Tonight we're going to look here
at this little book that was given to the angel, that was
given to John. And you know, this is not a hard
book to understand. If you just understand that it's
Christ, He comes, He leaves his church here at his first coming.
Then he comes, second coming, the judgments. But now we have
these seven trumpets, and trumpets always speak of woe, a warning,
a warning. Trumpets sound a warning. Lift
up thy voices, a trumpet. They blew trumpets around the
walls of Jericho. But that third and final woe
won't come until chapter 11. But here tonight, we have just
a little marginal place in between there about this little book
and this great angel, this great, great angel. For that final angel, that seventh
angel blows his trumpet, we have a place that we just rest here
and refresh for just a minute before we go to the final judgment. And look what John says here,
and I'll read this and then I'll come back and comment on it.
And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed
with a cloud. And a rainbow was upon his head,
and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars
of pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little
book open. And he set his right foot upon
the sea and his left foot on the earth. And he cried with
a loud voice as when a lion roars. And when he had cried, seven
thunders uttered their voices. And 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. And the angel which I saw stand
upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his head to heaven. and swear by him that liveth
forever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that are
therein, and the earth, and the things that are in, and the sea,
and the things which are therein, that there should be time no
longer. But in the days of the voice
of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery
of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants
the prophets. And the voice which I heard from
heaven spake unto me 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. 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 hands and ate it, And it was in my
mouth sweet as honey, and soon as I had eaten it, my belly was
bitter. And he said unto me, thou must prophesy again before
many people, and nations, and tongues, and kin. Well, this
is a little thing here for the seventh angel, sounds your trumpet. But John, you know, he's in heaven.
When that door was opened, God took him to heaven. And he's
seeing vision after vision after vision while he's up there. And
he saw his mighty, mighty angel. Ain't that what it said? A mighty
angel. And that angel came down from heaven. He came down from
heaven. He's coming down out of heaven.
And you know the scriptures when it talks about angels coming
down from heaven, you know they're just coming to do God's will.
You find different places where they did that God sent them.
He sent an avenging angel to kill those in Exodus. He sends
avenging angels sometimes to wreak havoc. And he also sends
angels to comfort. Our Lord Jesus, the angels came
and comforted him in his hour of need. But this angel here
is clothed, look what it says, clothed with a cloud. You ever
wonder where they talk about these angels and people floating
around on clouds? That's where they get that. But
here's a great angel, mighty angel, come down from heaven.
And he's got a cloud around him, like you and I have a garment.
He's clothed with a cloud. White cloud, white cloud. And
this cloud represents God's holiness, and also it shows God's judgment. You know, God oftentimes, when
He come, He come in the Shekinah glory, and a cloud filled the
temple. But when you talk about the clouds, God hides, and He
walks, the clouds are the dust of His feet. And He has these
great clouds that even hides His face from people. But He's
clothed with a great cloud. And then look what it says, and
there's a rainbow, rainbow round about or upon his head. Now,
you know, when you talk about a rainbow, the first thing you
think about is Noah. The first time you hear about
a rainbow is over a covenant. God went to the flood had come
and God had saved Noah from the flood. And he saved him, and
he got out of that ark. Noah, every time it would rain
from then on, he would have been scared. He would have been, said,
oh Lord, we're going to fix this, flood us again. But he told,
he said, now Noah, you're going to see a bow in the cloud. And
when you see that bow, that means that I'm never going to destroy
the earth by water ever again. When you see that, that's a covenant.
When you see that bow, remember, that I made a covenant with you
that I'll never, ever have another ark for you to be saved in, and
there'll never be another great flood on the earth like it was
when I destroyed all flesh off the face of the earth. And so
Noah, he had rest in that covenant. Every time it rained, he saw
a rainbow. He said, there's God's promise. There's God's covenant.
