Turning Point - David Jeremiah

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Revelations description of Heaven isn't only about the astonishing sites,
but also the amazing sounds. What could possibly happen that
will make Heaven fall silent? Today on Turning Point, doctor
David Jeremiah reveals the event that will be so profound
its coming will be heralded only by silence in Heaven.

(00:27):
From Escape the Coming Night. Here's David to introduce his message,
the Seventh Seal.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
As you know, the Book of Revelation is developed around
metaphors of seals and bowls, and the Seventh Seal is
always the one that opens up to the next group
of disasters that are going to happen on the Earth,
and is also one of the most serious things that

(00:54):
happens on the Earth. And we're going to see that
in a few moments as we begin our study of
Revelation eight friends, we have some wonderful resources for the
study of the Book of Revelation. Years ago I wrote
a book called Escape the Coming Night, which is a
contemporary commentary on the whole book. And then there are
four study guides and four volumes of CDs that you

(01:16):
can get from Turning Point. Go to our website which
is David Jeremiah dot Org and you will see all
that displayed there. You can order it and have it
sent right to your home, and you'll be equipped to
go through the Book of Revelation either on your own
or with your small group, or with your class at
Sunday School or your family. It's a great resource, and
we won't be talking about it in the near future

(01:37):
because we're talking about it right now during this series.
So thank you for taking advantage of this opportunity, and
don't wait too long to follow up on what we're
asking you to do.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Here is Revelation chapter eight one through thirteen, the Seventh Seal.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
As we open our by to the Book of Revelation,
we have to remember some things that are helpful to
us in understanding this chapter. Please remember that as you
get to the eighth chapter of the Book of Revelation,
the Church is gone from the earth. In fact, if
you've been listening, you know that even most of the

(02:19):
converted Jews are gone. They have been martyred for their faith.
And many of the gentiles who have come to Christ
and have given testimony to their faith in the Lord
have given their lives and they are now in heaven
as well, Gentiles, Jews, as Christians, the Church of Jesus

(02:41):
Christ are in heaven, but here on this earth tremendous
judgment is being poured out upon the world. We have
been studying the seal judgments. Under the seals, we have
had a vision of a world that has been ruined
by men, plagues and wars and all kinds of orders

(03:04):
broken as the wrath of the judgment brought on by
the mismanagement of men is worked out upon this earth. Now,
after the parenthesis in the seventh chapter, we come to
the last of the seals, and I need to remind
you of a very significant organizational plan that is built

(03:27):
into the Book of Revelation. The first few chapters that
deal with the churches are followed with the discussion of
the Tribulation period and the Tribulation period the first half
of it, the beginning of it is pictured for us
by a seven sealed scroll, which is the title Deed
to the Earth. We have been studying that understanding that

(03:50):
this scroll, which is rolled up and has many seals
within the scroll to seal off the information. If I
had a scroll like that before you, I would have
this scroll, and as I unrolled it a little bit.
There would be a seal that would keep it from
unrolling any further. And when I removed that seal, I

(04:11):
would be able to unroll it a little further. And
then there would be another seal, and I would be
able to unroll it a little further. And each time
a seal is removed, more information would be available concerning
what is going on here on this earth. Well, if
you know what we have been studying, you know we
have unrolled that scroll now all the way to the end,

(04:32):
and there's only one seal left. You also know that
in the organization of the Book of Revelation, that when
you remove the seventh seal, what you have in the
section that is left in the scroll are the seven
Trumpet judgments. The seven Trumpet Judgments are contained within the

(04:52):
seventh seal of the scroll. And if you go all
the way to the end of the Trumpet Judgments, you
have in the seventh Trumpet judgment all seven of the
vile judgments. So, in essence, when we remove the seventh
seal from the scroll, we are unraveling the entire rest
of the Book of Revelation and the entire plan of

(05:14):
God for this earth. Now, the parentheses of Chapter seven
is over, and the world ruined by men under the
seal judgment is about to become a world ruled by
Satan under the trumpet judgments. As the various trumpets sound
in this chapter to which we have opened, the planet

(05:35):
is handed over to the beast, and the Devil's messiah,
the man of Sin, begins to take control. Under the
judgments we are about to study, the world will become
so bad that it will be easy for Satan's man
to take over. Under the seal judgments, men are horrified,

(05:57):
and they cry out to God the trumpet judgments. Men
are hardened. Under the seal judgments. They cry out that
the wrath of the Lamb has come. But under the
trumpet judgments, which are contained within the seventh Seal, their
concern is not about the Lamb, but about the beast

(06:18):
who has come upon this earth. Now there are seven
trumpet judgments that follow in the Book of Revelation, and
four of them are given to us in the eighth chapter.
I want to give you a simple outline for this chapter,
and we're going to move through it very quickly. There
are four thoughts in the eighth chapter. Let me give
them to you. First of all, there is a silent

