In this tenth chapter of Revelation, the Apostle John saw the Lord Jesus as a mighty angel standing with one foot upon the earth and another foot upon the sea with a little book open in his hand, as one who stands in sovereign majesty over all things, ruling everything in absolute accordance for that which is written in the book of God's decrees. The meaning of the picture that we have before us is simply that Jesus Christ the Lord rules the world according to the purpose of God. And then in verse 8, after John had heard the Lord Jesus thunder his voice out across the universe, He says, The voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again.

And he 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. John had received a command from the Lord himself to go and take the little book. And so in obedience to that command, he says in verse nine, 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. Now, the meaning of the picture is just this. In order for John to speak as a prophet in the name of God, he must first understand and digest the message which God sent him to declare. He must experience for himself what he preaches to others. He writes in verse 10, 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 my belly was bitter. That is to say, the book of God, the will of God, the purpose of God, the message of God to his spiritual palate was as sweet as honey. He cherished it and he delighted in it. But insofar as his carnal nature is concerned, it was bitterness to him.

For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. The two are contrary, the one to the other. They're never in agreement. And this old man, even in you who believe, even in this preacher, even in this Apostle John, the old man Adam, still rebels against everything that has to do with God and his dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing in us by nature that's compatible with God himself. and with the glory of God revealed in Christ.

But then John was given a word of assurance. Though the message that he was given to deliver was certainly a message of judgment and of doom upon the earth, the apostle was given a word of assurance that he would yet declare the word of God and be heard.

And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. Now that's the general meaning of these verses. The little book is the book of God's eternal decrees regarding all things. And John was given a vision and a revelation of things which must come to pass.

And it was his responsibility under God to faithfully declare that which God had revealed to him, to faithfully declare the message which God had declared to him. And yet there is in this text, I'm confident, a message that is needful for us today. There's something here for us to learn as well with regard to our own responsibility and particularly for me. I'm preaching to myself tonight, and in preaching to myself, I hope that God will give you an ear to both hear and to understand and to appreciate that which is declared.

Every true gospel preacher is a man sent from God with a message which he must declare. Now that's the thing I want you to see this evening. Every true gospel preacher is a man sent from God with a message which he must declare. This is the title of my sermon to you tonight, Needed, Men with a Message.

If ever there was a day when the Church of God needs men, men with a message from God Himself, a message burning in their souls that must be delivered, this is that day. We have plenty of preachers, got too many preachers, far too many preachers. We don't need more preachers. But we are desperately in need of men with a message from God. burning in their souls.

I often find myself calling upon God much like Christmas Evans did so many years ago in Wales. He was a preacher that was mightily used of God. I'm sure you're familiar with the story. I've told it many times, but it'll bear repetition. The time came for Christmas Evans to preach one Sunday morning. The congregation had gathered. They'd already sung a hymn or two, and the pastor wasn't to be found anywhere. Some of the deacons got together in the back, and they said, we've got to go find the pastor.

And so this fellow said, I'll go this way, and you go that way. We'll look for him and see if we can find out what's happened to him. Something must be wrong. And so they went. And after some searching, they came back to the vestibule outside. The one deacon said, did you see the pastor?

He said, yes, I did. He said, where did you tell him it was time for services to begin? He said, no, I didn't interrupt him. He said, well, what was he doing? He said, he was praying. He said, well, there's a time to pray and there's a time to preach. This is time to preach. Go get him. He said, no, I don't believe I will. I don't believe I'll bother him. For this is what he was praying. He was crying out, Lord God, I refuse to go into that pulpit by myself again. I refuse to preach again unless you speak through me.

Fill me with words from God on high that I may speak to the hearts of men. Oh Lord God, let this man speak for God or let him not speak. I constantly call upon God to that end, that I may under God speak to your hearts as the very voice of God himself. Not with the words of wisdom, but with the words of eternal teaching. Not with the words of man's learning, but with the words of God's power. Not with the words of my own devising, but with the words of God's heart to your heart.