And that's what this rainbow around his head tells us that
God's got a covenant. And the judgment, you know, when
Noah was in that ark, The rain was typical, a picture of God's
wrath. He said, I'm gonna destroy all
flesh upon the earth. I'm gonna destroy it because
man's mind is only wicked continually, evil continually. And he had
an ark prepared, and he prepared that ark, and nobody in that
ark. And when he saw that rainbow, he said, God, I'll never be judged
again. I was already judged in that
ark. Judgment fell on me in that ark. Not one drop of water got
on me in that ark. I bore the wrath of God in that
ark. I went through that flood in
that ark. And when we see a rainbow like this one here, or a rainbow
anywhere, that's God saying that I made a covenant with you and
you will never ever face the judgment because your ark, Christ,
is already born in your room and place. Ain't that right?
Not one drop of water is going to get on us. Not one ounce. Not a mist is
going to get on us. Huh? And all the rainbows on
his head showing God's covenant mercy and covenant faithfulness.
And then look what it says. And his face was as it were the
sun. See this is so easy to understand.
He's a great angel. He's got God around him. Got
a rainbow on his head and his face shone like the sun. Everybody knows how bright the
sun is. That's the way he was. When you looked at him, you looked
like looking at the sun. His face was like the sun. Shone bright like the sun. You
know, let me show you something about our Savior. Look in Matthew
17. Look in Matthew 17. Look while I show you something
about our Master, our Lord Jesus. Look in Matthew 17. His face
as the sun. Christ was the brightness of
God's glory. Express image of his person.
And look what he said here in verse one. And after six days,
Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth
them up into a high mountain apart. And listen to this now.
and was transfigured before him, and his face did shine as the
sun. And his raiment was white as
the light. That's where this angel was.
He was white as the light, and his face was bright as the sun,
like our Lord. Showing how his holiness shines
out in him, and God's glory shines out in our Lord Jesus Christ.
And this angel, this angel is immense in size. He is a huge,
huge angel. And I'll tell you, and then it
goes on to say, there in his feet were as pillars of fire.
Now that's easy to understand. You see a pillar of fire. Well
that's where his legs was. They just like they was on fire.
They just shimmered in fire. Just shimmered like they were
on fire. That he had this great, fire
represents God's judgment too. And here his legs were as pillars,
great big pillars of fire. And look what it says now. And
he had in his hand And he had in his hand a little book open,
and listen to this now, he's talking about a huge angel. He
set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth.
Now, let me ask you, wonder what sea he had his foot on? And what
foot he had his land on? Did he have it in Europe? Was
it America? What sea? Was he standing in
the middle of the Pacific Ocean? And his foot reached over here
and sat right down in the middle of America? Or was he right in
the middle of Europe and standing on the North Sea or the middle
of the Atlantic? I know this, that he was so big
that he was stretching out a foot. He's standing on the water. Christ
is the only person who ever stood on the water. And he rest over
here with his other foot and set it down on the land. And
I tell you, he is this huge, giant angel standing there. And I tell you, I tell you, he
right foot on the sea and the left on the land. And I know
this, beloved. It don't make no difference where
you set him down. This is what he had to say. That's
about it, what he had to say. Look what he said. And he cried
with a loud voice. And this is so easy to understand.
When you hear a lion roar, a lion roar, you know, he's got all
this great roaring, the king of the jungle and all that. Well,
when this angel sounded, his voice was like a great lion roaring. And when he had cried, I mean,
he began to cry. And I tell you, And he stands
on the sea and cries out as the lion roared. And I tell you,
why is he standing upon the sea and on the land? Because this message is for the
whole universe, for the whole world, and God wants everybody
to hear it. And I tell you, when he roared,
look what happens. And when he had cried, Now in
verse 3, seven thunders ordered their voices. Seven thunders. Seven thunders. And they all
spoke. Them seven thunders had a voice.
