023 m1-651 Revelation 8:1-6 06-19-2013

would you turn with me to revelation chapter 8 as we continue verse by verse through the bible we've been going through this section and uh this section that um is called the well you could call it the section of the tribulation period a seven year period the bible talks about what's coming uh and it's uh well what a lot of people would call the apocalypse um uh and uh people get all freaked out and there's movies that have been made and the word of pop apocalypse is thrown around it's interesting because the word apocalypse is uh the word the greek word really uh where we uh get our english word revelation so when you go to the average person out in the world and say what does apocalypse mean to you they oh the end is near and destruction and nuclear warfare and all that stuff that's what they think but really the word apocalypse the greek word means the unveiling and really that's the main point of the book of revelation is to unveil uh god's plan but even more importantly the person of god himself in jesus christ there's an unveiling the revelation of jesus christ the apocalypse of jesus christ that is to see jesus and so that's always our goal don't forget when you read about the the the bad stuff that's coming the point is that we look to the person and the work of jesus christ yes doom and gloom is talked about in the book of revelation and we're in the thick of it here uh in in revelation chapter 8 we're going to start seeing some serious doom and gloom but uh the point is jesus there there's so many good things about this so when you read about the dark times of revelation chapter 8 you can a be glad you're you're saved now and as i believe we're going to be raptured taken up to heaven before this all comes down uh and b if a person's not saved hopefully they'll see jesus christ unveiled even in the middle of all this uh tribulation that's going to unfold and uh it's cataclysmic it's huge now what's interesting by the way now when we get into this stuff you'll find a cynicism and i can understand it i'm i'm generally by nature a little bit cynical myself i have to confess and some of you say no you're not bro you believe in rapture in the church you believe in hailstones pounding plant you believe in asteroids and stuff that the bible is talking about you believe in these beasts that are up around the throne of heaven you're crazy dude you're a nuts but here's the thing uh as a guy who's not really prone to believe stuff and and in fact a guy who's pretty pretty cynical about a lot of the weirdness out there here's what's interesting have you noticed how many movies that everybody gets all excited about and what the content of these movies are we were just talking last night at our motocross bible study talk about apocalypse uh that's a good bible say we had a good time there we were talking about heaven and stuff like that but we also were talking about you know this this uh superman movie that's out now and uh how how it's very uh messianic if if you've followed the news people are saying they're they're trying to make superman jesus he's coming in the clouds he's glowing he looks you know it's really kind of uh uncanny how how much they use messianic themes and how he kind of gives himself to save a whole people group and all this stuff it's interesting but you know there's hundreds of movies out there that talk about things like asteroids hitting the earth and beings that are uh extraterrestrials that we don't know anything really about and they come and visit us and all this crazy stuff and people get all excited about it and movie after movie after movie there's there's countless by the way movies that have been produced about what what really is in some ways very similar to what the book of revelation says now you say brett but those movies are fantasy they're creative you know ideas out of people's brains yes but they're borrowing a lot of themes from the bible every single time they're borrowing interesting themes now by the way i believe satan is a duplicator and imitator and he'll borrow things all throughout the bible satan borrows things and makes them look cheesy makes them look like a cartoon or something they kind of you know the things you see that are sort of imitations of what the bible says it sort of cheapens it but you say well brett what separates the bible from the superman movie and from hollywood and you know uh these tv shows that talk about visitations from other people and groups and why isn't the bible just another of long lists of efforts by men who just wrote the bible and they're just kind of saying the same things and we've been saying that for years here's the difference the bible says of god that he knows the beginning from the end he knows uh what's going to happen in the future now if you read george orwell's 1984 he was uh 35 correct about what 1984 would look like according to those that study these things uh the bible even though it was written long before george orwell and um and anything nostradamus nostradamus by the way he was also 35 and he was considered sort of the the best of the best but the bible it's perfect it's perfect about everything that uh spoken of in the future the bible has yet to fail it's a hundred percent accurate and and and man you could go on great generalities and you can start zeroing into great specifics what do you mean brett well unlike all the movies unlike all the books that have been written the bible makes great claims of great things the bible talks about how a whole nation of people god chose the jews and then he says here's what's going to happen i'm going to tell you what's going to happen to my people the jews and you guys can watch it and let the jews be a reminder to the world that i am alive and i know what's coming down so that's one of the things we're to watch is israel that's why we're interested in israel because the bible says that's the sort of one of the main tests you can run to see if what the bible is saying is true so here's what's going to happen my people will forsake me my people the jews will not follow after me because they have a free will just like you do you can do whatever you want and they did whatever they wanted and so because of that the lord says if you do whatever you want and you go against my word then you will be scattered over all the earth and just like many other nations people groups they were scattered over all the earth here's the thing though the bible says then after the diaspora or the scattering of the people i will bring them back together i will gather my people again and they will lose their language but then they will bring back their language that was lost they will not only regather just anywhere they will regather in my land israel and around jerusalem now that's some pretty specific prophecies and one thing you have to understand by the way is i told you a lot of nations were scattered over the centuries it's true like for example the philistines you read about the philistines there's no philistines on the earth even though people like to say palestinians or philistines they're not the palestinians are arabs but the philistines were phoenician people uh that were wiped out and scattered and assimilated by other cultures just just if you want to know your history on that but like many other cultural groups and people whenever they're scattered over the whole earth they lose their identity as a people group that's the bottom line they totally lose it and you never hear of them again except when you're reading history no other people group in the history of the world were scattered for any length of time and then re regrouped as a people uh the the jews were scattered for almost 2 000 years that's amazing and so when the bible says there would be a regathering and a reinstitution of the hebrew language it was lost but in the 1700s a guy by the name of theodore herschel started to begin a zionist movement of the the people of israel realizing they needed to have their own homeland even though they were scattered in places of poland and russia and new york city and all over the world the jews were scattered without a homeland without a nation they started to regroup and regather in israel now ben yehuda he was