That's preaching. Anybody under the sun with average intelligence can sit down after some studying and a little bit of training and outline a passage of scripture and get together a sermon on a subject and give a profitable talk about a profitable subject and people can learn doctrine and learn creeds and learn morality and learn many things from a man who speaks in such a manner. But it's one thing to prepare and deliver a sermon. It's another thing altogether under God to seek, to find, and to deliver a message, a message from God for you this hour. Now that's the responsibility of a preacher.

And that's what you need. That's what you need. You don't need to hear another man give another little sermon on another little subject, no matter how important the subject is. You don't need a man to stand up and give you precise doctrine, no matter how true the doctrine is. You don't need a man to instruct you merely in the doctrinal truths of Scripture or in your responsibilities.

Those things, God in his good providence does use them, I'm sure. But you desperately need, I desperately need, to hear a man with a message from the heart of God for my heart. Now that's preaching. That's preaching. If somehow, under God, I can get a message from His heart, burned into my heart, and pouring out to your heart, you're going to hear what I've got to say.

And it's going to have an effect upon you. It's going to have a profound, lasting effect upon you. But if all that's given is just a sermon, a discourse, then our time together is going to be futile, profitless, and vain. That's the reason I keep encouraging you. I keep calling upon you. I keep asking you, urging you.

When you come to this place, take time and seek earnestly from God. Seek earnestly from God. that you might have a message from God delivered to your heart. Somehow I believe, I believe that if you would earnestly come seeking a message, God might graciously grant me a message. If you would earnestly come seeking a word from God for your heart, God might graciously grant me a word to your heart.

If you would come like a hungry man comes to a table, or like a thirsty man comes to a well of refreshing cool water, you'd come into this place and find bread for your soul and water for your heart that would bubble up in you as a fountain of living water unto everlasting life. But if I do no more than meticulously labor to form a proper doctrinal message. And I do no more than try to find something that will impress you, that will win your favor and your approval. And you do no more than go through the duty, oh I hate that word duty, the duty of coming to church and hearing a man preach, singing your songs, My labor's gonna be useless, my preaching's gonna be useless, and your hearing's gonna be useless.

Oh, God, teach us the value of a message from God. Oh, the value of a message from God. The church today needs some men, some real men who are bold for the glory of God and courageous in the cause of Christ. I know this, whenever God's pleased to do great things for His church and with His church, He raises up not great men, but men who accomplish great things for His namesake.

In the eyes of the unbelieving, those men may seem a little rough, a little uncouth, a little too straightforward. They may seem to be a little harsh. They may seem to be out of step with the times. Men usually are. Men never fit a bowl. Men never fit a prearranged pattern. Men never walk according to somebody else's method. Men are men. Moses, Elijah, and John the Baptist were not mice. They were men. John Bunyan and John Calvin and Martin Luther were not timid rabbits. They were men. Men filled with the Spirit of God.

Men who were bold, ruggedly honest, intensely zealous because they were jealous for the glory of God and concerned for the souls of men. And God used men in those days to turn the world upside down. He'll do so again. He'll do so again. We need men. Men who are free of the fear of man and free of cowardice.

Men who feel themselves expendable in the cause of Christ. Men who cannot be frightened with the threats of death because they've already been crucified unto the world. Men who cannot be charmed by the allurements of this world because to them the world is a dead thing. Such men will serve God and the souls of men from motives too high to be understood by the religious entertainers of our day, who will do anything to please the crowd. just to get their money.

Such men of God will be free from the pressures that control the weaklings who now occupy most pulpits in this land. They'll not be forced into compromise, and they'll not be pressured into doing things contrary to their consciences by circumstances and by the opinions of men in order to please their audiences. No sir, not God's men, not men who have a message from God. Their only compulsion will be the love of Christ, the glory of God, and the truth of the gospel.

This kind of boldness and freedom is absolutely necessary if we are to have prophets in our pulpits instead of puppets. Most preachers are nothing but puppets, puppets on a string manipulated by the opinion of men, the favor of men, and the money of men. Brother Mahan calls Junebug preachers. I've never seen any around here. When I was a boy growing up in North Carolina, we used to have Junebugs. They looked like those Japanese beetles, but they were as big as the end of your thumb.

