Revelation chapter 10. I believe
we have a very, very good lesson in store this morning from God's
word. I'm excited about it. You'll
recall in the previous chapters, we've been looking at the sounding
of the seven trumpets. We looked at the sounding of
six of those trumpets already. And each time one of those trumpets
sounds, a new woe is revealed on earth. Now these are, I keep
reminding us of this, these are not woes that are all just going
to suddenly happen in the days right before our Lord's return.
These are woes that have always been on the earth. These are
woes that God's people on the earth have always suffered. They've
always endured them. And these woes don't come by
accident. They're God's purpose on the earth for his glory, for
his glory as he destroys and punishes the wicked and as he
protects his people from them. We've seen the woe of spiritual
darkness spread across the earth. We've seen the woe of the doctrine
of Satan released from hell upon the earth. We've seen the woe
of false prophets like locusts just coming and devouring everything
in sight. The woe of war. And God's people
have endured those woes throughout all time. And we will continue
to suffer those woes. And they're dark and they're
difficult. They are difficult things to
endure. Now before the last trumpet sounds, Christ our Savior appears. I just love this. In the midst
of all these woes being revealed, the Savior appears to comfort
the hearts of his people. He appears to encourage them
to continue in the faith. Don't let these woes make you
quit. You just keep trusting me. Keep
looking to me. After the first six woes, in
God's providence, he gives us just a short pause before the
next one stands. And this is a pause to comfort
and encourage God's people. You know, that's what our weekly
services are. And I would say especially the
Wednesday night service, the midweek service. I like what
Wayne calls the midweek service. He says it's a time to get out
of the world and hit the reset button. Just put everything back
in perspective. Well, Wayne, you know, that's
what our service will be if we preach Christ. If he's pleased to reveal
himself to us, like he does here at the beginning of chapter 10,
it'll be a pause, but we can hit that reset button. Be encouraged
and be comforted. So let's look at how Christ appears. How is it he reveals himself
to his people to bring comfort and encouragement to our hearts?
Number one, Christ appears in his sovereign power. Revelation
chapter 10, verse one. And I saw another mighty angel
come down from heaven. This is a mighty angel. And this
angel is not one of those creative beings that fly around the throne
of our God. This angel is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Remember, angel means a messenger. Well, that's our Savior. He's
the messenger of the covenant of God's grace. And throughout
the Old Testament, he often appeared as an angel. He appeared as an
angel. to Abraham. As Abraham was getting
ready to slay his son Isaac, Christ appeared. The angel that
cried unto him said, Abraham, Abraham, don't harm the lad.
That was Christ our Savior speaking. Christ appeared in the form of
an angel to Jacob. I have no doubt that angel was
our Lord Jesus Christ because Jacob told his sons, that angel
redeemed me. That was our Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ appeared to Moses at the burning bush in the form of an
angel. He appeared as an angel to Manoah and his wife before
the birth of Samson. Look at Acts chapter 27. He appeared in the form of an
angel to the apostle Paul. Acts 27 verse 22. This is in the midst
of that awful storm as they were on the ship going towards Rome. Acts 27 verse 22. Paul said,
Now I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there should be no
loss of any man's life among you but of the ship. The ship's
going to be lost, but there won't be a man's life lost. Here's
why I know that. For there stood by me this night
the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve. Now that angel
is Christ. We belong to him. The one whom
we serve is our Lord Jesus Christ. That angel must be Christ, because
look in the next verses, Paul calls that angel God. Verse 24,
saying, Fear not, Paul, for thou must be brought before Caesar,
and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore,
sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God, that it shall be even as
it was told me. So our Lord often appears in
the form of an angel. He appeared again, what John
called an angel. And John said, He's a mighty
angel. This is our Lord Jesus Christ
appearing to his people, mighty to save. He's appearing in the
glory of his might to defend and to protect and to save his
people. When John saw Christ the Sovereign, he saw the Savior
come down from heaven where he sits on the throne ruling over
all. This is the sovereign Savior.
In the midst of all these woes being revealed to the earth,
our Savior suddenly appears. It's like he appears to tell
his people, now you be strong, be of good courage, fear not,
let not your heart be troubled. I rule over all these things.
Don't let them upset you. Don't worry about all these things
going on on this earth. Nothing can touch your body without my
permission. And nothing will ever touch your soul to harm
it. I'll never allow that to happen. I'm the Sovereign Savior. That comforts our hearts though.
Second, Christ comes to reveal himself in mercy to his people
and only to his people. Verse 10, John saw him clothed
with the cloud. Not all these times of the darkness
of Satan's doctrine being released from hell, false religions spreading
across the world, these devouring locusts, false prophets coming
and just eating up everything that's green. In all those times,
God has hidden himself from them. There's been a time of darkness.
