Revelation 10 last time and We
saw the The voice of the one the mighty
angel that stood upon the earth and upon the sea This this passage that we just
read might be a very mysterious Passage of Scripture and no doubt
is to many that If we didn't have the rest of the Word of
God, the Book of Revelation, I myself have been very reluctant
to study through it because it is mysterious. But when you take
it verse by verse and look at every word, these mysterious
things, to understand what the Lord has written, we
have to know what we know. That sounds strange even, but
we have to know what we know. In other words, don't speculate
in your mind about what we cannot know, but rejoice in what we
do know by God's grace from all of the book of God. And look
at verse four again, and when the seven thunders had uttered
their voices, I was about to write, and I heard a voice from
heaven saying unto me, seal up those things, Which the seven
thunders uttered and write them not Now we know from those first
three verses that this mighty angel the only angel here that
was called the mighty angel Is the Lord Jesus Christ we know
that from the description of him, but also what he has said
and done in this chapter So it's Christ in the seven thunders
or him speaking when he spoke in It was the voice of seven
thunders, and we aren't told specifically what he said here,
but here we go again, and what I was saying, we know what we
know. We don't know exactly what he said here, but I know what
Christ has always said. What he's always said. Instead
of speculating about what specifically he might have been talking about
here, and a lot of people do that. But we know what Christ
has always said. He said it with different combinations
of words. He said it in a little bit different
ways at different times. He used different parables and
illustrations and simple stories. But he was always saying the
same thing every time he spoke. And so what do you think he said
here? Think about this, these seven thunders. And just to say it plainly, all
that he's ever said is the gospel concerning himself. That's what
he came. He told Pilate, I came to bear witness of the truth. Not just true stuff, the truth. And Christ himself is the truth
of God, the way, the truth, and the life. Thunder describes his
voice and seven thunders we know what that that number seven has
been all through Especially we see it quite a bit in Revelation,
but all all over scripture. It's the number of completion
of perfection perfect thunder Think about that for a minute
his voice is thunder, but it's perfect thunder His voice commands attention. It echoes throughout all the
earth. He said, I'm going to call my
children from the north, south, east, and west. He said, give
them up. They're coming to me. His voice
is sharp and loud and clear. This thing wasn't done in a corner.
You can be hiding in your closet with a pillow wrapped around
your head. You're still going to hear the thunder. It'll shake
you. You'll feel it if nothing else.
It shakes very foundations. And you may not like it, but
you can't miss it. This is the gospel of our Savior.
Perfect thunder. John was about to write this
down because it's all that matters. Of course he was going to write
it down. It's everything that matters. But the Lord stopped
him. He said, don't write this down.
Seal it up. Why? Well, there are a couple of reasons
that come to mind. There's already the little book,
right? He's gonna take that little book out of the Savior's hand
in a little while here. And that book is the book of
all of God's purpose, fulfilled by Christ, the only Christ. Only he was worthy to take that
book out of the hand of God the Father. What is written is written? John wrote down much of what
he saw and heard in these revelations And what he was told to write
is the word of God part of the word of God And you cannot add
to that what God told him to write, and he said that a lot
in the book of Revelation. Twelve times the word write is
in the context of God instructing, the Lord instructing John to
write. Here are a couple of examples.
Here's the first and last example of that in Revelation chapter
one, right at the beginning. The Lord said, I am Alpha and
Omega, the first and the last, and what thou seest, write. Write
in a book and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia.
And then in Revelation chapter 21, toward the end of the book
of Revelation, he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make
all things new. And he said unto me, Write. Write,
for these words are true and faithful. And that's why he was
writing down. He was writing what the Lord
said, because everything the Lord says is true and faithful.
