Revelation chapter 10. I titled
the lesson this morning, Preaching in the Last Days. I'm going to
tell you what these verses have to teach us, and then we'll look
at them and see these things as we go. I want to remind us that the
book of Revelation is not to tell us the things that's going
to happen immediately before our Lord's return. But these
are things that happen all throughout human history. This is God's
purpose for his people, for the earth, throughout all of human
history. And the purpose we're going to look at today is the
preaching of the gospel. The gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, is going
to be preached on this earth as long as time lasts. It has
from the beginning. It happened right after the fall
of Adam, when God killed that animal to clothe Adam and Eve.
The gospel was preached. the promise of the Savior was
given. And that same gospel is going to be preached as long
as time lasts on this earth. And that gospel message is never
going to change. The message of the Old Testament
is the same message as the New Testament, the same message that
we preach today. The preaching of the word of
God will always be a source of sweet comfort to God's suffering
saints. That's what these verses teach
us this morning. So let's begin looking here in
verse four. Here's the first point. The message that we preach
is from Christ and we can only preach the word as Christ is
pleased to reveal himself to us in it. Verse four. And when
the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to
write and heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, seal up
those things which the seven thunders uttered and write them
not. Now the apostles, like the apostle
John writing this, They got their message, they got the gospel
directly from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We
don't get our message like that today. Today, God's preachers
get their message from the written word. But you know, it's the
same source, isn't it? You can't separate the incarnate
word and the written word. The source of our message is
the same, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we preach the same message
that the apostles preached. But we can only preach what Christ
is pleased to reveal to us from His Word by His Spirit. Dan just
prayed it. No man sufficient to open this
book and preach Christ from it. No man, unless the Lord is pleased
to reveal to us what this verse means, how this verse relates
to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. John heard this thunder
from heaven, and that thunder is a picture of divine truth. Truth from heaven. You think
of a time the father thundered from heaven. This is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. You hear him. That's divine truth. That's the gospel. Look to Christ. And that's what the gospel tells
us. The gospel tells us how Christ saved his people by satisfying
justice for their sins, by taking their sins and his own body on
the tree and taking all the judgment that sin deserves and putting
it away by his death. and the father is pleased with
him. The father is satisfied with him and he's pleased with
everybody who's in him. That's the message that God's
servants has always declared. Our Lord surnamed James and John,
the sons of thunder, preachers of the gospel, preachers of this
divine truth. And we boldly and clearly declare
the same message, the message of substitution and satisfaction
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we know that's the message.
We know that's the message of every text, but we can only preach
it if the Lord is pleased to reveal it to us. John was ready
to write down those thunders that he heard and the Lord stopped
him. Now why did he do that? To show
us that we can't understand anything from this book until the Lord
is pleased to reveal what it means to us. He opens the scriptures.
He opens our understanding. Remember, after the Lord's resurrection,
he appeared to the disciples. He told them and all the scriptures,
all the scriptures concern him. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. Then they understood. We'll never understand until
the Lord does the same thing for us. We can't understand anything. This book is sealed up. until
Christ is pleased to reveal to us and open our understanding
and reveal Himself to us. There are so many things in this
book we're never, ever going to understand until Christ returns. And that's okay. That's okay. The Lord always reveals everything
His people need to know in order to be saved. Look back at Deuteronomy
chapter 29. Now, this is the message of the
whole of Scripture. The Lord is always pleased. He'll
always reveal everything His people need to know in order
to be saved. He'll reveal Himself to His people
by His Word. Deuteronomy 29, verse 29. The secret things belong unto
the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto
us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words
of this law. The secret things belong unto
the Lord. They don't belong unto us. They're
not given to us. They belong unto the Lord. Well, what are
some of those secret things? Well, there's many, but let me
give you two. Why does the Lord do what he
does? We look at this earth and we
think, why did the Lord do that? That's a secret thing. We don't
know what, why the Lord is doing what he's doing, how he's using
this to accomplish his purpose. But we don't have to know that,
do we? We don't have to know why the Lord's doing what he's
doing. Just like my children, when they were little, they didn't
have to know why I was doing what I was doing. They didn't
need to know that. They couldn't understand it.