I'd catch them and tie them on a string and we'd fly them around. You'd have a ball with them. Take them wherever we wanted to take them, do whatever we wanted to with them, but they were tied to our string and they did only what they were allowed to do by us puny little boys. And that's the way most preachers are. They're tied to a string. They're controlled by the opinions of men, the applause of men, the approval of men, and the fear of men.

Not God's preachers. Not God's preachers. I'm telling you, if you run across a man with a message from God, you run across a man who's met up with the living God face-to-face in his own heart, you come face-to-face with a man who's been face-to-face with God, you can't do anything with him but listen. You can't persuade him to do anything but declare to you the truth of God. You can't control him. You can't manipulate him. You can't devise a method by which he operates.

He's a man who speaks for God, speaks from his heart as one who has been himself in communion with the heart of the living God. Oh, God make me such a man. God keep me from pretending to be such a man, but God make me such a man. Most of what goes on in our churches today is done out of nothing but fear. These preachers in our day are persuaded to do what they do because of their desire for financial gain, because of their desire for reputation, because they serve self and not God.

We're afraid of losing our crowd, so we keep them entertained with programs Movies, concerts, ball games, clowns, movie stars, and gimmicks of every kind imaginable. I was watching one of those silly television programs the other day, and they had some silly puppet, a duck. The Gospel Duck, they called it. Everybody goes hooray over the Gospel Duck.

Brother Darwin was telling me about going into a church building, and they had a great big stage. It was the Church of God, I think you said. Very big stage, didn't have a pulpit, just had a big stage. Had a little old cubicle hole back there. And Arvids said to the fellow, he said, that's mighty small for a bad district. He said, that's not a bad district. He said, that's where we had the puppet show. That's where we had the puppet show. We got to entertain folks.

And preachers are the guiltiest wretches out of hell. The guiltiest wretches out of hell. Entertaining men and women, sweeping them to death in a rocking chair of religion while they're going to hell. And they dare not raise their voices. Dare not disturb man's peace. Dare not disturb the status quo.

A very dear friend of mine was converted a while back. She'd been in church all her life, been teaching Sunday school since she was just a young lady herself. And one day God showed her the glory of God in the face of Christ. She went to her pastor and told him what God had done for her and asked if he wouldn't baptize her.

You're not going to believe what that man said. You're just flat and not going to believe what he said. He said, we can't do that. I'd raised too many questions. That'd disturb folks. That'd make people uneasy and uncomfortable. Oh no, you can't confess Christ. Not here. We've got everything going too well. Not here. Why, we don't want to disturb anything. God's men, God's men don't give a flip about disturbing the whole world. God's men are determined to declare His glory regardless of cost or consequence. His greatness, His grace and His glory in Christ Jesus.

But in our day, we're scared to death we're going to lose the crowd. So we're going to have our ball games. We'll have our little concerts. We'll have our movies. And we'll have our movie stars. And we'll have our gimmicks. And we'll have our tricks. And we'll have our fellowships. We'll have everything under the sun except to man standing with boldness to declare the message of God. We've got time for everything else under the sun. Everything else under the sun.

Isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing? that in our churches we can sing and read and tell stories and listen to folks sing and everybody gets along fine. Everybody's just right along doing very well. Man stands up to open the Word of God and no more than reads a verse of Scripture, just doing everything under the sun trying to stay awake. Isn't it amazing?

I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you something. I have been dog-tired on my feet. Dog-tired on my feet. And I have never yet sat down at a table when I was hungry that I was too tired to eat. Never have. I never have. Matter of fact, if I was very hungry, I made arrangements to make certain I was wide enough awake to eat.

And I'm telling you that if we come into the house of God seeking a message from God, if it's important, if it's important, I'm talking to you and to me. If it's important, we'll see to it that we prepare our hearts to hear a message from God. If it's important.

Problem is, it's not important. It's not important. Somehow or another, the precious things of God, the precious things of heaven, the precious things of Christ, are so commonplace in our ears, David, that they're less interesting to us than a morning news report. Oh, what a commentary.