It's worth writing down. It's worth remembering. It's
worth telling. But here in our text, he said,
write them not. Write them not. How many things
did the Lord do? Remember, it says in the scripture
that Jesus did many other things which are not recorded in this
book. The Lord has told John and other men that authored this
book from a earthly standpoint what to write. And there's a
lot of other stuff they could have written, but the Lord told
them what to write, inspired them to write it exactly the
way it's written. So what does that teach us? Well,
this book, it's exactly what God Has to say to sinners nothing
more nothing less And there's one other thing about
this with regard to all things pertaining to God's book God
decides who sees Decides who understands he decides who knows
he decides who believes they said why do you speak unto them
in parables? He said because it's given to
you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God and to them.
It's not given So we see here he says right he says don't write
He says believe He told Thomas be not faithless, but believing
And he did He didn't say that to everybody He opens the understanding of
sinners that they might understand the scriptures, Luke 24, 45.
And he sends strong delusion that sinners might believe a
lie, 2 Thessalonians 2, 11. The Lord does all these things.
And rather than argue about what God would do or can do, may He
give us grace to just find out what He did say and do and believe
Him. When he does open the understanding
of sinners to believe the scripture, then what we know, what is it
that we know? In Luke 24, 27 there, where it
says, and it was verse 45 where it says he opened their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. What did they understand? In the context in verse 27, it
tells us that. All things concerning himself. When you understand the scriptures,
you'll know all things concerning the Son of God. Because this
book, from cover to cover, is Christ and Him crucified. Christ is the Lord. This is what
He always says, right? What He said on that road to
Emmaus. Concerned Himself, He began at
Moses and all the prophets and the Psalms. He told them the
things concerning himself, because that's what this book is. And
every time he spoke, it was that one. The kingdom of heaven is
like this and that and the other. And it always has him on the
throne of the kingdom. Every miracle he did was him
saving sinners. The only way they can be saved,
by a miracle of his grace. That's what he always says is
the gospel. He thunders it. Perfect thunder. And that's what his preachers
always say. Christ is Lord. He's sovereign. He's the God
man. Christ is God's righteousness
for sinners. If you don't have Christ as your
righteousness, you don't have any righteousness and therefore
no hope. Christ is redemption. He doesn't
make it available or try to redeem sinners. He is redemption. His precious blood redeemed all
for whom He died. He's the sovereign Savior. His
name is He's going to save His people. He's the substitute. He alone
made satisfaction for the sins of His elect. That's what he
said, that's what we said. That's what's thundered from
heaven and it's thundered in earth as well by his will. He called James and John the
sons of thunder. And you know what context in
which he did that? He surnamed them the sons of thunder. You know when he did it? When
he was sending them out to preach. And this is why God has a sharp,
clear, loud, earth-shaking message for sinners. And it's pleased
Him by the foolishness of preaching to deliver that message and save
them that believe it. Believe on Him. And if you ever
hear it at all, if you ever hear it at all, He will shake you
to the very foundations of your soul. And you'll never be the same.
That's the perfect thunder from heaven. God decides what is written. He decides what is heard. He
decides what is understood. He decides who believes and he
decides who's saved. Now verse five, and the angel
which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up
his hand to heaven and swear by him that liveth forever and
ever 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 The Lord Jesus
swears by him that liveth forever and ever What Christ says is
the truth and It's the sworn testimony of God the Son. And I'm not just saying that
it's true. The sky is blue, it's true, but
it's not the truth. It's not the truth. And what
we have here is strong consolation. Think about this now. Swear he
lifted up his hand to heaven and swear by him that liveth
forever and ever Now remember all of that while we're reading
Hebrews chapter 6 turn over there with me if you would Hebrews
6 13 This is God swearing by himself. Now. This is God the
Son swearing by God the Father Hebrews 6 13 why would he do
that? Would God swear by himself do
you think he doesn't have anything to prove? He doesn't have anything
to prove to his people does he But here's why he does it for
his people Hebrews 613 for when God made promise to Abraham because
he could swear by no greater He swear by himself saying surely
blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee
and so I After he had patiently endured he obtained the promise
think about this now what God is doing God said to Abraham
I'm in the blessing business and while I am I'm you're in
on it I'm gonna bless you while I'm blessing people you're one
of them Think about the magnitude of that God's blessing is not
you getting a raise on your job, or getting a promotion, or winning
the lottery, or even having good health and things like that.