It was above their ability to understand. They didn't have
to know why their parents were doing what they were doing. Well,
how much farther is God above us? We don't have to understand
why he's doing what he's doing. All we have to know is he's doing
them for good. He's doing them to accomplish
his purpose, for his glory, for the salvation of his elect. And
the Lord has been pleased to reveal that to us from his word,
hasn't he? And we can believe it and rest in it. Here's another
thing that's on people's mind as we go through the book of
Revelation. When will the Lord return? Seems like this whole
world right now is taken up with the end of time. When is it going
to be? You know, people think it'd be any second. And maybe
it will. I don't know. But when will the
Lord return? We don't know. And we won't know until the moment
he returns. We can't figure that out. Only
the Father knows that. That's a secret thing. Now we
know judgment's coming, don't we? We know the end of time is
coming, but we don't know when it's going to be. But that's
all right. We don't know. We don't need
to know when. We need to know who. We need
to know who it is that's returning. We need to know Christ. And the
Lord has been pleased to reveal Christ to his people, hasn't
he? Then we don't care when he's gonna return. We're just looking
for him to return. The Lord's been pleased to reveal
that to us in his word, that Christ is the Savior. And if
we know him, We don't need to know anything about when. We
just trust Him. So as the Lord enables us, let's
continue to preach Christ. We just preach Christ as the
Lord's pleased to reveal Him to us in His Word. We'll take
a text and the Lord gives us a message and we think, boy,
that's a blessing. And we preach it and we listen to it preached
and we think, oh, that's such a blessing. And we think, boy, we've dealt
with that text, haven't we? And then a little while later,
The Lord reveals more to us. We go back and preach it again.
And then we hear and think, it's like I never heard that verse
preached before. It's a blessing all over again. As the Lord continues
to reveal Christ to us in his word, we'll continue to preach
it. All right, here's the second thing. The gospel we preach is
a true message. It's a true message from Christ,
and it's a true message about Christ. You know, just because
we're continually learning more, just because the Lord's pleased
to reveal more of his son to us from his word doesn't mean
what we preached before is wrong. No, it's the truth. It's the
truth. The message of the gospel is the truth from Christ and
of Christ. Verse five in our text, Revelation
10. And the angel, which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the
earth, lifted up his hand to heaven and swear by him that
liveth forever and ever, who created heaven and the things
that therein are, and the earth and the things that therein are,
and the sea and the things which are therein, that there should
be time no longer. Now, remember this angel that
stands one foot upon the land and one foot upon the sea is
our Lord Jesus Christ. He stands over this creation
ruling over all. It's all belongs to him. It's
all under his authority, under his direction. And he stands
there and he lifts his hand to swear by Almighty God before
all. Now, what's he gonna swear? What's
he gonna swear this testimony is true? His testimony is this
message of the gospel is true. Now, God is God. The Lord Jesus
Christ is God. He doesn't have to swear to you
and me that anything's true, does He? He doesn't have to lift
His hand to God and say, now this is true. No, it's true just
because He says it. But He does it anyway, doesn't
He? Why does He do that? He does it for the comfort and
the assurance of His people who trust Him. Look back at Hebrews
chapter 6. Really, here in Hebrews chapter
6 is all the commentary that we need on this verse here in
Revelation, where the Lord lifts his hand to the Father. Hebrews 6 verse 11. And we desire that every one
of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope
unto the end, that you be not slothful, but followers of them
who through faith and patience inherit the promises For when
God made promises to Abraham, because he could swear by no
greater, he swore by himself. Now he didn't have to swear to
Abraham to pray for him to know this is true, but he did. Saying,
surely blessing, I will bless thee. And multiplying, I will
multiply thee. And so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater.
And an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife
wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability, the unchangeability of his counsel, confirmed it
by an oath, that by two immutable, unchangeable things in which
it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation,
who fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us,
which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,
and which entereth into that within the veil, whether the
forerunners entered for us, even Jesus made in high priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek, our Lord could swear by no greater.
So he swear by himself. This cannot change his promise
to his people, cannot change. And here's why he did it. So
we'd have strong consolation. So his people would be comforted
and find assurance in our safety. His promise of salvation to his
people cannot fail. And our Savior here swears to
tell the truth by the God of creation. Now, why did he point
this out? He's swearing to tell the truth
by the God of creation. Well, this is what he's telling
us to be true. This creation will not and it cannot end until
all of God's purpose has been accomplished, until all of his
people have been saved. So, child of God, don't you worry. Now, just don't worry. There's
going to be no delay in God's purpose. When he says here at
the end of verse 6 that there should be time no longer, he's
not saying that right now is the end of time. That phrase
means a delay, that there'll be no more delay. God's purpose
is not delayed. It is right on God's timetable. It's not one second early. And
it's not one second late. It's right on time. And of course
it is. God's the creator. He created
everything there is. Then it's under His control.
