Open your mind. Open your minds. I've been snuffin' too much, sniffin' too much of that asthma medicine, I think. Open your Bibles to Revelation, chapter 8. Open your minds to Revelation, chapter 8. Thank you, Barbara, in Constance. That was wonderful. Don't you love it when music is about him? When music lifts your heart heavenward, when music doesn't draw its attention to the performer, but makes us love God more and understand our Savior. I'm so thankful for that. Let me read if you would, verses 1 through 6. When he opened the seventh seal, that is the Lamb, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour, and I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Another angel who had a golden sensor came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. Then the angel took the sensor, filled it with fire from the altar and hurled it on the earth, and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them, so reads the words of the living God. One of the most delightful aspects of spending a few days at the Master's College recently was the opportunity of engaging in conversation with some serious-minded Christians who also happened to be very bright human beings. In particular, young men and women who know enough of the Bible to be asking the right questions. I say the right questions in the sense that they are asking questions that push us to the very edge of biblical revelation. Questions for which there are, in the end, no final and ultimate and comprehensive answers from the Word of God. It was John Murray, former President of Westminster Seminary who said some years ago in every major doctrine of the Bible, there is an apparent paradox. There are certain secret things that belong only to the Lord as Deuteronomy 29 tells us. And it was in this vein I must confess, beloved, that I found myself saying again and again to these students repeatedly by way of personal testimony, with each passing year of my life I find myself becoming increasingly more comfortable with mystery. For example, how can God be both one and three? What kind of arithmetic is that? Now I know how to answer that question from the Bible but the point is if you push hard enough, I'll have to say, I don't know anymore. It's a mystery and I'm at a place in my journey where I'm comfortable with that. I'm at peace with that. How can two natures, a divine nature and a human nature simultaneously exist without mixture in the one person of Jesus Christ? I mean, I can articulate the concept, I can defend it from the Bible but at the end of the day I can't begin to dissect all of the practical associations that come out of that. How can the God of absolute holiness decree the existence of evil in a creation over which He Himself is absolutely sovereign? How can a human being be fully responsible for rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ if in fact before the foundation of the world God determined who would be saved? Now of course, dear friends, the Bible supplies us with answers to these questions. But if you're looking for answers that remove all mystery, you won't find them in the Bible. Quite to the contrary, if you arrive at answers that eliminate every overtone of mystery, you can be certain that what you have is not the wisdom of the Word of God but rather the logical and rational deductions of human beings. Here's another question of this same ilk. If God has eternally decreed every single thing that comes to pass, the fact I would assert that the Bible makes clear beyond all doubt, why then should we bother to pray? Why pray? If God is sovereign. That's a real question for people like us, friends, given our commitment to the sovereignty of God around here. We believe in the sovereignty of God, don't we? By all means, and we do so without shame, without embarrassment, we don't tone it down around here, we don't soften it into a mere foreknowledge on the part of God. We gladly embrace the truth of the Bible that teaches that our God is comprehensively sovereign and that nothing that takes place ever does so outside of His divine decree. If that is true, then why did Don Pray this morning? And why did you pray with Him? Why do the women meet to pray every Tuesday morning? Why do the men meet to pray every Thursday and every Saturday morning? Why do the elders meet each week to pray for you? I mean, if everything that comes to pass has been predetermined by God, the salvation of human beings, war or not with Iraq? A diagnosis of melanoma, a down syndrome baby, a lifetime of singleness? Why should we give any effort to or stake any real confidence in the act of prayer? If God is absolutely sovereign and His purposes never fail, then isn't the act of intercession nothing more than a giant exercise in futility? Has this question ever crossed your mind? Of course it has. If you've ever wrestled with the Bible in any kind of serious way, is it possible to arrive in an answer that removes all mystery? Only if we diminish what it means for God to be sovereign. If however you are willing to live with a little mystery in your Christianity, there is an answer to it. In fact, this morning I can offer you three answers that reflect the revelation of God's Word. Why should we play such a high regard on the act of intercession if in fact God is altogether and in every way sovereign? And the first answer is very simple and in some ways it is the most compelling of all. And that is this. God commands us to pray. How's that for theological sophistication? You don't need to be an expert in the New Testament language to get there. It's simple enough, isn't it? Straight forward enough. Pray without ceasing Paul commands the Thessalonians. Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, keep on presenting your request to God. The writer of Hebrews says, let us continually approach the throne of grace with confidence. Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart. James adds quite simply, pray for each other. That's an apostolic command you realize. To not do it is to disobey. I could easily go on and on. Samuel told the people of Israel that to not pray for them would be sin on his part. My friends, if you embrace certain theological ideas that in any way undercut the priority of consistent intercession, theological assertions, convictions, they are wrong. I don't care how rational or logical or consistent they may sound to you. The word of God commands us to pray. You say that art, God is sovereign. God has predetermined everything that comes to pass. I didn't promise to eliminate the mystery friends. Only to suggest that our answers to the question, if God is sovereign, why pray? And the first answer quite simply is this. But who is sovereign commands us to pray. The second answer perhaps is even more obvious. We should pray because Jesus himself prayed. Moreover, he prayed with such frequency and fervency that one would think he really believed prayer to be indispensable to life. Mark chapter one, for example, says very early in the morning. The still dark Jesus got up left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. The gospel of Luke says Jesus went off to a mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God. In fact, Luke adds, Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. He prayed during his baptism, Luke 3, prior to his selection of the disciples, Luke 6. Shortly before the feeding of the 5,000, Luke 9, on the mount of transfiguration, Luke 9, standing before the tomb of Lazarus, John 11, prompted by the coming of the Greeks, John 12, subsequent to the upper-room discourse, John 18, in anticipation of the crucifixion, Luke 22, and even while hanging from the cross, Matthew 27. Why pray if God is sovereign? Didn't Jesus know that everything that comes to pass does so as a consequence of God's predetermined plan? Of course, he did. The fact is, beloved, no one taught the sovereignty of God more clearly than did Jesus himself. You find it puzzling, then, that on the pages of the Bible, we find more instances of Jesus praying than anyone else. Maybe thinking rightly about God's predetermination doesn't discourage praying after all. Might it be that the opposite is true, that a right understanding of God's sovereignty actually arouses more frequent and more fervent prayer? If God is sovereign, why pray? Because God commands that we pray, because Jesus prayed, and thirdly, because prayer is effectual. Prayer produces results. You say, well, there you go again, art, capitulating to pragmatism. But, beloved, it's not capitulation. It's the truth. Prayer produces effects. Now, does that insult your Calvinism? Then, might I say ever so gently, you've not been reading Calvin? Or Edwards or Spurgeon? More importantly, you've not been reading your Bible, which does not hesitate to advertise the efficacy of prayer. James says, you do not have, because you do not ask God. In fact, James builds on that. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. How's that? Powerful and effective. And then he draws upon an illustration. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it didn't rain on the land for three and a half years. Again, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. Prayer is effectual. Prayer produces. Prayer affects results. And who taught this more clearly than Jesus? I don't know. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find knock in the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives, he who seeks fines, and to him who knocks, the door will be open. If that is an invitation, a stimulus, a motivator to pray, I don't know what is. And then Jesus builds on this by using an argument moving from the lesser to the greater. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a snake? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him? There it is. He's quick to answer. More quick to answer than we are to ask. You say, but God is sovereign. And I say, Amen. You say, but you're not getting what I'm saying. God is comprehensively sovereign. Yes he is. Comprehensibly sovereign, which means that the part of this you now need to understand is the God who has ordained the ends has also ordained the means to those ends. And the means to those ends includes intercession. You say, well, if you're saying that if are you saying that if I don't exercise the ordained means that the ordained ends will not come to pass? What I'm saying to you is what Saint Augustine said in a similar context. Hell is prepared for people who ask such questions. I don't know the answer to that question. Don't ask me that question. Nobody does. If anybody answers that question, they're not getting it from the Bible. It may be a logical deduction, but they're not getting it from the text below. But what I'm saying to you is this, don't seek to eliminate the mystery. We can only know for certain what God has deemed enough for us on the pages of the revelation of His word. And that is this. The prayer participates in the outworking of the sovereign purposes of God. In fact, what is before us this morning is one of the most graphic and powerful expressions of this very thing. Beloved, if it doesn't frighten you, it will surprise you. Now, if given the fact that it's been a couple of weeks, we need to give some consideration to where we are. This sitting is at were on the pivot that moves us out of the series of seal judgments into the series of trumpet judgments. Both of which are various expressions of God's judicial wrath on the unbelieving world that inevitably take us into the great and final day. But what is it that occurs at the slitting of the seven seal? Something that is all together different than the prior six seals. We saw it last time the seven seal is slit and there is silence that painful precursor to divine judgment commonly appearing throughout the Old Testament. Then as John records it verse two, I saw the seven angels who stand before God into them were given seven trumpets. Seven trumpets to sound a more intensified series of judgments. Remember the seal judgments had afflicted a quarter of the created realm? The trumpets now inflict judgment upon a third of the created realm. But before we begin to consider each of these trumpets in particular beginning next Lord's day, I want you to see something here that is very interesting. Notice verse two again. I saw the seven angels who stand before God and to them were given seven trumpets. Very simple. Seven angels with seven trumpets. Fine. Now notice verse six. Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them. It's nearly the same thing, isn't it? Seven angels with seven trumpets. So why not move from verse two straight to verse seven. Verse two, I saw the seven angels who stand before God and to them were given seven trumpets. Verse seven, the first angel sounded as trumpet. Why verse six? Which nearly repeats the same thing as verse two. Seven angels with seven trumpets. It's because beloved by literary design, verse two and verse six are intended to frame the interlude that appears in verses three, four and five. I mean all by themselves at first glance you read this and verses three, four and five seem all together irrelevant to the context. There are actually some commentators beloved of a more liberal bent who would suggest that verses three, four and five are out of place. They belong somewhere else. But you see, beloved, when we understand them is sitting in the outline of this frame, we begin to see something of their vital connection to the trumpet judgments that immediately follow. Verse two, seven angels, seven trumpets. Verse six, seven angels, seven trumpets. The only difference is in verse six, they're preparing to sound them. Why? Because of that which is contained in that interlude and as we look at these verses and appreciate something of this interlude, we will then understand two very, very important things about the significance of our praying. Namely, the pleasing quality of our prayers, the pleasing quality of our prayers, and then the potent efficacy of our prayers. First of all, then let's consider their pleasing quality. The imagery here, beloved, is beautiful. Verse three, another angel that is an angel other than one of the seven previously mentioned, who had a golden sensor. Sometimes the word is translated, firepan, maybe your translation says that. It was a priestly implement shape like a small shovel. Another angel who had a golden sensor came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense together with the prayers of the saints went up before God from the angel's hand. Now what's going on here? Something that we cannot appreciate apart from its old testament and a scene. So what we need to do, you see a step back into the religion of Israel, the religion particularly associated with the tabernacle in the temple. The innermost place in the tabernacle, as you well know, was referred to as the Holy of Holies. And inside of the Holy of Holies was one piece of furniture. Remember, the Ark of the Covenant. It was, as it were, the throne of God on the earth. Access to that throne was restricted to all as indicated by a thick veil that served to shut out all intruders. But on one day out of the year, the day of atonement, Yom Kippur, the high priest would enter through the veil into that most holy place as the representative of the people. But just outside that veil, in what was called the Holy Place, was a piece of furniture referred to as the altar of incense. And every morning and every evening, a priest would enter into that place and pour a large quantity of incense over the burning coals on that altar. What would happen? A fragrant cloud of smoke would form and ascend