I love that song, Rock of Ages. All of God's people do. And I'm thankful for the man
who wrote it, for the top lady. He lived many years ago, wrote
lots of songs, but first and most of all, he was a preacher
of God's free and sovereign grace. And he stood for the gospel in
a time when those who believed in free willism were rampant. And he stood before them and
told them they were wrong. And that their message was error.
And he stood for the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace.
a brave soldier of the cross, and of all the hymns that he
wrote, I think that's probably my favorite. And that is my testimony,
a rock of ages cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Beautiful song. Revelation chapter
10 is our text today. Our subject is Christ and the
little book. That's the name of the message. Christ and the little book. Our Lord Jesus just before He
died, gathered His disciples around Him. These were the men
He had commissioned to go forth and preach the gospel. And He
said to them in John chapter 15 and verse 13, He said to these
11 men, greater love hath no man than this. that a man lay
down his life for his friends. Our Savior, because of His great
love for His people, and in order to save us from our sinfulness,
to save us from ourselves, to save us from the evil one, and to save us from the justice
of God, Our Lord Jesus became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. That meant that he had to assume
our nature in order to die, because God cannot suffer and God cannot
die. And yet, man cannot honor God's
law And man cannot satisfy God's justice. And so the God-man laid down
his life in the stead of his people. He died on the cross
of Calvary as our substitute. Here's the question. Why? Why? Why did He die? Why did He have
to suffer such an awful death? We hear our Redeemer as He cried
out from the cross in His dying agony, My God, My God, why hast
Thou forsaken Me? And that is the question I ask. Why did the father forsake him? Why did he die? What was the
reason for his death? I know that he died due to God's
eternal purpose. I know that he died because the
Jewish religious leaders despised him. because he taught salvation
by grace, whereas they taught salvation by obedience to the
law of Moses. They despised him because he
put down their doctrine as being error. And he said, you neither know
me nor my father. And he said to them, ye of your
father, the devil, They hated him and they saw to it that he
die the death of a felon. He died because they hated him,
really they hated him without a cause. He died because Judas
betrayed him. He died because the soldiers
executed him. He died upon the cross. Why did
He die? I know that these things are
absolutely so, and you know them as well. Number one, whatever
His death was purposed to accomplish, that was accomplished. We know that because the Scripture
says He cannot fail. Isaiah 42, 4. He shall not fail. We know that his death was ordained
of God in old eternity. He didn't die because men decided
that he would die. He died because God determined
that he would die. God decreed that he would die. This was all predestinated by
the Lord. And then he died in order to save his people. What's
involved in this, the reason for his death? The Word of God
tells us exactly why he died and what he accomplished. There's
no need for guesswork here. There's no need for us to imagine
the reasons that he died. I'll give you a few of them.
Number one, he died upon the cross. He died under the wrath
of God as our substitute so that God might be just and the justifier
of everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus and the life everlasting. I know this, we can't justify
ourselves. We can't save ourselves. Self-salvation
is an absolute impossibility. Romans chapter 3 says, by the
deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's
sight. I know that's so. I also know
that God cannot, cannot save us without doing justice to his
own law. His law demands death for sin. That's what God's law demands.
And God is bound by His law. He's bound to be just. He's got
to be just. He may be a Savior to us or He
may not be because He shows mercy on whom He will show mercy. But
He is going to be a just God. He's got to be a just God because
that's His character. It's a very attribute of God.
His justice, it is impossible for God to justify us without
perfect fulfillment of His law and absolute satisfaction to
His justice. Then we know that through the
merits of our Lord's death, God is just and we're justified. That is, we're made righteous
in God's sight. And we've got to be righteous
in God's sight if we're going to spend forever with the Lord.
We've got to be right with God. God won't accept anything less
than perfection. And we've got to have that. We've got to be a righteous people
before God. the Lord Jesus in his death made
all his people righteous. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21,
For He, God, hath made Him to be sin for us, He made the Lord
Jesus to be sin for us, that one who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That is, in Christ
Jesus. We've got to be righteous. Only
those who are righteous are going to spend forever with the Lord. And then I know this, that when
God seats us by His grace, when He reveals the Gospel of Christ
Jesus to us, we won't boast of anything that we've ever done.
Our boasting will be in the Lord. Isn't that right? You know, years
ago, when I was in religion, we used to have testimony services.