the guy who said we are a people who have our own nation now we need to bring back hebrew even though nobody in the world was speaking hebrew it was sort of like esoteric uh um academic language sort of like latin nobody really just speaks latin as much as academic language the same was hebrew hebrew is a forgotten language but ben yehuda told his family today is the last day you're gonna hear me speak in my native tongue i will now from now on i will speak hebrew and he taught his kids to speak hebrew his wife and then the neighbor kids started learning it and pretty soon israel they speak hebrew now the the language was revived the people were revived and it i could just go on and on about the jews specifically but even the world as a whole how the world would start to embrace uh sin globally and certain kinds of sin even you know when when we see uh gay marriage on the docket that's something the bible says in the last days men will embrace that uh as an okay an okay thing uh in fact uh things like abortion and and just all kinds of sinful things that the world does that we do uh gladly and people have voted it in as okay the lord says yep that's going to happen and and in the last days things are going to get darker and more sinful we see that then then the lord says and in the last days they're going to seek to divide jerusalem in half which is exactly what our president's trying to do when he says we want to remove the borders back to where they were in 1967 or pre-1967 that was jerusalem split right down the middle and on and on i could go on and on tonight about all the prophecies those are just some of my favorites there's there's tons of prophecies in the bible even prophecies concerning the coming of the messiah jesus in his first coming more than 300 prophecies specifically about jesus how we would come the town he would be born in uh where he would live how he would die all of those things were predicted in the bible 100 accurate the odds of that happening are impossible some guys hundreds of years earlier predicting these things of the world and doing it with a hundred percent accuracy so today we see things you know the bible said things uh that people used to mock at a hundred or two hundred years ago for example uh when the bible talks about how the whole world in the book of revelation even there's a bunch of examples of this but like in revelation there's we're going to see here in a few weeks there's going to be these two witnesses in jerusalem and they're going to be there in jerusalem declaring the the lord and the whole world is going to see them doing this and the whole world's going to see their death and the whole world's going to see their coming alive again crazy stuff right but see a couple hundred years ago they're like how could the whole world see that happen all the same how could the whole world see that at the same time come on well now we just don't even think about it like we don't think that's even a problem because we watch everything happen live and in color uh satellite feeds and we just see it happening right before us youtube man you can see it all uh what's going on it's amazing really but the bible even when it comes to modern type uh prophecies that have to do with modern technology it's amazing how the bible continues to hold up the reason i give you all this is because i want you to know that while we talk about kind of crazy things the things that aren't so crazy that the bible said would happen in fact syria and russia iran and israel this is something the bible says in the last days russia will be drawn down to israel with a hook in her jaws like the bear you know being drawn down with a hook and will eventually uh invade even israel that's where if you're watching the news right now we the we that study you know ezekiel chapter 38 39 we're all kind of thinking man this is this is pretty radical uh damascus the prophecies of damascus in isaiah 17 and and jeremiah these these things are happening right now with this whole syrian civil war and assad and the uh rebel forces and uh it's it's crazy what we're doing we're sending arms to the rebel forces who have aligned themselves very clearly with al-qaeda it's it's it's crazy if you really watch what's going on in the news uh our president just send uh weapons to this group that has solemnly vowed their allegiance to al qaeda and yet we're trying to destroy al-qaeda what's going on with that and russia said you guys are wacko and the problem is we kind of are um but uh if you're watching putin and obama meet uh at the g8 summit this this week or what was it the g g8 yeah uh it's embarrassing the whole thing's embarrassing uh but what's amazing is all of these things that we're watching on the news today uh it's just totally lining up perfectly setting the stage for what the bible says is gonna happen and and all the while a large percentage of the church of jesus christ around the world is totally ignoring the whole thing and saying ah you know bible prophecy is all fulfilled everything's not there's nothing really literal that we should look at anymore and it's almost like sadly the church is just ignoring what the bible says don't be ignorant of these things watch be sober be vigilant in the last days we should be looking at these things and yet the church by and large is not looking at these things so i'm thankful on a wednesday night that we have people willing to come out and say well let's look at these things and see what the bible says revelation chapter 8 is uh one of those chapters where people say doom and gloom and you know crazy events like they make movies about this stuff asteroids hitting the earth and populations of the earth being destroyed and all that stuff this is like hollywood stuff and i would say holloway has borrowed from revelation chapter 8 but the only difference between the bible and hollywood is the bible continues to back itself up with historical fulfillment of prophecy the reason i say that is these things might seem outlandish but just watch the news today see what's going on notice have you noticed by the way how science has been tracking asteroids more diligently have you noticed that like it seems like every week they're oh uh an asteroid nearly hit the earth and they all kind of laugh why are they laughing well it's only a million miles away that one that was a close call we almost got hit by that one and the wheat chuckle and all that stuff and there's did you see the one uh there that went by uh in russia did you see the youtube videos of that where people were driving down the street and their windows were broken out of their houses and stuff that was a big deal that was uh what a couple months ago crazy crazy stuff but we're starting to see how our even our scientists are saying you know we kind of need to track these things because someday one of these things might come just a little too close uh and cause some real cataclysmic damage that's something that modern science is actually concerned about all the while the bible says this stuff's gonna happen so it's not as far-fetched as maybe some would believe and that's why we read the book of revelation and i'm just glad that we're not going to be here for that time and that's part of the point we look to jesus we don't look for these things as much as we use these things to make us glad about jesus christ the salvation that he gives us and and that we're not appointed to wrath according to the bible so as we look at this uh take keep all that in mind these are cataclysmic events and if you'll recall there's a heptatic structure of the book of revelation that's a fancy way of saying there's a series of sevens all throughout the book of revelation you see seven seven seven seven everything seven which is kind of an interesting thing seven of course in the bible is a all numbers uh have a great great meaning uh in fact seven is the number of completion and perfection and so god is going to do a complete work but even in his own judging of this god rejecting christ rejecting sinful world it's going to be a complete work so we see this uh heptatic structure 777 what do you mean what we saw last week i should say two weeks ago the the beginning of opening of the scroll remember there were seven