(06:40):
pause verse one. Secondly there is a solemn preparation verse two.
Thirdly there are the saints' prayers Verses three to five.
And fourthly there is the sinner's punishment. And we'll mention
those as we go along. Notice first of all the
silent pause, and when he had opened the seventh seal,

(07:01):
there was silence in heaven about the space of a
half hour. One of the things I enjoyed doing after
I have prepared my messages on the Book of Revelation,
is taking down off of my shelf a set of
books that have about seven volumes in them that have
been given to me by one of the people in
this church. It happens to be all of the printed

(07:21):
messages of doctor Javern and McGhee, messages that he's given
over the years, that have now been bound in some
of the most beautiful books. And doctor McGhee is a
wonderful person to read. He is such a great illustrator.
At this particular place in his volume, he says that
he had been speaking at a conference to about three

(07:41):
or four hundred young people in southern California, and he
was out on the grounds of the campground, and coming
toward him was a group of girls. And in the
middle of this huddle was one boy, and it looked
like the girls were going to take him apart. They
were making a great deal of noise about it, and
finally they came up to me, he said, And the

(08:03):
girls wanted me to hear what this fella had told them.
This fella had told them that there were not going
to be any women in heaven. And I said, I
don't know that that's true. Do you have any scripture
for it? And the young man said, yes, the Bible
says that there's going to be silence in heaven for
the space of a half hour. And he said, if

(08:26):
there's any women up there, there couldn't be any silence
for that long. Well, you can understand why that young
man was in deep trouble, and why I could be
in deep trouble if I don't move on quickly to
this text and what it means. Perhaps it's a bit
insensitive to introduce such a solemn subject with a bit

(08:50):
of frivolous humor, but I want you to notice that
what is about to happen in this chapter is so
serious that the Bible says, before it can happen, period
of silence in heaven. Notice that the silence is in heaven,
not on the earth. The Bible tells us that there
is a day coming when all the earth, and all
the islands, and all flesh will be called upon to

(09:13):
be silent before God. If you've been listening to the
messages from this book, you know that the heavens have
been filled with the noises of worship. The choirs have
been singing, the angels have been praising God. But now
this judgment is about to come upon this earth. And
for a half hour, the Bible says, the heavens are silent.

(09:36):
The seven sealed book is now completely opened, and with
the breaking of the seventh seal, there comes a strange hush,
foreshadowing a solemn, solemn thing that is about to happen
on this earth. It is the breathless silence that precedes
the storm. It is as if all heaven is waiting

(09:58):
to see what is going to happen. The silence in
heaven is first of all the silence of awe and expectancy,
but is also the ominous silence of foreboding. It seems
like a half hour is but a short time. But
a half hour in the right set of circumstances is

(10:19):
an eternity. A half hour when a child is drowning
will last forever and forever. A half hour when you're
waiting to hear how someone has done in a very
critical operation, can seem as if it goes on for
an eternity. And so awesome and ominous is this which

(10:40):
is about to happen to the earth, that the Bible says,
there is a pause of silence, the silent pause. Notice secondly,
the solemn preparation in verse two, and I saw the
seven angels which stood before God, and to them were
given seven trumpets once again. And we are reminded that

(11:01):
the angels have a very important part in this story.
The seven angels before us in this verse hold the
prerogative to announce the execution of judgment upon this earth
through the sounding of trumpets. These are solemn moments in heaven,
because these judgments which are about to follow are terrible,

(11:22):
and this silent preparation for judgment, these awful judgments to
come upon the earth are those which are prophesied in
the Old and New Testament. The Bible says that the
seven angels which stood before God are going to sound
seven trumpets. And if you look down in the sixth verse,
you will see that the seven angels which had the

(11:44):
seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound. Now in the Bible,
when you see the word trumpet, trumpets are used in
various ways. For instance, in the Old Testament, the trumpet
was used to summon people to worship. In the Commonwealth
of Israel, when they wanted to gather the folks to church,
they would sound the trumpet. And you will see that

(12:06):
in Numbers chapter ten, and in chapter twenty three, and
in First Chronicles chapter sixteen. And the trumpet was also
used to prepare people for war in Numbers chapter ten,
in Judges chapter three, and Neemiah chapter four, you will
see the illustration of the trumpet being used to bring

(12:26):
people to war. The idea of the trumpet originated with God,
and he controlled its use. I couldn't help, but notice
I was studying the background of trumpets that somehow today
we seem to have gotten the signals mixed up. God
has called us to worship, but we've been getting the