It wasn't thunder like you and I hear thunder. That thunder,
it sounded like thunder, but every one of those seven thunders
had a voice. Ain't that what it says? Seven
thunders uttered their voices. They had something to say. And
when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, oh my, they had,
each thunder had a distinct message. Voice of the Lord spoke seven
times right here. Remember I told you that the
number seven is in this book 54 times. Seven represents perfection. Seven represents completion.
Seven represents things that's done and never be done again.
And oh, here's the seven thunders. And oh, John, there's seven thunders. Each of them had a distinct message.
And then it says, and when the seven thunders had uttered their
voices, John said, I was about to write. I was about to write
down what I see. I was about to write down what
these seven voices said. He said, I was gonna write it
down. I was gonna write down what these
seven voices said. He understood what they said.
He understood their message. He understood that each one of
them had something to say. And he was fixing to write it
down. You write down what those seven thunders said. Every single
one of them had a distinct voice and a distinct message. And here's
getting ready to write it down and look what it says. And I
heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, oh my, oh boy, that's
what we need. We need a message from heaven.
God speak to us from heaven. Send us, well, he did send us
his blessed son from glory. But oh God, come down and speak
to us. Let us hear your voice again
and again and again. But he said, I was about to write.
Had his pen in his hand. And a voice said from heaven
saying, listen to what he told him to do. Seal up those things. Which the seven thunders uttered,
and don't write them. He said, he understood what those
seven voices said. And God said, don't write it.
Don't tell nobody what they said. I don't want nobody to know.
The secret things belong unto the Lord. He said this. He said,
keep this to yourself. Seal it up. Seal it up. And write them not, still up
the things which the seven thunders uttered, and don't write them.
Why in the world would he not want him to write them? Well, I'll give you a couple
of reasons. You wonder, and we'll never know how many things God
uses in this world that we're not conscious of at all. how many voices he has in this
world that he uses. God has everything in this universe
is at his disposal. The sun, the moon, the stars,
everything in this universe is at his disposal. Every angel,
every demon, every foul spirit, every right spirit, everything's
at his control. And I tell you what, he can use,
and if we don't know, and we can never describe, all the factors
that God uses in this world to deal with people. And I do know this, that there
is lots of times that there's come a time when God crosses
a man's path, and he'll say, I'll never cross this path again.
There's a time that he'll say something to a man, he'll put
him in a situation, and he'll save him from a situation, and
then that man will ignore that, and God will say, I'll never
do it again. He can use cars, he can use diseases, he can use
prophets, he can use angels, he can use a thousand things
in this world to do his business. He can use a plague like this
pandemic. People think, listen, God has
raised up plague after plague after plague in this world. He
has killed... This thing here is nothing compared
to what he did. You know, he sent a bubonic plague
in Europe and they killed millions of people at one time. They had
a flu in 1918 that killed 18 million people in America. And
they think this thing here because a few people get sick, they think
that's something? Let him send the bubonic plague.
Let him send the black plague. Let him send something that nobody
in the world can ever stop and kill about a half a million people
or 10 or 12 million people, and then maybe he'd get people's
attention. I don't know. But I do know this, He can use
anything in this world. But let me tell you something,
has anybody ever got converted because they had a flag sent
on them? When God sent a flag on all of Egypt, and all them
flags down there, how many people did God save in Egypt? Only His people. And if He sends another flag
in this world, who's gonna be saved from it? His people. Huh? God, listen, I'm going to tell
you something. He uses these things to warn
people and to get people's attention. But I also tell you this, that
the only way God will ever save a sinner is by the gospel. He
will never save a sinner apart from the gospel. And there's
a lot of ways you can get a man out of the sound of the gospel.
But I tell you, I'm thankful that he does. James was telling
me yesterday, you don't mind me telling this, but when his
daddy was sick, that's when he started coming. And because his
mother happened to deal with his daddy being sick, and he'd
been gone, what, 20 years in December? He started coming because
his daddy was sick. God saved him. Don't make no
difference why you come. God pull his gun back, shoot
you, that don't make no difference why you're here. It don't make
a bit of difference why you're here. As long as you're here,
God will get you where the gospel's at. One way or another, he'll
get you where the gospel's at. And maybe that's what we're talking
about, these seven voices that uttered. We don't know what they
said. It don't make no difference what
they said. What makes any difference if we've heard the voice of Christ?
