In Revelation chapter 10, we're
going to be talking about the bittersweet gospel. You remember
in this part of the vision, Christ appeared unto John at the beginning
of chapter 10 and gave him that little book. The little book
opened. You compare that little book
to the seven-sealed book, the large book of God's purpose throughout
the age. That's what that seven-sealed
book is. And Christ is opening the seven
seals. Remember, only the Lamb is worthy
to open that book, revealing all of God's purpose, all of
God's revealed will throughout the last days, from the cross
to the second coming of Christ. But here's a little book, and
that little book is the book of the gospel, the good news
of salvation. Remember I said it's not little
because it's insignificant or not important. It's little because
it's a simple message of truth. That's to be preached to every
creature, as Christ said. Remember he said the gospel must
be preached in all nations, and then the end will come. Well,
here what he's talking about is the mystery revealed of the
end of all time. So I want you to look at Isaiah
46. This kind of summarizes the message of the last part of this
chapter 10. Verse 9. Now here in the context,
750 years before Christ, Isaiah has predicted, prophesied of
the future captivity of Judah that
comes later under the Babylonian captivity. But he says God's
will is not to finish that nation at that time that he would deliver
them from Babylon and bring them back into their own country.
He was going to do that. Now, the purpose of all that,
the main message of all that is that God is not finished with
that nation until Messiah comes, until the time of Reformation,
as the book of Revelation states. But listen to what he says in
verse nine. He says, remember the former things of old. That's
God's dealings in history. He says, for I'm God and there's
none else. I'm God and there is none like
me. majesty, the uniqueness, the holiness of God. Look at
verse 10, declaring the end from the beginning. Now that's sovereignty. That's predestination is what
that is. And what I mean by this, think about it. God, it says
he declares the end from the beginning. You and I, we can
see the beginning from the end. We know how things start out.
I know how this day started out, but I don't know how it's going
to end up. But God declares the end from the beginning because
he's God, he's sovereign. It's not just that he has a working
knowledge of everything, he declares it, he says. He declares the
end from the beginning. So God's working his will. And it says, and from ancient
times, the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel
shall stand. Now this shows you that God did
not look down through a telescope of time and foresee that. He
says, my counsel shall stand. His counsel is the product of
his wisdom, his purpose, his will, his decree. My counsel
shall stand, I will do all my pleasure, I'll do everything
I want to do. Now you can't say that, and I can't say that, and
that's a good thing. If I could do everything I wanna
do, that'd be a terrible thing. I mean, in certain areas of my
life, I'd say, well, that'd be a great thing. But no, it'd be
a terrible thing. But God says, I'll do everything I wanna do,
verse 11, calling a ravenous bird from the east, I believe
that's a direct prophecy of the man whom God used to deliver
Judah out of Babylon, whose name is Cyrus, but I'm not gonna get
into that. The man that executeth my counsel
from a far country. Now, Cyrus was an idolatrous
heathen king. But he was used in the sovereign
providence and purpose and power of God to do God's will. And
we see that all through the scripture. God overruling evil to do good. God is not the author of evil,
but he overrules it. He's in control of it. Remember,
that's set back in Genesis. Remember, Joseph said to his
brothers, he says, you meant it for evil, God meant it for
good. God works all things after the counsel of his own will.
And he says, my counsel from a far country, yea, I have spoken
it. I will also bring it to pass. I've purposed it. I will also
do it. Now don't stop there because
When we talk about what he's revealing over here in Revelation
10, here's the mainstay of it. Verse 12, hearken unto me, listen
to me, hear me, you stout hearted that are far from righteousness.
That's the state of all of us by nature. Stout hearted. That's proud. That's proud and
far from righteousness. You see, man thinks he can attain
righteousness by what he does or what he thinks, his sincerity,
his religion, but he's far from it. Far from righteousness. But God says in verse 13, I bring
near my righteousness, God's righteousness. Now what is that
talking about? That's talking about Christ. That's a prophecy
of Christ. Listen to it. It shall not be
far off and my salvation, that word salvation is The word in
the old Hebrew is Yeshua, Joshua. His name shall be called Jesus,
that's the Greek equivalent, for He shall save His people
from their sins. My salvation shall not tarry.
