Word of Salvation – Vol. 25 No. 13 – January 1979

 

The Seventh Trumpet

 

Sermon by Rev. M. P. Geluk, Th.Grad. on Revelation 11:15-19

Scripture reading: Psalm 2

Psalter Hymnal: 192; 180; 148:1, 2, 5; 135:1-3; 135:4

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

In the Bible, the number 'seven' very often has the symbolical meaning of fulness and the completion of a thing. Also here, in chapter 11 does the seventh trumpet announce the end of the world, the fulness and completion of history. From here on Jesus Christ will reign supreme.

However, we must keep in mind also that the Book of Revelation has brought the reader to this point before, and will do so again in the chapters still to follow. Revelation, you may remember, doesn't take us through history once, but several times and each y time we are faced with a different perspective.

The chapters 1 to 3 looked at the condition of the Christian Church throughout history. Although dealing with seven specific churches at a specific time in history, the first three chapters nevertheless gave us an insight into the state of the church's life right up to Christ's coming again. Christ watches over His church to commend and admonish her all the time.

Then in chapters 4 to 7, Revelation takes the reader once again through history and this time Christ reigning from heaven over His church on earth but the church experiences trials and persecutions, as the seven seals are opened to bring suffering upon God's people. But God is aware of His suffering church that is persecuted in the world and chapter 7 spoke of God having sealed His people so that they can never fall away from Him, and at the end of chapter 7, John saw a beautiful vision of heaven, where God's presence is found right amongst His people, and leading them to springs of living water and God wiping away every tear from their eyes. But the vision that John saw then remained a vision; it did not turn into reality there and then.

Again, the reader is taken through the course of history and he sees the effect upon the world as the seven trumpets are released. These are described in the chapters 8 to 11. The church in the world, persecuted and buffeted, cries out to God for deliverance, and God releases different woes upon mankind which are meant to warn the unrepentant and the unbelieving. Disasters and plagues of different kinds strike the earth and its people, and these will continue until at the end of time when the Lord will bring in His great and final judgment.

And so, with this seventh trumpet, we have once more arrived at the end of the world's history. And again we are to remember that what John sees here is given to him in a vision. In other words, the end of all things is introduced to the reader again; we are again reminded of where time and history are going, but the actual end is not yet.

Going on in chapter 12 of the book of Revelation looks at history yet once again from another point of view. Now in this particular vision of the consummation of history, John is shown things which have significance for God, Whom John describes as Lord, and significance for Christ, as well as significance for believers and unbelievers.

John hears loud voices in heaven, which probably are the voices of angels, and they say, "The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever."

What we are told here, congregation, is that the dominion or rule of the world is replaced by the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of God and of Christ. By this time you should not think that God will only begin to reign at the end of time.

No, we know from Scripture that He has always reigned, but at the end of the present world God will put down for good all opposition! Even though evil came into the world after the fall into sin and has made its terrible presence felt ever since, also in our lives and hearts, we must not suppose that Satan rules supreme, for he doesn't.

Psalm 2 pictures the real situation quite well. On the one hand you have nations and peoples conspiring against God and His anointed, Christ Jesus. This really takes place all the time in history. Kings and rulers take steps to prevent God from fully exercising His rule and dominion over all things. Those who do not want to bow before the authority of Christ, and who therefore also do not want to submit to His laws for living, are consciously or unconsciously resisting His will.

It has always been like that; unbelieving men pushing God away and putting themselves up as final authority. You see this happening all the time with some governments, organisations, unions of various kinds, and so on.

But now, whilst this is happening, God, on the other hand, laughs at all this. How can the creature ever hope to conduct his affairs on earth as though the Creator isn't there? The Church of Jesus Christ must never forget that all non-Christian elements in society are unable to last or give society real peace or maintain a proper and wholesome balance.

Many of them are plainly and openly destructive but none of them succeeds for very long because God has set His Christ on Zion, His holy hill. That is, Christ has conquered over evil, yes, over everything that is inclined to leave God out of things, by the very fact of His death and resurrection. And because of Christ, the Lord will break all opposition with a rod of iron and dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.

So, let us not think that because God's rule is not everywhere visibly present as yet, it does not for one moment suggest that God's reign isn't there. It's there, all right! The very existence of a Christian church in a hostile or so-called neutral world is already proof of God's reign.