That's not God's blessing. God's blessing is everything that happens to
you, happens for you, even the bad stuff. God's blessing can
be you losing your job. You see what I'm saying? You're
blessed of God or you're not. It's not somebody got a blessing
over here, somebody got a blessing over there. That's religion.
We're handing out blessings today. Really? But what's God doing? That's what I want to know. I
don't want the blessings of religion. You see what I mean? You're either
blessed of God or you're not. And if you are, then everything
is good. whether you win the lottery or
go bankrupt, you're blessed of God. And he said, Abraham, I'm gonna
bless you. And when he did it, he swore
by himself because there was nobody greater. You always swear
by the greater. And there ain't anybody greater
than him. So he swore by himself. And look
why he did that. You talk about precious. For men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation," this is verse 16, "...is to them
an end of all strife." If somebody swears and they can
be trusted, then the argument is over, right? Nothing to strive
about anymore. willing more abundantly to show
unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel. Confirmed it by an oath. He wanted
to show you and me. He wanted to show his sheep.
He wanted to show his children how immutable and perfect, eternal,
unchanging his wonderful counsel is. All of his word, all of his
promises that are yea and amen and Christ. They don't change. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. He wanted to show us that, so
he confirmed it by an oath. He swore by himself. Look at
this. How come, verse 18, that by two
immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie,
we might have a strong consolation? That's what's happening in our
text in Revelation. God is giving us strong consolation. What he says not only goes, but
he don't change his mind and nobody can stop him. If he wants
to bless you, you're blessed. None can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? His counsel is immutable. And
that strong consolation to those who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope, which is set before us. which hope we
have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and
which entereth into that within the veil. This is the hope. Christ is the hope that gets
us into the very presence of God without us being destroyed
and cast into hell. This is the hope. Christ is the
hope that gets us into communion with God, favor with God, the
blessing of God, the presence of God. within the Holy of Holies. Whither the forerunner, this
is how it all happens, because he went in there before us. With
his own precious blood. I wish I could say it right.
I wish I could say it so we'd never worry about anything ever
again. Because if we ever heard it, we never would. God wanted to show us the immutability
of his counsel, that we might have strong consolation and heal. What is his counsel? What is
the counsel of God? Now turn over to Ephesians 1
with me. The scripture answers all these
questions. It is the answer to every question
that's worth asking. Ephesians 1.7 What is His counsel? What is
it that don't change? Ephesians 1.7, In whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in
all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery
of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed
in Himself. That in the dispensation of the
fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in
Christ both which are in heaven And which are on earth even in
him and him also we've obtained an inheritance Being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things all what
things all those things redemption adoption and inheritance Eternal
election Redemption through his blood
that who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. That's his counsel, all of that.
Redemption for his people. Through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins, the riches of his grace. That's what his word is about.
That's what he thunders from heaven. That's what we thunder. As he gives us the ability to
do it, the grace, to show us the immutability of
that counsel, his everlasting counsel of grace, in which we were redeemed by
the precious blood of Christ. He swears by himself. and he
swears by the God, notice that he swears by the God who created
all things, who created the earth and all things that therein are,
and the sea and all things that therein are, and the heavens
and all things. Why creation? Why is the God of creation here
sworn by? Because everything created serves
the immutability of his word. He's talking about the immutability
of his counsel. He's swearing by himself here.
And everything is in chorus with that. Everything he made. Why
did he make it? Because of that. To serve his
purpose of grace in Christ. How many times have I said over
the years, he has a world because he has a people. And he has a
people because he's gonna honor his son. swears by the God who created
all of this in the in the context of swearing by himself as he's
thundering his word forth all God has Said concerning his son has taken
place in time All of his purposes are acted
out in time in the creation the earth And when all these things are
accomplished including the salvation of all those for whom the Lord
did all he did in time Then there's no more time Time is just something that God
has used to redeem his people What has happened in time, all
of it, has been moving toward that purpose.