Preachers are afraid of losing their jobs, so they keep their ear to the ground, and they preach whatever the bulk of the people want to hear. They're inspired by fear. Whatever the people want them to do, they do. Whatever the people want them to preach, they preach. and they go about their work with a trumped-up zeal and a show of godliness that impresses the people they're interested in impressing.

These modern prophets of deceit are called and motivated by men and money, nothing more. They don't know the voice of the eternal God. Sometimes I wonder if I do, but I've got no question about what I hear going on around The preachers I hear on radio and television, the little sermonettes I read in publications and the newspaper and elsewhere, they don't know the eternal God. I know they don't because I hear what they say, and what they say is designed and calculated to impress men, only men. It's designed and calculated to win the favor of popular, conservative, moral, religious men. And they wouldn't dare offend the popular, conservative, moral, religious element of their society. Wouldn't dare do it. God give me opportunity.

I'm determined somehow. somehow to make this religious world know that without the knowledge of the living God, I don't care what you have, if you don't know Christ my soul, you perish. The true prophet of God neither seeks nor follows public opinion. He seeks the will of God and the direction of the Holy Spirit. He knows the burden of the word of the Lord that crushed the hearts of the Old Testament He has no personal interest to protect, no ambition to pursue.

He's got nothing to lose. He's got nothing to lose. I'm telling you, whether I meet the character, whether I don't, I'm telling you that a man who has a message from God, that he's got to deliver, he's got nothing to lose. Nothing. He's already given everything up. He's got nothing to lose. He's got nothing to protect. He's under the rule of King Jesus. He's got no ambition seeking after. He seeks nothing but the glory of God in Christ Jesus.

He's already given everything over to Christ, and therefore he doesn't fear any man. He's completely careless about his standing among men. If they follow him, well and good. If they reject him, he loses nothing that he holds dear. Whether he's accepted or rejected by men, He is totally unaffected, totally unmoved. He'll go on proclaiming the truth of God, for he's not a politician. He's a preacher.

I go on record. I don't often speak about political matters. I'm going to go on record. I don't care whether they're Democrats, Republicans, or Republicrats. I don't care what they are. I don't have any confidence in any politician I've ever heard, seen, or read about, not one of them. Because everyone I've ever heard, seen, or read about is interested in the next election. He's not interested in the people he represents. He's interested in the next election. Nothing else. Nothing else.

And I have the same contempt for most men who stand in pulpits all across this country. They're not interested in the souls of men. Not the least bit interested in the souls of men. They got a big hoopla, and they shed a lot of crocodile tears, and they impress folks, and everybody gets all excited about them, but they bend and they sway with the tide of opinion, and they do exactly what they're expected to do, neither more nor less, because they're concerned only about their job security. Nothing else. Nothing else.

If the Church of Christ is to accomplish anything in this day for the glory of God, She must once again have some real men to fill her pockets. We must repudiate as weaklings those who dare not speak out for God. And we must seek by earnest prayer some men who are made of the stuff that made the prophets and martyrs of old.

God will hear the cries of His church today. I believe He will. Just as He heard the cries of Israel in Egypt. He will revive again. He will send pastors after His heart to feed His people with knowledge and understanding. He said He would. He will send us men once again to stand in the gap and boldly declare the truth of God for the glory of Christ. I know He'll answer our prayers if we call upon Him with earnest hearts. I know He will.

This is God's way among men. When God sends men filled with His Spirit through their labor in preaching the gospel of Christ, he will call his elect from the four corners of the earth and send that long-awaited revival which we so desperately need and I hope so desperately want. And when God sends such men, you can be sure of this. They're going to be men with a message from God bursting their hearts. Men with a message from God bursting their hearts.

I talk to preachers all the time. Saturday morning, Saturday night, don't have any idea what to preach. Sunday morning is getting close. Got to find something to preach. I don't ever, thank God, I don't ever have to look for something to preach. Never. I have to try to figure out a way how many sermons I'm going to have to use to preach it in. I had to figure out some way to cut it all down, whittle it down to the space of 55 minutes or an hour so that I can get done.