It can't spin out of His control. God uses it all. He rules over
everything in His creation to accomplish His will. God created
this world and He will not bring it to an end. He's the only one
that can bring it to an end. He won't bring it to an end until
His purpose of redemption for His people have been accomplished.
All of God's elect shall be saved. The Father chose them. He's not
going to let them perish. The Son died for them. He's not
going to let them perish. There's no possibility that the
Spirit will fail to bring all of those people to glory. See,
the message is Christ. The message is Christ. Everything
that God does is for the glory of his son. That's why God created
this world. He created it for the glory of
his son so that his son would get glory in saving people from
their sin out of this world. That's why God created it. You
know, we wonder, we're talking about the secret things, why
God does what he does. Why does God allow all these
awful, awful, awful things to happen in his creation? It's
for the glory of Christ. Now, I don't know how he's bringing
that to pass, but I know that's why he does it. And I can give
you just a couple of examples. God allowed Adam to fall. God
knew Adam was going to fall, didn't he? He let him anyway.
Why did God allow Adam to fall? What a horrible, dark day, a
horrible act that by Adam's disobedience, he plunged the entire human race
into sin and death. Why did God allow that to happen?
for the glory of his son. So his son could get glory in
making his people righteous. Adam made them unrighteous. Christ
is going to get the glory of making them righteous in justifying
them and restoring them back to the father. That's why God
allowed that to happen. You think of the day of the cross,
the day of our Lord's crucifixion. God allowed man to do what we
would. I said that right, not what they
would, what we would. God allowed man to do what we
would to his precious son. And what did we do? Everything
our sinful, wicked hearts desired to do. We tortured him. We beat him. We mocked him. We
nailed him to a tree. We beat him so bloody and awful
looking. He didn't look like a man hanging
there. He looked like a slaughtered piece of meat. Why did God allow
that to happen? so that God's elect would have
their sin blotted out by the blood of His sacrifice. God allowed
all that to happen so God's justice would be satisfied in the death
of Christ our Savior. That's why God did it. And nothing
God does is ever in vain. The Son of God didn't die in
vain because God never does anything in vain. Christ didn't die for
somebody that's going to go to hell anyway. That would make
His death in vain. And this is the message that
we preach. God's word is not going to return unto him void.
It's not going to just return unto him empty. It will accomplish
everything God pleases for it to accomplish. It shall prosper
in the thing that God sent it to accomplish. You just bank
on it. God's elect are going to be saved without any delay. And this creation is not going
to end until God saves them all. That is why the Lord is so long
suffering with this world. That's why he just doesn't destroy
it in an instant, just like he did in Noah's day. God doesn't
destroy it at this very second that he must still have a people
he's waiting to save because he's not going to destroy it
until they're all brought in. All right, here's the third thing. Preaching of the gospel declares
the mystery of God, verse seven. But in the days of the voice
of the seventh angel, when he should begin to sound, the mystery
of God should be finished, as he had declared to his servants,
the prophets." Everything God has purposed for his people would
be a mystery to us, wouldn't it? Unless God sent somebody
to show us the mystery, to reveal to us the mystery. What a mystery
it would be to you and me that God loves sinners. We would never
have any concept. We would never have any idea
that God could possibly love sinful men and women like you
and me, unless he sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to show
us. How did Christ show us God loves sinners? He gave himself
to be a sacrifice, to be the propitiation for their sins.
That's how we know the mystery has been answered. What a mystery
it would be to you and me that God saved sinners. We'd never
ever begin to understand that mystery that God could save sinners
until he sent Christ to show us. You know, before Christ came,
before we see who he is, what he's done for his people, you
and I would think we're supposed to save ourselves by keeping
the law. Just do as good as you can and may God be happy with
that. We'd think God would accept the best we can do. until Christ
came and kept the law for his people and showed us what perfect
obedience and perfect righteousness really is. Oh, now I see the
mystery. It's all in Christ. We'd think
we'd start to be sacrificing animals, you know, on a brazen
altar, wouldn't we? We'd think that's how sin's put
away. Until Christ came and made the mystery of all those animal
sacrifices obvious. They're all pictures of Christ.
