Gooding, David: 5 - The Seventh Seal Opened

The third major section of the book of the Revelation. Those of you who might happen to be here tonight for the first time and have not therefore a copy of the sheet that was of notes that was given out on the first study, if you care as you depart, you may pester the ushers on the door. They have a secret supply, uh, o- o- of these documents, and they will be prepared to give you one as you go. Don't be deceived, eh, thinking they'll be charging you for it. They're strictly forbidden to charge this evening, and this evening they are free, you'll see. They, that piece of paper could explain what we mean when we talk about the six major sections of the book of Revelation. Like so many of the sections of this book, this section three will point us to the time of the end, and those tremendous events that shall come upon the earth when God now begins to pour out his indignation against the sins of the me- of men and nations, preliminary to the incoming of the, of his son, and power and great glory to establish his kingdom. But because the particular problem that we shall be considering tonight will have special reference to those end days, we may take a moment to read some introductory passages from the Old Testament. For the fact is that this problem that will come to such prominence then is in fact a problem that has been with the people of God and with the saints of God all down the ages from the very beginning. So let us read an Old Testament example of it as we turn to Psalm ninety four and then to ninety six and seven. The Psalm um ninety four then to begin with. Verse one. O Lord, thou God to whom vengeance belongeth, thou God to whom vengeance belongeth, shine forth. Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth. Render to the proud their desert. Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? They prate, they speak arrogantly. All the workers of iniquity boast themselves. They break in pieces thy people, O Lord, and afflict thine heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger and murder the fatherless. And they say, the Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob consider. But in Psalm ninety six, the psalmist finds the answer to his anguished plea. Psalm ninety six and verse nine: Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Tremble before him, all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigneth. The Lord also is established that it cannot be moved. He shall judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and the fullness thereof. Let the field exult and all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord, for he cometh. He cometh to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his truth, with his truth. Now to our passage in the book of the Revelation, that begins in chapter eight and verse one. Revelation eight and verse one. And when he opened the seventh seal, there followed a silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stand before God, and there were given unto them seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense that he should add it unto the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God out of the angel's hand. The angel taketh the censer, and he filled it with fire of the altar and cast it upon the earth, and there followed thunders and voices and lightnings and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. Chapter ten, In verse one: and I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, arrayed with a cloud, and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little book, and he set his right foot upon the sea and his left upon the earth, and he cried with a great voice as a lion roareth. When he cried, the seven thunders uttered their voices. When the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write, and I heard a voice from heaven saying, seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. The angel which I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his right hand to heaven, and swear by him that liveth forever and ever, who created the heaven and the things that are therein, and the earth and the things that are therein, and the sea and the things that are therein, that there shall be delay no longer. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which he declared to his servants, the prophets. And now in chapter eleven: and there was given me a reed like unto a rod, and one said, rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and them that worship therein. And the court which is without the temple, leave without and measure it not, for it has been given unto the nations, and the holy city they shall tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the Lord of the earth. And if any man desires to hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies. And if any man shall desire to hurt them, in this manner must he be killed. These have the power to shut the heaven, that it rain not during the days of their prophecy. And they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they shall desire. