Thank you for that prayer, Robert,
especially for my back. Really, I'm supposed to go in
in about a week or two to get another procedure done. And the
doctor swears up and down it's going to fix me. And I don't
know how I'm going to walk out of his office or not, whether
I'm fixed or not. But I like your prayer too, Robert,
because praise for anticipated back problems. You know, if we
live long enough, we're gonna get there. In one way or another. But you know, it is a, you know,
this body, Romans 8, 10, I quote this all the time, don't I? I
said, the body is dead because of sin. And that's, our physical
bodies are in the process of dying. We may live to be 100,
you know, Methuselah lived to be 969, but he still died. And
so, but it says, and here's what we bank on, the Spirit, the Holy
Spirit is life because of righteousness. And that's where we look to Christ.
And so we know that this life is not forever. We know that
back problems will go away when we leave this life and go to
be with our Lord, but thank God for that. Well, let's get into
this message in Revelation chapter 10. I've entitled it, A Little
Book, Big Message. And that's what this is about.
It's a little book, a big message. We've been talking about the
trumpets of judgment. You know, we began talking about
the big seven-sealed book back up in Revelation 5, which is
the book of God's purposes, God's plan for all of creation throughout
all ages. That's the big book. And Christ,
it was a seven-sealed book, and Christ, the Lamb of God, was
the only one who was worthy to open that book. We can talk about
the future. We can talk about the past. God
has already worked his sovereign will in the past. It's not been
out of his control. God only knows what's gonna be
in the future. We know that his will be done. The scripture says that. We know
that Christ is coming again. We don't know when. We know it's
sooner than what it was. We don't try to find the date
and the time because the Bible says that we're not to do that.
We are informed in the Bible in various places of things that
are going to transpire up until the time that he comes. And it's
not a pretty picture, is it, for the earth? In fact, This,
what we have here, we've been talking about these trumpets
of judgment, and we just looked at last week, the sixth trumpet,
and then we're coming to the seventh trumpet, and that'll
finish the trumpets of judgment. But think about judgment. Now,
judgment, to an unbeliever, ought to be a terror. To an unbeliever. To stand before God at judgment
without Christ. I can think of nothing more horrible. And especially those who stand
before God at judgment without Christ, but who think that they're
all right, who think that they're going to pass this judgment.
That's why the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5, he said,
knowing the terror of the Lord, we seek to persuade men. I know
the terror of the Lord. for a sinner, whether it be me,
you, or whoever, the best of us, the worst of us, and everybody
in between, who comes to the judgment without Christ, without
His blood to wash away my sins, without His righteousness. You
know, there's a picture in the Bible, and it's a metaphor, But
it's a good metaphor because it gives us some idea of how
horrible this thing is. If you're not clothed in Christ's
righteousness, imputed, charged, accounted to you, the merits
of his obedience unto death, and you stand before God, you
stand there in filthy rags. And it doesn't matter how good
you think they look, the works of men, The Bible says that our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags before God because they
do not measure up. Over in Revelation 11, it's gonna
talk about measuring the temple. Do we measure up? Well, how do
I measure up? Well, I work hard. I don't miss
a Sunday. And if I'm really a super Christian,
I don't miss a Wednesday, that kind of thing. No, that's not
how we measure up. The only way we can measure up
as sinners is to be saved and secure by the grace of God. And the Bible says grace reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So somebody who thinks they're
gonna stand before God and said, well, I joined the church, I
made a decision, I did this, I did that, what a terror it's
going to be. But for the people of God in
Christ, judgment is nothing to be feared because we've already
been judged. You say, well, Pastor, when have
we been judged? We were judged at the cross. Because our sins,
having been laid on Christ, the Bible says He bore our iniquities. Our sins, having been imputed
to Him, He went under the justice of God and took the full measure
of God's wrath at that time for our sins. And James and Jackson, that's
what you're testifying of when you go into the baptismal pool.
You're saying that when Christ died, he died for you. When he
was buried, he was buried for you. When he arose again, he
arose again for you. You come up out of the water.
That's what baptism is. It pictures the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ. That's why we don't sprinkle.