But the message, oh my soul, there's a message, a message in my heart. I've got to proclaim it. Burns in my soul and the glory of God and the souls of men demand that I declare the message. Got to. This is what John experienced here in Revelation chapter 10.

Oh, I think it'd be well to paint signs in large letters and hang them over every pulpit in the country. Needed men with a message. Oh, let me hear a man with a message. I'll drive across the country to hear a man with a message, a message from God, a living message from a living man with a living heart before the living God to speak.

Here are six characteristics. of those men who are sent of God to preach the gospel. I'll give them to you briefly, I hope clearly, powerfully, and profitably. Number one, that man who is called of God to preach the gospel knows personally the Lord Jesus Christ.

When the voice spoke to John, John didn't have to turn around and look and see who the He had been hearing him speak for a long time. He knew who it was. It was the voice that spoke to him before. It was the same one that he saw on the Mount of Transfiguration. It was the same voice he heard on Mount Calvary. It was the very same voice that he saw when he was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day in chapter 1. He's seen and heard that voice numerous times. John knew him. He knew that one who had revealed himself here as the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.

No man can speak for Christ who doesn't know Christ. I can't possibly introduce you to a person I don't know. I just can't do it. I suspect maybe that's the reason so many people have difficulty introducing sinners to the Son of God. I suspect maybe that's the reason so many preachers have difficulty standing in their pulpits describing who Jesus Christ is.

You see, I can introduce to you, I can describe for you with clarity anybody whom I know. I can describe them for you so that if you were to go and pick them up at the airport, you'd know who they were the minute you laid eyes on them. I can just describe them for you.

Of course, I have outstanding characteristics that some of you don't have. Two or three times as many of those characteristics as some of you have. But I go to airports all over the country, and folks come pick me up who've never laid eyes on me before, never seen me before. Mr. Portner, brother so-and-so sent me down to get you.

How did you know me? Well, he described you pretty well. He described you pretty well. He knows you, you see. He's seen you before. He knows what you look like. He knows how you walk, how you dress. He talked to you last night. He said that you told him you'd be wearing that black suit and you're the only one there with a black suit and the only one that looked to me like you might weigh 300 pounds. The only one that I saw that was kindly balding and sandy hair must be him. He's wearing glasses and he'd be carrying a big briefcase. That's him. That's him.

If I know somebody, I can describe them to you. And I believe I know some God. I know him so well, I believe, that I can describe him to you with clarity, so that if ever you look to him, if ever he plants himself into a path and you see him, you'll know him immediately. You'll know exactly who I'm talking about.

This one I'm speaking of is himself very God of very God. He's the perfect, righteous, holy man. He's God and man in one glorious person. He's the God-man who by his own shed blood redeems sinners. He's the God-man who ever lives above, who sets at the right hand of the majesty on high and makes intercession for the transgressors. He's that one whose name is Emmanuel, Jesus, our Savior, our Lord and our King.

If you ever meet him, you'll know him. You'll know him by the very glory and majesty of God revealed in him. that nobody here has any difficulty telling other people about a person they love, do you? I don't have any difficulty telling people about somebody that I love, I'm interested in.

Matter of fact, I tell the same story so many times that folks who've been around, you know, Don, you told us that about her. We've already heard that. We've already heard that part. Have you got anything new to tell us? And if you've got something new, I'll start telling now.

And I'm persuaded somewhere that if preachers love Jesus Christ, the Son of God, they don't ever get tired of telling folks about Him. Matter of fact, you have a tough time getting them to tell about anything else. They're persuaded of His glory and His majesty. And they've never seen anything like it. They've heard His voice and never heard anything like it. They've experienced His grace and they've never experienced anything like it. They've got to do it. They've got to do it.