These men cannot see the Lord. They can't see him because they
don't want to see him. And because they don't want to
see him, the Lord's blinded their eyes. They didn't want to see
the Lord and the Lord gave them exactly what they want. So they
can't see him. Now they know that God exists. They don't know who he is. They
don't know what he's like. They know his name. His name
is Lord. His name is Jesus. His name is
God. They know his name. But they do not know his sovereign
power to rule over them. Somehow they think they've got
him in their hands to do with what they want. They don't realize
his sovereign power over them. They all know he suffered and
died, was buried and rose again. They all know that. But they
don't know why he did it. They don't know what he accomplished
in his death, burial, and resurrection. They know that Jesus saves. They
put it on signs everywhere. Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus
saves. But they don't know who he saves
or how he saves them. And I understand why they don't
know those things. Flesh and blood cannot understand
those things. And if any of you see those things,
if any of you understand those things, give thanks. It's not because our flesh is
any different there. Our flesh, our nature of flesh is no different
than all the other lost damn flesh out there. The only reason
any of us see those things is because Christ has had mercy
upon us. He's given us the gift of faith.
He's let us see him. And every time we see Christ,
the hearts of his people are encouraged. They're comforted.
This cloud that our Savior appeared in is a cloud. that gives darkness
to his enemies, that hides himself from his enemies. But that cloud
gives light to his people. Remember in Exodus 14, verse
20, where the children of Israel are trapped up against the Red
Sea on this side and Pharaoh's army was coming behind them on
this side. That cloudy pillar moved and stood between the Israelites
and the Egyptians. And that cloudy pillar gave the
Egyptians darkness. It was so dark they couldn't
see a thing. But just on the other side of that cloudy pillar,
that same cloud gave the children of Israel light. They could see.
And in that light, they crossed the Red Sea on dry ground. God's
not going to leave his people in darkness. He will appear to
his people in mercy. He will. Now that comforts and
encourages our hearts. He's going to appear in mercy.
Thirdly, Christ comes to his people in grace. Read on verse
10, and a rainbow was upon his head. Now this rainbow all throughout
scripture is a token of God's grace to his people. That's the
token that God hung in the sky and he made that promise to Noah,
that I won't destroy this world again with water. And every time
it rained, you know, the first time Noah ever saw it rain, the
earth flooded and everybody died outside of those eight people
in the ark. Well, the next time it rained, you know, Noah got
nervous about that. He'd never seen it rain and not
kill everybody. And he looked up in the sky and saw that rainbow.
And that was a token that reminded him of God's promise of grace.
No, I'm just sending rain to water the earth. I'm not going
to destroy it again. And all throughout scripture,
that's what that rainbow represents. It represents God's promise of
grace to his people in our Lord Jesus Christ. And in John's vision
of heaven, we've seen this. The rainbow is very prominent.
in John's vision of heaven because everybody there is there because
of God's covenant grace. Look back at chapter four. We
won't read all the references to a rainbow,
but here's one do as good to be reminded of revelation four
verse three. And he that sat was to look upon
like a Jasper and a sardine stone. And there was a rainbow round
about the throne. in sight like unto an emerald.
John said that rainbow completely circled the throne of God. So
no matter where God looks from that throne, in every direction,
when He looks from that throne to see His people, He sees them
through His covenant of grace. He always sees His people in
grace. Now John said when he saw Christ
this time, the rainbow was upon His head. We've got to remember
this is symbolic language. There's not a rainbow floating
over the head of the Savior. This is symbolic language to
teach us something very important. Christ is ever mindful of his
covenant. He never forgets his covenant
of grace to his people. He promised grace to his people
and he never forgets. Never ever does he forget. We
were talking earlier today about how forgetful we are. Never are
saved. never forgets His covenant of
grace to His people. He's crowned with that rainbow. He's crowned with His greatest
glory. His greatest glory is grace to
sinners. He's going to save sinners through
His death for them. So in the midst of all these
woes, our Savior appears in grace to remind His people, not only
am I not going to destroy the world again with water, I will
not destroy this world by fire until my purpose of grace has
been carried out for all of my people. And I won't destroy this
world with fire until all my people are taken out of it. He will remember his promise
of grace to his people. Christ, our sovereign king who
rules over all, rules this earth in grace to his people. He never
forgets it. Or Christ reveals himself to
his people, so they get a glimpse of his glory. Verse one, and
his face was as it were the sun. Look over Matthew chapter 17.