heavenward. At which point the priest would depart slowly, walking backwards so as to not turn his back on the altar or the Ark of the Covenant just on the other side of that veil. Finally, then he would bow down and he would pray. Meanwhile, each morning and evening, outside of the tabernacle, smelling the beautiful fragrance all of the gathered Israelites would bow to the ground and add their prayers to the ascending incense cloud. What a beautiful thing. What a novel idea. Where did it come from? Was it the innovation of a particularly creative priest? No, the fact of the matter is beloved expressions of worship are not for us to invent. We don't get to decide how we want to worship. God tells us how to worship. This was God's idea. This was God's design. God's prescription. In fact, do you realize that it was God himself who supplied the recipe for this fragrant incense? What's more, he was emphatic about the fact that it was never to be used for anything other than a perfume to accompany the prayers and sacrifices of his people. The way you can go home this afternoon and fill in some of the blanks by reading Luke 1. It's the process that Zachariah was involved with when Gabriel came to announce that his wife Elizabeth would give birth to John the Baptist. So what was the purpose of burning this sacred incense every morning and every evening in accompaniment of the intercessions of God's people? It was to graphically illustrate the fact that their prayers were pleasing to God, that their prayers were acceptable to God and satisfying to God but only because they had been made so by the fragrant incense he himself had supplied. How else could a sinful person offer to a holy God an acceptable prayer? Read what the Bible says about unbelievers who pray to God, how God regards those kinds of prayers. Now you see, that's the imagery that stands behind what we now see here in Revelation chapter 8. As is so often the case, here heaven is likened to the earthly tabernacle or the earthly temple. The angel is seen to function in a manner similar to that of the temple priests. He is standing at the golden altar of incense. Notice verse 3 tells us, before God's very throne only here in heaven beloved notice that there is no veil, no separation, no barrier, no restriction. And as it were, he pours a great quantity of fragrant incense over the burning coals on the altar. And we are told that the smoke from this incense with the prayers of all the saints went up before God. In fact, to be a bit more precise, the phrase that the NIV here renders the smoke of incense together with the prayers of the saints went up before God, more literally reads, the smoke of incense went up with the prayers of the saints. The word together does not appear in the original. That's an interpretation, not a translation, with the prayers of the saints, with the prayers of the saints. Now I don't want to lose you. I don't want to lose you here because there is a very important point to be made, but it's a subtle one. This little phrase, with the prayers of the saints, it's a construction in the original language that grammarians refer to as a date of advantage. In other words, the idea here does not merely stress timing, that is, that the smoke of incense went up simultaneously with the prayers of the saints. It includes that, but that's not at the heart of it. Nor does it merely stress accompaniment. The smoke of incense went up together with the prayers of the saints as the NIV renders it. That's also true, but that's not at the heart of this. The idea here includes those concepts, but it goes much beyond them to say something more. That is, the smoke of incense went up in favor of or on behalf of the prayers of the saints. In other words, this incense enhances their prayers, beautifies their prayers, secures their pleasing quality before God. Now, given the Old Testament backdrop, friends, John is wanting his Asia Minor readers to know that their prayers are pleasing to God and thus acceptable to him. In fact, the most astounding thing about this scene that John witnesses is a little phrase that we could easily pass over that is mentioned concerning the angel. Look at verse three again. He had a golden sensor, he came stood at the altar, now watch. He was given much incense to offer. Now, he had much incense to offer. He possessed much incense to offer or that he took some incense to offer. No, no, no, the verb here is distinctly passive. It was given to him. In other words, it was not his own. This angel, friends, don't confuse this, huh? Some of you who come from Roman Catholic contexts, this angel was not functioning as an advocate on the part of God's people. A mediator who out of his own resources, contributes something to the acceptability of these prayers before God. This fragrant incense was not his, it was given to him, given to him by whom? The text doesn't say. And yet all through the revelation, over 20 times, the passive verb was given, always implies that the giver is God himself. It's what we call a divine passive that God is the giver. Now, do you realize what that means here? That God is the source of this fragrant incense, which in turn is added to the prayers of the saints by the