And people would get up and I'd conduct the service and I'd say,
let's be like popcorn now. I want to see you people popping
up all over the place. And folks would get up and say,
I thank God I did this and I gave my heart to Jesus and I walked
the aisle for the Lord and I decided and I did this and I did that.
Let me tell you something. When the Lord invades the heart,
When He does something for us, all of a sudden, it isn't what
I did, it's what the Lord did. The Lord did this for me. The
Lord saved me. The Lord delivered me. The Lord
rescued me. The Lord justified me. The Lord
revealed Himself to me. The Lord opened my eyes that
I might see. The Lord opened my ears that
I might hear the Gospel. The Lord removed that heart of
stone, and He gave me a heart of flesh, a new heart to believe
Him, to embrace Him. All of a sudden, the Lord becomes
our boast. Like David said, my soul shall
make her boast in the Lord. These things happen. They happen. It happened when we're made to
realize Christ Jesus died upon the cross under the wrath of
God that He might be just and the justifier of everybody who
believes Him. And then I know this. Christ
died to justify His people and secondly He died for us as our
substitute to remove our sins. To remove our sins. We read in
the Scriptures, He was manifest into this world to remove, to
take away our sins. That's why He came. Now we know
that when our Lord Jesus died upon the cross of Calvary, according
to Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 6, that all of the iniquities
of all of the sheep of the Lord were made to meet upon the Lord
Jesus. There was a mysterious removal
of guilt from us over to the Savior. This is typified in the
Old Testament when Aaron stood on the great day of atonement
and he put his hands upon the head of the goat, the scapegoat,
and there in a very significant way, or that's not the right
word, symbolic way, The sins of all Israel were transferred
to the goat. That was just symbolism. But
in reality, now let's get a hold of this or may this get a hold
of us. In reality, all of the sins of all of God's elect were
really transferred to the Lord Jesus and He became responsible
for our indebtedness. And then he died under the wrath
of God. God didn't spare him anything. God didn't show him any mercy. God didn't show him any leniency. Our Lord Jesus died under the
wrath of God. The fullness, the weightiness
of God's wrath that would have fallen upon all of His people
forever, it all fell upon our Lord Jesus. What a massive, massive
debt He took on us and how awful must have been the burden, the
burden of the wrath of God that He bore. But He was up to the
task. He was up to the task. He's the
mighty God, you see. even there hanging on the cross. His body beaten and bruised and
bloodied. And to all the onlookers, it
was obvious he was weak. And yet in that hour of supposed
weakness, he saved a thief. He delivered a thief. That takes
almighty grace. And then He bore the infinite
wrath of God. Our Savior put it this way. He
turned up the cup of God's wrath and He drank it dry down to its
last bit of dregs. He looked into that cup and saw
the wrath of God that He would have to endure. And He said,
Oh my Father, if it be Thy will, let this cup pass from Me. I
must face this. And He did face it and He drank
it all until it was all gone. Therefore there is now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. He died to put our sins away. Now if He took all the sins of
all of His people upon Himself, you know what that means? We
don't bear them. Is that right? We don't bear
them. He took them upon Himself. Here's the question. Does He
still bear them? No. No. He put them away. Just like that scapegoat led
into the wilderness by a fit man, led out of sight. That's where He took that goat,
out of sight. That's the result of the death
of the Lord Jesus. He has removed our sins as far
as the east is from the west. He's buried them in the depths
of the deepest sea. He's put them in the back of
God and God Himself says their sins and their iniquities will
I remember no more. God will never remember your
sins against you. Think about that. He will never
remember your iniquities against you. When you stand before Him
at the judgment, you will have a record that is absolutely perfect
for the righteousness of Jesus Christ has been already imputed
to your account. You stand righteous in Him. And
you even stand that way now. Even now. You're righteous before
God in Christ's righteousness. Why did He die? He died that
God might be just and justifier of all who believe on Christ.