You see, righteousness for man is something far off that he
has to reach or run to or work to, to attain. And it gets farther
and farther away. But God's righteousness, He said,
I'll bring it near, it shall not wait. How's He going to accomplish
it? Look at it. I will place salvation in Zion. That's a picture of the church.
That's a type or symbol of the church. for Israel my glory."
Israel being the people of God. Now that's the summation. Turn
over to Revelation 10 now. That's the summation of the mystery
that God is revealing here and the message of the little book.
The gospel of God's righteousness. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. This is all about Christ and
look at verse 7, he says, but in the days of the voice when
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. Now the seventh angel refers
to the seventh seal of judgment that begins over in chapter 11
verse 15. It says the seventh angel sounded
and there was great voice. What he's talking about there
is the second coming of Christ, the end of time, the judgment.
And he's saying here, in the days when that angel sounds,
that is, this is the end, alright? When he shall begin to sound,
the mystery of God should be finished. In other words, the
purpose of God, the working of God, The whole revealed will
of God concerning this seven-sealed book that takes you from the
cross to the second coming of Christ, it'll be over. That's
what he's saying. God's purpose, God's decrees
concerning this fallen world will be completed, finally and
fully. And that's because he declared
it, just like he declares the end from the beginning. He declared
to his servants the prophets. This is not a new message. Listen,
people live their lives connected to this world as if it's going
to go on forever and ever and ever. It's not. The end is coming. And so the message of the little
book in context of this is just like the message of Isaiah. He
says, listen to me, you that are far from righteousness, you
who are stout hearted, sinners, who need salvation but cannot
have it and cannot work it. by their efforts. This is what
he's saying. That's the message of the little
book. The end's coming. The message of the little book,
the gospel, is flee from the wrath to come. Now, who are you
going to flee to? Don't flee to religion. It won't
help you. Don't flee to the baptismal pool. It won't help you. Not
in salvation. You see, baptism is a confession
of salvation already accomplished in Christ. Don't flee to the
moral majority. They cannot save you. Don't flee
to politics, don't flee to America, flee to Christ. That's the message
of this mystery. It's all coming to its close.
God's shutting it down. I often think about this because,
and we talk about it a lot and rightly so, we think about our
country and we grieve When we see our country, I'm gonna talk
a little bit more about this in the message today, finishing
up, learning to do well, according to Isaiah chapter one, according
to the Bible. And I love, we love our country,
and we thank God that we live in a country where we've had
the freedoms that we've had and enjoy. And last week, remember
I said we've been spoiled, we have, haven't we? And you see
that people taking advantage of it. But here's the point. This country is not our salvation. Being an American is not salvation. Following Christ is salvation.
Trusting Christ is salvation for all righteousness, for all
forgiveness. This country is not going to
last forever. Now, I'm like you now. I hate to see it finished
in my day and my children and grandchildren, but it's not going
to last forever. That was the problem the Israelites
had under the old covenant. They thought this thing was going
to last forever. And it's not. You see, the message
of the prophets, and look back here, verse 7 again, look at
it. The days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall
begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, the purpose
of God in this whole mess will be done, as he hath declared
to his servants the prophets. Now the message of the prophets,
for example, to Israel was not look to the temple. It was not
look to the priesthood or the high priest. It was not look
to the animal sacrifices. It was not look to the throne
on earth. It was look to the future promise
of God in the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, for salvation. And this thing was not going
to last forever. That's what Isaiah told him.
That's what Jeremiah told him. Yeah, that's why Jeremiah was
the weeping prophet. Now look, but that's the whole issue. But
look at verse 8. He says, And the voice which
I heard from heaven spake 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. Take that little book
now, that voice, Lord himself speaking to John from heaven.
