This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
You realize, like I've answered like the majority of those
things, but you're still asking me and I've already done it.
I mean, do you have any capacity to pray outside your comfort
zone, to pray for people that you don't know or situations
that you're normally not interested in?
You have the heart to let me put my heart in there to expand your
awareness of what it is I specifically want you to pray
about right now, at this time and this day and this age.
What does your prayer life look like?
If you're like most people, you might try to find a quiet time,
and then you begin to share your laundry list of wants with God
as if He were some sort of genie in a bottle that grants wishes.
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with asking God
for things, but that can't be the majority of our conversation
with Him. Notice I used the word
conversation. That's what prayer should be,
conversation between you and Jesus.
Pastor Clark challenges us today to expand our prayer life to be
more than just talking and asking.
Now. Here's Pastor Clark in
Revelation Chapter 8 with today's edition of Living Waters
of Grace. Verse 1 of chapter 8, when he
opened the 7th seal, there was silence in heaven for about 1/2
an hour, and I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and
to them who were given 7 trumpets.
Then another Angel having a golden censer, came and stood at
the altar. He was given much incense that
he should offer it with the prayers of all the Saints upon
the golden altar which was before the throne, and the smoke
of the incense with the prayers of the Saints ascended before
God from the angel's hand. Then the Angel took the censer,
filled it with fire from the altar and threw it to the earth.
And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings and
earthquakes. And so the seven angels who had
the seven trumpets prepared themselves the sound.
It's interesting, you know, in heaven there is no concept of
time. Time is eternal.
And yet John was able to distinguish in some sense, the
difference between the two dimensions of time, of Kairos
and Chiron. And we have, of course, in the
languages that we communicate in two different understandings of
time. We have human time, which is
right now. And, and that's the way we
think. We segment everything right by
seconds and minutes and hours and days and weeks and months
and years. You know, that's just how we're
wired. But in heaven, there is no sense
of time. The way we see it, it's time is
eternal. The Word tells us that Christ is
the Alpha and Omega, the 1st and the last, the beginning and the
end. And so in eternal thinking,
there is no sequence of of days and nights.
It's just forever and ever and ever.
And how do you measure Infinity and eternity that lasts forever?
It's just beyond our ability to even conceptualize.
But John was able to, being human still and not ascended in
the sense of leaving this life, still, being earthbound, and yet
having a heavenly, heavenly vision.
He was able to understand the time that was transpiring during
this vision that God had given him.
And it says that the silence was unlike anything that I think
heaven has ever experienced because we know before the
throne of God, the four and 20 elders are continually throwing
their Thrones before their crowns before the throne, saying
holy, holy, holy art thou, O God, who was and is and is to
come the the voices of the angelic beings worshipping God.
I mean, it's, it's a lot. It says it's like the the voice
of many waters. You, you, you just hear the
crowd. And it's like a sound that is
unknown even to us on this earth, as many people that might
gather at any given time to worship Heaven's worship is, is
completely unlike anything that any of us have ever touched or
experienced, believe me. And so it says that there's
silence in the midst of this period that John is about to
encounter. The sound is deafening.
The silence is deafening because what's about to transpire on the
face of the earth is horrendous, but also majestic in the sense
that as Christ has opened those seals for the first time in the
history of the universe, he has conveyed his full plan to all
the angelic hosts. And they're speechless.
They're astounded at what he has in store, not only in the sense
of his anger and his wrath toward an unbelieving and
ungodly world, but his plan for the future of his church, the
bride of Jesus Christ. So we see in verse one the
mention of silence. We see in verse 2 the mention of
musical instruments, trumpets. We see in verse 3 and 4 the
offering of incense. And what's interesting is I
don't know about you, but I've been in a lot of different kind
of worship situations. I've been in like really crazy
stuff where people are jumping around and running around and
just like doing all kind of wild stuff.
And I've been in real conservative type of worship
experiences. I've experienced liturgical
worship experiences, experience, obviously Calvary Chapel kind of
worship experiences, But as good as we might think our worship
is, and it is good, we have a godly worship leader and team.
These guys love the Lord and give their hearts to serve
Christ fully and worship every week.
But we fall short, don't we? We all fall short of
understanding what true worship is.
It's not an emotion or a high, although we can get kind of like
joy, obviously, when we think about the greatness of God and
worship him. But it's much deeper than that.