But now this reign, or this power or rule of God will be completely visible at the end of history. This is the message of the seventh trumpet here. The kingdom of the world, and in that phrase all rules and powers upon the earth are included, this kingdom of the world will be replaced. It will come to an end, finish up, and God's Kingdom will be there in full for ever and always. The present world will be destroyed, all men will be judged and evil and wickedness overthrown completely and God will bring in the new heaven and the new earth where He will reign always.

Paul, in writing to the Corinthian Church, and speaking about similar things, put it like this: "Then the end will come, when Christ hands over the Kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For He must reign until God has put all His enemies under His feet" (1Cor.15:24-25).

Now, it is very likely, congregation, that when we hear all this, about God's Kingdom replacing the world's kingdom, that we are quite prepared to accept it but at the same time still treat it as some kind of fairy tale. In other words, do we really believe all this, that this seventh trumpet is bringing us? Have we that measure of faith that looks at these things, fully believes them, and that in turn, so effects our thinking and life-style in this world now, that we are very much characterised by an air of expectancy about us, with regard to the Lord's coming? It is so extremely easy for the church to limit its horizons and have them stretch no further than the kingdom of the world allows.

If people inquire about our well-being, then so often we speak in terms of what this worldly kingdom is offering us or withholding from us.

We think of the economic situations, of job opportunities, of the merits and demerits of the government of the day.

But only secondly and belatedly do we remember to think in terms of God's Kingdom. If the full coming of God's Kingdom were to depend on our enthusiasm for it, then we would probably never live to see it.

But now, let the Word of God here move you to a deep and living faith again with regard to God's Kingdom. Notice how it says that God will reign for ever and ever. Doesn't that immediately bring out a tremendous contrast between the kingdoms of the world and the Kingdom of God?

Think of the great empires that the world's history has seen: the Babylonian Empire, that of the Persians, the Medes and the Parthians, the Hellenistic and Roman Empires, the Holy Roman Empire of the popes and their political stooges, and then the great colonial empires of Britain, Holland, Spain and Portugal. More recently, the Third Reich of Nazi-Germany. But where, or what, are they re today? Some of them were mighty, strong, powerful, extensive. Today we have super-powers too: Russia, America.

And there is godless communism, humanistic socialism, decadent capitalism. But none of today's powers will last forever. They can act so powerfully, so impressively, but compared to God's Kingdom they are so puny, so ineffective. We hear again the words of the Psalmist, who, in his own day, looked at the temporal powers and said, referring to God: "He Who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision. Behold, He has set His King on Zion, His holy hill."

If only we had a bit more of the vision of that Psalmist, or of John here in Revelation. Think of what a difference it would make to ourselves, to our outlook upon life and the world! Think of how eager we would be in praying: "Come Lord Jesus, come quickly!" And how we would try and be busy in claiming all things for our King, Jesus Christ, already here and now.

So often, we are content to let God do it all by Himself with regard to the bringing in of His Kingdom. We so often forget that God has made us new in Christ in order to reign with Him and make some preparations even now that will promote the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Suppose for a moment that this country in which we live is under a foreign power that is extremely oppressive. All our liberties are taken away; we are no longer a free people. But then we hear that another power is coming to overcome the oppressor and give us back our freedom, our dignity, and our rights. What would we do in the meantime? Comply with the wishes and whims of the oppressor at every point? Help and assist the cruel tyrant? Of course not! We would offer resistance, organise underground movements, restrict and oppose the rule of the oppressor wherever we can. We would try and make things ready for our liberators, so that their coming is made the easier.

But now that's exactly what the church of Christ ought to be doing in the world as she awaits the full coming of her King and Lord. Remember, the Kingdom of God and of Christ will come in the place of the kingdom of the world, and God will reign for ever and ever.

Perhaps we can be reminded again of how we ought to glorify God in all this when we look at the worship of God of the 24 elders who are around the throne. It is some time since John has mentioned the 24 elders, but they represent the entire Church of God, both past, present and future. They even represent us, which brings out the grace of God in that He has sanctified us when we are still so full of shortcomings..