That's why we don't pour. And it's for believers who are
identified with Christ. That's what it's for. And in
the New Testament, it is the first public confession of a
sinner saved by grace, of their identification with Christ. He's
my Savior, He's my righteousness. And so our sins were judged on
the cross. And when we appear before God,
it's not to be judged again, it's to be declared and vindicated
before the whole universe that we're the people of God. Isn't
that a joy? So we don't have to fear judgment.
But these trumpets of judgment, these are manifestations on earth
in various ways through sickness, pestilence, wars, all kinds of
negative things that are manifestations of God's judgment against the
sins of people on this earth and they are like a clarion call.
That's why it's called trumpet judgments. It's announcing to
you and to me and to all of us, prepare to meet your God. Prepare. It is appointed unto
people once to die and after that the judgment. Prepare to
meet your God. For some of us, it may be sooner.
For others, it may be later. But it's coming. How am I going
to stand before God at the judgment? Will I stand on my own, bragging
about my decisions, my experiences, my works? Or will I stand before
him, saved by his grace, dressed in righteousness given to me
by Christ. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name, on Christ the solid rock
I stand. And all other ground is sinking
sand. You understand that? Well, here
in Revelation 10, we have what we might say is an interlude.
between the sixth trumpet and the seventh, the final trumpet.
Trumpet judgments. The sixth trumpet has sounded.
It spoke of wars, conflicts. These are judgments of God against
the sins of men. These are like pre-warnings. And it's all leading to the revelation
of the seventh trumpet, the final judgment, the final end of all
things, and all the people of God. Here's something. We're gonna be talking about
the bittersweet word of God, the bittersweet gospel. Well,
here's the sweetness of it. If you're in Christ, you're safe,
you're secure, you're blessed. And let me say this. You're safe,
secure, and blessed, but you didn't deserve one blessing,
and you didn't earn one blessing. It's all given freely, unconditionally,
by the grace of God in Christ. But if you're an unbeliever,
and you continue in that state, and die in unbelief, and when
I say a believer, I'm talking about believing the true gospel,
the true Christ in this word, not just a, there are counterfeits,
there are deceptions, But unbelievers will be judged according to their
works and they'll be damned forever. That's what the Bible teaches.
That's the bitterness of it. Well listen to what he says in
verse one. I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven clothed
with a cloud. A rainbow was upon his head.
His face was as it were the sun and his feet as pillars of fire.
Now one thing you need to understand about the word of God. The word
angel does not always refer to a created being known as angels,
angels by nature. We know there are angels. There
are guardian angels. There are attending angels. There
are ministering angels. But the word angel doesn't always
refer to those beings that were created. There's a lot of mythology
about that and a lot of misunderstanding about them. I'm not preaching
on them today. The word angel means messenger. That's what
it means. In fact, the pastors And the
elders of the seven churches of Revelation in Revelation two
and three are called angels. Why? Not because they're angelic
beings or they wear halos over their head. You don't see a halo
over my head. I don't think you do. That's
not what I am. It's a messenger. A messenger
boy, as one old preacher said. And sometimes in the Bible, in
the Old Testament, When it's prophesying of Christ, he's called
the angel of the covenant. What does that mean, is he an
angel? No, he's God, manifest in the flesh, God-man. But he
is the supreme, the prime, the full messenger of the everlasting
covenant of grace. And that's who this is here in
Revelation 10.1. This is Christ. He is the messenger. Come down from heaven. He's clothed
with a cloud. That's his deity. And a rainbow
was upon his head. What do you think of when you
think of a rainbow? You think of Noah, don't you? What was
that rainbow a symbol of? Mercy. And that speaks of his
person as God, man. He's the seat of all mercy. You
want mercy? Beg for mercy. Mercy beggars. Where you gonna find mercy? In
Christ, the mercy seat. That seat, you remember that
picture in the tabernacle, the mercy seat, that lid that fit
over the Ark of the Covenant? That contained the law, the law
that condemns us where there's a mercy seat over it. And the
high priest would come in once a year and sprinkle the blood
of the lamb on that mercy seat. That's all a picture of Christ
who kept the law for us and took the full wrath of God's justice
for us, his people. And that's what this rainbow
is, mercy. The Lord delights to show mercy.