(12:47):
war sound, and we've come to war, and we need
to be at war with the enemy. But so often
in churches when we should be coming to respond to
the trumpet worship, we've responded to the trumpet, and we
come to church and go to war with each other.
So it's important that we hear what the trumpet is sounding.
The trumpet and its clear sound is critical. The seven

(13:08):
trumpets before us tell us of the great final intervention
of God in judgment. He is going to bring judgment
upon this earth. And that brings us to the third
section beginning in verses three through five, and that is
the saint's prayer. And another angel came and stood at
the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given

(13:30):
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 censer and filled it with fire of the
altar and cast it into the earth. And there were

(13:52):
voices and thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake. Here is
an angel who stands before God with priestly progatives. Exactly
who this angel is we are not told. There are
many who believe that the angel is the Lord Jesus
Christ himself, and he is ministering both godward and man word.
The scripture says that this angel is presenting the prayers

(14:16):
of the saints to God, and these prayers with the
incense are brought before the Lord. Now, if you want
to know what these prayers are, turn back in your
Bible to chapter six, and I believe we can discern
what the prayers are. These are not necessarily positive prayers.
These are imprecations against the earth. These are prayers for

(14:39):
God's judgment to come upon the earth. I believe the
prayer is the prayer of six, nine and ten. And
when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw unto
the altar the souls of them that were slain for
the word of God and for the testimony which they held,
and they cried. They prayed with a loud voice, saying,

(15:00):
how long, O Lord, Holy and True, dost thou not
judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on
the earth. That's the prayers that are being offered up
before God. They are praying that God will go into
action and vindicate his people. Remember, these who are praying
are the people who have been killed for their faith

(15:21):
and slain for their following of the Lord. They are
the martyrs of the earth who have been called upon
to give their own life's blood for that which they believe.
And now they're in heaven, apparently having some knowledge of
the terrible wickedness upon the earth. And they bring their
prayers before God, and their prayer is, Lord, how much

(15:42):
longer before you reign and sin is obliterated? And the
kingdom of God is that which rules upon the earth.
And we know that that is the nature of their prayer,
because immediately after the prayers ascend, the judgment sends. As
soon as they pray, their prayer is answered. And the

(16:04):
altar from which the angel you'll fill the censer with
fire represented the place of judgment, and the fire represented
the judgment of God upon sin. And the fire of
the altar, we are told, is now emptied upon the earth,
poured out upon the earth in judgment. Remember, now we
have moved past the middle of the tribulation period and

(16:27):
the awful judgments of the great day of God's wrath.
Are now being poured out upon the earth, and that
Saint's prayer is about to be answered in the Sinner's Punishment,
beginning at verse seven and going through verse thirteen. Now,
what we have in the rest of this chapter, in

(16:47):
these last few verses, is the record of the sounding
of the first four trumpets. The last three trumpets are
given to us in chapter nine, and we'll get to
them later. But I want you to note once again
that in the Book of Revelation, often in the sevens
that are found throughout the book, there is a division

(17:07):
of four and three, the four seals and the three seals,
the four trumpets and the three trumpets. When you get
to the vile judgments, it's exactly the same way. They
are divided in half, with special significance to each. Now
the scripture tells us that the trumpet judgments appear just
before the second coming of Christ. In fact, if you

(17:30):
will open your bibles to the eleventh chapter of the
Book of Revelation, you will notice in the fifteenth verse
a setting that helps us to understand this notice. And
the seventh Angel sounded. He sounded his trumpet, and there
were great voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this

(17:53):
world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of
his Christ, and he shall reign forever. Inn So what
we're looking at now at the beginning of the Trumpet
Judgments is the last section of the Book of Revelation,
just before Christ comes to this earth to set up
his kingdom. Ernest Tatham has written, on the last day

(18:16):
of ancient Jericho's existence, the army of Israel compassed the
city seven times, and the priests blew their trumpets. At
the seventh blast, the walls fell flat, and the destruction
of the city followed immediately Joshua chapter six. There seems
to be a strong suggestion that this Old Testament event

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provides a forecasting shadow of these final Trumpet judgments. There's
coming a day when the seventh trumpet will sound again,
and this time the walls of the world's religion and
the world's attempts will be flattened, and the Kingdom of
God will be set up. Now, let's look at the
trumpets sound. The first trumpet is given to us in

(19:02):
verse seven. The first angels sounded, and there followed hail
and fire, mingled with blood, and they were cast upon
the earth and the third part of trees were burnt up,
and all the green grass was burnt up. That's the
first thing that happens at the beginning of this part
of the tribulation. Now, it's a very interesting thing to
study the Book of Revelation, because you have all sorts

(19:24):
of ideas of what things mean. It just overwhelms me
as I read what others have said about this book.
How quickly some people move back and forth between symbolic
language and literal interpretation. And there are many who believe
that this section of the scripture should be interpreted symbolically.
Let me give you an illustration. One of the great

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writers on the Book of Revelation is a man by
the name of Walter Scott. He's written a great commentary
on the book, and in most places we are in agreement.
Walter Scott understands these judgments to be symbolic. For instance,
he sees the words trees and grass and sea and
ships as symbols. For instance, he understands that the third

(20:08):
part of the earth means the devastation of the Western
Confederation of nations. The third part of the trees are
the leaders, the great men of the world. The grass
represents the people in general. Of course, these symbols are
wonderfully applied to the chaotic situation in the world's governments.

