In this sermon, the speaker discusses the opening of the seven-sealed book in the book of Revelation. As the book is opened, terrible things begin to happen on earth as God works to reclaim and restore the world. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding that the events described in the book are not happening in the present, but will occur in the future. The sermon also highlights the need for believers to pray and seek God's grace for their loved ones who will go through difficult times during these events.

He bleedeth me, O blessed thoughts, O words with heavenly comfort thoughts. For there I do, where there I be, still tis God's hand that bleedeth me. 5.22 please. Revelation, chapter eight, and we have thirteen verses in the chapter, and to expound it properly, we need to look at every verse and every phrase in every verse. I'm going to take the time to look right through this chapter this evening. Let's try to recapture what we found in chapter five and six and seven before we come to eight this evening. If you look back with me at chapter five, you'll find that our Lord Jesus is standing before the throne in verse six. And I beheld, and lo in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain. And verse seven says, he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And we saw our Lord Jesus Christ taking this book out of the hand of God. And then in chapter six, the lamb began to open the book. Verse one, and I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals. And right down through chapter six he's opening this book. And as he opens these seals, terrible things happen down on this earth. We see our Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God here, as the executor of the will of God for the reclaiming of this old world for his glory. And as the book is opened and the will of God is unfurled, terrible things happen because God is going to clear up this mess. We have already in this class noticed that he has taken the church home at the end of chapter three and the beginning of chapter four. So the church is home, the Lord has the book, he's opening the seal, and chapter six, terrible things happen. Six of the seals of this seven-sealed book were opened in chapter six. Tonight we're going to see the seventh seal being opened. And of course, chapter seven came in between six and eight. It was a barren technical chapter. We saw God sealing off the hundred and forty-four thousand Jews before the storm of the fury of his wrath would hit this world. And then we saw great company that he by his grace brought out of the great tribulation. Not brought through and brought out of it. The church was brought out before it began. This crowd was brought out in the midst of it. There'll be a crowd brought out at the end of it, too. We'll stop here this evening and we're going to see this seventh seal being opened. Verse one. And when he, the Lord Jesus, had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. This must have been a terrible solemn hush that came in heaven. You know, when we were back in chapter five, you remember that the redeemed were singing that great eternal redemption song. And when we think of the countless multitudes that stood together and this great song rang out. Why were they all stopped? What a moment it must have been. It's all heaven, just a hush. We talk about the hush of heaven sometimes. Would you remember way back in chapter four that the beasts were crying, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty. And they were crying continually. And they stopped. The redeemed stopped singing. And the beasts stopped shouting, Holy, Holy, Holy. You remember at the end of chapter five that we saw the angels and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands. And they were saying, worthy is the Lamb. And they stopped talking. My, when all heaven was singing, and the beasts were shouting, and the angels were saying, and the witnesses out of chapter six were supplicating. Do you remember them too? I saw the tone of them that were saying, and they were supplicating. With all the supplication, and all the saying, and all the praising, and all the shouting, and all the singing, it's all silent now. It must mean something, this thing. I think that God has communicated to everybody in heaven that he's about to deal with all on earth in the fierceness of the fury of his wrath. Makes heaven stand still. This whole world of ours doesn't know what's coming to it in the not too far distant future. Maybe they would stop shooting if they did. Well, that's just the silence. Let's look at the next verse. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God. How stately they must have stood there. Wish we could picture this, God on his throne. The Lord Jesus is opening the seals. And as he opens the seven seals, silence reigns in heaven. And seven angels step up, stand stately before God. Let's try to see these seven shining angels standing. Their turn has come to serve God as he wants them to. It says here, and I saw the seven angels which stood before God. And to them were given seven trumpets. I have a feeling that the Lord Jesus gave them the trumpets. For all judgment has been given unto him. And these trumpets are going to herald the coming wounds for this earth. These are the heralders of the terrible things that are going to happen on earth. And as each one sounds, terrible things happen down here below. And so I think you can see that silent space, how solemn these seven servants are stately. Verses three and four go together. And another angel came and stood at the altar having a golden censer. And there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. You know what a censer is, don't you? Well, it was a little vessel that the high priest carried and the old economy in the tabernacle. And burning coals could be held in it and incense was laid upon it so that the place was filled with the fragrance of the incense. Of course the burning coals and the incense were symbolical of the sufferings and the efficacy of the sufferings of Christ. And of course of the prayers of these saints. And when I'm talking about the prayers of these saints and this chapter is talking about the prayers of these saints, I think that these are the prayers of these souls in chapter six who cried with a loud voice saying, O Lord holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the face of the earth? And added to these cries for vengeance from those who were slain in the great tribulation, added to them is now the value of Christ's sacrifice and the fragrance of the efficacy, everlasting efficacy of Christ's work. I think you can see this and we don't want to waste with it very much. See those flies? And the angel took the censer and filled it with fire off the altar and cast it, that is the fire, into the earth. And there were voices and thunderings and lightnings in the earth. Before these angels, with the trumpets heralded at all, this angel cast trial on the earth. It's only an introduction to what's coming. We're going to look at four of these angels sounding this evening. And every time an angel sounds or heralds, fire comes to this earth. You know, this word fire and this subject of fire and this doctrine of fire is a tremendous one. Sometimes if you abide by this word very carefully and you'll find it will amaze you. I don't mean to tell this meeting that fire can come from the bowels of the earth. I don't mean to tell you that. If you've been looking at the TV, you must have noticed what's going on in Iceland. I was up at Iceland some years ago and in that little village that's now being absolutely buried, beautiful little place it was. And the old mountains throwing out fire. All fire can come from the bowels of the earth, you know, when God wants it. Sometimes I wonder is it not judgment on them up there? They think they own the sea and everything else. Maybe they're thinking now. Of course, you know, fire not only comes from the bowels of the earth, but fire can come down from God. Real fire. Sometimes when I expound some of these things, you'll get some of the lads coming back afterwards and saying, is this literal fire? Yes, sir, we're talking about literal fire. Let me turn you back to the book of Genesis for a moment. And we're at chapter 19. Book of Genesis, chapter 19. It's the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and we don't want to waste time with it. It says in verse 24, Genesis 19, 24. Then the Lord reigned upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah, bringing strong arms of fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground. Verse 27, 7. Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord. He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain and beheld and, oh, the smoke of the country went up out of the smoke of the furnace. Do you think it was literal? You like to come and argue with me because you look a fool. I can tell you that God burned Sodom and Gomorrah and everything that grew upon the ground. You like to come and argue. My, you're good at spiritualizing, aren't you? Well, have a go at it. It was actually literal, wasn't it? Indeed it was. And that's what I tell you. If you go through the book, you'll find that fire comes from different angles. There'll be two witnesses on the face of this earth in the tribulation, and there will be times when they will bring fire and destroy folks around. Of course, if you don't know that God's almighty, you might question that. Yes, let's get the hold of this, that this angel has cast literal fire upon the earth, and it's only an introduction to what's about to happen. Let's go back to Revelation chapter 8, and now we commence the story properly. Verse 6, And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound it. The first angels sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth. Is that literal? And the third part of trees. Are they literal? And all green grass was burnt up. Is this literal? Of course it's literal. You know, if you take some of the old commentaries written two or three hundred years ago, or maybe a little bit more, you will find that all the old expositors were afraid to talk about literal fire burning the earth and burning the trees. The kids going to school tonight know what can be done. You only need to go and ask them in Hiroshima about it, and they'll tell you. See, this wee island that we argue so much about, it's got a little border and a few fields on that side and a few on the other side. I was giving some talks at Queen's once, and sitting at the back of the university that day was a scientist, an atomic energy scientist, who was working then with Dr. Penney, who was reckoned to be the greatest British atomic scientist we had. And this scientist came up and said to me, I want you to write out something you said for me. And as I was scribbling this out for him, I said, what do you teach here? He said, I'm just here lecturing on atomic energy. I work with Dr. Penney. So I knew I'd come into contact with a real atomic scientist. I'd got to learn from all angles. I said, do you mind me asking you a few questions? If you're not allowed by the government to answer, you just say you can't answer and I'll not be offended. He said, I don't mind. I said, you know, I'm a sort of an ignoramus. I have to put things in my way and you'll not mind that. You've got a big city here with 600,000, maybe 700,000 people. Tell me this, can you bring a plane over? Can they drop a bomb off? Can you burn and blister 700,000 people in a split second? Can you do that? He said, Mr. Volunteer, it's a thousand times beyond that. He said, we can bring a plane over and drop a bomb out and you won't see this island anymore. Can be done tonight, you know. Every blade of grass. Every tree. Every man, woman and child. Every insect. Every animal. Blisters. Blush. Get off. Go take a beer. You like to argue with me. It's time to go. Ah, you must be living in the dark. There's no problems about this being literal. And let me tell you, it will be let loose yet. The Lord Jesus is coming one of these nights to take the church of Jesus Christ away. And into this thing that we will leave behind will step the Antichrist out of this common market that he is so pleased about. It's all that seems to be in his mind these days. But the Lord's not just gone to let the Antichrist run the show without throwing a spanner or two in the works. We have been looking at the four horsemen. We have been looking at the opening of the other six fields. Now here's the seventh one being opened. Here is now this first angel sounding. And look at the wording. A third part of trees. And all green grass was burnt up. You see