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Prophet saying be silent before God because impending judgment is coming and that silence is an act of worship who's writing this is this is this an apostate writing this or is this a prophet of God writing this this is a prophet of God this is a prophet of God look over to probably just turn just a couple of more pages and you could go over to Zachariah the book of Revelation especially in the section we're getting in now is very heavy on Zachariah I mean we've had the horsemen they'll go back to chapters one of Zachariah you've got the chariots that go back to chapter six we're fixing to get into the olive brand the two olive branches we're going to get into the priest and the kingship which is also a pointing back to the the book of Zachariah we're going to get into the two witnesses we're fixing to come into that when we get to the next interlude it comes from here but here to once again show that being silent before God was was an act of worship is in chapter 2 verse 13 he says right here in verse 13 be silent all flesh before the
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Lord for he is aroused from his holy habitation be silent hey this is
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Zachariah is saying be around be silent before God he is aroused in his holy habitation hey anybody remember when
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Zachariah was written they were already back into the land and the whole book of of Zachariah is was written to inspire and to motivate them to lay the foundations of the temple build it up you know if anybody ever read in one sitting through Zachariah how they how that encouraged them to build the temple again
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I have no idea but that's the reason why it was written was hey we're going to give all of these prophecies and this is supposed to incite them to look to Zerubbabel who would be the one that would lay the foundation and God says hey not only he's gonna be the one to lay the foundation he is my guy
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I know he's ragtag looking and I know he's got some dirty old clothes on but he is a descendant of David and he is the governor of Jerusalem he's not only gonna lay that foundation he's gonna be the one to put the capstone on it he's gonna see to it that it's completed but here it is be silent all flesh before the
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Lord's for he is aroused in his holy habitation so once again we see silence before God silence to be worshiped now go back to Revelation the land broke the seventh seal and there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour here it is it's been quiet these there was worship of praises and adoration and remember these were there was prayers that were coming up from the altar and what was the altar it was an at the altar it was a place of worship was it not remember what was it where and if it the fifth seal where were these souls prayers coming from they were coming from the altar and in this case now all of that ceases and now quietness is in heaven as an act of worship and then he says here and then what this here is a parenthetical statement and then
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I saw seven angels who stand before God and seven trumpets were given to them so here it is the seventh seal has been opened what does the seventh seal bring immediately silence quiet but then we have this parenthetical statement that goes from from two to about well the end of verse five you would think at this point as soon as you would hear
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I saw the angels who stand before God and they had seven trumpets were given to them what would you think sticks to happen what's that sure that's what you would think would happen but that's not what takes place what we have is now we have the finishing of the seventh seal and what is that he said in the fifth seal we had the souls of the martyrs praising our asking
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God how long now we how many what's praying here all the saints of God all not those who had been put to death and were under the altar all the saints here this is he says
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I saw the seven angels standing before God and seven trumpets were given to them that's just a parenthetical statement he's just saying what he's seeing okay he's not saying this is not the seventh seal has now opened these trumpets that's not he's just saying hey look this is just a continuation is what do you see remember this is a vision then another angel okay now we've got an eighth angel has appeared this is not one of the seven this is an eighth angel that eighth angel came and he stood at the altar holding a golden censer and much incense was given to him to add to the prayers of all how many all the
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Saints so what has been the structure of the book so far progressive parallel so now what do we have this seal
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I said this when we got to the fifth seal this is important the fifth seal was them crying out for the judgment for God to do what for those have been killing
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God's people now all these Saints are praying that God would pour out judgment what was incense a row for in the
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Old Testament it was an act of worship look when you came what does use the tabernacle could it's easier when you came to to right here anybody remember what this was he came through we'll just game through the gates you would have the brazen altar you would have the laver you'd have all these butcher tables you would have the
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Ark of the Covenant show what was right here that was altered incense that was the altar of incense so before that guy would enter into the holy place and then this was the most holy place what did they do they offered incense one when they went in here they offered the incense here as active worship then when they went through here what was the reason for putting incense in here the smoke what was the reason for it remember guy couldn't stand before the shakana glory of God and even when that priest went in after doing all of his ritualistic stuff which we it is a ritual what he had to do okay let's just be honest it was a ritual he had to first he had to clean himself had to strip himself down of this if his priestly garments the ones that had all the the funny jewels and the big hat and all that he got down to just strip down like a regular old dude regular old priest and what did he have to do he had to offer up himself a sacrifice for himself go read