I don't care what an angel says, what does Christ say? Huh? What does the Lord Jesus
have to say? If God wanted us to understand
what these angels had to say, then we would have known what
they said. But God said, don't do it. Don't write them down.
Don't write them down. And I'll tell you, God uses a
lot of things to bring to pass the future. The secret things
belong to the Lord. You know, in the Scriptures,
when we started this, we knew the meaning of the lampstands.
Our Lord told us. They were the seven churches.
We know the meaning of the seals, God's decree, God's will, God's
purpose opened up. We know what the trumpet represents,
it represents a warning. But there are unseen and unknown
forces at work in this world. That's what John, you know, that's
what the apostle said, said, we were not against flesh and
blood, but against the principalities and spiritual powers in high
places and in wicked places. Oh, listen. I was listening today
about a man, the reason he became a murderer is because a demon
was telling him to do it. There was a hole in his wall
and there was a demon in there telling him to go out and kill
somebody. He said, I don't have no control over that demon. A
demon, you hear people talking about people being demon possessed?
He killed people because a demon told him to do it. He acknowledged
the demon done it. But that's what I'm telling you,
there are unseen unknown forces at work in this world. And when
he said there's seven thunders, we don't know what they are.
And that's why it's foolish to try and predict the future. A
man north not wide a day will bring forth. We don't know. We
just don't know. There was a fella, he's dead
now, campion. He started Family Radio years
and years ago from out in California. Had a big church out there and
lots and lots and lots and lots of people came out there. And
God used him to start the family radio, and Henry got to preach
on it, Don Ford got to preach on it, and a lot of people got
to hear the gospel. But anyway, Campion predicted
the second coming of Christ three times. Three times. And the first time
he come, you know, everybody got kinda ready, and he said,
well, he didn't come, he said, well, I'll re-figure, I'll re-figure,
I'll look at the calendar again, I'll look at the Hebrew calendar,
I'll look at all the calendars again, and I'll figure out what
the next time's gonna be. Well, the second time, I mean,
it's September sometime he's supposed to come, and he didn't
come, and he said, I'll listen, I'll figure this out, and the
next time he did it, He convinced people to sell their property,
get rid of all their money, sell their cars, move out of their
houses, and billboards was all over America, prepare for the
coming of the Lord, He's coming, and those people gave up everything
they had in this world, and sat down waiting for Christ to come.
Now when He didn't show up, they didn't have a house to live in,
they didn't have no money left, they gave it all away. He was a fool and everybody believed
Him was a fool. Our Lord said, they said, Lord,
when's He gonna come again? He says, not for me to know,
it's up to my Father. Me as a man, I don't know. As
God, I know. But as God, only the Father knows
when He's coming. And I don't care when He comes,
as long as He comes. He can come tonight. He can come
tomorrow. He can come next year. It don't make any difference
to me. Just come. That's what John said. Amen. Even so, come
Lord Jesus. Come, come, come. And oh my. How foolish it is to try to predict
the coming of Christ. Our Lord gave us some signs.
And I mean the signs are here. You know, we got as it was in
the days of Noah. What was it like in the days
of Noah? Wickedness was upon the face of the earth. Has our
world ever been any more wicked than it is right now? People
are not even getting married. We're talking about today. People
don't even bother getting married anymore. They just live together,
and when they get tired of that one, they'll run him off or her
off and find them somebody else. And they don't even bother getting
married anymore. And they have no embarrassment
about it, no shame about it. And they kill more babies in
America than there's people being born in America. And I don't want to get on political
things, but what I'm telling you is that you look around and
this world is sick. It's sick. It's rotten. It's
corrupt. And if God don't have mercy on
us, and that's all I can say now is God have mercy on America. God have mercy. And there is
a few people that still love and honor the things that's right
in this world. Not a lot, but a few. And you
know in this angel, he said, here, let me go back to this.