seals each seal that was opened on the scroll they're little wax seals if you would there was only one person worthy to open the seal or the scroll itself and that was jesus the lion of the tribe of judah the lamb of god he was able to open the city big deal open in the seal but if you were with us it's title deed to planet earth it's in a sense god saying i'm taking earth back and i'm going to make the wrongs right that's the imagery that we're getting and so jesus is worthy because he was the lamb that was slain died on the cross for the sins of the world he sort of purchased that right to buy us back even though we sold ourselves out to sin the the the humanity messed it up jesus is the one who saves us so he takes the scroll and starts breaking open the seals with each seal came a horrible thing we saw this coming world leader on the white horse that was the first seal and we saw other seals the seal of war and famine and death and all this cataclysmic stuff as each seal was broken and we made it to the sixth seal uh and then there was a sort of a parenthetical chapter in chapter seven that talks about 144 thousand jews and the tribulation saints that would that would ultimately be killed during the tribulation taken up into heaven and we took a sort of a sideline there in chapter seven but now we're going to get back to the seals we've got one more seal to open what we're going to find is when you open that seventh seal you're opening a whole new can of worms uh or trumpets maybe can of trumpets uh see there's seven seals and when you open the seventh deal we're gonna see there are seven trumpets that are gonna be blown each trumpet having a whole another judgment little sneak preview of coming attractions on the seventh trumpet we're going to see a whole nother can of well not worms not trumpets but bowls of wrath that are going to be poured out seven bowls of wrath are going to be poured out and that will conclude uh the tribulation period so you got seven uh seals open on the seventh seal you got seven trumpets on the seventh trumpet you're gonna see a uh seven bowls of wrath poured out upon the world and that's the the seven seven sevens that you're going to see here uh in the structure of the book of revelation so we get to that seventh seal let's take a look it says in verse one when he had opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven about the space of a half an hour okay so the seventh seal opens up and we suddenly have silence in heaven you know we ended um last week with those around the throne crying with a loud voice salvation to our god which sits upon the throne and unto his lamb and they're they're worshiping god saying uh amen blessing glory wisdom of thanks honor and power and might be to our god they're just they're just crying this big worship service and then seventh seals open and silence why is there silence in heaven that's a good question something to think about someone said it's because there's no women in heaven i didn't say that a stupid thing to say um but somebody's now that's that's that's ridiculous now here's the thing i have a feeling to pay for that one um but uh but what why would there be silence in heaven for the space of a half an hour now this is where we could uh spend the whole evening i'm really tempted and actually dive into this uh um the silence in heaven what's going on here uh well there's there's a couple possibilities uh that you could think about one and and i'm not even going to say i know for sure but let's talk about it remember the best commentary on the bible is what the bible uh you can learn so much and and by the way uh when people say revelation is really hard to understand who can figure it out i'll tell you who can't it's the people who haven't read the rest of the bible um you know the book of revelation does seem to be kind of a mystery unless you start to familiarize yourself with the rest of scripture and the reason that the way that works this is this is what makes the bible really fun the more you get into it is it's like an onion it's got layer after layer and it's interlocked interrelated all about jesus from genesis to the book of revelation and so all you got to do is start looking at some of the imagery and comparing with other places in the bible and there's all kinds of signals uh and you can almost name any signal here that we're even talking about right now we see a moment of silence so what if you're a good bible student one thing that can be kind of fun is say where in the bible do we read about moments of silence um or or where do we read about seven trumpets being blown or where do we read about the altar of instance see these are all images we're gonna read about here in a minute and it's not that hard really the reason i keep saying revelation or revelation is not a hard book to understand the reason i keep saying that is because um man the rest of the bible sort of unlocks it all and it starts to really make sense and and and by the way typology in the bible that is that when we see old testament stories they're types or examples or illustrations it's almost like a picture book i love picture books man you know you got colors and neat little pictures to look at and i i love that man i remember doing prison ministry and uh when when one of my buddies brought a bible to a guy that that couldn't read in prison and i thought oh no he's going to be offended because he brought one of those cartoon bibles you know the little cartoon bible hand it to this guy in prison this big huge you know guy tatted up and all this tough as nails and he hands him this cartoon by the way that's insulting but this guy looked at it and he started tears started flowing down his cheek he's like this is great and after a while the rest of the inmates can i have one of those it was great because their pictures they could understand them they see the stories that kind of unfold and i thought you know that's really what the bible is the whole old testament is this giant picture book that illustrates new testament truths so you got to take the old with the new now the reason that is important i want to show you uh tonight and the temptation is to dive into this head first i don't know whether i should do that or not but uh let's just uh let's let's go in shallow first and see how deep we get tonight um okay so let's let's read it says verse two and i saw the seven angels which stood before god and two of them were given seven trumpets now who are these seven angels not 100 sure some compare them to the seven spirits of god that we saw in the previous chapters remember the seven spirits we've talked about that some say that i don't know uh but these are seven angels with seven trumpets that's what we're told and it says verse 3 and another angel came and stood at the altar having a golden censer and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne and the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before god out of the angel's hand and the angel took the sensor and filled it with fire from the altar and cast it into the earth and there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes and the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound oh they're getting ready to blow the trumpets now okay let's do the real fast readers digest quiz time uh for those this is this is for those of you that are old old school bible students if you've been around for a long time just to real quick because i i think it's fun i know many of you because you have studied the bible you know what these things are so uh what is incense always a picture of prayer what kind of prayer intercession right uh because there's supplication uh which is letting your own needs be made known to the lord there's uh there's thanksgiving uh being thankful in prayer but there's also intercession intercessions when you pray for other people and even other events to take place uh it's it's others oriented intercession and so incense is a type or picture all throughout the bible of intercession we know that and we see that even tied in here because we see this angel with a sensor now what a sensor is uh and some of your bibles might have different words in there for different uh your different translations but essentially it's just