angel, so as to ensure that these prayers will meet with his own approval, that they will be both pleasing and acceptable to him. And so I ask you, my friends, what's the point if prayer was nothing more than a futile exercise in a fatalistic universe? Here, God himself acts on behalf of his people to secure the acceptability of their prayers. They're not meaningless to him, they're not empty to him, they're not worthless to him, they don't fall on deaf ears. He's not unmoved by them and cold, dispassionate sovereign D. He doesn't mock his people and say in derision, oh, they're prayers, it's all a much to do about nothing. I'm trerry. He's the one who intervenes, so it's to make these prayers pleasing. Why? I submit to you, because he wants to respond to them. But before we get ahead of ourselves, there's a lingering question that we need to answer at this very point. And that is, what is the substance of these prayers? Is this just kind of a blanket prayer statement? We confuse our own meaning into this? I don't think so. Here, with the slitting of the seventh seal, we see an altar in heaven, don't we? Is this the first time we read of an altar in heaven? No, no. When the fifth seal was slid, we were given to see an altar in heaven, weren't we? There, the blood of the saints as it were, is seen running down from the altar. Here now, it's the same altar with the prayers of the saints ascending up front. It's the same altar. My point is quite simple. The prayer that is so pleasing to God here, in fact, made acceptable to God by God himself, is the very prayer that the saints were praying back in chapter 6, verse 10. Look at it. Here is the altar. And we see in relationship to this altar the souls of those who have been slain because of the word of God, and the testimony they had maintained, they called out in a loud voice, they were crying out how long sovereign Lord holy and true until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood. By the way, remember the Old Testament antecedent offering that incense every morning, every evening? The offering of that incense every morning, every evening. And the prayers that accompany the offering of that incense were done in relationship to sacrificing an animal every morning and every evening. It's interesting friends, though the text doesn't say the parallels in connection, I think are very obvious. The saints are praying incense is being offered and that which has been sacrificed is their own lives, and all of this makes their prayers pleasing to God.
You say, no, wait a minute, aren't you? You're making a connection on the basis that there was an altar here and there was an altar there. In part, yes, but there's more. What we discover as we begin to read through the trumpet judgments, trumpets 5, 6, and 7, and by implication, trumpets 1, 2, 3, 4, call down woes, judicial disasters on a group of people called the inhabitants of the earth, chapter 8, verse 13. People who seek to defy Jesus Christ, gospel haters, persecutors of God's people, people entrenched in this world system. Now, that's very interesting to note in chapter 8, verse 13, because what did we just read in the prayer of chapter 6, verse 10? A request for justice to be done on those who have persecuted and killed God's people, referred to there as the inhabitants of the earth. Are you getting the point? The prayers that ascend to God here in chapter 8 made pleasing to God by God are the same prayers that are being prayed back in chapter 6, a prayer for righteous judgment to be poured out on those who have persecuted the people who follow the Lamb of God. That's the prayer that pleases God, a prayer for vindication, a prayer for judgment and justice on the part of those who have given their lives for the gospel. Those who've suffered for Jesus Christ. There's another observation worthy of your attention, beloved. As we will see next week, the plagues of trumpets 1 through 5 are very much reminiscent of the plagues God poured out upon Egypt prior to the Exodus. And do you remember, have you read through the book of Exodus recently? What was it that prefaced the outpouring of the plagues in Egypt? God says, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out. You get the pattern? God hears the cries of his people who are suffering persecution in response. He pours out the plagues in judgment. And here now you see it is the very same thing. God hears the cries of his people. They are in fact pleasing to him. And in response, the trumpet sound judgment is forthcoming. You say, wait a minute. Don't go one step further. Stop right there. Maybe I didn't hear you rightly. What I thought I heard you saying was that these prayers for judgment upon the persecutors of God's people are not only pleasing to God, but that they actually play a part in setting into motion the very judgment of God? If that's what you heard, then you're not mistaken. That's exactly what I said. That's precisely what this is saying. The prayer of chapter 6, the prayer for judgment upon the enemies of God's people is the prayer that God himself right here in verses 3 and 4, makes pleasing and acceptable. And here's the point, beloved. The prayer that God makes pleasing and acceptable will always effect the desired result.