He died to put our sins away, to remove them from us. And thirdly, He died for His
people to bring us to God. That's what it says in 1 Peter
chapter 3 and verse 18. He died to bring us to God. To bring us to God. You see,
we were far off from God. We were alienated from God. We were separated from God. And there was no way we could
climb that hill that separated us because it was a hill of sinfulness
and iniquity. But our Lord Jesus took all of
that out of the way. And He brings us to God. He brings
us. He takes us by the hand. You
see, even me, I'm just a poor old sinner. I know you are in
love yourself and so am I, but He takes us by the hand. He takes
us right up to God the Father, right up to the very throne of
God. And He says, Father, this is
one of those that I redeemed. I cannot imagine the wondrous
glory that awaits a child of God at the moment of death. And
I know those of us who, you know, we love the Lord, we believe
the gospel, there is still something about death that it bothers us
because it's the unknown. Just that little bit of a no. I know, preacher, based on the
merits of the Lord Jesus, we're going to glory. I'm going to
glory, but death. Death. It's so dark and gloomy
and I dread it and all of that. Though we shouldn't. But I'm
just speaking in realities here. Because that's the way we're
all human beings and we're made to love life. But all the wonders of that moment,
that moment when we breathe our last breath in this world and
immediately we're in the presence of God. the blessed Redeemer will be
the first one to welcome us. You hear about, you know, okay,
Simon Peter's going to meet us at the pearly gates. That's not
the way it is. He's there the same way we're
going to get there. By the grace of God through the
bloody sacrifice of Christ Jesus. The one who's going to meet us
is the Lord Jesus Himself. And He's going to embrace us.
Imagine what it will be to be embraced by the Son of God. And the hand that were wounded
for us reaches out and here we come. And He just warmly embraces
us, gives us a kiss on the cheek, the kiss of sonship, and He says,
welcome. Welcome home. Welcome home. Father, this is another one of
my sheep. We've loved him forever and here
he is, robed in my righteousness, washed in my blood. He's here
by our grace and all of the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit,
in the person of Christ Jesus our Lord, rejoices with joy unspeakable
in our presence in heaven. He died to bring us to God. Not
only bring us to God in this life, bring us spiritually, but
to bring us to God in heaven's glory. He's going to bring us
to God. What is the death of a child
of God but the Lord bringing us to glory? That's what He is,
bringing us to glory. That's the reason John Bunyan,
the great writer who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, maybe some of you have
read that, and he wrote several other books as well, but he said
to his family as they gathered around his bed, he said, don't
weep for me. They was all weeping. Everybody
had their handkerchiefs out. Daddy's dying. My husband's dying. Everybody wiping their tears
away. And I can understand that and I certainly wouldn't make
light of their grief. Because that's the way we are.
We love people. We love one another and we hate
to see our departure, our separation. But he said, don't weep for me.
He said, weep for yourselves. He said, I go yonder to the Father. I go yonder to the One who redeemed
me. I go yonder to that Home prepared
for me in glory. He said, don't weep for me. Rejoice
for me. Rejoice for me. And actually,
you know, a funeral service for a child of God, it ought to be
a time of rejoicing. Not, well, I'm glad he's dead.
Not that kind of rejoicing. Not, I'm glad he's gone. No. But I'm thankful he's with the
Lord. Boy, his days of suffering in this world are over. She made
many a hile in this life, and you know, now she's in the presence
of the King of King and the Lord of Lord. That's cause to rejoice,
isn't it? Cause to be happy. Why did He
die? He died that God might be just
and justify the ungodly. He died to put away our sinfulness. Thirdly, He died to bring us
to God. And fourthly, He died to deliver us from this present
evil world. This world is evil. Everything
about the world is evil. Our Lord Jesus, it was the object
in His death to deliver us from the vileness and the evilness
of this world. He delivered us from the evil
ways of this world, the evil kingdoms of this world, the evil
things of this world, the evil religion of this world. He died
to redeem us from that, to save us from that. Listen, the religion
of this world is evil. The religion of this world is
works. The religion of this world is
against the gospel of grace. He died to deliver us from this
evil world. And thank God He did. He died to deliver us from the
evil one who's in this world. He saved us from His great power. And then Christ gave himself
for us to redeem us from all iniquity and purify us a people
unto himself, a ransom purchased people, zealous of good works. He gave himself for us to redeem
us. There we were on the slave market,
ugly, naked, ruined, who would want us? Only our everlasting
God would want us. And He redeemed us by His own
power and grace. Our Savior died so that He might
also present us someday to the Father. Behold, Father, I am the children
that thou hast given me. Think of that final day when
all of the saints of God gather together in the beauties of Christ
Jesus fully arrayed. And he presents us to the Father
a glorious church, having neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such
thing. Oh, what a beautiful group we're
going to be then. And all of us dressed just alike. All of us robed in the white,
beautiful garments of Christ Jesus. All of us blessing the
name of God for His grace. All of us washed in His blood
and robed in His beauties. Christ Jesus died for these reasons,
but He died for another reason too. He died that He might be
the Lord of all the world. You see here in Revelation chapter
number 10, here we see our Lord Jesus. He is the mighty angel
who has come down. John sees Him. How beautiful
he was, clothed with a cloud. A rainbow was on his head. His
face was as it were the sun. His feet as pillars of fire.