Sin's been put away by the sacrifice of God's Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the sacrifice God's pleased
with. He wasn't pleased with those animal sacrifices. He's
pleased with the sacrifice of His Son. Oh, now the mystery
of how sin can be put away is made clear, isn't it, through
the sacrifice of Christ. You know, you and I would think
we've got to earn our way into the kingdom of God. Or we think
maybe we could get into the kingdom of God by who we're related to,
being a Jew or something. That would be a complete and
utter mystery to us. How can we enter the kingdom
of God? Until Christ comes and shows us the mystery of the new
birth that we cannot see, we cannot enter, we cannot understand,
we cannot love the kingdom of God until we're born again. Oh, what a mystery. And here's
something that gets right down to our everyday lives. We think
marriage is just a good way to have companionship when we get
old. When Jane and I first married, we were on our honeymoon. We'd
stop and eat, you know, someplace and look at all those old people,
probably younger than you and me are now, and think, well,
look at them, aren't they sweet? You know, they got companionship. They
get tax breaks for being, you know, we think that's what it's
all about. Until Christ comes and shows us the mystery. Oh,
this is a great mystery. I speak concerning Christ in
the church. This is marriage is given to us as a picture of
the union between Christ and his bride that she's made whole
in him. She's provided for in him. It's
all in Christ. The gospel is a complete and
utter mystery to us by nature. We can't understand it. We can't
see the glory of it. We can't believe it. Until the
Lord shows us the gospel. It's not a set of doctrines.
Until he shows us this, this word is not a set of hidden clues
to find out how to get rich or when the Lord's returning. No,
it's not a set of hidden clues. It's all about a person, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Then and only then will we understand
the gospel. Look back at first Timothy. First Timothy chapter three. Verse 16. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness, that God was manifest in the
flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto
the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory,
and everyone who believes him is going to be received up into
glory too. without delay, because the Father's
pleased with them in Christ. All right, here's the fourth
thing. And this is so important. I want to stress this so much.
The gospel that we preach, it's true. It's a Christ. It's what
we preach because the Lord's pleased to reveal something to
us from his word. This gospel we preach is a message
to be believed in the heart. This is not something we're just
to you know, taken to prove to be true or it's to be believed
in the heart. Verse nine in our text. I skipped the first verse eight
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.
And I went unto the angel and said unto him, give me the little
book. And he said unto me, take it and eat it up and it shall
make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as
honey. And I took the little book out
of the angel's hand and ate it up and it was in my mouth sweet
as honey. And as soon as I'd eaten it,
my belly was bitter. Now this book is a scroll. It's
the same book, the same scroll that the Lord Jesus Christ came
and took out of the hand of the father. He was the only one to
take it. Remember that scroll, that book was all of God's eternal
purpose for his people, for creation. That's all of God's purpose.
And Christ took it because he's the only one worthy to carry
out and execute that purpose. Now here it's referred to as
a little book. I think I have a couple of ideas
why it's a little book. It's not little in its importance
is it? There's nothing more important than the message of Christ. All
of God's purpose is about his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing
could be more important than that. It's not little. It is
little in how much we understand of it, isn't it? Well, we see,
but it's through a glass darkly. God has given us some understanding,
but certainly not all of it, far from all of it. It's little
in how much we really understand of it. But it's also referred
to as a little book because so much of God's purpose has already
been carried out. It's already been fulfilled.
Christ has come. He has suffered and died to put
away the sin of his people. All that's been accomplished.
And all we're waiting on now is God to wrap this thing up
and bring all of his children in. That's all we're waiting
on now. And the time's at hand, the time's at hand is short.
And I'm not saying that to scare anybody, just the opposite. I'm
saying that to strengthen and encourage the hearts of God's
people. Time's at hand. This life with all of its suffering
and trials and heartaches is almost over. Time's at hand. The Lord's come to wrap this
thing up. There's just, it's just a little book. There's just
a little bit left for him to accomplish before he wraps all
this up. But now remember our very first point. that this book
is sealed unto us. We can't understand any of it
until the Lord opens it up to us. He opens up so we can understand
it. But you know, our Lord is not at all reluctant to open
up the book and give it to his people. The voice said, John,
go take the book. And he goes up to the Savior
and says, give me the book. And he said, here it is, John.