He delights to show mercy, but he shows it in one person, and
that's Christ. God be merciful to me, the sinner. His face was as it were the sun. In Malachi, he's called the sun,
S-U-N. We know he's the sun, S-O-N,
the son of God. But in Malachi, he's called the
sun, S-U-N, of righteousness. What does that mean? That's the
brightness of his glory, the light. And his feet were pillars
of fire. What does fire represent in the
Bible? Well, it represents many things.
It can represent the judgment of God, his fiery wrath. To those
who appear before him without Christ, our God is a consuming
fire, Hebrews tells us. But it also represents the fire
of God's wrath that he himself went under for his people on
the cross. He drank the cup of God's wrath
and he drank it dry for his people. What a story. What a message
we have. And he walks in the judgment
and justice of his father for his people. Fire also is warmth,
light, guidance. He is a warm a warm savior for
his people. You know, when you think about
back in Exodus, when the Hebrew children were encircled about
with a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day,
doesn't that kind of remind you of this? Well, look at verse
two. All of this, and you know, He's
the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Well, verse two, he had in his hand a little book. This is a
scroll, that's what it is, a roll, as it said in the Old Testament,
and it's open. Now you remember back in Revelation
five, we had that big book that was sealed, the seven sealed
book. That represents the big book
of God's purpose and God's plan for the whole creation from time
beginning to time end. The whole thing. And it's written
in that book, it's not a literal book, this is the mind of God.
And that big book is revealed in segments as time goes on,
some anticipated in the word of God, but nobody was was able
or worthy to open that big book back in Revelation 5 except one
person, and that's the Lamb of God. He alone, remember John
when he saw that book, he wept because no man in heaven, no
man on earth or under the earth was worthy to open it. We are
totally at God's mercy. But here comes the Lion of the
tribe of Judah. Here comes the Lamb of God. Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain. Isn't that our song? That's the
song of the redeemed. Worthy is the Lamb. I'm not here
to tell you how worthy I am. Because I'm not worthy at all.
But Christ is worthy. If you from sin are longing to
be free, look to the Lamb of God. For he alone is able to
save you. Look to the Lamb of God. So here's
this little book now. What is this little book? Well,
commentators differ on this, but what I believe it is, it's
part of that big book, this little scroll, and some say, well, it's
the revealed, what's coming in the seventh trumpet. And that
could be. It's about to be revealed. In
fact, we go over to about the middle of chapter 11. Then he
begins the seventh trumpet. And so it's part of that big
book. It's open because Christ is opening. It's being revealed.
But one of the things I think is included in this little book,
this little row, is the gospel. The gospel message. And so that's
why I called this message a little book open, but it's a big message. It's a little book, but it's
a big, huge, humongous message. Oh, what a message. And he says,
he set his right foot upon the sea and his left foot upon the
earth. What does that mean? That means he's Lord of this
whole ball. This earth, he's in control. Only he can stand on the sea
and on the land. He owns it all, he created it.
There's nothing out of his control. He's not some cosmic chess player.
You make your move, he makes his counter move. He's not some
cosmic janitor that we mess it up and he comes behind cleaning
it up. No, he's in control, he's at the forefront. He's the God
of providence. He's the God of power. Look at
it, verse three. He cried with a loud voice. This
is a voice of authority, as when a lion roars. The lion, the king
of the jungle. Well, Christ is called the lion
of the tribe of Judah. And when he had cried, seven
thunders uttered their voices. When you hear thunder, it perks
you up, doesn't it? Seven thunders, this is a perfect
message. That's what seven means, a complete
message. And it's spoken with the authority
of the Son of God. Think about it, the voice of
power and authority, the word of God. The word of God always
accomplishes that whereunto it is sent. It never returns void. It never fails. Even when the
gospel is preached and sinners walk away in unbelief, there's
no failure there. That's true. Let me show you
that. Look at 2 Corinthians. Chapter two. I don't have this
reference, so I may get the reference wrong. But if I do, forgive me. Here it is, 2 Corinthians chapter
two. Look at verse 14. Paul talking about the gospel
ministry. And he says in verse 14 of 2
Corinthians two, he says, now thanks be unto God, which always
causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor
of his knowledge by us in every place, for we are unto God a
sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in them that
perish. He says to the one we're the
savor of death unto death. Sad though that is. He says,
the other were the saver of life unto life, and who is sufficient
for these things? For we're not as many which corrupt
the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of
God speak we in Christ. You know what our victory is
this morning? If Christ is preached in the glory of His person and
in the power of His finished work, if the gospel of His righteousness
is preached, that's victory whether you believe it or not. It's victory. If you walk away and unbelieve,
it's still victorious because God has been glorified. You don't
make God victorious. That's what I'm saying. You don't
make Christ victorious. Our believing doesn't make him
victorious. Our believing is part of his
victory because he died for us and he sends his spirit to reveal
himself to us. Now go back to Revelation 10. He says in verse four, he says,
when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to
write, John was gonna write this down, and I heard a voice from
heaven saying unto me, seal up those things which the seven
thunders uttered and write them not. Now what's going on here?