And verse five, and that angel, which I saw stand upon the sea
and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven. Now see,
he's got that book in one hand, got one hand lifted up to heaven.
He began to swear and you know when you find people lifting
up their hands in the heaven and in the scriptures Abraham
lifted up his hand to God and swear to the Lord Daniel lifted
up his hand to God And here he says he'd look what
he says about now what this angel lifted up his hand to heaven
and listen to what he did and the scriptures tells us not to
swear, but this angel swore and And this angel swore when he
lifted up his hand, by him that liveth forever and ever, that's
our Lord, that's God, that's Christ, who created heaven. Oh, God created the heaven. And
all the things that are in heaven. And the earth, and everything
that's in the earth, he made it. And everything that's in
the sea, and everything that's in the sea. And he swore this,
he said, he swore by him. You know what he said? Time ain't
gonna be no more. Oh, wouldn't it be something
when there ain't no more time? Nine minutes to seven. One of
these days, we won't even have time as it used to be. God's
just gonna cut time off. You know when that happens? when
we get in eternity. God said time's gonna be no more. We're bound by time, bound by
space. But when we get to heaven, we
won't be bound by either. Oh my. And then he says that
time should be no more writing. Final judgment's about to come.
And then look what he says here now. In verse 7, I need to hurry. But in the days of the voice
of the seventh angel, now he's talking about the seventh angel
that's going to have that third woe in the next chapter. But
in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall
begin to sound, when he blows his trumpet, the mystery of God
should be finished. In other words, things is going
to stop. The world's gonna come, this
judgment's gonna come, and be finished as he hath declared
by his servants, the prophets. How many times did God say, I
create a new heaven and I create a new earth? How many times did God tell his
people, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy
victory? How many times did God say things like that? And then
he said, he hath declared by himself, the mystery of God will
be finished. A mystery revealed by God and
by His prophets. I'll tell you one of the mysteries
that He revealed to us and through His prophets. A full and free
salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. Full and free. That's a mystery. You know, it was a mystery to
us until He revealed it to us. We understood works, we understood
Obedience we understood, doing things and paying tithes and
all that stuff, but we didn't know nothing about a free salvation.
We didn't know nothing about a salvation that was accomplished
and finished until God revealed it to us. And then there's this
mystery of God's decrees. It was about to reach its end,
the final judgment. And when this final judgment's
come, that's when the saints enter into their glorious, glorious
inheritance. I'll tell you another mystery
that the prophets talked about. The mystery of the Lord Jesus
Christ being made manifest in the flesh. The mystery of Christ
in you, the hope of glory. The mystery of all things being
hidden in God and made manifest unto us. But this mystery All
the mystery about how time should be, and how eternity's gonna
be, and how many people are gonna be saved, and how many people
are gonna be in glory, and how they get there, and all that
mystery that the prophets declared, it's all gonna be over and done
with one of these days. And that's what he's talking
about here. And then look what the voice says to him. And the
voice, look what he said in verse eight, and the voice which I
heard from heaven spake unto me again. First time he said,
don't write, set it up. Now he spoke to him again. And
he says, you go and take that little book which is open in
the hand of the angel. And that's a big old angel now. He's standing
one foot on the sea and one out in the middle of the ocean. And
look what he says now. Go and take that little book
which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon
the sea and upon the earth. Well, I went unto the angel.
And I said unto him, give me the little book. Tell that angel. He's looking at us, face like
the sun, cloud, legs like pillars of fire. And he walks up to him
and said, give me that book. Angel handed it to him, handed
it to him. And he says, take it. And oh,
this is a strange thing. Eat it. Eat that book. Eat the book. Take it and eat
it. And this is the first thing he
tells us. When you eat it, it's going to make your belly feel
awful, awful bad. You're going to be bitter. It's
going to be bitter. But it should be in your mouth like honey.