That man who was called of God to preach the gospel has a commission from God Himself. Here the Lord God said to John, verse 8, Go, take the little book. And then in verse 11, he told him that he must prophesy again. Now, I don't know that I can explain it, but that man who is called of God to preach the gospel does have a distinct mandate from God to preach the gospel. He has a distinct mandate from God to preach the gospel. God gives him a message that he's just got to declare. He doesn't have any choice, he's got to declare it. Not only does God give him the message, but when a man's called of God to preach the gospel, God gives him the ability and the opportunity to declare that message. Turn over to Jeremiah chapter 1. Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 8. The Lord said, Jeremiah, before I formed you in the belly, I knew you. Before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you and I ordained you a prophet unto the nations. Now look at verse 8.

Be not afraid of their faces. Don't you be afraid to look in their faces. Don't you be afraid to look in a man's face and tell him what he is. Don't you be afraid to look in a man's face and call a rebel a rebel, a sinner a sinner, a snake a snake, a worm a worm. Don't you be afraid of their faces. Don't you be afraid of what they can say or what they can do, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.

See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms. to root out, to pull down, to destroy, to throw down, to build, and to plant. And when there is a facade of religiosity, when there is a fake building with no foundation, the greater part of the prophet's work must first be to root out, to pull down, to destroy, and to throw down. He cannot plant and he cannot build until he roots out all error and pulls down the false refuge and destroys the refuge of lies. Then he begins to plow up the hard ground and make the ground prepared for the Word of God to plant the blessed seed and to build thereupon.

That's what God gives a man to do. And he's got no choice, he's got to do it. It was God himself who told John to take and eat the book and proclaim its message. And no man can preach the gospel and the power of God the Holy Spirit to the hearts of men unless he's been of God.

I can't talk to your ears. Now, I can impress your mind, and I can stir your emotions, but I can't speak to a man's heart unless God sent me to do it. How shall they preach except they be sent? If God didn't give me this message and send me to proclaim this message, it's no more than a clanging cymbal, no more than a noise in the air, nothing else.

Thirdly, that man who is called of God to preach the gospel seeks a message from God John went directly to Christ, and he said in verse 9, give me the little book. Give me the little book. Since I left here Tuesday night, I preached every night but last night. Driving down the road Tuesday night while my wife and daughter were sleeping, my heart's crying out, Lord God give me a message. Give me a message for these people. The next night, Lord, give me a message. Give me a message. And the next night, Lord, give me a message. All day Friday, I was preparing what I preached to you this morning, crying, Lord, give me a message. Oh, God, I'd rather never speak than just speak vanity.

All the way home yesterday, I was riding along in the car, let faith do the driving. Her first time to drive on the freeway. She did the driving. All... Lord, give me a message. All afternoon this afternoon. As I'm preparing this message, I... I cry unto God, give me... Here I have come to this passage. I've got to somehow... Somehow, I've got to... Many of whom, most of whom, Most of you will never stand publicly before people and preach. And I've got to preach to you about preaching. Now there's not anything drier, anything harder, anything more difficult.

But if God gives a message, if God gives a message, then I've got a message. I've got a message from God for you. I believe I do. I believe I've got a message that needs to be sounded throughout this world. whose call of God to preach the gospel is not satisfied with anything less than a message directly from God to his heart to deliver to the hearts of men. If the preacher would preach with purpose for the good of men's souls and the glory of God, he must seek a message at the throne of God.

Old John Trapp made this statement. He said, three things make a preacher, reading, prayer, and temptation. That's about right. Three things make a preacher, reading, prayer, and temptation. And then he said, he that would understand the riddles of God must plow with this heifer. This is the way you open up the book. Reading, prayer, and temptation.

The spirit of God. and the message of God is not given to any but those who diligently seek it at the throne. This is the responsibility of every gospel preacher, to give himself with untiring labor and diligence to seeking a message from God. Not only seeking the message, but faithfully declaring it. Paul told Timothy, to give himself wholly to this work, wholly to this work, entirely, completely. Don't let anything interfere with it. Don't let anything interfere. Give yourself wholly to the work.

We were discussing back there in the office, Darwin and I were, before we read the scriptures and had prayer together, people else, nobody minds too much telling a preacher how he ought to conduct his business and how he ought to carry on the ministry. And everybody's real free with their suggestions and ideas.