a it it's like uh it's it's not like by the way the greek orthodox guys walking with the chains that go down the little brass or gold bowl with incense burning and they're swinging or whatever that's that's that's that's new modern versions of the sensor the old school biblical model was just a clay almost like a little lantern remember the genie lamps they would put incense in those little genie lamps light them up and it would it would just like incense today it would fill the room with the smoke and a sweet smell and it was like a type how the smoke ascends up into the lord's nostrils that's the old testament imagery so that's why it's a type of intercessory prayer your prayers go up into the lord's throne room that's the idea so this this angel's got this incense and then it even tells us he offers it which is the prayers of the saints before the altar of the lord before the throne now uh incense intercession prayer before the throne there's an altar there now when we go through the old testament in a few weeks when we finish the book of revelation one of the things we will see is the tabernacle that is that tent of meeting that god divinely designed and showed moses and the gang how to build it and they were to build it after god's design uh and one of the things about the tabernacle is it's it's again the layer of onions in the bible that the tabernacle beautifully portrays jesus christ himself and we'll see that when we get there but another thing about the tabernacle that that you should look at when you're studying that in the old testament is there are great similarities to the throne room that we see in the book of revelation uh you see virtually all the elements of the tabernacle you see in the book of revelation when we see the throne room scenes uh in chapter four and five of revelation in chapter seven but also right here in chapter eight we see uh these images now what altar would we be thinking about if he's talking about incense and prayers and what have you it makes your mind go back to the altar of what the altar of incense in the tabernacle okay uh let's go back uh this is what i wasn't going to do here we go go with me to exodus chapter 30 real quick i think it's yeah chapter 30. this is great stuff by the way i love i love this uh these old testament descriptions this is where sometimes you're tempted to check out when you're trying to read through the bible and you hear about the the building of these implements and what they're supposed to do like what does this all mean but actually it has great meaning and there's a lot to apply really um it says there in chapter 30 of exodus this is where the lord's telling moses how to make the altar of incense it says in verse 1 of exodus 30 and thou shalt make an altar to burn incense on of shatim wood shalt thou make it a cubit shall be the length thereof and a cubit the breath thereof four square shall it be and two cubits shall be the height thereof the horns thereof shall be of the same uh okay now real quick just to get this in mind this is a tiny little altar it's not like the big altar that's outside in the in front of the holy of holies there's the altar that's the brazen altar where they would make sacrifice of the lambs but once you go into the holy place there's the table of showbread on the right there's the candles or the you know the candlestick or the menorah as you might think of it on the left but just before you go into the holy of holies the room where the ark of the covenant was there was this little altar that was well a cubit by a cubit and a couple cubits tall what's a cubit well um most archaeological digs kind of tell us that they used the tip of their finger to their elbow to measure sort of a cubit and you say well what was that well on the average it was about 18 inches so we know a cubit was roughly right around 18 inches so picture a little square table 18 inches by 18 inches and then you got 36 inches tall and it says there's horns on the corners of the altar now what are the horns you've seen the big altar the brazen altar and pictures of the horns the horns are actually little horns that stuck out at the top of the altar you always see that in pictures they would actually tie the animal to those horns that they were about to sacrifice um but but the horns uh speak of a couple things in the bible horns speak of anybody anybody want to give a world that one strength and power that's right the horn is always talked about in context of power which is interesting because this altar of incense has four corners of horns which speaks of the power of the intercessory prayers is what a lot of scholars believe but they're all they all have meaning and what have you but this altar has this uh these the horns thereof shall be of the same um it says there now uh by the way uh i'm gonna just show you a couple things here on this altar uh it's a it's an altar that's that's an interesting thing why didn't they just make a table they made it look like a little miniature altar why and i believe because prayer is uh a sacrifice uh prayer is a sacrifice uh prayer can be painful it's it's hard for us to take time and pray but there's power in prayer i sometimes think the reason that prayer is hard for us is because it is powerful if it weren't worth anything then it wouldn't it'd be super easy and we'd think whatever but i believe there's real power in prayer that's the idea it's the altar where there's a sacrifice of prayer is the idea uh but not only is prayer painful it's powerful because of the horns we see that in verse three it says in verse three thou shalt overlay it with pure gold the top thereof and the sides there of roundabout and the horns thereof thou shalt make it unto it a crown of gold round about wood in the bible speaks of humanity all these implements in the temple or many of them i should say are the made of this shateem wood but it was always covered in gold gold speaks of deity wood speaks of humanity and we see always the humanity being covered by deity i love that that's a good thing by the way because man we're going to stand before the lord and the lord is going to robe us in his righteousness he's going to cover us with his love and forgiveness so he's not going to see you the sinful being he's going to cover you that's all this imagery the the wood being covered with gold and the horns thereof are made of gold again prayer is painful but prayer is powerful but it's also portable check it out verse 4 it says and the two golden rings shalt thou make under it the crown of it by the two corners thereof upon the two sides of it you shall make it and they shall have be places for the staves or or poles to bear it with all uh and thou shalt make the staves of shatim wood and overlay them with gold so like the ark of the covenant they made rings on the sides of this altar of incense and they put the poles through and they would carry it as they'd wander through the wilderness prayer was to be portable just like you can pray wherever you want to go you can you can be driving down the road without your eyes closed and you can pray for others who are hurting uh have you ever wondered how much time we waste just driving when you could redeem the time uh driving or waiting in traffic to say okay i'm going to pray for my top 10 friends i'm going to pray for my kids i'm going to pray for my wife i'm going to pray for my church i'm going to pray for my pastor please pray for your pastor he needs prayer but man think of all the things we could do just praying it is it is painful but it's powerful but it's also portable but also prayer is preparatory look at verse 6 and thou shalt put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony before the mercy seat that is over the testimony where i will meet with thee and aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning when he dresseth the lamps he shall burn incense upon it so what do they do they put the altar right in front of the the the door or the curtain that goes right into the holy of holies where god's presence was it's uh the kabad as it's called the weightiness where you can almost feel the presence of god over the mercy seat that's where the lord says i will meet with you there why do i say prayer is preparatory because it's