Salvation of His elect, redemption through His blood. Everything
revolves around the cross. And when all that's accomplished,
including the blessings that He secured for His people on
Calvary, all of them receive that blessing, even the salvation
of their souls, the experience of conversion, and believing
on Christ, He doesn't have any use for time anymore. Gone. And we don't either. It doesn't mean that he's ending
time here in the text at that time that he said that. He said
that there should be no more time. That doesn't tell us when. When John saw and heard these
things is not necessarily it. But the end of time In association with what is being
seen and heard for this simple reason everything that exists
Let me say it as plainly as I can again everything that exists
Everything that happens and even when things happen all exist
happen and happen when they do because of Christ and his purpose
of grace toward you and me if we're his They happen at His command. They
happen for His glory. They happen for the salvation
of His elect. They happen for the glory of
His Father. It's all bound up in Christ. And when they've all
happened, then there's no more happening. No more time. Thou art worthy,
O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast
created all things, including time, and for thy pleasure they
are and were created. Verse 7, but in the days of the
voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the
mystery of God should be finished. You see the context here, no
more time. It's finished, it's all accomplished,
it's all done. Everything in that book is fulfilled. Somebody said that book is little
now because most of it's been fulfilled already. It may be
something to that. As he had declared to his servants,
the prophets. What did he declare to his servants?
The prophets. Everything that has been made
Will have served its purpose even time finished God's purpose
of grace in Christ and its accomplishment is called a mystery here And
that word means it's a hidden thing. That's why it's called
a mystery here. It's a hidden thing That's the
meaning of it. You can see what a mystery the
truth is when we see what nonsense people actually believe and You
want to know what a mystery of the truth is? Look at what people
are believing. They've got no idea. They don't
even have a little bit of the truth mixed in with it, really.
It's all confusing, contradicting, self-contradicting nonsense. Why? Because the truth is a hidden
thing. It'd be hidden from us apart
from the Lord's grace We'd be exactly the same. We are the
same if not for the grace of God God must make known himself
The truth about us sinners truth about himself the truth about
Christ the only hope for sinners and You must make it known listen
to this Ephesians 618 praying always with all prayer and supplication
in the spirit Watching therein to with all perseverance and
supplication for all saints and for me That's what I say sometimes
pray pray for one another and pray for me. Well. I need your prayers That utterance
may be given unto me and That I may open my mouth boldly to
make known the mystery of the gospel. That's our text. That I may make it known. But
notice what he's saying there. Pray for me. Ask God to make
it so that I may make known. He's got to make it known to
me before I can make it known to anybody else. And he's got
to say unto me, write, speak. He's got, how can they preach
except they be sent by God? Now, as he declared to his servants
the prophets, did he declare to his servants the prophets
when all of his purposes would be finished or completed? No. They had no idea about that.
Did it matter? No. If it had, he would have revealed
it to them. But he told them how. He told them by whom it
would be accomplished, didn't he? Because that's what they
declared. This word finished is the same
that our Lord spoke from the cross. It's finished. It's accomplished. And it was and is. But the salvation
that He accomplished on the cross there hasn't been applied yet
by grace through faith in the believing of the gospel to everybody
for whom He died yet. When it is, He's ready to burn
this thing up. He declared that plainly. Christ is the completion, the
fulfillment. Our text talks about it being
over, accomplished, done. What's the way it's worded there?
That the mystery of God should be finished. Same word. It's finished! How is the mystery
of God, which is all of His will, His will is mysterious unless
He reveals it to a sinner. His purpose, His word, His will. When it's finished. How does that happen? It is finished.