(20:29):
But I haven't yet figured out where the interpretation comes from.
How do we know that's what it means when it
simply says, this is what's going to happen. I have
no more reason to take these symbolically than I take
the plagues of the Book of Exodus symbolically. I believe
those were literal plagues. And when the water turned the
blood in Egypt, that's exactly what happened. If you read

(20:51):
that story, you don't have any trouble understanding that. Now
go back and read the verse again, and you will
discover that when the first sounds, that hail and fire
mingled with blood are cast upon the earth, and the
third part of the trees are burnt up, and all
green grass is burned up. So this is one major

(21:13):
problem that the earth is going to experience. The Earth
at the sounding of this first trumpet is going to
go through a terrible ecological devastation. One third of all
vegetation will be destroyed. A bleak picture of desolation caused
by hail and fire and wide spread judgment will be

(21:35):
poured out upon this earth. I don't understand what that's
going to do to the balance of nature, but I
believe what the scripture says. I don't have to understand it.
I simply have to believe it. Well, the Bible says
that after the first trumpet is sounded, that a second
trumpet sounds, And we read of this in verses eight
to nine. And the second angel sounded, and as it were,

(21:58):
a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea,
and the third part of the sea became blood, and
the third part of the creatures which were in the
sea and had life, died, and the third part of
the ships were destroyed. Well, this is a mountain that

(22:18):
is cast into the sea. The instrument of this second
judgment is described as a great mountain burning with fire. Now,
I don't have to find something that has happened like
that in the past to explain this. I would expect
that in the judgments upon the earth, at this particular
time of the future, that many things are going to

(22:39):
happen that have never happened before in the history of
the world. That will be one of the reasons why
the judgments will be so awesome. A third part of
the sea will become blood, says the Scripture, causing the
death of a third part of the life in the
sea and the destruction of a third part of the
shipping of the world. Far reaching implications of these judgments

(23:00):
beyond my understanding. Someone has reasoned that the oceans occupy
about three fourths of the Earth's surface, so you can
imagine the extent of this judgment reaped upon three fourths
of the Earth's surface. The pollution of the water and
the death of so many creatures would greatly affect the

(23:21):
balance of life in the ocean. I don't know if
you've ever been around a body of water where some
pollution has come into the water and all of the
sea creatures have died, many of them washed up on shore.
But there is an awful stench that you cannot even
express when something like that happens. This will happen, according

(23:45):
to the Scripture, to a third of the ocean or
the salt water bodies of the world.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Well, we have to put a bookmark there because we
can't finish this up. We'll have to do this on Monday.
So thank you for being patient as we take time
out for the weekend. Let me remind you again on
this weekend that your first priority is to get to church.
I know some of you have never come back to
church since COVID. This should be your first day back,

(24:14):
and I hope you will get back to church and
make your way to the place where you can serve
the Lord among God's people. And don't forget to watch
us on television if you can find us over the weekend.
We're just about everywhere in the country now and we'll
be back again on Monday to pick up our discussion
of the Book of Revelation. Our resource for the month,

(24:35):
don't forget it, it's the sixty Days of Prophecies. It's
a wonderful resource. If you send a gift of any
size during this month, you can ask for it then
we'll send it right to your home. Thanks again for listening.
I'm David Jeremiah. Have a great weekend.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
The message you've just heard originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church.
David Jeremiah, the senior pastor Turning Point, is also on
radio and TV this weekend. To learn where to find it,
visit our website David Jeremiah dot org. Slash Radio. That's
David Jeremiah dotorg, Slash Radio, or call eight hundred ninety
four seven nineteen ninety three ask for your copy of

(25:18):
David's new book, Sixty Days of Prophecy, The Truth behind
Endtime Warnings. It's yours for a gift of any amount.
You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the
English Standard, New International, and New King James versions available
in your choice of attractive cover options. Your words of
encouragement are so appreciated. Please write to us at Turning

(25:40):
Point PO Box thirty eight thirty eight, San Diego, California,
nine two one sixty three. This is David Michael Jeremiah.
Join us Monday as we continue the series Escape the
Coming Night on Turning Point with Doctor David Jeremiah