an entering point to have intimacy with god some people say i don't feel like i know the lord we're very close to the lord prayer is that which brings you closer to the lord it's preparatory but it's also perpetual look at verse eight and aaron when he lights the lamps and evening he shall burn insects upon it a perpetual incense before the lord throughout your generations and you shall offer no strange incense thereon nor burnt sacrifice nor meat offering neither shall you pour drink offering thereon the idea is there that um the prayer is to always be going never ceasing the bible says pray without ceasing for this is the will of god i like what psalm 55 says by the way on this topic it says in psalm 55 17 evening and morning and at noon will i pray and cry aloud and he will hear my voice you and i have the opportunity to talk to the lord throughout each day all day every day prayer is perpetual that's that picture here of this altar of incense always burning always having the smoke going up to the lord but also prayer is not perfect uh check this out verse uh let's see where are we verse nine now verse ten and aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of the altar once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations it is most holy unto the lord why would you have to make atonement for an altar uh this this picture of incense and prayer where incense is going up once a year lord says i want you to take the blood from off the altar and put it on the horns why is that because even our prayers are laced with sin did you know that uh we think we're so holy i'm praying but your prayers are laced with sin lord um thank you i love you you're such a good god but get him kill him i hate that person so get them for me oh we don't say it like that but have you ever noticed your prayers are very self-centered and often not very nice even bruh do you pray like that not really but uh i have heard prayers like that and uh but i've found that even in my own prayers they're self-centered and it's all i me and my and sometimes you just have to repent say lord forgive me for such a self-centered prayer like the little kid that was carried out been rambunctious in the service i love that guy that story i tell that story once a while you know the father hauls him out like a football and he's in big trouble in the whole congregation turns around sees them hauling out and they love kids oh y'all pray for me now as he's like uh he doesn't need prayer man he needs the laying on of hands if you know what i mean sometimes we pray oh lord help me but really it's like we need to just stop being sinners you know but but even our prayers needs that atonement atoning blood that's the idea here our prayer is less than perfect um even james chapter 4 talks about how our prayers we can ask even amiss it's like we're we're asking things they're just wrong uh lord i pray that you'd give me that ferrari i'm pretty sure that'd be a sin for me because i'd like going 150 miles an hour that'd be great but it's kind of illegal uh so that would probably not be a great prayer to pray but be that as it may um this idea of intercession now so far we see this altar that's got incense burning uh with horns on it and um it's there with the children of israel and they carry this with joshua in the gang uh when they went to cross into the promised land uh by the way just another scripture for you a psalm uh just jot this down maybe in your notes if you're interested psalm 141 says lord i cry unto thee make haste unto me give ear to my voice when i cry to thee let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice now all throughout the scriptures the idea of incense is uh related to the idea of prayer intercession prayer uh going up to the lord that's huge and that's very important now real quick go with me to joshua you say brett what is joshua have to do with uh revelation chapter eight oh just a a little uh this is i just want to show you how the layers of the bible sort of work and i'm not going to do this exhaustively but one of the things that's kind of fun this is really cool someday i might do this whole take a while maybe when i'm in joshua but you can see the book of joshua and the book of revelation follow right uh parallel with one another uh in the story of the old testament as it relates to the end of time and the book of revelation itself uh there's an interesting study you could do on that if you if you really look look at it but let me just remind you of some things that happened here uh joshua chapter 5. of course joshua has they've crossed over to the promised land but they've got some problems the biggest fortified city that they have in front of them is jericho and they have no way to get through the walls of jericho are seemingly impenetrable they're in big trouble so joshua chapter 5 uh it says in verse 13. it came to pass when joshua was by jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand and joshua went unto him and said unto him art thou for us or for our adversaries and he said nay how does it like that are you for us or against us nope which what are you foreign the idea is you know what's interesting did you know that they were praying during the civil war with abraham lincoln and by the way the lincoln movie i've mentioned this a few times but i like to say this as somewhat of a history buff lincoln was not a cussing and swearing kind of guy the lincoln movie was a good movie generally historically in uh the abolition of slavery it's kind of an interesting telling of that whole event and that was cool but where he's custom like a sailor that's not abraham lincoln he didn't do that he was actually a man of prayer and a guy who believed in the lord uh that's the truth of the matter but when they were praying during the summer civil war they were praying the people were praying lord would you please be on our side but lincoln actually stopped them in their tracks he says no we need to be praying that we are on the lord's side i like that about our history and that's something that's huge in a way that's what's going on here with joshua are you for us or against us and this angel with a sword drawn who we now know is the lord himself perhaps a christophany and that's an old testament appearance of jesus uh long story but all that to say this is jesus standing before joshua and he's like no that's not the right question and so he goes on he says no but as the captain of the host of the lord i am now come and joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship now if this is an angel by the way do we ever see angels in the bible receiving worship from men no every single time the angel says don't worship me get up right now don't be worshipping me there's only one to worship that's god this being with his sword drawn receives the worship of joshua why because this is christ himself that's that's evidence right there but uh he says i come as the captain of the host lord joshua falls down and he says what saith my lord unto his servant and the captain of the lord's host said to joshua loose thy shoe from off thy foot for the place wherein they'll stand this is holy and joshua did so look at verse 1 of chapter 6. now jericho was truly shut up because of the children of israel none went out none came in and the lord said unto joshua c i have given into thine hand jericho and the king thereof and the mighty men of valor now pause for a second we're not done here yet but um don't you love our lord says see i have given the city of jericho into your hand now if i'm josh i'm like uh i don't see we have yet to have one arrow fly we haven't even figured out how to get through the walls yet and you're saying see we've done it it's a done deal but you have to understand in the lord's eyes it is a done deal and that's something that you might remember because sometimes you feel like you're failing or going through things in life and it's just going to be a defeat and you just see no way around the obstacles in your life but the lord says man i'm working all things together for good to those who love me for those who are call or called according to his purpose i'm going to work this all out and and joshua's sitting there going really but we know the end of the story does god