He had in his hand a little book. Open. That's a key word here. Open. And watch it. He set his right foot upon the
sea. and His left foot on the earth.
You know what this tells me? He's the Lord. That's another
reason He died. He died that He might be the
Lord over all. He's the Sovereign. You see,
He's worthy. He's worthy to take this book.
We were introduced to this book back in chapter 5. And you know
something about this book already. This is the book of God's eternal
counsels. This is the book of everything
God ever intends to do, most especially focusing in on this
error that we're living in now between our Lord's first advent
and His second advent. This book is written within and
without. Everything God intends to do,
everything God has purposed, everything God has ordained is
in this book. And John sees it sealed with
seven seals and nobody was worried they'd open the book. Who is
going to execute God's eternal counsels? Here God is a God of
predestination. He's a God who ordained all things,
and yet John sees everything that God is purposed to do in
a book, and the book is sealed with seven seals. And the word
goes out, who's worthy to open the book? And nobody is, except
for one. And he's the Lamb of God. He's
the lamb who was slaughtered. You see, His worthiness to take
the book and execute all of God's eternal will, His worthiness
to be the Lord, is by virtue of His substitutionary death
on the cross. whereby He obeyed God's will,
He finished the work of redemption that God gave Him to do, and
therefore God has exalted Him. He's the Lord of lords and the
King of kings. And go back to chapter 5 in 5. Look at chapter 5. We ask this, wherein lies His
worthiness to take the book and loose the seals and bring all
of God's eternal counsel to pass? Wherein lies His worthiness? Look at verse 9. Chapter 5 and
verse 9. And they, the saints of God,
they sang a new song saying, Thou art worthy, speaking to
the Lamb of God who was slaughtered, Thou art worthy to take the book,
and to open all the seals thereof, that is, to bring to pass God's
eternal counsel, for thou was slain. and has redeemed us to
God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people
and nation and has made us unto our God kings and priests and
we shall reign on the earth. His worthiness, his worthiness
to rule, his worthiness to be the Lord is by virtue of his
successful work of redemption. He's the one who finished the
work that God gave him to do. God made him Lord. Isn't that
what Simon Peter was saying in Acts the second chapter on the
day of Pentecost? When he said to the Jews, God
has made this same Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and
Christ. God's made Him Lord in Christ.
Upon what basis has He been made Lord in Christ? I thought He's
always been the Lord. As God, He has been the Lord.
He didn't cease to be the Lord. But He, remember, He humbled
Himself and came into this world. And now the God-man Christ Jesus
has earned the right to be the Lord and to execute God's eternal
will. Everything's been turned over
to Him. Therefore, Peter says, God's made this same Jesus whom
you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Lord and Christ. And John sees Him. He sees in
His hand a little book. And I said last week, it's a
little book in His hand because His is a big hand. His is a big
hand. The book is in the hands of God.
Don't ever fear for the purpose of God. Don't ever be fearful
for the cause of God in truth. It's in good hands. It's in the
hands of Christ Jesus. He shall not fail. He will accomplish
the will of God to perfection. And He's arrayed, clothed with
a cloud. When I think about the cloud,
I think about the cloudy pillar in the Old Testament when Israel
wandered through the wilderness. God led them by pillar of cloud
by night and a pillar by day and a pillar of fire by night.
