People are being martyred for their faith in India, in Pakistan, in countries all over the world. This is a day when the blood of the saints is being shed, and God hears that, because the blood cries out. He will do something about it, so let's have a look what He does, and of course people don't always necessarily like this part of it. I don't even understand all of it, but let's just read in Revelations, Chapter 8 and read a few verses there, then I want to get focussed on just how we should respond in the light that Jesus is a judge. Now remember John saw this, this hasn't happened yet, and what John saw - Verse 1 - He opened the seventh seal, and he saw seals open, and he saw some bowls released. There was silence in heaven for about half an hour, and I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. And 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 before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel's hand.
So notice the first thing you see is incense. Incense is the prayers of God's people. Now notice what happens when God's people pray, so it's picturing that in the end time, there will be a revival of prayer in the church globally. The church will begin to rediscover the power of prayer, and arise to pray, and some things are going to happen that the only parallel in history is in Egypt, and you can read that in the Book of Exodus, where God literally brought judgements on a nation, so He could release His people and get them free into the Promised Land - so read Exodus again if you want to see what God's judgements look like. Try to put yourself in it, and imagine the fear of it all, the horror of it all. But the Bible is very clear in Exodus 12:12, God was judging the Gods of Egypt. He was dealing with the idolatry and spiritism of Egypt, and the way it manifested in the culture. He was addressing the spirit world, to tear down and humiliate it, and show His sovereign power. All who responded to Him, whether they were Egyptian or Israeli, who responded and believed were saved.
He didn't make any distinction. On the way through the judgements, He distinguished between His people and the Egyptian people, and that some of the curses that came on the Egyptian people never came on God's people at all. They were in the middle of it, and untouched by it. Now that's a great thing and hope for us; you can be in the middle of something, and untouched by it. In the midst of all those judgements, God still extended mercy, that all who believed were saved. Isn't that a wonderful thing? So no matter what it tells us here is going to happen in the end times, there's a couple of things you can be sure of, if we look at the first situation in Exodus. One is, God's people will have His hand on them - if you're walking with Him - and secondly, that there be opportunity for all people to be saved in the midst of these difficulties. You've noticed how tragedy has a way of softening hearts, and people tend to turn to the Lord; it's unfortunate, but it's the hardness of man's pride.
So you notice then it says: the trumpets sounded, in the Bible. Whenever a trumpet sounded, it spoke of a message. It was a prophetic message, and the trumpets were used for a number of things; one was used to declare war, another it was used to announce a king's enthronement, so it says: the trumpets began to sound one after the other, seven trumpets. Each trumpet, as it sounded, something happened in the earth. Now have a look at this. This hasn't yet happened, and it will happen, and it is progressive, and it gets more serious as it goes on, but it ends in great victory. That's the best part of it. Look at it, it says - He said the angel took the censer, filled it with fire, threw it on the eart,h and there were noises, thunderings, lightnings and an earthquake. Wow! So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.