work it out yeah it says verse 3 you shall do this compass the city all ye men of war go around about the city once thus shalt thou do six days so one time around the city for six days and seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets oh wait did you hear what i just read now right now seven trumpets should start to make you think about something oh i remember seven trumpets in revelation chapter eight uh but these seven priests are about ready to blow seven trumpets um and uh they're trumpets of ram swords horns and the seventh day you shall compass the city seven times how many times how many trumpets are there how many times do you go around the city seven uh interesting and the priest shall blow with the trumpets and it shall come to pass that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn and when you hear the sound of the trumpet all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city shall fall down flat and the people shall send up every man straight before him and joshua the son of none poor guy didn't have any parents called the priests and said unto them take up the ark of the covenant let the seven priests bear seven trumpets of ramsar before the ark of the lord and he said unto the people pass on and the compass the city and let him that is armed pass before the ark of the lord and it came to pass when joshua had spoken unto the people that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of the ram's horn passed on before the lord and blew with the trumpets and the ark of the covenant of the lord followed them and the armed men went before the priests that blew with the trumpets and the rear word or the gathering came after the ark and the priest going on and blowing with the trumpets and joshua now listen to this verse 10 joshua had commanded the people saying ye shall not shout nor make any noise with your voice what's that a moment of silence neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth until the day i bid you shout then shall you shout so the ark of the lord uh accomplished the city going about at once they came into the camp lodge in the camp joshua rose up early in the morning the priest took up the ark of the lord and the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram horns before the ark of the lord went on continually and blue with the trumpet and the story goes on where they marched around and the lord uh pushed the walls of jericho down by the way nelson glueck a brilliant british archaeologist found the ancient walls of jericho and um did his digs and he's not a believer this guy doesn't believe in jesus through the bible but he he found the walls of jericho and what's interesting he says the way they were you know almost all ancient cities by the way that you dig up archaeologically their walls have fallen down earthquakes or whatever but they said uniquely the walls of jericho this is no nelson gluex words exactly says it's almost as if an invisible hand pushed from the inside out and knocked the walls down you don't see walls do that they're built differently than falling that direction they're they're meant to be sort of reinforced that direction uh and i believe that's just another evidence arc by the way when you go to israel you can go to jericho it's a little dangerous because you usually get rocks thrown at you because that's where a lot of the palestinians live we've been there but you can ride a camel and look at the down in a hole where they dug up the walls of jericho so what's interesting about this story though is there's seven trumpets being blown by these seven priests and there's a moment of silence before this whole thing comes down and and what is coming down this is interesting god's people are getting ready to come into the land the land of promise land of canaan for 450 years the lord gave the canaanites uh the the uh charge the challenge to repent from their evil wicked deeds people that read their old testament they say man i read about blood and guts and how god takes his people and goes into the land of canaan wipes out all the people all the inhabitants of the land and that's that's not fair but you got to remember the canaanites were a horribly wicked group of people by the time that the children of israel were coming into the land of promise they were doing exceedingly wicked things that i've told you about sacrificing their children on altars to moloch literally burning their children on altars of iron gods they'd heat up their arms through incandescent red and put their babies on the altar of moloch sick they would build their houses and they would put their children in the walls of their houses alive bury them so their house would be blessed it was a sacrificial system and and i could go on about the horrible behaviors of the canaanites the lord says i'm done with that i'm going to judge that so when his people came in after 450 years giving the canaanites reason to repent they didn't so god says i'm going to judge and he starts with jericho and it starts with the blowing of trumpets and these priests the seven priests these seven trumpets and a moment of silence now uh the reason i get into all this stuff is uh just just so you know um uh there's there's a few things you might take notes of seven trumpets um there were trumpets sounded by the way when the law was given but it was the trump of god that was blown in exodus 19 verses 16 through 19. there were seven trumpets at jericho that we just read um uh interesting for you uh catholics maybe you remember in the apocrypha uh they named these seven angels um uh that we talk about but don't confuse the seventh trumpet that we're gonna read about with the last trump of first corinthians 15 or uh first thessalonians chapter four the the first trump is the trump of god the last trump is the trump of god the trumps were reading about in revelation are trump of what angels right different uh some of the mid-trib or those who believe the rapture of the church is going to happen when the trumpet sounds right in revelation chapter eight the problem is the bible says the first thessalonians that's the trump of god that will blow when the rapture of the church happens uh these are trumps of angels keep that in mind but we have seven uh angels there so it's interesting because in joshua 6 10 it says you shall not make any noise with your voice you shall not shout uh no word proceeding out of the mouth a question by the way who fought the battle of jericho that was a trick question right because y'all sang josh with the battle of jericho jericho remember that hey like what does fit the battle mean um it means he fought well it's not really true because we read in chapter 5 that the lord jesus was there with the sword out and did joshua really do anything not really he marched blew some trumpets can you imagine by the way joshua hears from the the lord and says here's what i want you don't know march around the city for six days once a day and on the seventh day march around blow the trumpets and and and then i will take care of the rest joshua goes back to the pavilion the tent where his generals and his commanding officers are they say man what happened well i saw the lord and he told us our game plan okay what is it okay what we're gonna do is we're gonna march around the city once every day yeah intimidation we like it we like it and then on the seventh day we're gonna march around we're gonna blow trumps yeah yeah yeah what else that's it that's our plan uh why why would that seem so incomplete here's why because jesus was the one who fought the battle of jericho we should think jesus fit the battle of jericho now some of you are thinking we kind of do because what was jesus's name in the hebrew joshua so it's it's it's technically okay you can keep singing joshua fit the battle of jericho with my blessing but i digress now there's some other things you maybe didn't know so jesus fought the battle of jericho we know that but did you know that joshua crossed the river jordan on the tenth day of nissan we we know that from the scriptures uh on the 14th day of nisan all the men were circumcised that's a whole other story the cutting away of the flesh now does anybody know what else happened on the 10th day of nisan um what's that okay