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that cometh out of the abyss shall make war with them and overcome them and kill them. And their dead bodies lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. And from among the peoples and the tribes and tongues and nations do men look upon their dead bodies three days and a half, and suffer not their dead bodies to be laid in the tomb. They that dwell on the earth rejoice over them and make merry, and they shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth. And after the three days and a half, the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them which beheld them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying, come up hither. And they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies beheld them. And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and there were killed in the earthquake seven thousand persons, and the rest were affrighted and gave glory to God. Behold, the second woe is past, the third woe cometh. And the seventh angel sounded, and there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, the kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders which sit before God on their thrones fell upon their faces and worshiped God, saying, We give thanks, we give thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty which art and which wast, because thou hast taken thy great power and its reign. And the nations were wroth, and thy wrath came, and the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to thy servants, the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy them that destroy the earth. And may God give us true understanding of his word. Like the second section of the book of the Revelation, the third section, which tonight we study, o- begins with something opened in heaven. The second section, you may remember, begins with a door opened in heaven. When John enters through that door into the divine presence, he is given to see the glorious, majestic throne of God the Creator. And as we found in our previous study, that throne then not only fills his vision, but proves to be the dominant theme that runs through the rest of that section. The same kind of thing happens here in section three. It begins with the seventh seal, the last of the series of seals being opened in heaven. But then we are told that there is a silence in heaven for and half an hour, which silence must, amidst that vast throng peopling that holy place, have seemed like a virtual eternity. Had we been there, I doubt not, but what we would have been all on an edge and wondering and whispering under our breaths, so as not to disturb the angels, what is going to, um, break this silence that lasts apparently so long? When the silence is broken at last, it is broken as an angel comes to the great, to the little altar of incense, and with a censer full of coals from the big altar, there is given to him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of saints upon this golden altar. And the smoke of the incense came up before God, and the prayers of the saints began to be answered, and the judgments began to fall. We can readily understand why section three would begin with this particular piece of heavenly tabernacle furniture. Because in the ancient tabernacle of Israel, if you can picture it once more, end on, sideways on to your vision, there was, of course, the holiest of all, the most holy place, in which was the Ark of God, the throne and footstool of the Almighty. Then there came the veil, and just outside the veil, stationed before the veil, before the Ark, and thus before the mercy seat, was the golden altar, the altar used upon which incense was burned at the time of prayer, so that a priest like Zachariah, father of John the Baptist, when his lot was to go in and offer incense at the time of prayer, would have been standing at the golden altar and facing the veil, and thus facing the very throne of God, as he offered the incense upon the altar, he would be offering the prayers of his people that they may come up before God enshro- shrouded in the sweet smelling incense. Of course, we nowadays don't use incense, or at least we shouldn't. We have a far better and more grateful, uh, uh, fragrance to offer as we offer our prayers before God. We offer them, do we not, in that lovely fragrant name of Jesus Christ our Lord. But thus it is seen that the incense altar was closely and functionally related to the throne. On the throne was the presence of God, ruler of the universe, but by his magnificent appointment, his people were allowed to come to that altar and make their suggestions before the very throne of God, and God would listen to their prayers and take notice of what they said. It is a marvel that should not escape our hearts this evening, but warm them to their very roots. Just imagine the privilege it is for we human beings, bits of clay on two legs, but through the grace of our blessed Lord, able to come toward the very throne of the universe and make our prayers in the name and fragrance of the Lord Jesus, and know that the ruler of the universe listens to our suggestions, and when it seems good to him, is prepared to act upon them. That is astonishing grace, isn't it? There's no totali- totalitarian tyrant, he's God. But even so, as we, uh, watch this dramatic scene re- uh, unfold before us, it raises a problem. As I say, there was a silence for half an hour. Everybody waited and waited and waited and waited. What should break the silence? At last, the secret is out. It's the prayers of saints that break the silence. You say, that's marvelous. It is marvelous. And some of us might have a question. Why the silence? Why all that long wait? I say it with due reverence, why didn't God haste to answer them? Why didn't he answer them at once? Why the long silence before the prayers being answered put into operation the judgments of God on this evil world. We notice, of course, the sequence of ideas expressed to us