That little book, that's the gospel now. That's the gospel
message. And he says, you go and take
it. In other words, it's kind of like an indication that John
himself has to receive this. He'd already received. John was
a believer. John was a sinner saved by grace.
John was an apostle. But he's showing in this vision
that those who deliver this message must believe it themselves. Now,
that's not to say that a false prophet can't say the right thing
at times, but he can't stay with it. But he's showing here that
all who truly speak for God, who preach the gospel of Christ,
must first know it and receive it themselves because we're ambassadors
of Christ. Paul wrote about that in 2 Corinthians
5. He says, we beseech you by the
Lord Jesus. We're ambassadors of Christ.
We have a message. of authority, not because of
who we are. The authority of this message
is not from me. It's from God. This is God's
word. And that's why you need to be
diligent to test me by the word of God. I don't care who I am
or what my reputation is or how long I've been doing this. I've
been doing it over 30 years now. But that's not my authority.
That's not my credibility. My authority and my credibility
is right here in this word. The Bible commands you to test
me. I'll never forget one time a
friend of ours went to a preacher and began to question him on
some things that he was preaching that were not consistent with
the gospel. And the preacher got offended.
The fellow told me, he said he reared back in his chair and
put his feet on the desk. He said, well, am I on trial?
And the fellow didn't know how to answer him. If I'd have been
there, I'd say, you sure are. You sure are. Every time you
stand somewhere and claim to preach in God's name, you're
on trial. Now that doesn't mean that you're
to look at me and to try to, I tell people listen critically.
Now what I mean by that is don't listen to fine thought, test
it by the word of God. That's what I mean by critical
listening. So test the spirits. And so he
took this little book which is open in the hands of the angel.
This is a message, go in all the world and preach the gospel.
Look at verse nine, he says, and I went unto the angel and
said unto him, give me the little book. And that's what it's all
about, the gospel. Now listen, he said, unto me,
take it and eat it up. Eat it up. Now that's a metaphorical
way of expressing faith in this message. Faith in Christ, according
to this message. You know, Christ, he made the
statement about drinking his blood and eating his flesh. And many people have perverted
that to just crazy things, you know, like cannibalism and stuff
like that. The Catholic Church, who believes
in the doctrine of what they call transubstantiation, where
when they take the Lord's Supper communion, the unleavened bread
and the wine turns into the actual body and blood, that's not what
it's teaching at all. And the Pharisees were offended
when he said that, back in the book of John, as recorded. What
does it mean to drink his blood and to eat his flesh? It's believe
in him. It means to, he becomes a part
of you, what it is. It's taking him and it's more
than just an outward profession of doctrine, it's an inward confession
of faith. That's what it means. When we
partake of the Lord's Supper, We're eating unleavened bread
and wine that represents symbolically the body and the blood of Jesus
Christ. So that we'll remember him and
express our faith in him. He takes this message by the
power of the Holy Spirit and he writes it upon our hearts. The metaphor of eating and drinking
is used throughout the scripture. For example, Matthew chapter
five, blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness,
they'll be filled. You hunger, you'll have the bread
of life. You thirst, you'll have the water of life. And what it
means, too, when he talks about eating it, it's necessary for
our salvation and our spiritual health. The people of God can't
do without it, just like a baby who can't live without mother's
milk. We can't live without it. This
is our whole life. John 6, 63, it says, it is the
spirit that quickeneth, the Holy Spirit imparts life in the new
birth. The flesh profiteth nothing.
And then he says, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit
and they are life. And we need this word. So this
is true faith in Christ who is our life. But look at verse nine
again. He said unto me, take it, eat it up, and it shall make
thy belly bitter. It'll make your belly bitter.
That's why, and then it says, but it shall be in thy mouth
sweet as honey. The bittersweet gospel. Well,
what is this bitterness? Well, there's several things.