the first angel that stepped out from the seven or before the seven, he cast fire onto the earth. And I think that what we are learning is this. That the third part of everything on the earth was burnt up. What a horrible day it will be. But let's go a bit further with it. Verse eight. And the second angel sounded. And as it were, and we must take the scriptures as they're given to us. As it were a great mountain burning. Now it is not a mountain burning, but it's the only language he can use to describe it. As it were. Sometimes I think he says a lot of these little phrases. Somebody came to argue with me once and said, Look, there couldn't be such a thing as a mountain fallen out of the heavens. I said it never said there was. We just don't get it properly, but just take your time. It's like the day of Pentecost when it says, As it were, flames were fire. But it doesn't say it was flames. That's the only way he can. As it were, a rushing mighty wind. But it's not a rushing mighty wind. It's the only way he has to describe it. If Rita did as well, he'll be alright. This is something that John cannot properly describe. It's something that's coming out of the heavens. Some meteorite explosion of fire. All the scientists could paint it for you better than I can. They know the things which can happen. It says, And the burnt parts of the sea became blood. And the burnt parts of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died. And the burnt parts of the ships were destroyed. You know, God is going to take this whole world and make the kingdoms of this world the kingdoms of his Christ. First of all, he'll take the church out. Then he'll start to deal with everything that's evil. And he's going to burn a third part of everything that's on the earth, and he's going to burn a third part of everything that's around the earth. There are ships and fissures. He's going to burn it. You know, when we think of this atmosphere that's above us, this heavenly atmosphere, and we think of all the atoms, and we think of all that can be done, I wonder if God is going to explode the whole thing on them. My, they're going in for building ships at some rate just now, aren't they? Ireland and Russia are so thankful, and so are all the other people too, and all the cottage firms too. You see, this is the commercial lens of the world. Are we, God, going to come against the vegetable world and the commercial world? We're going to burn the trees and the grass and every other thing included in the vegetable world. He's going to deal with this commercially. He's going to put a banner in the workshop. Yes, this European community is going to get a bit of a knock. And then we go on a little bit further. Just watch it again. Verse 10. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp. And you can see the as it were. And it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters. And the name of the star is called Wormwood. Just bitter. It's the old Artemisia tree, of course. And the third part of the waters became Wormwood, and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter. You know, this is exactly what atomic energy did in heresy. Not only did it blister everything, not only did it burn for miles and miles and miles, and then the fallout came. Ah, but the atomic energy went on down into the streams and into the wells of water. Well, there you touch it. You're going to be contaminated, aren't you? So that the third part of everything that's on the earth, the third part of everything that's around the earth, and the third part of everything that's on the earth. Oh, there's a horrible day coming. That's the bit we want to get the hold of. God is going to shake the show, isn't there? Man has talked about this atomic energy so long, and the Russians are piling up inventions that we can't properly understand, and the Americans are doing the same, and so are the Chinese. Going to go off on a bang one night. They say some man will do it. Ah, maybe God will do it. Wonderful book. It was written a long time ago. This was written in AD 96, and the old expositors were afraid. They say, you can't burn the earth. You can't burn the ships. You can't burn the undergrounds. Can you not now? The kids going to school now know you can. The Bible's getting easier, you know, as we go along. I can understand the problems of the expositors of long ago. The thing is clear to us tonight. There isn't any problem with the literal exposition of this tonight. None whatsoever. In fact, it's terribly clear now. But watch this. Verse 12. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars. So as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. Can you see what's painted on the page for you? As this seventh seal is opened, God is going to smite with fire a third part of everything that's on the earth, and a third part of everything that's around the earth, and a third part of everything that's under the earth, when we think of the streams and the wells, and a third part of everything that's above the earth. Sun, moon, stars. Oh, one of these mothers has said to me, one of those, don't do this, don't do this. This doesn't mean the sun, this doesn't mean the moon, this doesn't mean the stars. Right you are, I said. Well, I should be kidding. I know the sun is going to be kidding with me. When God talks about the sun, and the moon, and the stars, what's he talking about? The sun up there, and the moon, and the stars. He's on a dope storm, no? I don't know, they've got to go back to school. My dear friends, atomic energy is a tremendous thing. You know, we're fiddling about, or our scientists, our mad scientists, are fiddling about with something that's really terrible. And I have a feeling that they're going to fiddle and fiddle until they pull a whole ceiling down on the top of our heads. That's what they're going to do. They're going to make a mess, you know. And God is trying to tell us. I'm going to take the church out one of these, I thank God I'm saved. I'll not be here when it happens, you know. I'll be singing in heaven. Friend, let's stop and think. I want you fathers and mothers to think. Think about the kids now. Are they saying, are you going to leave this land of sin and sorrow for the better summer land one of these nights? What about the kids? Do you know what they're going into? Because they're going into