literally, that it was when the angel took that censer and op- emptied it eventually upon the earth. Seven angels prepared to blow upon their trumpets, and each trumpet blast signaled another judgment descending from God on this godless world. So that if in section two we learn that the judgments must come at last because of the rights of the creatorial throne. Now in this section, we're to learn that the judgments must come upon this world because of, and as a result of, the prayers of the saints. When the injustices perpetrated against the saints of God and against his prophets and against his martyrs, the rivers of blood that have been shed all down the ages, the bonfires in which the prophets and the people of God were burned, the oppressions of the widow by unjust businessmen, and all those other endless injustices of which this world has been full. The prayers of the saints that have cried to God all down the ages shall at last be answered, and the ruler of the universe rise up in his justice. Then shall those prayers be answered, and it will lead to God's judgments on this evil world. Now that this passage of the Revelation, uh, uh, uh, affirms the truth very solidly. But as I say, we begin with a problem of silence. The thing that has haunted the people of God all down the ages is precisely this, and no more often than when they suffered injustice and persecution, they cried to God to intervene. Nothing happened. God was silent. Many and many questions have risen in the distress of God's people's hearts. Why don't you answer, Lord? Why don't you do something? Of course, we all of us know the problem of unanswered prayer. We feel we need a new motor car, and we pray, and we don't get it. Or we feel that our dear friend who is ill, we plead with the Lord to save the life, and the Lord allows the friend to pass away. Unanswered prayer, it's a big problem, isn't it? I remember Mr. and Mrs. Shorten, missionaries to Angola years ago, told me once how they were in the middle of the backwoods of Angola, far from any medical aid, when their little baby of two years old took ill with violent malaria. And in that remote part, all they had at their disposal was an aspirin, and they ground it up as small as they could grind it and gave the babe just a little bit of it in their desperation. But the babe choked on it. And as the babe grew progressively bluer in the face, they cried to God in their distress. Oh God, do save the child. If there's anything we've done wrong, forgive us. They cried, they told me, for half an hour. The silence was unbroken, and the baby died. Many of God's people have known the bitterness of unanswered prayer for things in general, and have been taught by the grace of our Heavenly Father to come to the view that Father in the end knows best, and all his ways are done in love. And one day we shall see it was put at best, and we shall praise him in the full knowledge of it, as today we must praise him in faith. But these passages are not talking so much about those things. They're talking about the injustices of life. As you heard the psalmist crying, didn't you? O Lord, thou to whom vengeance belongeth, how long, O Lord? How long are you going to allow the wicked to triumph and to grind your people into the dust? Whether it was evil nations slaughtering people, as now in Indonesia at this very moment, or whether it was unjust businessmen grinding down the face of the poor, whatever it was, saints of all ages have cried to God, O Lord, thou to whom vengeance belongeth, how long do you not avenge us? Try notice the verb, and let us be very careful in our minds to distinguish between avenging and revenging. Avenge, not revenge. They have cried. And it's not only, is it, people of that ancient, uh, world, but people of our Christian era. Can you hear them now in your imaginations? The young men and young women in the Roman-speaking towns of North Africa as they were taking to the Hippodrome or Colosseum or what have you. The lions were loosed on them and came and crushed their bones and the very life out of them. How much did their parents pray to God? Their voice came. No deliverance. Or the Waldenses in their mountains, persecuted by France and Italy mercilessly for their faith. Or fellow believers in the Inquisition. Or in Hitler's camps or Stalin's. You can think of the endless tale of blood and sorrow, and not only believers whose names are long since forgotten, but the great and famous prophets of old, how many of them were sawn asunder or executed in some way or other. And no deliverance came. Heaven seemed silent. It raises a big problem, doesn't it? It's not a question of revenging them. The question is simply this: if there's a God in heaven, and he cares for justice, isn't that what you Christians preach? There's a God in heaven who is a God of justice, whose eyes run to and fro throughout all the world. Then why doesn't that God intervene? Stop evil and see that the righteous are delivered. Raises, therefore, a question about the character of God. Uh, but here I must turn aside to deal with a problem, a special problem that Christians have. In chapter uh six of this very book of the Revelation, we read at one point, uh, do you see? I saw under the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God and the testimony which they held, and they cried with a great voice, saying, how long, O Master the holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And there was given to them each one a white robe, and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a while, until their fellow servants also, and their brethren which should be killed, even as they were, should be fulfilled. And some Christians reading those words say, ha ha ha ha, well, these can't be Christian marvels. Why not? Well, Christians, they don't pray, uh, for God to avenge them. These must be Jewish believers or something, but quite yet haven't learned the grace of Christian behavior. Surely they say, we as Christians mustn't pray to be avenged. We have to pray like the Lord Jesus prayed when he was nailed to the tree. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Or as Stephen prayed, as they hurled the stones at him that crushed the life out of his body, Fa- uh, Lord Jesus, says he, lay not this sin to their charge. So it would be wrong for us to pray to be avenged, they say, if we're Christians. I must assure myself. I hope you're not. Because, you know, I'm about to put you a parable spoken by our Lord Jesus himself. And when we have learned its lesson, we should surely not say that this isn't Christian, shall we? I don't think Christ ever taught anything that wasn't Christian, was he? And the parable I refer to, called the widow and the unjust judge, it is given in the gospel by Luke in chapter eighteen. And it was a parable spoken by our Lord, according to Luke, to the end that they ought always to pray and not to faint. You must not give up praying, said our Lord. You must carry on praying. You mustn't faint. Pray for what? He illustrated what he was talking about by a parable. He said there was a, a certain, um, uh, widow in the city, and she had been oppressed by the local businessmen, I, I suspect. And in that, uh, city was a judge. And so the widow went to the judge and pleaded with the judge to avenge her of her enemies. Again, I say she wasn't asking for revenge. It was simply that she was asking for ju- ju- justice to be done. I suspect, like some businessmen, not all, of course, they have filched a lot of her money or stolen her land or worried her with the conditions and the little print at the bottom of the form, which he hadn't, uh, thought to read very carefully. And so, having lost her possessions, he went to the judge and asked him to put matters right, that justice should be done, that's all. He didn't want them put in prison. But the judge was a rascal. He cared neither for God nor man, and I suspect he played golf with the other businessmen anyway. Do you see? So that, um, he wouldn't avenge her, left the case undealt with. Uh-huh, but she wasn't a woman for nothing. She wasn't taking no for an answer. Do you know, she kept her, uh, uh, her finger on the buzzer, and she went to him and kept worrying him and pleading with him and wouldn't take no until the man got exasperated. She's beating me, giving me black eyes in both eyes, says he. I- I'll have to do something. And oh, he cared not for gotten the man, for he was an unredeemed and unredeemable rascal, um, and cared nothing for justice, judge though he was. He said, I'll have to do something about this woman unless she beat me up in the end, you see. So just for his own convenience sake, he, he rose up and he avenged the woman and saw that justice was done. Then, I drew the analogy. Who said, and shall not God avenge his elect, which cry to him day and night, though he takes a long time to do it? Yes, of course he will avenge his elect. Do you suppose God is worse than that unjust judge? And though when his people being persecuted and executed and burned alive, as recently our brethren in, uh, India at the hands of fanatical Hindus, do you suppose when his people cry, God doesn't listen and couldn't be bothered? Or do you suppose the character of God is? Not like that unjust judge. He will most certainly avenge them. Then comes the difficulty for faith. He takes a long while doing it, doesn't necessarily do it at once, and therefore faith is tested. You ought always to pray, says Christ, and not to give up praying over such matters. Because it was worthwhile the widow keep coming and praying to him. He gave way in the end. Shall not God avenge his elect? Then keep on praying in your faith in the character of God, that one day he will rise up and grant the necessary justice. And then our Lord added, lo, when the Son of Man comes, that's when the just- the avenging will take place. Shall he find faith on the earth? Or will his people have given up and saying it isn't worthwhile praying? It's avenging then. And you see our blessed Lord Jesus, when he went to the cross, yes, as the Romans put the nails through his hands, he prayed, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they do. They were Roman soldiers. They hadn't got a clue what he w- was or what he stood for. They were just doing their duty and didn't know what they did. He prayed they be forgiven. It was a different thing, wasn't it, for those that did know what they were doing. Said to the widow- the women that came out to offer him an a a a a a pain numbing drink, he said, women of Jerusalem, don't you weep for me. It's you that got the wrong end of this stick. For if they do these things in a green tree, what will be done in the dry, I'm telling you that as a result of what they are now doing, one of these days they shall call to the mountains to fall on them. Well, I just got the wrong end of the stick, says he, but you. And Peter tells us in one Peter chapter two what the innermost thoughts of our blessed Lord were when he climbed Calvary's Hill. It says, of course, when he was threatened, he