And so we're getting a glimpse into heaven now as Protestants
and as New Testament Christians, we have an interesting
perspective on how we look at the development of historical
worship from the age of the Tabernacle, right, in the temple
in the Old Testament, right? And we, we don't see any visible
temple or Tabernacle right now in our day and age, right?
But it's going to be rebuilt. The sacrifices will begin to
continue during that time of the Tribulation.
The Antichrist will set himself up in the temple as God, the
abomination, the desolation, and a lot of very, very interesting
things are going to occur. Even now in Israel.
There is plans for the structure to build the the robes are being
developed. The Sacramento aspect of how the
Jewish nation connected and worshiped with God will be
reinstituted. And but what I find fascinating
is, is that from God's perspective, that never ended,
right? It's still going on, even though
there is no physical temple or Tabernacle on the earth right
now in the sense of the way it was in Israel with the ark of
the covenant and that kind of stuff.
In heaven right now, there is this element of worship that
most of us have never, ever encountered, But one day we
will. And some people might say, I
don't like the smell of incense. Some people get sick, get
headaches when there's incense. But in heaven, the good news is
when we're there, we won't have the the same kind of physical
maladies. And incense will be awesome
because it's like the most fragrant of perfumes and it it
pleases God. He has it in his throne room
24/7 throughout all eternity. And the incense represents the
prayers of the Saints. We'll get into that in a minute.
But in the Tabernacle or in the temple, there was a golden
altar, different types of altars in the midst of the temple, the
Tabernacle. But this specific altar was
right before the veil entering into the Holy of Holies.
And the responsibility of the temple priest was to burn
incense because it represented the prayers of the nation of
Israel and in heaven. Now, as we read, as John is
teaching us, that this incense is representative of the prayers
of Saints, believers throughout the course of human history.
And so we see in verse one this silence.
Again, just going back to this half hour of silence, it's
dramatically indicating the profound awe at the opening of
the 7th seal. It's no wonder that the Sarah
from and Sheriff from can't help but to continually proclaim
holy, holy art thou, O God, If we were there, that's going to
be our description. What else can we say?
Holy, holy, holy art you, O God. And Habakkuk chapter 2, verse
20, it says, but the Lord is in his holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silence before him.
God enjoys silence. We don't.
We have to have noise all the time.
We always have to have some kind of media on iPod, TV,
headphones, music. I mean, the more noise, the more
happy we seem to be at times. But you take a time of silence
and that makes a lot of people uncomfortable.
That's why prayer is so difficult at times, because it
is a time of silence and we're before God and it's just our
thoughts and our heart laid bare before Him.
And sometimes that makes us a little awkward because we're not
used to having silence. But God says that he's in His
holy temple and it's pleasing to him that the earth would be
silent before him. In Zephaniah chapter one, verse
7, it says be silent in presence of the Lord God for the day of
the Lord is at hand, for the Lord has prepared a sacrifice
and he's invited his guests. Be silent in the presence of the
Lord. And again, it's something that
sometimes we're not accustomed to.
Or you get with some people and you're going to pray and this
person prays and that person's that person prays.
And then all of a sudden there's a period of silence and, and
sometimes people like restless, well, like who's going to pray
next? Or how long will the silence
last? Does that mean we're done or is
it over? But I think from God's heart,
the silence represents just the beginning of our being open to
what it is that He wants to say to us, more so than what we
think we need to say to God. In Zechariah chapter 2, verse
13, it says be silent all flesh before the Lord, for he is
aroused from his holy habitation.
Be silent, all flesh before the Lord, the one that you're all
familiar with. Psalm 4610 Be still and know
that I am God. I will be exalted among the
nations. I will be exalted in the earth.
And I think it's, it's healthy at times when we come together
as as Christians and, and pray even on Thursdays, it isn't so
much what we're saying, it's what we're hearing, right?
Because so often our prayers are circular.
Lord bless me, mine, you know, me, myself and I or bless my
people or my family or my job or my finance.
I mean, sometimes our prayers are like really, really boring.
God hears, I mean, he loves us, He's merciful.