First of all, we can talk about true conviction. When God the
Holy Spirit applies the gospel message of Jesus Christ and him
crucified and risen from the dead as the righteousness of
God, and I'm not just talking about historical facts, I'm talking
about the gospel that shows me how what I am by nature, what
I am at my best, a sinner in need of salvation by grace, I
was listening to a little bit of the TV program this morning
before I left to come here. It's talking about righteous
judgment. And here's a statement that the natural man will not
receive savingly unless the Spirit of God brings him to conviction.
And that's this, that if God were at any time, and I want
you to think about this, If God at any time in our lives, at
our worst or at our best, were to ever give us what we deserve
or what we've earned, you know what it would be? Eternal death
and damnation. Now that's the long and the short
of it, isn't it? In my relationship with God as
a sinner saved by grace, Whether it be salvation itself, the benefits,
the blessings, whether it be any of the blessings that I have
of this life, I cannot say that I earned this. I deserve this. And you remember how I always
apply that. The next breath you take is a gift from God, isn't
it? And you don't deserve it. I don't either. We didn't earn
it. It's all a gift from God. That's
what grace is all about. It's not part God and part you.
It's not God gave me this because I did that. You understand? It's salvation conditioned on
Christ alone. That's why this modern day gospel
is such a farce. And I'm not saying that to be
mean or critical. It's just truth, folks. People
think God saves them because they do something for him. And
that's not the way it is. And so when the Holy Spirit brings
us to see the gospel, it's bitter in our belly because for the
first time in our lives, we really see what we are. Sinners in need
of mercy and grace who deserve nothing but damnation. And that's
why it brings us to repentance. Think about it in Philippians
chapter 3. Think about Saul of Tarsus. Here's a man who spent
the better part of his early life trying to do good works,
trying to be sincere and dedicated, trying to earn his way into God's
favor, trying to establish a righteousness of his own. And then the Holy
Spirit brings him to conviction and he sees that everything that
he thought recommended him unto God was what? Dumb. What do you call it? Nothing. Worthless. Man at his best state. Worthless. And that's a bitter
pill. And then not only is it a bitter
pill because we see ourselves, but we have to. I mean, you can't
get away from this. I've had people say, well, that's
how it showed me, but I don't see anybody. Well, remember Isaiah
in Isaiah chapter six? I saw the Lord high and lifted
up, holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty. What did he say? He said, I'm undone. I'm cut
off from God. I thought I was close to God.
I thought I was God's friend. I thought I was in God's book.
I'm cut off, he said. I'm a man of unclean lips. And
then what was the next line, you remember? I dwell among a
people of unclean lips. You see, what I'm saying is that's
not just my state without Christ. It's your state too without Christ.
That's why we preach the gospel. That's why we witness. That's
what the witness is all about, telling sinners the truth, not
trying to be mean. Now, they'll see it as mean.
You mean to tell me that all my religion and all that, I was
raised in the church, I was baptized, you know, all this stuff? My
friend, without Christ, without his righteousness imputed, without
his blood to wash away my sins, without his grace, without his
truth, it's all for nothing. And that's what we're commanded
to tell people. And it's a bitter pill, isn't
it? Think about it. Christ said, I didn't come to
bring peace in the world. I came to bring a sword. And
it divides families. Think about it. How many of you
have had to leave your families, religiously speaking? You've
had to, haven't you? And that's not an easy thing
to do. I've often told people, I said, you know, I'd love to
tell you that my uncle, my aunts, my cousin, blah, blah, blah,
you know, in false religion that they were, so I'd love to be
able to tell you that. But if I did tell you that, all I'd
be doing is compromising the glory of God. And it wouldn't
change the facts. That's the bitterness of it.