so you're getting close here yeah the passover uh but but here's the thing to get it all lined up you have to understand the triumphal entry of christ happened on the 10th day of nisan the crucifixion by the way happened on the 14th day of nisan uh the same day that joshua see there's there's linkages here to the pictures and the imageries of christ salvation but i would say even judgment by the way why two witnesses sent uh you know for military intelligence uh two i'm gonna say two witnesses that were valid and legit uh with caleb and joshua there's an interesting imagery here why did those guys go did they go to spy out jericho so that they'd strategically know what to do did they need strategy strategery did they need to tactically come up with a game plan no god was taken care of why did those guys go i'll make a suggestion there was a gentile woman who needed to be saved out of jericho do you start to see a picture here jesus christ took for him a gentile bride that's us and we were saved from the destruction that we deserved oh there's so many pictures here and images we could go through but anyway silence preceded the engagement that we see here and all that by the way joshua did all this by the way just free before you bible students at the year of jubilee that's another thing that's kind of interesting that joshua did uh that's when all debts were forgiven all land owners get their land back to them uh slaves were all set free this is the lord's doing he says uh on the year of jubilee you will let all the slaves free that was god's way of working out the abolition of slavery ultimately that was god never condoned slavery for people to say god signed up for slavery that's not biblically right i would argue that god actually sought to uh control abusive slavery and ultimately eliminate it with the do loss bond slave program there's all kinds of things we could talk about but the year of jubilee was a time of restitution of all things acts chapter 3 uh verse 21 talks about the restoring of all that was perverted by man uh is removing of slavery delivering the creation from bondage all this stuff the year of jubilee happens to be the year where joshua goes in and ends up fighting the battle of jericho now the reason i go into all this is because this imagery i believe is not coincidental let's go back to our text in revelation chapter 8. we see the imagery of the altar of incense as the tabernacle of the old testament is a picture of heaven and also a picture of jesus christ i didn't go into that but but we see the correlation here don't we of this incense this altar of incense being talked about that's in heaven before the throne of god the smoke of the incense coming up but why the silence in heaven why the seven trumpets one reason why i believe this this silence in heaven is because it's the calm before the storm even as in joshua before the wrath comes down before the judgment comes down maybe it's a sobering ominous quiet that we see right here that was also felt and perceived on that day as they marched around jericho that's possible possibility one here's another reason because the altar of incense it says that the lord has them offer the prayers of all the saints verse 3 upon the golden altar which is before the throne that happens right after the lord says that there would be a silence in heaven for the space of a half an hour um what does that mean maybe the lord just says i want it quiet because the prayers of the saints are coming up into heaven right now and maybe the lord just says silence this is important that could be it too so i i wouldn't die on any battlefield say this is why there's a silence in heaven but most uh bible scholars suggest either it's the link to the joshua fighting the battle before the judgment came down before the trumpets were blown which when these seven trumpets are blown more than walls are going to fall this is going to be christ just like jesus fought the battle at jericho and destroyed the canaanites there jesus is going to fight the battle of the tribulation do you understand what i'm saying it's christ pouring out his wrath upon a christ rejecting sinful world it's the time of the wrath of the lamb so this is the same thing seven trumpets are going to be blown judgment's coming down just like jericho jesus is the one who fought the battle of jericho jesus is the one who's fighting this one uh the book of revelation the tribulation period and both have a moment of silence both have seven trumpets are you kind of with me on that um it just helps us to to understand what's going on in these stories because the lord gives us these sneak previews foreshadowing uh and linkages all throughout the bible uh so maybe it's a silence because of the silence of joshua maybe it's a silence because the prayers of the saints are about to be offered by the way let me just say this before we move on and that is your prayers make it to the throne of god do you know that that's amazing to me think about that just for a second my prayers make it it says here the prayers of the saints are offered there before the throne and the smoke of the incense which we know the incense is intercession prayer which comes with the prayers of the saints ascended up before god out of the angel's hands i think that's sobering if we really knew what prayer really was i think we'd pray all the time i think we would pray without ceasing like the bible says some of the greatest men and women of history that were godly men and women they were also people of great prayer they they knew how to pray continually and man i think that's probably one of the perhaps one of the weakest parts of the modern day church is is the lack of of develop just even seeing prayer is even valid um one of the problems i think is there's a sort of this um idea that god already knows the future it's all going to happen how he wants it to happen so why pray and that is a good question and i've got some things we could talk about why that's not a valid way to look at it but even if i just give it to you the bottom line is the bible says pray over and over we're told to be people of prayer and by the way prayer is not as much to move the hand of god to do what you want him to do he's not your little genie you rub the lamp say lord i want these wishes and we pray so we can get our thing prayer is not as much to get our will in heaven but god's will on earth prayer is not as much to move the hand of god but to move the heart of man that's what prayer is about and prayer is good for you it will change you it will put you in the right place at the right time uh i believe prayer changes us it doesn't change god because he never changes but uh but i wonder how weak we are i wonder if when we stand before the throne someday and we say lord we offered prayer uh but then we see what those prayers did and then we'll think man we could have we could have prayed so much more and look what could have been maybe um do you ever wonder are we gonna we're gonna cry about that when we get to heaven you say nope there's no more tears in heaven well wait a minute no that's not true he will wipe away all your tears maybe they're the ones when you realize i was a total loser it's all right yeah it's okay i'll wipe those away uh yeah you were pretty much but i still love you i i wonder about that you know but will that be one of the great regrets i wonder if of all the regrets we have i wonder if maybe our lack of just prayer uh will be one of the huge things of that man we totally had this powerful tool that god gives to us and and you read about the old testament believers the new testament believers how they prayed and sought the lord the lord spoke to them and directed their lives and there was this intimacy and communion between people and god and and the bible says that's there for us to we just don't tap into it somehow because maybe we don't believe it we don't employ it by the way there are some things that will hinder your prayers do you know that um you know i did say your prayers make it to the throne of god but there are some conditions where your prayers will fail to reach heaven do you know what those are anybody give me one sin isaiah tells us uh you guys know this in isaiah chapter 50 nine verse one it