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Hebrews it'll tell you all the ins and outs then he offered up that's incense and he went in there and he stuck that incense in there before he went in there why so once again you're still had to be availed because a sinful man could not walk into the presence of God unhindered so that that incense then because the shakana glory that was over top of the two cherub what was it was glowing you never you said
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I've been here been a smoke machine what does smoke machine doing you put a flashlight in it what happens poof yeah light goes everywhere that's what happened here when they incense was an act of worship and it was also an act of praise and I think it's in somebody can look at I think it's in Psalm 141 he says we offer up our prayers to you
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Oh God as a sweet aroma of incense to you so the act of prayer and incense was an act of worship before God so in this case you have a golden sensor which was had the incense and it was given to him and he would add that to the prayers of the
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Saints before the golden altar that was before the throne look this is in and the vision this has taken place in front of God and the smoke of that incense with the prayers of the
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Saints went up before God out of the angels hand and then that angel took that sensor he filled it with the fire from the altar and what did he do what did he do with it he threw it to the earth this is
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God's final judgment and how do we know that because it says here he threw it to the earth there was peels of thunder sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake what did this what happened at the beginning of the sixth seal
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I said this a few weeks ago it's judgments coupled with an earthquake and what does it end with this statement is going to happen again with the end of the seventh trumpet with peels of thunder sounds flashes of lightning and an earthquake now
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I don't know about y 'all but when you're reading that you would think okay well how come we're not seeing the consummation of God's kingdom does anybody am
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I the only one that thinks that if final judgment look if God comes he kills everybody what it what should be the immediate thought well the kingdom's coming but we're not seeing that we don't see that we will remember we're we're making rounds that first the seals come to final judgment and what are the trumpets going to do they're going to end in final judgment where the bowl is going to do you may want to get final judgment you have an interlude here it's everybody
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Bible say interlude is that what it says on your heading you have interlude here each one of those interludes shows the consummation of the kingdom and how do you know that well you gotta do is just back up and in chapter 6 it tells you that he's who did they see that were clothed from every nation tribe and tongue wrapped in white garments who were they those were those not who had come out but were what coming out present tense were coming out those were the ones who were coming out of the coming out of the
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Great Tribulation and then what does it say salvation to our God who sits on the throne and all the angels standing around the thrones and around the elders and the four living creatures they all fell on their face and worship
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God and he said amen and blessing and glory and wisdom and power and honor and to him be forever and ever and ever and then you continue to read down and here is the consummation of the age they will never have hunger again we said this last week never will they have hunger again never will they be burned up by the
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Sun nor will there be any heat the lamb will be in the center he will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of living water and then here is how do we know this is the end of the end this is the consummation of the new kingdom because he's gonna wipe away all their tears he does the same thing in the next interlude says the same thing the same thing now
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I know in our brain we're going wait a minute is there's final judgment it should immediately show the consummation of the kingdom well that's not how
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God so chose to do revelation but as we make we go from here to here you're going to see we'll find out more about that kingdom and then as we go to here you're going to find out more about that kingdom and then you have after the the bowls you get to the eternal you get to the eternal state the eternal state is the consummation of the kingdom that is the new heavens in the new earth that is each one of these is building on the other
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Billy what remember what we called it the the structure of the book remember progressive parallelism progressive each one of these is progressing look you're going to see we're fixing to open the trumpets not today but we'll open them next week and you're going to see parallels with the seals well then the trumpets are going to be parallels the bowls are going to be parallels to the trumpets it's all building it's building it's building on the as Andy preached on the eternal state that we did the eschatology weekend it's building on all of these are pointing to the eternal state and when you get to that eternal state it is going to be a new heaven in the new earth and we know it's gonna be so great about that there ain't gonna be no more full horsemen there ain't gonna be no angels blowing trumpets there ain't gonna be no more bowls being poured out on the earth why because God's gonna wipe away every tear he's gonna kill everybody that's ever messed with his people he's gonna make every right every wrong right and then he's gonna cast the beast the false prophet and the dragon into the lake of fire that's what this is all building to I got five minutes for mass destruction or questions or comments actually got four minutes even when you get to the sixth trumpet opens there's going to be it's gonna be blown there is a earthquake when you get to the seventh trumpet this hey look the six the six trumpets blown there was an earthquake you get to the seventh trumpet it's blown the temple of God's opened up you see the ark of his covenant and then it says there was lightning sounds peals of thunder and great hailstorms final judgment that's what eat hate each one of these sixth and set to seventh seals is pointing to final judgment questions anyone are you holding your head back there because I've overloaded your brain all right no we're done no questions