This signifies His presence with His people. Listen, this One
who is the Lord, this One who is the King, this One who has
all authority over everything, He's always with His people and
leading His people. He leads us! He leads us! He's the Good Shepherd of the
sheep. He doesn't drive us and He never leaves us alone. He
leads us. Sometimes He leads us up on the
mountain. Sometimes He leads us down in
the valley. Sometimes He leads us into a
situation of great hurt and pain. Sometimes He leads us in times
of pleasantness and delight. But He's always leading. He's
always leading. He's clothed with a cloud. Now,
this cloudiness also indicates the mysteriousness of His providence. Often times we don't know where
He's leading and we don't know what He's doing. Somebody said
to me the other day, I feel like sometimes I'm in a fog. I'm in
a fog. Well, what you're saying is,
I feel like I'm in a cloud and I just can't see. We just got
back from a trip. Those of you that have flown
at all, some of you have flown a lot. You fly, and it may be
a cloudy day down, and the cloud cover may be fairly low. And
you take off, and you go through the clouds. And boy, it can be
kind of bumpy. Keep your seat belts fastened,
because the pilot says there's going to be some turbulence.
You ever have any turbulence in your life? That's them clouds.
You go through the turbulence. But we used to sing the song,
back of the clouds, the sun is always shining. Remember that?
Back of the clouds, the sun is always shining. But He's with us whether we're
in the sunshine or the clouds. His presence never fails. His
face is the sun. His feet is pillars of fire.
The little books in His hand open, open to execute God's will. Oh, don't be fearful for the
cause of God in truth. It's in good hands. Oh, it's
not in my hands. It's not in your hands. It's
not in the hands of this church. It's not in the hands of any
other earthly church. It's in the hands of our Lord
Jesus. It's in nail-scarred hands. It's
in the hands of God. It's in the hands of the exalted
Redeemer. The book of God is open in His
hand. This One who sets His foot down,
His right foot's on the sea and His left foot's on the earth.
He doeth His will among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He in heaven, in earth, under the seas, and in all deep
places. This is our God and this is our
Savior right here. Here's our Lord. Our Lord. cried with a loud voice when
a lion roared." Well, He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He
cried with a loud voice and when He had cried, seven thunders
uttered their voices. Everything obeys His voice. Everything
obeys His voice. Our Lord Jesus, when He is on
this earth, Merely by His voice, He oftentimes cast out demons. He went to the tomb of Lazarus
and He said, Lazarus, come forth and death gaveth prey. I tell you, when our Lord Jesus
speaks, as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, things happen. And
nobody afraid of my voice. Nothing moves at the sound of
my voice. But when our Lord Jesus speaks,
when He speaks with His voice, His is the voice of God. His
is the voice of authority. Seven thunders uttered their
sounds, uttered their voices. When He speaks, things happen. And I wish, I pray that He would
speak in this kind of power to each of us this morning in life-giving
power. So that the Word of God would
thunder in our hearts and get our attention. You know, there's
something about a thunderstorm that gets your attention, doesn't
it? I tell you, you can be in the house, piddling around, or
be out in the yard, or whatever, be on your job, and all of a
sudden, a big clap of thunder Boy, everybody says, whew, did
you hear that? Yeah, that's the voice of God. And I pray that God's voice would
speak to you and to me this morning. Because if He speaks with this
kind of voice, it gets our attention. And you know something? He's
got to speak with this kind of voice. Otherwise, we'll just
go on ignoring Him. That's just the way we are in
our depravity. We won't pay any attention to
the written Word until the Lord God of glory speaks with a voice
that wakes the dead. And then all of a sudden, the
Scriptures come alive to us. And all of a sudden, we have
an interest and we're concerned about the things of God. The
seven thunders uttered their voices. John said, I was about
to write. I don't know what he was about
to write. Something of the mysteries of God. something that was written in
the book that it wasn't yet right, it wasn't the right time yet
for it to be revealed. And so, when John heard the voice,
he's about to write, he's, I'm going to write about this. Then
the voice said, no, don't write that. Not yet. That will be written
later. He says in verse 5, "...and the
angel which I saw stand upon the sea and the earth lifted
up his hand to heaven. He swears by Him that liveth
forever." That is, he swears by the name of God. He swears
by his own throne because he can swear by no greater. That's
what it says in Hebrews. He can swear by no greater. What
is it that he swears about? What is it that's like all-consuming
to him? Watch, he swore by Him that liveth
forever and ever, 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. Who could this be but Christ
Jesus Himself? That One who brought time into
existence, He's the only One who can say, time, stop! He's the one who began it in
the beginning. In the beginning, God created
and the clock began to run. And then the Lord one day will
say with a loud voice, time be no longer and the clock's going
to stop. Nobody can do that but the sovereign
God of glory, Christ Jesus our Savior. And He swears that when He says
that, that's going to happen. He's talking about the end days. Look in verse 7, But in the days
of the voice of the seventh angel, which we haven't heard the seventh
trumpet yet, we will, as we continue our studies, when he shall begin
to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath
declared to his servants the prophets. What is this mystery
of God? Now, there are a lot of mysteries
in the Word of God, but the mystery of mysteries is how can God be
just and justify the ungodly? The mystery of mysteries is that
a people like us should be the people of God. That we should
be redeemed and washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and that we should come to saving knowledge of this blessed Redeemer. And I'll tell you, time will
not stop. It won't stop. In other words,
everything is not going to be over until all of God's people
have heard His voice through the Gospel and His will of redemption
has been accomplished. All of the elect have been brought
safely into the fold of salvation, just like the prophets said.