didn't retaliate. When, when he was accused, when he was ill-treated, he didn't retaliate. He didn't even threaten. But he did commit himself to him that judges righteously. And God will yet hold this world responsible for the murder of his son. There is a God in heaven who cares for justice. So then we must not suppose it is unchristian to pray, thy kingdom come. The God of heaven will demonstrate his character one day, that there is a God in heaven, and, uh, vindicate his people. As you know, this is a matter that concerns some of our unbelieving friends, does it not? First of all, some deny there is a throne in heaven. They don't believe in God whatsoever. They'll say. If you give them evidence, yes, there is a God, then their other objection comes into force. Hm. You say there's a God? How many Russians will tell you this? You say there's a God? Well, if there's a God in heaven who cares for justice, why doesn't he judge this world forthwith? Why does he allow Cambodia and Vietnam and Indonesia and all the rest of them you can think of near a home? It's an objection the world has to believing there is a God, that he doesn't intervene to establish justice. Why doesn't he? Our passage will give us at least some hints, we'll see. As we, it now directs our attention to a part of history at the end of this age, when in response to the prayers of his people all down the ages, and then those at that last period, he will rise up. His angels will blow open their trumpets, and he will begin that preliminary series of interventions that will lead to the climax of the coming again of Christ. When God judged Egypt, he first sent the plagues. The plagues were uncomfortable enough, but they were so much evidence to Pharaoh. Pharaoh has said to Moses, oh Moses, don't talk nonsense. Moses had come in and said, Pharaoh, let my, God says, let my people go that they may worship me. Your God, says Pharaoh? Um, who might he be? Ha! Jehovah, of course, God the Creator. Don't happen to believe in him, Moses, so your plea doesn't cut much ice with me. So you get back, and uh, he made the people's plight worse. So God gave him evidence. Moses cast down a serpent, a rod, and it became a serpent. What's that supposed to be, said, uh, uh, uh, Pharaoh. That's a miracle, said Moses. Miracle? Oh, come off it. My scientists can do the very same effect in their laboratories, you know, and in they came at his command, all dressed up in their white overalls, as they do, you know, coach these scientists, and uh, they threw down their rods, you see, and they became servants too. There was, said Pharaoh, my men can do that. That's no miracle. We know how it's done, you see. Oh. We'll have to do better than that, says he. It's all right, says God. You want evidence, Pharaoh? And God began that series of nine plagues. They were, in a sense, the form of judgments, and yet they were evidence, weren't they? Pharaoh had asked for it. The sad thing is that Pharaoh rejected the evidence in spite of its intent- increasing intensity. Therefore, when at the end of the nine plagues he was unrepentant, and the final big judgment fell. So shall it be. At the end of the age, there will be a set of preliminary judgments, ever more intense. A warning that there is a God in the heavens. Meant to be God's word to a world far gone in its rebellion and sin. If so be, they would repent. Why don't the judgments come before? Well, we know the answer to it, don't we, in our heart of hearts. When the mockers mocked the early Christians, Peter gave the answer. God is not, uh, uh, slack concerning his promise, but is long suffering, not willing that any should perish. But you see, when the world takes advantage of it and therefore attacks martyrs and prophets and believers. What they're doing is adding to their sin. The very patience of God, if it does not lead men to repentance, but adds to their guilt. People say, don't they, if only your God that you profess to believe in would intervene and stop the war, we would believe, would they? Would people believe in masses, I mean multitudes, if only God intervened in judgment. We could well hope so. But when these judgments under the trumpet blasts are coming to their end, nine verse 21 says, in spite of it all, they repented not, verse twenty and twenty one, The rest of mankind, which were not killed with these plagues, repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons and the idols of gold and of silver and of ga- brass and stone and wood, which ni- can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they repented not of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornications, nor of their thefts. I don't suppose the word of God is here saying that no one has ever been stopped in his mad career by some signal intervention of God's judgment and has been made to think. Surely they have been. But as a general rule, God's judgments don't convert people. Not the pangs of hell will ever convert anybody, will they? Oh, my good friend, if judgments would bring people to repentance and salvation, there'd be a judgment every day of the week. Remember the last rich man in hell pleading with Abraham? Abraham, send Lazarus to my brothers. No need, said Abraham, they've got the scriptures. Abraham, you're not with it. I mean, in your generation, yes, perhaps people read the Bible. But people don't read the Bible now, Abraham. You can't expect them to, not with all the TV there is available, do you know, and all that, uh, do you see? Have mercy, Father Abram, you see. I know they