Christ does it. Christ accomplishes it. He fulfills
every jot and tittle. So he didn't declare when, but
he declared who. And that word finished. That's
it. Christ is the completion, the
fulfillment, the perfection of all of the mystery, the truth
of God, the mysterious gospel, the purpose and will of God,
and all of it's contained in that little book. Time doesn't have anything to
do with it anymore. It's not when, it's who. And I believe this time no more
here says that more than anything. It's not necessarily the cessation
of there being any time. It really is talking about what
happened on Calvary. Time only existed for that, and
it's done. Now, how come time hasn't ceased
yet then, Chris? Well, again, The the salvation
that he bought with that precious blood is going to be applied
to everybody in their experience That he shed his blood for hadn't
quite happened just yet But it's as good as done. He
said I've spoken it. I'll also do it So that I believe it has more
to do with that than it does the the time when time actually
ceases to be You can count it that way now And be right, because
everything that time existed for is fulfilled. Except when that last person, time no more. You know, when you know Christ,
there's no past anymore. There's no future anymore. There's
no, we know the future, right? There's no tomorrow, literally.
There's no tomorrow, and tomorrow there won't be no tomorrow either.
My grammar ain't too good, but you understood me, didn't you?
Because y'all's grammar ain't that good either. That's why
you understood me. You see what I'm saying? There's
no tomorrow. Right now. And if tomorrow there's a tomorrow,
there won't be any tomorrow then either. Think about this, the whole purpose
of time was and is a space in which all of God's purposes were
to come to pass. Christ fulfilled all of those
purposes. They came to pass, all of them,
when Christ gave himself a ransom for the sins of his sheep on
Calvary. And now in a spiritual sense,
time is no longer. All the reasons there was and
is time are accomplished in Christ. That's why he says we're already
seated. In a spiritual sense, there's already no time. Because
the whole point of time has been made. We're already seated in
heavenly places in Christ. We're already glorified according
to Romans chapter 8, aren't we? You see what that no more time,
it's not just what religion talks about. Verse 8, and the voice
which I heard from heaven Spoken to me again and said go and take
the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which
standeth upon the sea upon the earth John is told to take the
book go and take the book now remember that only Christ was
worthy to take the book we saw where Christ took the book out
of somebody's hand didn't he and John there was much weeping
and John wept much because nobody was worthy to open the book to
take it and to open it But the Lord Jesus did He took it right out of the hand
of the one sitting on the throne and only that that's literally
means That only he could declare what's in it only he could fulfill
what's in it But now that it is in the hand of Christ, Christ
has taken it, the God-man, it's not a question of worthiness
anymore. His worthiness is why he was
able to take it, and his worthiness is why we are able to take it.
See what I'm saying? We don't take it out of his hand
because of any worthiness on our part. It's his worthiness
that made him able to take it and give it. But by God's grace and purpose,
we do take it. We do declare it. We do two things with that book
by the Lord Jesus Christ's command. We eat it and we preach it. We eat it, verse 10, and we preach
it, verse 11. Look at it with me, verse nine.
Let's begin reading in verse nine. And I went unto the angel
and said unto him, give me the little book. And he said unto
me, take it and eat it up. And it shall make thy belly bitter,
but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out
of the angel's hand and ate it up. And it was in my mouth sweet
as honey. And as soon as I had eaten it,
my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, thou must
prophesy again before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings. Now that you've eaten it, you
can preach it. Oh boy, we know what eating it
signifies. Christ said, he that eateth my
flesh and drinketh my blood, hath life. Except you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in
you. We do that by faith. We partake of Him by faith. And
His book is part of that. But notice this. John didn't
say, give me the little book until the Lord told him, go and
take it. Not everybody that just passes
by can grab this book. You've got to be given permission
from God It's written to God's people
it's written for God's people God sends his messengers to his
sheep with all of that his purpose his will It's what he told Saul
of Tarsus I've chosen you to go to the Gentiles reveal my
will But when God tells us to take
it, we do say, Lord, give it to us. Oh, that's what Isaiah
said. Listen, in the year that King
Uzziah died, Isaiah said, I saw also the Lord sitting up on a
throne high and lifted up. And his train filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
twain, he covered his face. And with twain, he covered his
feet. And with twain, he did fly. And one cried unto another
and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole
earth is full of his glory. The post of the door moved at
the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone, because I'm
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
We never would give a thought to doing anything for God. But listen what happened next.