And whenever things aren't going just quite the way folks think they ought to, somebody's sure to come along and suggest that the preacher go out and spend his time knocking on doors, visiting folks and visiting at the hospital and all those things. I don't say there's no place for those things, but I do say the preacher's got no place doing it. I do say the preacher's got no place. The preacher doesn't have time to chase ambulances like some lawyer who's hungry. Preacher doesn't have time. He doesn't have time to spend his days and his evenings chit-chatting with folks. He doesn't have time. Not if he's doing what he ought to be doing. Not if he's doing what he ought to be doing.

His responsibility, my responsibility to you and to God as your pastor, is that when you come here Sunday morning, Sunday night, Tuesday night, or if we meet seven nights a week, or if I go somewhere else and preach the gospel, it's my responsibility to have something from God fresh and living for your soul. That's it. To study and to preach, to give himself to prayer, to meditation, and to preaching. Preach, you've got to take time for people.

My daughter is 16 years old and I haven't taken time for her. I've been married to my wife for 18 years and I seldom take any time for her. They understand. I hope they understand spiritually. I believe they do. I hope you understand. I've got no time for anything that interferes with this time. Meditating, seeking a message from God. calling upon the name of God and delivering the message. Nothing else matters. Nothing else matters. I don't believe, I honestly don't believe I would neglect my wife and daughter for anything else. I don't believe I'd neglect time with my wife and daughter for anything else.

But compared with this business of seeking and declaring a message from God, they're secondary. They're secondary. Fourthly, that man who is sent of God to preach the gospel first experiences in his own soul what he preaches to others. John said here in verse 10, I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it up and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey, and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. By reading prayer and meditation, the man who speaks for God must devour the Holy Scriptures so that, like a ready scribe, he is able to instruct the ignorant in the things of God. Every man who ever preached to the hearts of men preached from the inner experiences of his own heart. Somebody said, the gospel preacher gets a message from the heart of God, digests it in his own heart, and delivers it in the power of the Holy Spirit to the hearts of men.

Now here John tells us three things that he did. First, he ate up the book of God. You can read a comparison chapter in Ezekiel chapter 9, or chapter 2 rather, in verse 9 through chapter 3 in verse 3. Ezekiel said, I ate up the book. I ate it up. I digested it.

That's what you do in study. You take the Word of God and you receive it by faith and prayer into your own heart and you eat it just like a hungry man eats bread. You eat the Word like a thirsty man drinks water. You drink in the Word, the living Word of the living God so that it becomes you. It becomes you.

And then John said, I tasted the sweetness of the gospel. by the word of God was in my mouth like honey. That's what the psalmist said, his words are sweeter than honey in the honeycomb. Oh, the word of God to the newborn soul, sweet, precious, more precious than anything. To the spiritual palate, to the renewed heart, to the sanctified spirit, nothing's more valuable, nothing's more important, nothing.

I fear for men and women who neglect the Word of God in their daily lives. I write a great deal about this book. If you never read anything I write, read this book. Read this book. I fear for men and women who neglect the ministry of the Word. I fear for them. I fear for them.

Heaven-born soul delights in the Word. To him it's sweeter than honey in the honeycomb. Do you know how sweet that is? You got a sweet tooth. My little girl got a place she likes honey and buttered biscuits. If we got biscuits, get done eating the last thing she wants, mama got any honey? Got any honey? Just ritual at the table. Got any honey? Stir them up. Let's have some honey and butter with our biscuits.

That's the way the believer is about this Word. Lord, oh God, have you got any honey for my soul today? John said, I ate it, and it was in my mouth. But then he tasted by personal experience the bitterness of the message he had to bring. Bitterness. Pastor, what does that mean?

You see, the gospel of Christ is never pleasing to the flesh. And the message God sends his servants to declare is never appealing to the flesh. You can jot it down. I would suggest you jot it down and paste it up on your TV screen. The message God sends his servants to preach is never appealing to the flesh. Never. Never. There's nothing in this book appealing to the flesh. And you hear a man preach that which is appealing to the flesh, pleasing to the flesh, delightful to the flesh, You hear a man preach that which causes the flesh to delight and causes the flesh to swell with pride?