says that your the lord's hand is not short that he cannot touch you his ear is not death that he cannot hear you but it's your sin that separates you from god so sin does separate us from god in that communion so if you're just you say well bret then then i really shouldn't pray because i got sinned and so but remember that's what confession is all about you confess your sins and say lord i'm a sinner and you repent and then that channel of communication is wide open again that's why communion is so essential to come to the table of the lord and confess our sins and open that all back up communion opens our relationship where there's nothing that blocks us our sin doesn't block us sin what's another one what's that dishonor your spouse is a nice way of saying husbands honoring your wives because it doesn't say as much about the ladies it's an interesting thing that's almost just for the guys in my opinion what's that well peter do you remember there in uh and peter talks about first peter chapter three verse seven that your the husbands uh give honor to your wife as unto the weaker vessel and the lady's like weaker vessel vessel special well wait hold on uh i always like to joke around because you know women are you know in modern days we are not the weaker of the genders and and i i totally agree with that and so does the bible by the way women are amazing and they're strong in so many areas now physical strength most of the guys in here can bench press more than the girls most if we're talking about that but but that's not what it's talking about it's talking about that the woman is designed differently than the guys and guys are glad that women are designed differently what's that you've heard the example a million times it's the wine glass versus the root beer mug which vessel is weaker well the wine glass you don't toss the wine glass down the you know the counter hey here you know yo ho yoho you don't do that with a wine glass you do that with a root beer mug you know it can handle it it can tumble around and you can but the wine glass is something that's beautiful something that actually you put in display you never put your root beer mug up on the shelf with the lighting uh you don't do that uh because you don't want to see it that's the guy but the woman is the weaker vessel and that she's beautiful and and it's just a different vessel but but then it says after that so we'll get all hung up on that one especially the guys like yeah guys are the stronger vessel but no it's not the point of that scripture the point of the scripture is give honor to your wife dwell with your wives according to knowledge that means to really know what's going on in her heart talking to her being aware of her feelings dwell with your life according to knowledge giving honor to the wife as another weaker vessel lest your prayers be hindered guys your prayers will be blocked if you don't give honor to your wife that's an interesting thing i wonder how many guys have tried prayer but felt that it was not powerful god doesn't hear my prayers i guess god doesn't hear prayer no could it be that you're not treating your wife the way you're supposed to so there's two two reasons prayers fail to fly what else huh giving up too soon that's an interesting one yep remember daniel prayed for 21 days fasten and pray and the idea is if he didn't keep going for that length of time he would not have received the prophecy there in daniel chapter 10. that's right quickly unforgiveness the lord says if you have unforgiveness in your heart i will not forgive your sins and if your sins aren't forgiven i refer you back to isaiah 59 where you're separated from the lord not listening to the word of god uh is another thing if you hear the word but not really listen to the word uh like proverbs 28 uh let me see here oh yeah verse 9 it says he that turneth away his ear from hearing the law or the word even his prayer shall be an abomination so there there's these things and in fact i believe there's five things the unconfessed sin uh also james chapter four verses one through four i already mentioned tonight if you ask a miss uh then you won't be heard the bible says james four one through four if you mistreat your spouse uh it might apply to the gals too but for sure the guys for sure and then also unforgiveness and not listening to the word so these are things that cause your prayers to fail uh by the way if you say brett what was that again that's kind of important well we've done we've done teachings on those prayers i forget what we call the teaching something like hindered prayers or unhindered prayers something like that look it up online you can search it and find out but i go over these kind of in depth about the things that block our prayers but but what's amazing to me is our prayers do reach heaven in revelation chapter 8 says the lord says silence silence and then these prayers of the saints of intercession are poured out before the altar and and the lord hears those prayers he sees that the smoke goes up to the lord well quickly verse 5 and the angel took the censer filled it with fire of the altar cast it under the earth where there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes the idea here is cataclysmic events are about to happen on the earth by the pouring out of these uh sort of coals from the altar of incense from heaven being poured down on earth it's not going to be a good thing and then the the seven angels are ready verse six which have the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound so they're all ready to blow the trumpets and that's when the wrath uh is gonna be poured out consecutively with each trumpet and uh it's gonna be bad we're gonna see the first four trumpets uh i was gonna finish it tonight uh but we're uh out of time first verses 7 through 13 we'll see the first four trumpets maybe we'll tackle that one on sunday that'll be a nice peppy topic for a sunday morning doom and gloom for sunday morning be ready that'll be great i'm sure it'll make us all happy let's pray together lord we read your word and we see how really it all fits together and we learn so much just by digging a little bit but lord we're so glad that uh that these warnings and admonitions to pray the things that separate us from you and hinder our prayers that we offer lord these are these are things that are really good for us to know i pray father that we would be a people who are given to prayer for you tell us to pray without ceasing for this is the will of god uh lord you tell us to offer prayers in fact your word says that men pray lifting up holy hands we see daniel as he prayed morning noon and night like the psalmist and he he prayed out by his window there three times a day lord we we see the greatest men and women of history we're real people of prayer so like the disciples we ask of you to teach us to pray not just teach us how to pray but just teach us to pray and father i pray that we learn what it means to to to pray continually perpetually like the altar of incense just continues to to burn i pray that in the same way our prayers will just flow continually as we're talking with people as we're going through our day as we see people at work lord help us to be praying for them continually for we see right here that those prayers do reach into heaven and what what a sobering thing to think of lord i pray that as we continue to study this book that we would see how really these days we're living in very much are ready for what you tell us is going to unfold i pray that you'd not find us sleeping or being that lazy servant that just says ah the lord delays is coming but instead i pray that we be vigilant sober watching as your word tells us to be um i pray that in these days as many christians have lost interest in end time study i pray that that we'd be able to point them back to your word and encourage them to be students of scripture so lord i pray that more than just another bible study i pray that this this time tonight would bring good fruit in our own lives as we walk with you as we study your word in jesus name amen

Channel: Lean-into-God

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Length: 68min 27sec (4107 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 27 2020