Take it. It's yours. It was an open book
and he gave it to him, open. But John, take it. and eat it. Eat it. Don't just leave it on
the pew till next Sunday. Don't just go home and stick
it up on a shelf till next Sunday. John, take it and eat it. Now,
you know he didn't mean for John to eat that paper scroll. This
is figurative. What he meant is, John, believe
it. Take it into your heart so it's
part of you, so you have union with it. And when you eat this
Word, This is the message of truth. The Lord didn't hide anything
from him, did he? John, when you eat this word, when you take
it, believe it in your heart, oh, it's going to be sweet to
your mouth. Oh, it'll be so sweet. David
told his brethren, oh, taste and see that the Lord's good.
There's nothing sweeter than God's goodness and grace to his
people. David said, come taste it. David
also said, the word of God is sweeter than honey to my mouth.
Oh, it's so sweet. Come and taste it. There is nothing
sweeter than the gospel. The promised land gave us a picture
of that. How do they describe the promised land? It's a land
flowing with milk and honey. A land flowing with sweetness.
That's a picture of the gospel. It's a picture of heaven. It's
just a place flowing with the sweetness of God's grace to his
people. The gospel message is a sweet,
sweet message. It comes from the death of Christ.
Remember Samson gave us a picture of that. Remember he was going
down and that lion jumped out and he just took it and ripped
his throat out with his bare hands. He came back a while later
and there was that carcass of the lion and the bees had made
a nest in there and all the honey was in there. That sweetness
came from the death of the lion. That's the gospel. The message
of the gospel is sweet because of the death of Christ our Savior.
How sweet is this gospel? God elected a people to save
just because he would. It's not because they're any
better than anybody else. It's not because they did something
to deserve it. Matter of fact, just the opposite. But God chose
to save them anyway. That's a sweet message to a sinner,
isn't it? Christ came and died for the
ungodly. My good people, the ungodly.
That message is sweet to the ungodly, and not sweet to the
Pharisee, but sweet to the ungodly. Sinners are justified by faith
in Christ. Not because of anything they
do, but by faith in Christ. That's good news to the helpless,
isn't it? Can't do anything to please God. God promised to never
leave nor forsake his people, and he never will. Well, I tell
you, that message is sweet to people who know they'd forsake
God if He let them. God promised He's going to glorify
everyone He chose to save. That's a sweet message to a tired,
weak, suffering child of God who doesn't feel like they've
got the strength to last one more second, much less days and
weeks and years. He's going to glorify His people.
Nothing is sweeter to the believer than the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. But I tell you, there's bitterness
involved in this thing. Your troubles are going to begin the
moment you believe Christ. As soon as you believe Him, you're
going to have bitterness in your belly. As soon as you trust Christ,
now your trouble, now your warfare in your belly, inside is going
to begin. The old man and the new man fighting. It's going
to be so bitter, bitterness of soul to see yourself as the sinful
wretch that you are, but you're never going to see it until you
believe the sweetness of the gospel. As soon as you believe
Christ, you're going to have bitterness in your belly because
the world's going to hate you. When you believe Christ, now
trials and afflictions and heartaches are going to begin and it's going
to be bitter. What is going to comfort God's people in all this
bitterness? Huh? One thing. The gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Our comfort is the accomplished
purpose of our God. Those bitter things make the
gospel all the sweeter to us, don't they? It's kind of like
bitter candy that's got a sugar coating. It's got a sweet coating.
The sweetness of the gospel makes the bitterness of this world
a whole lot more tolerable. Now, Go preach that gospel everywhere
God gives you an opportunity. Verse 11. And he said unto me,
thou must prophesy again before many peoples and nations and
tongues and kings. We must preach the gospel. We must preach the gospel. Because
God has a people in this world. They've got to hear. They've
got to believe. They've got to take this gospel and eat it and
become part of it. We've got to preach this gospel. This gospel
is the only message that glorifies God Almighty. It must be preached
in this world. It's pleased God to save His
people by the foolishness of preaching. That's right, isn't
it? You know that's right. Then let's go preach it. Let's
be faithful to do what God's given us to do. That's why we
preach the gospel right here. You and I prepare messages. I
prepare messages for you, with you on my heart, on my mind. That's why we preach the gospel
here. And all of us are in it. Every one of us. We either preach
it, we support it, or we pray for it. But one way or another,
all of us are in this ministry. Now this gospel is going to be
preached until time ends. God's not going to leave himself
without a witness. He's not going to leave his people without a
witness. He's not going to leave his people without a place they
can come eat the green grass of his Word. Then I pray the
Lord will make us faithful to preach in our little corner of
the world. Let's be faithful. Pray that
the Lord will make us faithful and that he'll bless us. All
right. I hope the Lord blesses us.