He's not speaking for God. He's not speaking for God. These fellows get up and expect a miracle. You can make a miracle happen. Six easy steps for miracles in your daily life. God doesn't want you to be God wants you to be in health and he wants you to prosper. He wants you to prosper in your finances and prosper in your home and prosper in your business. God's in the prospering business, not in the despondency business. Something good is going to happen. Somebody smiles like that, I know he's lying. He's lying.

No, it ain't so. The message that God sends to a man to declare to your soul will never cause your flesh joy. Never. Never. You see, the message of God is a message of repentance, and repentance is a painfully bitter experience. The message of God demands submission to Christ as Lord, and submission is contrary to the rebellious heart of flesh.

The message we are sent to preach demands faith in a substitute, and faith is opposed to proud flesh. Man thinks himself righteous. He will not confess his sin and he will not forsake his righteousness unless God causes him to do so. That man who does not know the bitterness of gospel repentance, the humiliation of submitting to the dominion of Christ, and the pain of self-denying faith in his own soul cannot preach the gospel to other men. It takes a wounded heart to reach wounded hearts. It takes a pierced heart to pierce hearts. It takes a broken heart to break hearts.

But here's another thing that's to be seen in the bitterness that John felt. This is my fifth point. That man who is called of God to preach the gospel knows the serious eternal consequences of the message he declares. John's bitterness was in part due to the fact that he knew the message he had to deliver was a message of judgment, of condemnation, of wrath from a holy God. You read the eleventh chapter and you'll find out what the message is. It's the final woe of God about to be poured out upon the unbelieving world. And John's heart broke within him. because he saw before him perishing multitudes of men who would not see.

The word of God brought bitterness to his belly because he knew that the preaching of this word would bring the great persecution that was described in the next chapter. And like John, every man who was called of God to preach the gospel knows full well the results of his preaching.

If I preach, if I ever really preach, sometimes I wonder if I ever and if I ever shall, but I know this, if I ever really faithfully preach the gospel of Jesus, the preaching of the gospel will bring certain sure inevitable results. Did you ever hear me or anybody else speak in the power of God, the gospel of Christ? You won't have to question it. You'll know it, and you'll never be the same as a result of it.

You see, the faithful preaching of the gospel always brings about bitter persecution from an unbelieving world. The gospel of Christ is offensive to the world, both the religious world and the secular world. are opposed to Christ and him crucified. I would feel just as welcome, just as safe, just as much at home, perhaps even more likely to be received to carry the message that I preach into the bar rooms and whorehouses around town than to carry the message that I preach into the churches around town. The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is offensive to self-righteousness. It's offensive to man's love of self and man's love of his own righteousness. It's offensive to sinful men and offensive to moralistic men. And it will always result in persecution of one form or another. Faithful gospel preaching will also result in the eternal misery of those who despise our message.

I'm preaching to an assembly of men and women that are the most precious people on earth to me. I love you. I love you. And I know full well that if God lets me speak in the power of His Spirit, if I've spoken to you by the Spirit of God tonight, the gospel of Christ, This word is either going to harden your heart or break your heart.

It's either going to bring you life or it's going to bring you death. It's either going to bring you eternal joy and eternal salvation or eternal misery and eternal damnation. If you hear the gospel preached in the power of God and you willfully deliberately stop your ears and shut your eyes and harden your heart and say, no sir, I will not bow to Christ. You'd be infinitely better off never to have been born. The hottest place of God's wrath in hell is reserved for men and women who hear but refuse to obey. the gospel of his grace.

I'm going to tell you what. Better do one of two things. The knowledge of that fact will either cause man to cry out for God to speak through him, or it will cause man to shut his mouth and sit down and let somebody else do the preaching. Just let somebody else do the preaching. I don't want any part of it. If God's not in it, if God's not in it, I don't want any part of it. but the faithful preaching of the gospel will also be blessed of God to this salvation of