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Praise and Prayer
The World has Gone Crazy
In the last few chapters, we have studied the future period of time known as the great tribulation, which is described by the seven-sealed book.
As the seals were broken and the book was open, we saw the horrors prophesied about the great tribulation.
We missed last week and we will miss next wee due to V.B.S, but tonight we will look at the sixth trumpet found in Revelation 9:13-21.
As we look around at a world that is in chaos, we must wonder how much more chaotic will it be during the great tribulation!
Thankfully, the church will be raptured, and we will not have to experience that torment.
There are five factors from our text that we will see tonight.
I.
The Prayer Factor
What is the golden altar?
In the tabernacle in heaven, there is a golden altar called the altar of prayer.
In the days when the Israelite priests worshipped in the earthly tabernacle, there was also a golden altar.
If you had been able to go into the earthly tabernacle, the first thing you would have seen was the outer court where a fire burned continually in a brazen altar.
This fire represented the holiness of God and His judgment against sin.
The priests would sacrifice a spotless animal on that altar, which represented the Lord Jesus Christ dying for our sins.
The inner court (the holy of holies) contained the golden altar (the mercy seat).
It had four horns on each corner (the horns speak of power).
On the Day of Atonement each year, the high priest walked into the holy of holies and sprinkled blood from an animal sacrifice on the golden altar.
This offering represented the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the propitiation of our sins.
When the offering was burned, the high priest then burned incense on the golden altar from morning until evening.
This incense represented our prayers to heaven in the power of the blood.
We see this in Scripture in Revelation 5:8
We also see it in Psalm 141:2
Knowing our prayers are like incense before His throne gives us a little more insight into our prayer life.
But do you ever feel like you pray and pray, and yet nothing happens?
Perhaps you think God hasn’t heard your prayer or God heard and said no.
Others share in how you feel:
God says in, Revelation 8:3
Are you a saint?
You are if you are saved.
Your prayer has been heard.
Ron Dunn, who was an outstanding preacher before he went home to heaven, said that prayer is the Christian’s secret weapon and that it is like an intercontinental ballistic missile.
He went on to give five factors about prayer:
1. Prayers can be fired from any spot.
Mr. Dunn said, sometimes I will take a young person to a certain spot in my office, and I say, Do you see that spot on the carpet?
You can go to anywhere in the world from that spot.
In the same way you can launch a prayer from any spot on earth.
2. Prayers can travel undetected at the speed of light.
Dunn said, I don’t know where heaven is or how far away it is, but your prayer can reach heaven faster than the speed of light.
3. Prayers hit the target every time.
The Father is always listening to His children, and He hears each and every prayer.
4. Satan has no defense against prayer.
Satan does not have an anti-prayer missile that can prevent your prayer from reaching heaven.
5. Prayers often have a delayed detonation.
Prayer delayed is not prayer denied.
God has His own schedule, and if you prayed to God about something, that prayer did not fall to the ground; that prayer is still in heaven.
II.
The Power Factor
It is so easy to divert our eyes from God and get deceived by Satan’s power.
Indeed, I would venture to say that all of us at one time or another have thought God was up in heaven wringing His hands and walking around saying, What am I going to do?
But we must recognize the power factor.
The Euphrates River is both the cradle and the grave of human civilization.
It is the river that divides the East from the West.
We say, East is east and West is west , and never the twain shall meet.
One of these days, in the great tribulation, they will meet in a great conflict.
The book of Genesis tells us: Genesis 2:10
One of these four rivers was the Euphrates, Genesis 2:14
In Genesis 10:8-10 we see a man named Nimrod (who was an Old Testament picture of the Antichrist) and led the building of the Tower of Babel, the first world empire, alongside the Euphrates River in Genesis 11:1-9.
And alongside the Euphrates River is where Saddam Hussein reigned in Iraq.
Dictators like these are only tools in the hands of the prince of Babylon, Satan.
In His sovereign wisdom and power, God is restraining four of the most wicked and powerful of all the demonic fallen angels (we might call them the filthy four) who have been given dominion over the four world empires.
When He is ready in the fullness of time, God will give His permission to release them.
And when that happens, and I do not mean this jokingly all hell will break loose.
To understand a little about these four demonic powers, let’s look at a prayer Daniel offered that God did not answer immediately.
Who is the prince of the kingdom of Persia?
It certainly wasn’t an earthly man who could do battle with an angel.
I believe the prince of the kingdom of Persia was one of these four angels that are bound here.
The story continues in Daniel 10:20-21
Wicked demons rule over world empires.
How do we know this?
Well Paul told us this in Ephesians 6:12
Have you ever wondered why government officials are unable to negotiate with some of these countries?
It is because they are trying to negotiate with men and not the evil power behind those men’s actions.
But let us never forget that despite the power of these rulers of darkness, there is only so much they can do.
Satan cannot do whatever he wants when he wants.
The Bible says, 1 John 4:4
God allows Satan to do certain things.
Satan wanted to sift Peter as wheat, but he had to get God’s permission.
Luke 22:31-32
Satan wanted to harm Job, but he had to get God’s permission: Job 1:6-12
In some measure Satan is restrained on a leash.
There is not some sort of conflict that has God on one side and Satan on the other, while we wait to see who will win.
Satan is a created being.
He may be sinister, but God is sovereign.
Robert Louis Stevenson told a story about a ship on a rocky coastline during a storm.
The sailors beneath the waterline were being tossed and turned.
They knew the danger and were wondering how they were going to make it.
One of the sailors could take it no longer, so he left his duty, went up to the pilothouse, pushed open the door, and say the captain steering the ship.
The captain knew the sailor was worried, and without saying a word, he turned and smiled.
The sailor returned below deck and said, Don’t worry.
It’s all right.
I have seen the captain, and he smiled at me.
Corrie ten Boom said, Look at the world, you will be distressed.
Look within, you will be depressed.
Look at Christ, you will be at rest.
We must keep our eyes on Him in a world that is so chaotic.
III.
The Purpose Factor
The words hour, day, month, and year are not talking about actual periods of time.
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