And so the belly indicates something of the sinfulness of sin, which
goes deep into the heart. It's a bitter pill. But, he says,
it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. The taste of the gospel
is good news to a sinner. That's right. It's good news. The message of salvation, think
about it. It may bring the bitterness of
persecution. But it also brings the sweetness
of God's grace. Think about it, the forgiveness
of sin. David said, blessed is the man
to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. God does not charge
me with my sins. How do I know that? Because my
only hope is Jesus Christ and him crucified and risen. And
my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I've got no other plea before God. That's right. Think about those false preachers
in Matthew 7. Lord, haven't we preached in
your name? Lord, haven't we done many wonderful cast out demons?
That's what they pled before God at judgment. Does that, do
those things make a sinner righteous? Do those things wash away the
sin? No, none of it does. What does? The blood of Jesus Christ. That's
all we've got. That's all we have to plead.
How many times have I told you? I've preached this gospel for
over 30 years. All the sermons that I've preached,
all the activity that I've done, all the writing that I've done
cannot contribute one degree to the righteousness that I have
before God. It's Christ's righteousness imputed.
That's it. He's my all and in all. He's
everything. That's what that means. It's
not me and Jesus. It's him. and me in him, I'm
in him, washed in his blood and clothed in his righteousness.
And that's the sweetness of it. I have, I can tell you, I have
a righteousness that equals and answers the demands of God's
justice. And it's a perfect righteousness.
It cannot be contaminated. If it were my righteousness,
it would already be contaminated. It'd be less than perfect. But
this one cannot be contaminated. It cannot be taken away. You
know why it can't be taken away? Because God is just and faithful. His justice demands it. His faithfulness
demands it. He will not take it back. The
gifts and calling of God are without repentance. He will not
take it back. And look at what John says in
verse 10. He says, I took the little book
out of the angel's hands and I ate it up. He believed it,
that's what he meant. It became his life, it became
his health, it became his salvation. And it was in my mouth sweet
as honey, and as soon as I'd eaten it, my belly was bitter.
The bittersweet gospel. That's the issue. It'll bring
a sinner to his knees, pleading nothing but the righteousness
of Christ, the grace of God, the mercy of God. It'll bring
reproach from the world, hatred from the world, even our family.
It'll bring us down, but it'll also lift us up. It causes us
to take sides with God first against ourselves. Lord, Lord,
what have I done? That's the issue. That's repentance,
you see. You know, that's where a lot
of people stop short when they hear the truth. They'll hear
the truth, but they don't want to repent of the past. It takes
a work of God to bring a sinner to repentance, to repentance
of dead works and idolatry. All the people will repent of
all their immorality, but what about our religion? What about
the things we're proud of? Stout-hearted, far from right. What about the things we thought
recommended us unto God? Do we see them as the dung of
human religion? That's repentance. Look at verse
11. This little book is for God's
people all over this world. All kinds of people. Nations. All languages. Kings. The Apostle Paul stated that
in 1 Timothy, I've got it listed here in your lesson where he
wrote in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 1 through 5 where he talks about
that we're to pray for all sorts of men, all kinds of men. You
know people take that verse and they try to preach the heresy
of universal atonement and that's not what it means at all. It's talking about that God has
a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
He's got people out of all sorts, poor, rich, kings, nobodies. God, listen, there's nothing
in man, his station, his position, his possessions, that'll recommend
a sinner unto God. You may be king of the world,
as somebody said, But the only way you're gonna be saved and
accepted with God is by His sovereign grace and mercy based on the
blood and the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You may be poor
as, what is that, poor as Job's turkey, is that what they say?
If you're gonna be saved, it's gonna be the same way. Think
about this, I love John chapter three and John chapter four.
It's kind of a real telling, the way those things are, those
passages are put together. In John 3, he's dealing with
a very moral, sincere, religious man who attained great heights
in his religion named Nicodemus. And what does he tell Nicodemus?
Basically, if salvation comes to your house, Nicodemus, it's
going to be by grace through the righteousness of another.
You must be born again. And then in John 4, he deals
with an adulterous woman, a Samaritan. And you know what he tells her?
In essence, the same thing. If you're going to be saved,
it's going to be by grace through the blood and righteousness of
Christ.