don't read the Bible. Well, I- I didn't myself, really, but I, you know how it is, I believed it or said I did, but I never did read it much and certainly didn't take any notice. But no, Abram, have mercy and be realist. Send somebody from the dead and they'll believe. No, they won't, says. Neither will they be persuaded. Though one rose from the dead. If seeing ghosts would convert people, there'd be a ghost at every street. God is not willing that any should perish. What is it that leads people to repentance? It is the goodness and mercy of God. What changes the rebel heart? It is the message of the cross, isn't it? And if the love of God cannot move men, if his faithful warnings of judgment do not move them. And when the judgments come, they come because hearts are hardened against God's love. Judgment, generally speaking, does not convert people. And see another demonstration that God will stage at the end of this age. We read of it in chapter eleven where, says John, there was given me a reed like unto a rod, and one said, rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and them that worship therein. And the court which is without the temple, leave without and measure it not, for it has been given unto the nations, and the holy city they shall tread under foot forty and two months. And outside there, so we're told, shall stand two witnesses and shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two camp, uh, lampstands standing before the Lord of the earth. To understand the vision would take us a lot of time, but one thing we should notice and will be helpful, this vision is couched in very similar terms to the vision that was given the prophet Zechariah in chapter four of his prophecy. The situation then, in those far gone days, was that Israel, who had gone into exile, had now returned to their land, and they were co- commanded to build a temple to God and there to carry on its worship. But things were difficult. One, the people were poor. Difficulties in making a living left them little time, so they thought, or cash to build and serve this temple. And then the little nations all around Israel were barking and biting at their heels and appealing to the big imperial power to get these pestilential Jews stopped from building their temple and building again their city. So it was tough going, and some of them were losing heart when God gave a vision for Zechariah as a rubber bull and his fellows. They were given to see two lampstands, oh, sorry, a lampstand and two olive trees, and the olive trees connected with the big bowl of the lampstand, so they were fed automatically with oil to keep this lampstand burning. In other words, it is a message, says the inspiring spirit. You'll see, he tells the rabble, not by might, but by my power, says the Lord. You'll see. God was saying to the rabble in those days, he would, uh, fill him with divine power, more than human power, so to speak, to stand and witness for the Lord in that temple in Jerusalem, in a sorrow of centuries against the nations that were massed against them. Now this vision was given to John in similar terms, the sons of oil that stand before the Lord Almighty and his temple. How shall it stage an exhibition? Well, see, people say, don't they? Okay, you say there's a God. All right, let him do some indisputable miracles, and we will believe. We want to believe. We can't believe, you see, if he's God, he can do miracles, can't he? Well, let him do a miracle, a- a- and we will believe, you see. All right, says God. Let do a miracle. And he has these two witnesses empowered by more than human power to exercise a miraculous ministry. Anybody that comes anywhere near to stop them and to stop their ministry, be he captain or lieutenant or the imperial head, the beast himself, shall be smitten. They shall be unapproachable. It will be too dangerous, and the world shall see it and know it. This exhibition of divine power. They ask for a miracle, don't they? And for a while it shall seem to go well. And then we read the beast that comes up out of the abyss shall overcome and kill them, and their dead bodies shall lie in the street. And the world shall say, pity over that. We thought for a while there might be a God. And now look, the evidence has gone against us. The beast has overcome it. And the beast is saying, QED, always told you that there is no God. God is your fancy Red Riding Hood story your grandmother told you when you went to bed. There's nothing in it. There is no God out there. Grow up. Man runs his own world. There is no God. What do you make of this, this power? Oh, well, so you have to prove it's not of God one of these days. We can't quite analyze it now, but we shall. Only overcomes them and slays them. QED. There is no Almighty God. And the people say, what a pity. What a pity. We hope there was a God, because if there's a God, he at last might have made some sense out of this world. We haven't made a lot of sense out of it up till now, and if there's a God, there was hope that there should some sense be made of it at last, but now there's no God. What a pity. I don't. The beast appears to prove there is no God. The multitudes do what? Why, they proclaim a bank holiday or a bigger one, and they go ecstatically mad with joy. Hurrah, they say, proved at last there's no God. Thank, well, no, we can't say thank God for that, can we? But praise be there's no God. Proved at last. They give them their three days to show what was always in their hearts. Didn't want to believe. God to them was a