Here we're going to get a good commentary on this. His face
was as it were the sun. Matthew 17 is Matthew's account
of Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. Matthew 17 verse one. And after six days, Jesus taketh
Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into a high
mountain apart, and was transfigured before them, and his face did
shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as light. And here
the Lord took these disciples apart, took them up into a mountain
apart, and he gave them just a glimpse, just a glimpse of
the glory that was hidden behind his flesh. And that glimpse was
so bright, they couldn't look directly on. It's like we can't
look directly at the sun. They could not look in that flesh
directly at the Savior. His glory was so beautiful. Just
a glimpse of that glory just made them fall down on their
faces in reverence, fear, and worship. And that glory that
Christ revealed to them is his redemptive glory. Verse three,
And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking
with him. Moses and Elias, the law and
the prophets, came talking with our Savior, and they were talking
to him about his redemptive glory, the message of all the Old Testament,
the law and the prophets. Now, Frank, how do you know that?
Where are you getting that? Look at Luke chapter 9. Here's Luke's
account of the very same situation, the very same events, Luke chapter
9. Verse 30, what was it that Moses
and Elias were talking with our Lord about? And behold, there
talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared
in glory and spake of his deceased, which he should accomplish at
Jerusalem. Moses and Elias, the law and
the prophets appeared, and they talked with our Savior about
his redemptive glory. They talked to him about what
the death that he would accomplish. You know, someday this body is
going to die. You all have a funeral and it's
just the failure of this flesh. It's just the end of sinful flesh.
It's no accomplishment when this flesh dies. When the son of God
died, when life himself died, that's an accomplishment. He
gave up his life for his people. And when he did, what did he
accomplish? He accomplished the eternal redemption
of His people. He saved everyone the Father
gave Him. He put their sin away. And He
reveals Himself to His people. And He gives them grace and glory
and makes His face to shine upon them. When He does, we have peace. Comforted and encouraged at just
the sight, just a glimpse of His glory is all it takes to
comfort and encourage the hearts of His people. All right, here's
the fifth thing. Christ reveals himself to his
people in all of his ways of providence. Revelation 10, look
at the end of verse one. And his feet were as pillars
of fire. Our Lord's feet represent his
ways, the ways that he walks. And all of his ways are ways
of fire. These are his feet were as pillars
of fire, strong pillars. The Lord's way is a fire, a fire
that will consume his enemies just as easy as fire destroys
dry grass, just as easy as a fire could sweep across those dry
prairie grasses in the summertime. He will so easily destroy his
enemies. So yes, our enemies are very
real. I'm not minimizing our enemies.
They're very real, but you just don't have to worry about them
too much. The Lord's going to destroy them easily one day.
That fire that will consume his enemies is also a wall of fire. The Lord is a wall of fire about
his people so that we're protected from every side. There's not
an angle our enemies can approach us from. The Lord's a wall of
fire protecting his people. But now this fire, it's also
a fire of trial. A fire of trial to refine his
people. to make them even more precious
than gold. That's the ways of our Lord.
That's his providence for his people to go through these times
of the fire, the furnace of trial, to refine his people. But here's
our comfort. This fire of trial is the way
of our Lord. It's under the control of the
Lord, our Savior. Now, that does not take away
the pain of the fire, It doesn't take away the pain of the trial,
but it sure gives us comfort during this. This is the way
of our Lord and it's under his control. And here's how completely,
utterly, completely our savior rules the events of providence
in this world. Look at verse two. And he had
in his hand a little book open and he said his right foot upon
the sea and his left foot on the earth. And we'll talk more
about this little book next week. But that book that's open, it's
the same book that Christ took from his father. Remember who's
worthy to take the book and to loose the seven seals thereof?
No man was worthy except our Lord Jesus Christ. He came and
took the book. And that book is the father's
eternal decrees. And Christ is worthy to take
the book, to open the seals and to carry out everything that's
written in that book. It's the same book. It's still
in his hand. He hasn't laid it down, he hasn't
given it up, that book is in his hand. And Christ holds that
book as he rules over all of creation. He rules over every
event going on in creation to accomplish God's eternal purpose.
Now that's every event, everywhere. Christ stands as the monarch. over this whole world. He plants his right foot on the
sea and it doesn't sink. There he stands. And he puts
his left foot on the earth and he just stands over this creation
as monarch. I thought of me standing over
top of an anthill. When I stand over that little
teeny tiny anthill, do I worry about what they're doing? Do
they cause me concern and worry? Not one bit. You magnify that
hammer every time you want to. That's our Savior putting his
right foot on the sea and his left foot on the earth, standing
over this earth. He's in control of it. He's not
reacting to what's going on down here. Everything going on down
here is happening according to his purpose, according to his
will. He's directing it all. When I look down at that little
ant hill, maybe to me, it looks like chaos. These little ants
scurrying everywhere. But you know, God created them
to know exactly what they're doing. There's not chaos going
on down there. The same thing is true of this
earth. When we look at it, to me, it
looks like utter chaos. But it's not. Our Lord has it
all directly under His control. There's no such thing as love.