They bow before God and worship Him when they hear about God's Kingdom. They give thanks to God and speak of Him as the One Who is and Who was. Notice that they do not add "and Who is to come”, as was done on earlier occasions. The reason is, of course, that in this vision the Lord has come. There is no more a future.

The 24 elders, representing the entire Church, are also thankful that God has made use of all His great power and has begun to reign. God has decisively dethroned evil and entered on His reign.

Verse 18 speaks of the nations being angry and that the wrath of God has come. The verse announces the judgment of God at the last day. John spoke of it before and he mentioned how those who had not worshipped God and had rebelled against Him, or had remained decidedly neutral about Him, how they cringed before the wrath of the Lamb and scurried for shelter under rocks and in holes and caves of the mountains. And now, here again, the time of God's judgment has arrived.

This judgment will be just. God's punishment will fit whatever crime has been committed against Him and His Church on earth. In this sense the seventh trumpet is very much a herald of woe, just like the foregoing trumpets were. It is the final woe because from it there will be no appeal. With all the foregoing trumpets there was still time and opportunity for wicked men to repent before God. But once the seventh trumpet has sounded, then that's it. There will be no more time left to repent. The time of damnation and hell has arrived for all who do not worship Christ.

And we must not have some false pity for the unrepentant. Sometimes people have the fond hope that God might give them one more chance after death. But it is an utterly false hope. Time and opportunity for repenting and believing is in this life and God goes to considerable length to warn people.

But, using the words of one of Jesus' parables, "if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, then they will not be persuaded even if one rises from the dead!" Meaning, that if they are not prepared to repent and believe on account of what the Word of God says, then nothing else will bring them to that, not even a miracle. Or, if they hear not the first six trumpets, if they can't wake up to the warnings of God in the disasters and catastrophes that strike the world and its people, then neither will the seventh trumpet change anything. There is no more time left, no more future, for with the seventh trumpet eternity has arrived, and eternity knows of no time as we know it now.

If, by the time the seventh trumpet is sounded and any man has not repented, then by that time the bent or inclination of their heart and will is firmly fixed and they are beyond redemption. Then what is said in Revelation 22:11 will become effective: "He that is unjust, let him remain unjust; he that is filthy, let him remain filthy." (A.V.).

However, God's final judgment has not only application for the wicked; it also has a bearing upon those who are redeemed in Christ. God's servants, who are described as prophets, saints and those who fear God's Name, will be rewarded, both small and great.

It simply means that all of God's children will receive from the Lord their due reward. God will judge them in Christ and for that reason they will enter the new earth where they will forever enjoy the reward of God upon their labours in His Kingdom before it was fully established. There is again an implied warning here that if we are to be richly rewarded on the new earth, then we must be busy now in obeying and serving Christ, the King.

But those who opposed God and destroyed the earth, they in turn will be destroyed by God. Destroyers of the earth are all those who have used the earth and its resources to their own glory and harmful use. And there is of course food for thought in that, too. Just how do we use God's earth and its resources?

Then, finally, John sees heaven open, revealing to him God's temple which in turn openly displays the ark of the covenant. It is quite significant that in this particular vision, John sees the ark. In the old Testament, the ark was, of course, in the temple and it symbolised the mercy and faithfulness of God (Ex.25:22) to His covenant people. The ark contained the tablets of the law, revealing the will of God for His people. The ark in the O.T.. times was not fully accessible to all, for it stood in the holy of holies. But now, in this vision, the ark is seen in the open.

Symbolically, it all points to the faithfulness and mercy of the God of the covenant. He will be in full view of His covenant people, and they will see and experience His real, intimate and perfect fellowship as they dwell with Him in the new heaven and new earth.

Once, a long time ago, God had promised Abraham: “I will be God to you and to your descendants after you." It was to be an everlasting covenant. And Psalm 2 reminds us that the nations will be the heritage of Christ and the ends of the earth His possession. And God's covenant people hear that they may share with Christ in these covenant blessings for ever and ever upon the new heaven and earth.

Then in fitting signs to God's power and majesty, the vision ends with John hearing and seeing flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hail storm.

For those in Christ they are indicative of God's power and might, but for the wicked and unrepentant they are frightening signs of God's judgment to come.

AMEN.