threat. And when it's been proved that they think that he doesn't exist, they are absolutely delighted. Why will God wait? Because in the end, that is between God and man, between heaven and earth, is the state of man's heart. We've learned in modern times to know that even the most objective scientist amongst us, objective literary man, isn't a hundred percent objective. We all have our presuppositions, our predisposition. Before God finally comes with the second coming of Christ to destroy the wicked and bring in the reign of peace. God will have it finally demonstrated what man actually is at heart, who not only is a sinner, but offered salvation, doesn't take it, doesn't want it. Warned with preliminary judgments, won't repent. Till at length the secret is out before high heaven and hell. The man would delight if God didn't exist. Then, and only then, and not till then, will God send his son to execute the cataclysmic judgments. Why? Because God is no tyrant. You say, but wait a minute, wait a minute. It's all right for God. But what about these people? Is this God asking us, we've got to wait to not retaliate, we have to pray for our enemies, we can pray for, for justice one day to be done, but we've got to wait and put up with it all this long time. Fancy telling the souls that had already been martyred and were under the altar that they got to wait until other martyrs were killed. What is God like? Is he going to ask all his people down the ages to wait and wait and wait and wait? You ask any Christian you know for the answer to that one. And if they say, well, there are times when I say, Lord, oh Lord, how long? If you know, I owe my salvation to this, that God waited for me. He gave his son to die upon a cross, and instead of damaging the earth with his judgments and wiping out the human race, he left it till nineteen hundred and one, nineteen hundred and fifty, so that I might be born, put up with the world's sinfulness, that the abbot might have mercy on me. All the extravagant patience of God. And if God has had mercy upon us, shall we not think he can honor however much it pains us if we are asked to follow our Lord? We in the West are so pampered, aren't we? But in many countries tonight, as you know, my brothers, my sisters, evil men are slaughtering the dear people of God. What shall God say to his people to encourage them in that grievous time that is yet to come under the beast? What does he say to us now? I think the story is marvelous, that vision that John was given in chapter ten. He said, I saw a strong angel come down from heaven with the clouds and the rainbow around his head. His feet were like fire. You say, who was that? Well, I, in my simplicity, think it's the Lord Jesus. Well, then I am simple. Better commentators and theologians than I am say, no, it can't be the Lord Jesus. It is some, it is some strong angel. Why's that? Well, they say because nowhere else in the whole of the revelation is our Lord described as an angel, you see. So this won't be an angel anymore. Uh, this won't be the Lord, you see. This will be an angel. They're probably right. I, I, I don't know. But yet in my simplicity, I can't help thinking it's the Lord, you know. Just look at this angel just a moment in your imagination before we finish. Just look at him coming out of heaven with a cloud. Why, when in Daniel seven the Son of Man came to the Ancient of Days, he came with the clouds of heaven. It's an emblem of deity. Look at his head. He has not a rainbow, but the rainbow. Which rainbow? Well, you saw it last round the throne of God, didn't you? He's got the rainbow round his head. And where did you read in, in the revelation of someone whose feet and legs were like burnished brass, as though they burned in a furnace. You say, I met a figure like that in Revelation chapter one. And it was? What do you say, the Lord Jesus? Yes. Come to steady John, who must face the revelation of these great judgments. And through him to steady the people of that coming day, for the silence of God that they must endure until they are avenged. Uh, with the message to us tonight, isn't it so? He came down from heaven, and he had a little book in his left hand. He raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him that liveth forever and ever, that there shall be delay no longer, but in a very short while the mystery of God shall be finished. We may leave them on the coming day and think of ourselves. Remember our Hebrew brothers and sisters to whom the letter was written, and the promise in spite of their persecutions. Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry. How can we be sure of it? He offers us a book. Do you see the stance? What a majestic stance it is as he puts one foot on sea and one on land. He's the ruler of all, possessor of heaven and earth. He offers us a book in the one hand, and his oath to the other. Will be but a little time, says he, and then the mystery of God shall be finished. Oh, what a lovely hymn. We sing it in one of our ancient hymns, his oath, his covenant and blood support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, he still is all my strength and stay. On Christ, the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. When the little while is done, he shall surely come. The kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of God and his Christ. The evils will be destroyed, and the time will come to give his reward to the prophets and to his servants for what they have done and endured for him before Before his his time. time.