But like you realize you're saying the same thing all the
time. You realize, like I've answered
like the majority of those things, but you're still asking
me and I've already done it. I mean, do you have any capacity
to pray outside your comfort zone, to pray for people that
you don't know or situations that you're normally not
interested in? You have the heart to let me put
my heart in there to expand your awareness of what it is I
specifically want you to pray about right now at this time and
this day and this age. And verse 2 of Revelation 8, we
see these 7 angels. I saw 7 angels who stand before
God, and to them were given the seven trumpets.
These bodily powers that Victoria so beautifully sung
about represent the Old Testament priests who also
sounded the trumpets during the temple worship.
You know, sometimes when we read the New Testament and the Book
of Revelation and disconnect it from the roots of what worship
has been about since the beginning of time, we, we
unfortunately distort really what the meaning is or we, we
pull things unfortunately sometimes out of context.
But in Joshua chapter 6, verse 13, it refers to these guys.
It says the seven priests bearing 7 trumpets of Ram's
horns before the ark of the Lord went on and continually and blew
the trumpets. And you remember what happened
eventually as a result of blowing those trumpets, right?
The walls fell down, God moved miraculously.
First Chronicles chapter 16, verse 6.
Benanaya and Jehaziel, the priest regularly blew the
trumpets before the Ark of the Covenant of God.
Psalm 96, Six, honor and majesty are before him.
Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
So we see this view of heaven of of music, right?
Where's the guitars? Now there is stringed
instruments you'll read about in Revelation, but in this
instance, there's trumpets and verse 3.
This is when it gets interesting.
Then another Angel having a golden censor came and stood at
the altar. He was given much incense that
he should offer it with the prayers of all the Saints upon
the golden altar which was before the throne.
Much incense is present in heaven, much incense, and it's
offered along with the prayers of the Saints.
If you go back to chapter 5 of Revelation verse 8, it says now
when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and
the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and
golden bulls full of incense, which are the prayers of the
Saints. Psalm 141 two says, let my
prayer be set before you as incense, the lifting up of my
hands as the evening sacrifice. I mean the beauty of how God
designed worship for Himself. It's not about us.
We're given the privilege to worship Him.
But whenever we can worship Him the way He has orchestrated and
desired, what does that do to His heart?
Let my prayer be set before you. Psalm 141.
Two as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening
sacrifice. So we see in Revelation that
incense is the visible sign of the prayers of all the people.
Symbolism is important. The dove represents the Holy
Spirit. The cross represents the
crucifixion, the death of burial and resurrection of Christ.
Baptism. Immersion is a sign of dying to
our sin and coming out as new people, a new life.
The Lord's Supper that we take every week.
The bread represents Christ's body.
The cup represents His blood. God is not making this stuff up
as He goes along. These are specific things He has
put in place that we might truly know how to worship Him.
You remember in the Old Testament when those priests
took strange license to attempt to worship God with strange fire
and strange incense? It wasn't pleasing to Him.
We have to think about our own worship before him.
Lord, does this really please you today so much worship today
and I don't tell you guys and and these guys work real hard to
pick the songs that are about God to God for God, not songs
that are you could sing to your girlfriend or your wife, you
know that are just like you were these words.
What do they mean but songs that are doctrinally correct and pure
and magnify the glory of of God in Malachi chapter one, verse
11, it's interesting. It says for from the rising of
the sun even to its going down. That's that's a picture of
eternity. My name shall be great among the
Gentiles and every place incense shall be offered to my name for
my name shall be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.
He says in every place, in every place.
Incense is a beautiful gift that was given to our Lord at his
birthright. Incense, frankincense and myrrh
were given to him at his birth. And we see as we reflect on the
Jewish temple, the worship, its continuation in heaven.
I love this section in Luke chapter one, verse 9 through 11.
According to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn
incense. This is Zacharias as he's doing
his responsibility before the altar of God and the Angel of
God is speaking to the family that Elizabeth is going to have
a child and it's an impossibility because she's been
barren. How in the world can this
happen? And he's burning the incense and
he he went into the temple of the Lord and the whole multitude
of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense
again the the the community when the prayers of the of the
incense was the representation that we now are lifting up the
fragrance. Our prayers are like fragrance
unto God. And an Angel of the Lord
appeared to him to Zacharias standing on the right side of
the altar of incense, A literal physical altar that is not any
on earth at the time, but will also be in heaven.
We're seeing John talk about it. So the worship and revelation is
very different from ours, isn't it?