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in
his hand, which he had taken with the tongues from off the
altar, the altar of sacrifice, where the blood of Christ was
shed. And he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath
touched my lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is
purged. And I also heard, also I heard
the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I sin and who will
go for us? And instead of saying, woe is
me, woe is me. And we still say that, but look
at what he's saying now. Here am I, sin me. Sin me. Look what he's done for us. Can you not tell somebody about
that? Free grace, sovereign grace, the only kind of grace that does
anything for a sinner. Oh, we don't have anything to say
unless the book is given to us by Christ. Come take it. Come
take it. We do. And we have to eat it before
we can preach it. It has to become who we are. And when I say it, It has to become who we are,
you know, I mean him Christ He said you have to eat
my flesh and drink my blood or there's no life in you And there's
sure enough no message for you to see it to give How can you
declare the words of eternal life if you have no life in you?
Christ, the incarnate word, must be consumed by faith. He must
become who we are, and Christ, the written word, is included
in that. The gospel of our Savior. First
Peter 2.2, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word,
that you may grow thereby, if so be you've tasted that the
Lord is gracious. To whom coming as unto a living
stone, disallowed in need of men, but chosen of God and precious.
Christ and his gospel are sweeter all the time. They just get sweeter. The statutes of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true. Righteous altogether more to be desired are they than gold?
Yea, then much fine gold sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb
There's a bitterness in the belly though Notice very carefully
in the wording of the text that it does not say the book is bitter
in our belly It does say the book is sweet
in our mouth, but look at the wording regarding the bitterness
and The book is not bitter in our
belly, it causes bitterness in our belly. Big difference. There's nothing bitter about
the gospel. But our belly is made bitter
because of the nature of our belly. You know the belly is
used in scripture as who we are, our appetites, our flesh. But also here, even in the spiritual
sense, the new man, there's some bitterness here because I don't
know about you, but I do know about you too. I suspect you're
like me. I didn't have any spiritual trouble,
no spiritual warfare raging within me, no hatred of myself, no grieving
over my sin, until I tasted that the Lord is gracious. No persecution for the gospel's
sake, and not much now, some. My own family pretty much hates
me. Most of them, not my girls and my son and my wife. I hope. I didn't have any burden
for lost people. Is that a little bit of bitterness
in your belly to see Those that you love have no use for the
Son of God. I didn't have that until I tasted
the sweetness of the Savior. Now, I make myself sick. You
ever do that? I'm sick at my stomach at myself. And it hurts me to my very soul. To see some that are precious
to me without Christ, without hope in this world. Isaiah said,
who hath believed our report? There was some bitterness in
that question. Paul said to King Agrippa, I
know you believe me. I know you do. And I would to
God that you were all together such as I am, except these bonds. Yes, Christ is sweet and sweeter
than ever as time goes by. But there's bitterness also for
now, for a little while, there's some bitterness. But what are
we gonna do? Verse 11, we're gonna keep on
preaching. Oh, the only thing for the bitterness
is Him. Who hath believed our report?
I don't know, but let's keep preaching Christ. Our loved ones
are lost. Bless God, it breaks our hearts,
but let's keep preaching Him. He says we must. Didn't He say
that? You must. Paul said, woe is unto
me if I don't preach the gospel. Maybe his last sheep will believe
tonight. I don't know who's lost and who's
not. But maybe somebody preaching somewhere not here even. Maybe
his last lost sheep will find the way by the grace
of God. Christ the way. Maybe the Lord will go and leave
the 99 and bring that one home, you reckon? And then no more
bitterness. Well, that's his business, isn't
it? But one of these days, it's gonna come to pass. He's numbered
every one, hasn't he? There's 150 in three. Whatever that represents The Lord knows them all by name
He'll call that last one one of these days And no more tears no more bitterness
no more all the former things are passed away And all things
are new Let's pray