We've seen the pleasing quality of our prayers made pleasing and acceptable by God verses 3 and 4. Now in verses 5 and 6, take note of the potent efficacy of our prayers. Verse 5, then, then the angels, the angel has added incense to this prayer that has gone before God. Now then, the angel took the censor, filled it with fire from the altar and hurled it on the earth, reminiscent perhaps of the fire in Brimstone, God reigned down upon Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact, you know what we'll begin to see next week? That the judgments that are affected in the sounding of the trumpets come from above and move downward. Very interesting. Of a fiery nature, we will see. It's very much like a scene in Ezekiel chapter 10 where God tells another angelic figure to fill up his hands with burning coals, presumably from the altar, and to scatter them over the city of Jerusalem, why to illustrate the cunning invasion of the Babylonians who will destroy Devastate the city? It is pictured, however, there as fire coming down from heaven because God wants his people to know that that eminent judgment is coming from him. What's very beautiful about that scene in Ezekiel chapter 10 is that in the prior chapter, before judgment is poured out, God marks all of his true followers with a protective seal. For those of us who belong to Jesus Christ beloved, what have we seen? Through all of this talk of judgment, all of this talk of outpoured wrath is not something that we fear, not something that we live in anxiety about that fills us with trepidation, verse 7 tells us we've been marked out with a seal. We don't fear this judgment, in fact quite to the contrary now. You need to see that we play a vital role in bringing this judgment to pass. Then subsequent to this prayer ascending before God in a pleasing manner, then the angel took the sensor, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it to the earth. Did you notice? Did you notice? There's that sensor again, like up in verse 3. And there's that altar again, like up in verse 3. Very interesting. The accoutraments associated with prayer are now the very same accoutraments used to enact judgment. The connection below it is obvious. The outpouring of God's trumpet judgments is now seen to be the answer to the prayers of God's people. With the same sensor, the same angel takes the ashes and coals from the same altar and hurls it to the earth. And what does that set in motion? And there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. It is the cosmic announcement that judgment is coming. So the seven angels, mentioned in verse 2, now recognize their cue. Remember up in verse 2, seven angels, seven trumpets. Now, as a result of the prayers of the saints, this fourfold cosmic disturbance that cues them that their moment has come, the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them. They line up and they're assigned order. They moisten their lips. Take a big breath and lift their trumpets to their mouths. Why? Because the saints had prayed for judgment to begin. In part, it's what we're asking for when we pray according to the model supplied by Jesus Himself. Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Beloved, has the kingdom of God come in Jesus Christ? Absolutely. What did He preach? The kingdom of God is here? What did John the Baptist preach? The kingdom of God is here? What did the disciples of Jesus preach? The kingdom of God is here? The kingdom of God has come in Jesus Christ. Has it been realized in its fullness? No. Not until all of God's enemies have been judged eternally. And that's what we're praying for when we say, Thy kingdom come. Not only the positive establishment of the kingdom in all of its fullness, but the punishment and condemnation of all those who have opposed Jesus Christ. Thy kingdom come. You're praying for this. Now admittedly, my friends, we read this kind of thing and we tend to bark at it, you know. We're more compassionate than God is. And yet admittedly, we have something of a problem, don't we? Because we read through the Old Testament, we read through the New Testament. We see guys praying like this all the time. We know David was a man after God's own heart. And yet we read over and over and over again, David Prang, judge my enemies. And we come to Nehemiah and we know that Nehemiah was a great man. And we see him praying the same way, Nehemiah chapter 4. We see Jeremiah praying much in this same way. These great saints of God praying for judgment, praying for vindication. We read those things, we know it's the Word of God because it's here in the Bible, but we don't know what to do with it. You see? Because we're just a little too sophisticated. We're just a little too compassionate. You want to know why we can't relate to that business friends? It's because we hear no very little if anything of what it means by way of first-hand experience to suffer for the sake of Jesus Christ at the hands of his enemies. I mean, what do we get? A bad look here or there? A rebuff by a coworker? Mocked at by our neighbors? Whispered under their breath about us and our children? That's why we can't appreciate this business. I'll tell you something. My