Then everything will be finished. And then the voice which I heard,
John said from heaven, spoke to me again. And he said, take
the little book. Now I don't take this. This is
not to be taken literally, of course. Here's the book. That's in the hands of Christ
Jesus. Nobody can snatch that book out of His hands. That's
the eternal purpose of God. When it says in verses 8 and
9 that John is to take this book and eat it, I believe the Lord
is saying this must be received in your innermost being. What
is to be received? That all of the purposes of God
are being fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Take that into your being. Take this into your very being.
Believe this, that God governs everything. Everything is written
in the book. I can't understand the purpose
of God, I can't understand the mysteries of God, but I know,
I know my God ordained all things and my blessed Redeemer is fulfilling
everything God ordained to do. I do believe that, don't you?
And John is to receive it, receive this truth. Do you receive it? I do receive it. I do believe
this. I do believe that He reigns.
He reigns over all things. I believe this. And the voice
says, now I'll tell you, It'll be sweet to your lips. Sweet
to the taste. And isn't it sweet? Isn't the
doctrine of divine providence sweet? What is providence? God
directing all things to the end that He has ordained for His
own glory and the good of His people. Isn't the doctrine of
providence sweet? You know that nothing is by accident.
This is what the Lord has appointed for me. This is what the Lord
is appointing for the world. The natural man looks at the
world and says, this is so chaotic. This is so chaotic. I can't make
rhyme or reason out of anything. The child of God looks at the
world and the state of the world and says, I may not understand
what's going on, but everything is being fulfilled exactly as
God ordained it. That's what the child of God
says. And that is sweet. That's sweet. The doctrine of
divine providence is sweet. It's sweet to the taste. But
we also know divine providence can be better to you and to me. Because it's not so sweet to
hurt, to be sick, to be diseased, to be weak, to be frail, to be
grieved. That's not so sweet. And those times you say, oh, such bitterness. Nobody said providence is always
going to taste good to you. It is a sweet doctrine. But as we experience the things
in this world, oft times, there's a real bitterness to it. A real
bitterness to it. Look at verse 11. And He said
to me, Thou must prophesy again. You know what? You must preach
again. Before many people, nations,
tongues, and kings. The Lord said, John, preach. What are we to preach? What are
we to preach? This is what we preach. Our God
reigns. That's what we preach. Our God
reigns in creation. He reigns in providence. And
He reigns in salvation. And you know, if we'll remember
that even when we go through the bitter experiences of life,
we can still taste the sweetness that's truly there. Because you
see, and I've said this before, if it would be better for you
to be on a different road, you who are God's children, if it
had been better for you to be on a different path, you'd be
on a different path. Where you are, what you're going
through, what you've been through, what you're going through, what
you're going to go through, Hey, if you're not in a bitter experience
now, you've come out of one recently, or you're about to go into one,
I don't want to pop your bubble here, burst your bubble, but
you've got other bitter experiences to go to as well. But always
remember this, the Savior who redeemed us, He stands upon the
sea and the land. That's our Redeemer. And He has
in His hand a little book And He's fulfilling it all. And though
it may seem to be bitter in our bellies and give us an upset
stomach, just remember how sweet the taste is that Jesus reigns. Isn't that sweet? Jesus reigns. That One who saved us and who
redeemed us. Jesus' name reigns. And John
says, I heard the voice, that voice loud as thunder. He said,
preach that now. Preach that. Prophesy that. Jesus
reigns.