And oh my. And you know what he does? This
is the Word of God he's talking about. That's the word of God
he's talking about. You find that so many places
in the scripture. So many places. Jeremiah took
God's book and he ate it. And then it says, it's sweet
in your mouth but bitter in your belly. And he said in verse 10,
I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and listen
to what he said, and I ate it up. I ate it up. Now how do you eat up God's word?
How do you eat it up? We do it every time we come in
here. Every time we come, we're eating. Every time we come in
here, the book, the book's given to you. And you eat that book. And I tell you, it was in my
mouth sweet as honey, and as I had eaten it, my belly was
bitter. What makes it sweet? Because it reveals the Lord Jesus
to us. Because it tells us about God's
blessed, glorious grace. Because the Word, this precious
Word is sweet because it sanctifies us and sets us apart. This Word
is so sweet because it preserves us and keeps us. But you know
what makes it bitter? It reproves us. It corrects us. It's against our natures. That
makes it bitter, against our nature. And I'll tell you something
else it does. It discerns our thoughts and
the intents of our hearts. Bruce Daly used to come in here
all the time. He said, buddy, did somebody
bring you my mail and let you read it before you got here? Because he said, I was just thinking
about that or just talking about that. And that's what Paul said. He said, the secrets of men's
hearts will be made manifest. And it's done in the gospel.
It's done in the preaching. And I tell you, it reproves us.
It's against our nature. And I tell you, it tells us what
we're thinking and what we intend to do. And God'll take the gospel
and say, now, get that thought out of your mind, and don't you
dare do that thing you're thinking about doing. And nobody knew
you was thinking about it. Nobody had the intention you
was gonna do it. But God did. Ain't you glad that he knows
us? That he knows us? And I tell you, Ezekiel, God
told Ezekiel, said, now, Ezekiel, you go preach to a people. He
said, but when you go there, they're not going to listen to
a word you got to say. You're going to sit there, and they're
going to stare at you. And they're going to nod at you.
But he said, they ain't going to pay no attention. That makes
it better, too, when nobody pays any attention to what you got
to say. Reject it, ridicules it. And then he said, last of
all, and I'll finish with this. And he said in verse 11, he said
unto me, thou must prophesy again before many peoples and nations
and tongues and kings. And you'll see that that happens
in chapter 17 through 19. John begins to prophesy of many,
many things. So what God told you, like I've
told you, we just go over and over again with the gospel. Christ
comes. He does His work, He saves His
people. He leaves us in the world, then He comes again. We see Him
coming again, leaving us in this world. Judgment's coming in this
world, and then finally, finally, we get to the last thing, and
it's over. And one of these days, what this
tells us, the one thing it tells us over and over and over again,
that these things belong to God. And He gives them to whom He
will. And I'm thankful for that. Yep. Our Father, in the precious name,
blessed name, glorious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, You've
been so merciful to us today. Oh, You've been so merciful to
us. And Lord, I'm thankful, thankful. We don't
have to understand everything in your book. We don't have to
understand it perfectly. Don't have to understand it completely. But Lord, I know we have to believe
it. While we don't understand, we
believe it. And we leave it in your hands. We leave it in your
will. Leave it where it belongs. In
God. Because we always know that you're
right, always will be, and through eternity, you'll always be God. And oh Lord, we're like John.
He said, you is coming. And we say even so, come quickly. Come quickly. We thank you for
your great mercies given us in Christ before the world began.
God bless these dear saints. Bless our brothers and sisters
who are traveling. See them safely home. See them
back to worship with us. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Every hour of every day. and in every way I'm leaning
on Jesus. the rock of my soul. I'm singing his praises wherever
I go. Well I'll see you Wednesday,
God willing.