something that's terrible. Have you got the vision of this? Did you come and take on? I'm not just trying to educate you, you know, so that you'll know what's in store for you. I'm trying to remind you. Because if you could see this properly, it would work out practically in your life. You know, we should be down on our faces like we've never been down before. We're leaving this place one of these days. There's going to be boys and girls left behind. Some of our sons and daughters are going to be left behind. And terrible things are going to happen. Isn't it time you were praying? Young woman, have you got an old mother back at home tonight sitting at the fire now, looking at the old silly television, have you? Because you're leaving her one of these nights. And she's going to go through a rough time. But you have never got the grace yet to come and pray for her in the prayer meeting, should you have? Are you as dead as Hector or older than Duchess? It's time we woke up, you know. It's been a book a long time. It's clear enough. You don't need to get excited to expand it. It's so, so good. What are you doing about it? Yes, it's a terrible thing. God is going to burn a third part of everything that's on the earth and everything that's around the earth and everything that's under the earth and everything that's above the earth. But you know, that's only the first step. That's only the first trumpet. See what the chapter ends with this evening. And I beheld, that is John beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven saying with a loud voice, woo, woo, woo, to the inhabiters of the earth. I wonder who you think the inhabiters of the earth is. I hope you don't think the church is the inhabiters. Because here we have no continuance of it. Our citizenship is in heaven. My dear friends, the church have left that scene long ago. It's just the inhabiters of the earth that this is talking to. Woo to the inhabiters of the earth. By reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to sound. Only four of them have sounded. Three to go. And the three that are to go are worse. You say they can't be much worse, can they? Not now. Just let us go from there into chapter nine for a moment. I'm not going to steal anything out of it. But I'm going to show you the days that are in chapter nine, verse six. See this. And in those days shall men seek death. And shall not find it. And shall desire to die. And death shall flee from them. Headmaster of one of the royal schools in Ulster came to see me one evening. And this is one of the problems he brought. He said, you know, this book cannot be right. Because it says here, and in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it. He says, that can't be right. If I were seeking death I could shoot myself. I could take strychnine. I could do a thousand things that would take my life away. I said, you know, Master, you're forgetting one little phrase. We're not talking about these days. We're talking about those days. And in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it. I said, you must know, Master, that there will come a day on this earth when certain things will happen and God will allow them to happen that men who will seek to die will not be able to die. He said, it's impossible. And I said, now it's a great pity of you because you've just shown me how ignorant you are. And then I began to expound through the chapter. Because chapter nine, you know, has to deal with demon possession. Because God is not only going to burn the third part of everything that's on the earth and the third part of everything that's around the earth and the third part of everything that's under the earth and the third part of everything that's above the earth but at the same time, same psychological moment, he's going to let all the demons loose and men and women in the flame will become demon possessed. I don't think you know properly about demon possession. You know, there was a man in the tombs once and he cut himself with rocks. Cut his face with rocks, cut his breath with rocks. He wore no clothes. He slept out every night. I didn't take pneumonia or anything like that. Not a bit of it. It saved him, he just smashed him. There was a little fellow possessed with demons. He kept going into the fire, he kept going into the river. He never got burned or drowned. A little black fellow came to my door once, just thought, there he is, face shined as black as your boots. He said, are you the pastor? I said, will he moan upon me? Don't like this old pastor business. Annoyed me. Oh, we're nearly all birthday cards pastor. Ah, baloney. Pastor's not 62. Just will he moan 62. I brought him in. Oh, love him. He belonged to the brethren. And in the course of the afternoon he told me about his brother in the West Indies. His brother joined some cults that were all devil possessed. He said, I saw this, I saw this Mr. Moss. He set himself in a tent for three weeks. And after he had sat there and ate nothing, and had given every particle of his body over to these demons, to prove to this tribe that he was properly demon possessed, he had to now come out at the end of three weeks. A hundred yards from the tent, with a big fire, had to be ten feet in diameter. It had to be blazing into the heavens. He must come naked out of the tent. He must jump into the middle of the flames and lie down. Then I saw him do it. And after being there for some minutes, he walked through. He's not even blistered. Brother Hare sings. Do you know anything about demon possession? Because that's what we're going into next week. Horrible times coming. May God revive us. We're singing. Six hundred and sixty-one, please. Six hundred and sixty-one. My times are in my hand. My God, I wish them there. Six hundred and sixty-one, please. Lord, we feel like saying, thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy great salvation. Because it's not only salvation from the penalty of sin. Not only salvation from the power of sin each day. Salvation from the whole plight of sin that will come upon this world. Salvation one day from the very presence of sin. Lord, part us in thy fear. And with thy blessing, take us home in safety. And again, we ask thy tender mercy to be upon the rebels. And thy grace to be towards not we with a woman this evening. Part us with thy blessing for Christ's sake. Amen.