ability to comprehend such things was profoundly transformed after we went to Nigeria. You meet those Christians. You see their faithfulness to the gospel. You see their devotion to Jesus Christ, the enthusiasm of their worship and the warmth of their fellowship, and the sacrifices they make to follow Jesus Christ. And then when we come to discover that they are hurt, that they are made to suffer, that they are persecuted and that their children are slaughtered because of their refusal to abandon the gospel. Suddenly, you come to understand that there is a place for a seeking of vengeance and vindication from God that is nothing less than a righteous expression of holiness, that to not seek vengeance and to not seek vindication is a sign of moral bankruptcy. We will spend eternity, Revelation 19 tells us, praising God for the judgment eternally of his enemies. Our problem is we're not righteous enough. We don't love holiness enough because, and I stand at the front of the line, we become too comfortable with our own unholiness. And we recognize the implications of such an attitude. They pray. God responds. I know there's mystery here. I can't answer all the questions that may be running through your mind. It appears however, beloved, that in relationship to prayer, there are some things God bestows on people whether or not they ever ask Him for those things. Whether or not they ever recognize if He is the giver, whether or not they ever recognize Him as the giver, He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, sends the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. However, what is also patent-ly clear is that there are some things God withholds until His people pray and ask for them. Here, just as the seals on the scroll of destiny cannot be slit until the Lamb has won the right to do so. Death, burial, and resurrection. So these trumpets do not sound until the prayers of the people of God reach heaven. Here, the prayers of God's people, integral to the downfall of God's enemies. God will win His victory over the world in direct correspondence to the prayers of His people. Now can you imagine what comfort, what encouragement, what stimulation this would have brought to the Asia Minor Christians who were suffering, removed from the trade gills so that they can't work, beaten and tortured, imprisoned, martyred to see this, to understand it, to know that their prayers for vindication and vengeance are both pleasing to God and potent in their outcome. My friends, you need to know this as well. I can't think of anything more stimulating. Anything that would arouse prayer from us that would be any greater than what we see right here. If God is sovereign, why pray? Because God commands us to pray. Because Jesus prayed, because all of the mystery notwithstanding prayer is effectual. Prayer produces results. Donald Blash says prayer is able to move the hand of God because God has wielded it from all eternity to act in and through the prayers of His children. It says, I said to you at the very beginning, God has not only ordained the ends, but the means to the end. And so my dear friends, don't give up praying. Don't them own the fact that prayers have no benefit. Don't use your Calvinism as an excuse to avoid frequent and fervent intercessions. Don't throw up your hands in passivity given the fact that you can't resolve all of the mystery. Don't undercut the sovereignty of God either. The fact of the matter is your prayer participates in the outworking of the sovereign purposes of God. The fact is the effects of your prayers, Revelation 8 tells us, will bring about certain ends that carry with them consequences that will last for eternity. The salvation of some, the condemnation of others.
Your praying is more potent than you know. It's the ordained means of fulfilling God's predetermined purpose. If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask you? Are you asking God to do that only God can do so that when he does it, only he gets the glory for it. You don't have because you don't ask God. This is how powerful your praying is. This is what God has granted to you in Jesus Christ. Would you bow your heads with me, please? Our Father, we are thankful for your Word. Forgive us, O Lord, and God, when we unnecessarily make it more complicated than it is. It really speaks such a simple message. And who are your children? We are encouraged today. Encourage to know that you hear our prayers. Encourage to know that you make them pleasing to yourself. Encourage to know that they work. They produce effects. We realize, O Lord, and God that sings such a thing, certainly confronts us with mystery that we can't fully comprehend or answer. But we are ready to live with a mystery. Father, we pray for those who are not Christians, that really they would be overwhelmed by the sense of judgment that is targeted then. And we pray, O Lord, and God, that the realization of such a thing would serve the purpose of driving them straight into the bosom of Jesus Christ who will receive them. Thank you, Father, for your Word. Thank you for allowing us to participate in your wonderful predetermined plan, a plan that assures us of victory. In the name of Jesus, we do pray. Amen.