He says, don't write. It's not time. God operates in his time. Things happen in his time. God
doesn't change. And I know that's mind-boggling.
He's immutable. That is mind-boggling because
all we know is change. Everything we do every day, it's
all change. But God doesn't change. And it's
all going about at His time. You know when Christ came into
the world, when He became incarnate and He was born? How does the
Bible describe that in Galatians 4.4? But in the time that God
appointed, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law. It was God's time.
When is a sinner born again? Paul said it in Galatians 1.
He said, when it pleased the Lord to reveal his son in me. When is Christ coming back again?
Don't know, but God does. So it wasn't time to write some
of these things down. But now God is in the process
of revealing other things. Look at verse five. He says,
and the angel, the messenger, which I saw stand upon the sea
and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven. All right,
what's going on there? He lifted up his hand to heaven.
What's he doing? Verse six, he swore by him that liveth forever
and ever. He swore by God. He is God, God
the Son incarnate. And he swore by God, who created
heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things
that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein,
that there should be time no longer. Time will cease. Time as we know it will cease. Time, basically, right now, is
our enemy. Isn't it? Somebody said it waits
for no man. That clock's moving, that clock's
ticking. Some of you may hope that it's
faster than what it is, but it moves on. Time fly, tempest fugit,
time fly. And we have to admit, it's really
not good to us physically, isn't that right? As I said in the
Bible study, Methuselah, you know Methuselah? He lived to
be 969 years old. Now, scholars argue, was that
really 969 real years? I don't know and I don't care.
He lived a long time. But you know what it says about
Methuselah? And he died. He died. Somebody said, we're not going
to get out of this world alive. But there's coming a time when
time, as we know it, will cease. and we will be in an eternal
state where we won't change. We'll be like Christ if we know
him. And so he lifts his hand up and he swears, swears by God.
Well, what does that mean? That's a covenant promise and
an oath. In Hebrews chapter six, the writer
of Hebrews talks about that, how God swore an oath. And he
used this analogy. He said, you know, when men swear
an oath, They always swear by something greater than themselves
because they think that seals the oath. We swear by the sun,
we swear by the moon, or we might even say we swear by God. But
when God swears an oath, being that there's nothing or no one
greater than God, what does he swear by? He swears by himself. And in that he engages his person
and his glory, his honor, in that promise. And he says, by
two immutable things, his promise and his oath. You know what he's
talking about? God is going to save his people
from their sins. He's not gonna fail. There'll
be no one in hell for whom Christ died. Now that's right. He is the successful savior of
sinners. And God is going to bring His
wrath down upon the wicked. You can bank on it. God's honor
is at stake. That's what that means. And here's
Christ swearing by Him that He's going to do the work that the
Father sent Him to do. What is that work? Well, he's
gonna make an end of sin, finish the transgression, bring in everlasting
righteousness, seal up the prophecy, and enter the holiest of all,
Daniel chapter nine, verse 24. How's he gonna make an end of
sin and finish the transgression? By his death on the cross for
the sins of his people that had been charged imputed to him.