Completely different from ours? And verse 4, it talks about the
smoke of the incense with the prayers that are ascending
before the Lord, and the smoke of the incense with the prayers
that ascends. The Saints ascended before God
from the angel's hand. So the Angel has a sensor that's
coals fire to burn the incense, and he's sensing that altar
before God's throne. And God immediately sees that as
the prayers of his people growing up into heaven from all
the earth throughout all time, and that He has our prayers in
bowls. I can't imagine the size of
those bowls, but all the prayers of every person and every broken
heart throughout all time has never been dumped out.
And that one day all our prayers are going to be answered.
And some prayers we're waiting for.
And waiting for we think, well, God, did you miss that one or
wasn't it important to God? Every prayer of his children is
priceless, so priceless that he stores them all in these bowls.
And verse 5, we see the Angel, He takes the sensor, fills it
with fire from the altar and he throws it to the earth.
And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings and
earthquake. The casting of this sensor to
Earth. Shows the prayers of the Saints
in the sense of how long Lord, will it be till you bring
righteousness, not vengeance on our part.
Lord, I hope you get that person that really messed me up in my
life years ago. I hope you get even with that
dirtbag and that you know, whatever and we're just like,
you know, no, it's not about that.
It's God's righteousness that we're waiting to be completely
satisfied. If you look at Revelation
chapter 6, we were there a few weeks ago, 9:00 and 11:00.
This is the heart of what is happening.
When He opens the 5th seal. I saw under the altar the souls
of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the
testimony which they held. And they crowd with a loud
voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge
and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth.
Then a white robe is given to each of them.
And it was said to them that they should rest a little while
longer, until both the number of the fellow servants and their
brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.
And so the the the prayer for us is OK.
Lord, how long will these things occur on earth where mankind
refuses to acknowledge your existence?
Where we feel as countries that we don't need God, that we want
to take down the crosses in public places.
We want to eliminate the prayers from our Senate and our House
and our government. We want to change the name of
our country to something that is completely independent of God,
who He is. You know, I don't make this
stuff up. I have no political agenda.
I hope you sense that when I preach, I'm not lifting up the
Republican or Democratic Party, but the theocratic government of
God. And God's justice is clearly
revealed in the Scripture for what he says is right and what
he says is wrong. And I don't care what ideology
we have politically, if our ideology does not line up with
God's intention, then we're to be judged.
And we're the ones that are responsible for communicating
what is true in our nation. The freedom of religion that we
have the precious right to have in our country that is slowly
being dismantled and we're not even clearly aware of it.
The casting of the center to earth.
Finally, the one who has the right to bring judgement, cast
that down and it represents the fire of God coming from heaven.
And the beginning of the second period of the tribulation, the
devastation upon the earth begins to be poured out.
The thunderings, the earthquakes signify the judgment of God.
And it is eminent at this point prior to, and we'll get into the
rest of the chapter next week. Next week we'll get into the
more radical aspects of the development of this difficult
time on the earth. But then I think about this
silence in heaven for half an hour.
And if you pick up nothing from the sermon up until this point,
think about this. This is a prophetic revelation
that he's been given a long time ago.
He's seen this. In the Book of Revelation,
Pastor Clark is taking us through all kinds of events and
happenings that are predicted for the future.
But for those who believe and follow Jesus, there's much to
look forward to in heaven with Jesus.
However, for those who are here on earth during the Tribulation,
there's all kinds of chaos that will unfold.
The Bible talks about an Antichrist, a false prophet, and
of course that evil enemy, Satan.
Do you see how there are such clever attempts for the enemy to
disguise himself as God and even the Trinity?
The true Savior of the world is God and how he comes to rescue
through his triune nature God the Father, Jesus the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit. Just like Satan tried to take
over for God in heaven was cast out, Satan will try to convince
people on earth that he is the triune God to be worshipped
instead of the legitimate God in heaven.
It's an attempt, and although he will capture plenty in his
schemes, he will not win. The true God wins, and
Revelation unpacks how that will all happen in detail.
Be encouraged because there's a way out for all of this madness
that will ensue on this earth. But you don't want to wait
indefinitely to make that decision about Jesus.
We don't know when the church will be raptured, and you want
to be ready to be with Jesus. To learn more about this, head
over to calvarychapelonline.com. We're so glad you've been with
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