And in that transaction, he's gonna drink damnation dry, satisfy
the justice of God, and bring forth an everlasting righteousness. The very righteousness of God
is revealed in the gospel, Romans 1, 16 and 17, whereby God is
both a just God and a savior, just to justify his people. God is a righteous judge and
a loving, merciful father based upon the righteousness of Christ. and he's going to send his spirit
to seal up that victory by bringing them to faith in Christ and repentance
of dead works. They'll have eternal life. We
don't know much about that other than it's to know Christ, to
know God and to know Christ. Look at verse seven, but in the
days of the voice of the seventh angel, now that's coming the
seventh trumpet, When he shall begin to sound, the mystery of
God should be finished and he hath declared as he hath declared
to his servants the prophets. That seventh trumpet is going
to reveal everything that's gonna be finalized in the end. Verse eight says, and the voice
which I heard from heaven spoke unto me again and said, go and
take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel
which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. This is the word
of God through Christ. He is the word of God. Verse
9, I went unto the angel and said unto him, Give me this little
book. God gave John a desire to receive
this word. That's what he does to his people
in the new birth. He gives us a desire, a new heart. a new
spirit to receive the word of God as it is in Christ. Without
that new birth, we don't have a desire to receive his word.
When it's read, when we hear it, it's obnoxious to us. The true gospel now. It's the
light that men and women by nature hate because it exposes our deeds
to be evil. In other words, it leads us only
to Christ for salvation, for forgiveness, for righteousness,
for goodness, and nowhere else. Think about those false preachers
who stood before Christ at the judgment in Matthew 7, 21 through
23. They said, haven't we preached
in your name? Haven't we cast out demons? Haven't
we done many wonderful works in your name? And he said, depart
from me, you who work iniquity. I never knew you. What was the
problem? Well, my friend, I'm preaching in his name right now.
I've never cast out any demons, at least to my knowledge. I've done some works, but I don't
know, I call them wonderful, but here's the point. All the
preaching that I do cannot make me righteous in God's sight.
Only Christ, by the grace of God, can do that. Yes, we're
to preach in His name. Yes, we're to follow Him. Yes,
we're to be obedient. Yes, we're to be diligent in
good works. But that's not what makes me
righteous. That's not what forgives my sins.
It's the blood and righteousness of Christ that does that. And when you hear it, if the
Holy Spirit's done a work of grace, you'll receive it. He
says, go and take that little book, verse eight, which is open
in the hand of the angel, which standeth upon the scene upon
the earth. Verse nine, he said, I went unto the angel and said
him, give me this book. And he said unto me, take it
and eat it up. Eat the book. And it shall make
thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
What does he mean, eat the book? He's not literally saying eat
a book, you know that. You can read about this back
in the book of Ezekiel, chapters two and three. Ezekiel was given
a scroll. And the Lord told him, he said,
eat this scroll. What he's saying is, receive
it in your heart and in your mind and believe it, internalize
it by the power of the Spirit. This is not just a message that
you're preaching, it's a message you believe. It's your life,
it's the word of God, it's the bread of life. It'll make your
belly bitter, how so? Well, when I first hear it, it
exposes me as a sinful, depraved sinner. But when it drives me to Christ,
it's sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. Because I rest in
him. Verse 10, he said, I took the
little book out of the angel's hand and ate it up. That's what
I do with the word of God. That's what you do with what
you eat it up. Internalize it. It's written on your heart. It's
not just a doctrine to you, not just a system, not just something
you say, I believe it. Now let's go do what we'll know.
It's a message that changes your life. It brings you to faith
in Christ and true repentance of dead works. You turn from
your works and turn to Christ. And it was in my mouth sweet
as honey. Oh, the preaching of the gospel. Nothing sweeter to
a godly person. And as soon as I'd eaten it,
my belly was bitter. It also reveals the judgment
of God against the wicked. And that's a bitter thing. I
don't want to see anybody perish, do you? I know there will be
people, have been and will be people who perish. Well verse
11, he said unto me, thou must prophesy again before many peoples
and nations and tongues and kings. This is a message for the whole
world. A message for the whole earth. God has a people out of
every tribe, kindred, tongue and nation. And he's gonna get
this message to them, he's gonna bring them under it, and they're
gonna be saved by the grace of God in Christ. May the Lord bless
His word to our hearts.