There's no such thing as change. Everything is happening exactly
according to eternal will and purpose of God. So then, let's
not just get too carried away about how awful the events of
this world are. You know, we ought to warn our
children. We ought to warn them. The way of this world is awful.
Don't follow it. We ought to warn them about that.
But let's not just get too carried away being how awful the whatever,
the political climate, the social climate, whatever. Just don't
get too bent out of shape about it. Our Lord already told us
they're going to be awful. He already told us that. But
you know what else He told us? He's ruling over every last one
of them and He's properly controlling every event in this earth to
accomplish His eternal purpose. And what's God's purpose? The
purpose of that book in our Savior's right hand is the salvation of
God's elect, given to him in the covenant of grace before
time began. And I can tell you exactly what
he's doing with it. He's accomplishing it precisely on schedule, right
on time. He's accomplishing it. And then
lastly, Christ our Savior reveals himself to his people to be obeyed
and to be believed, verse three. And he cried with a loud voice
as when a lion roared. And when he had cried, seven
thunders uttered their voices. Now the lion is the king of the
jungle. And I am fascinated by lions.
Every time there's a special on TV about them, I watch them.
I'm just fascinated by lions. I was watching this show one
time about these two. There's an older male and a younger
male. Now that old male, buddy, he's
king. He is king. And he's got an area
that he's king over. And he knows if somebody else,
another lion comes into his area, he knows it. He goes to take
care of it. He crossed this river with this
young lion. It's like he's showing him, one
day you're going to be king. This is how you do it. And he
got across that river and he just roared. That lion, everywhere he goes
is large and in charge. He knows it. He knows he's king
and everybody else knows it. And he might, he might be going
through the grass there, you know, and there's some gazelles
over there. Those gazelles know that fella's king. Now, he might
not be hungry right now, but they keep an eye on him because
he's king. He knows it. And even if he's
not hungry, he just like taunts them with, I'm king. You better
fear me. I'm king. And when he crossed
that river to roar like that, he was roaring because there
was another lion in his territory. And he was roaring to let that
lion know, I'm king here. Advance at your own risk, because
I'm king, and you're not staying here. And you know that other
lion laughed? That lion, he roars to warn his
enemies, I'm king. I have all authority here. But
that lion also roars to call the whole pride to come together. It's time for the family to come
together. He roars, and they come, because
he's king. That's the voice of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He is King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. The voice of Christ in the gospel
is not this weak, effeminate beggar that false prophets preach
saying, oh, would you please decide to let him into your heart?
Would you please, you know, do this for him and do this? That's
not the lion. That's not the king. The voice
of Christ in the gospel is the roar of a mighty lion. I'm the
king. You bow. You repent. You come to me in faith. I'm
the king. He's the lion of the tribe of
Judah. And the roar of the lion of the
tribe of Judah is to warn his enemies. You repeat. You bow. You believe. Go on in your rebellion
and your refusal to submit yourself to my righteousness at your own
eternal risk. I'm the king. At your own risk. You've been warned. And those
who never bow one day will be destroyed by the vengeance of
a lion, of a lion. And it'll be their own fault.
They've been warned. I just imagine how surprised they will be. This is not like I thought it
would be. Brother Gabe told us that Wednesday night. This is
not how I thought it would be to appear before the judge. I
didn't think the judge was a lion. I thought I was going to meet
this beggar that I could control and, you know, manipulate to
do what I want to do. No, sir. He's the lion. He's the king. He has authority. It's almost like a lion tamer
in a circus. I saw a video of this happen
one time. Anybody that wants to be a lion tamer is out of
their mind. Their brain does not work right.
That lion tamer gets into his little whip and he's making these
lions do tricks and they're jumping up on that little pedestals and
things, you know, and jumping around doing what he wants them
to do. He's deceiving himself if he thinks he's in control
while he's in that cage. No, he's not. And I saw this
happen one day. You know, the lions are just
humoring him. That's all they're doing is they're
humoring him. And one day I saw this happen.
This lion just... You need to know this. You're
not in control. And he just jumped up and bit
the guy's head off. End of story. He's the lion. Don't think. that you're taming
the lion of the tribe of Judah with your little whip of all
your religious activities. You crack that whip and he comes
running. No, sir. He's the king. He's in control. He rules over everything. And those who will not bow to
him are going to be consumed by the lion, by the fierceness
of the lion. But this lion, The lion of the
tribe of Judah is the lamb of God. He roars and his people
hear and they obey. They hear the sound of the gospel
and they come to him willingly. They bow to him willingly. They
hear of Jehovah Sidken, the Lord, our righteousness, and they willingly
submit themselves to him. Of course they do. They don't
have any other righteousness. He's all they're righteous. They
gladly submit themselves to him. They lovingly submit themselves
to the rule of Christ. It's only right that he rule.
I don't understand everything he's doing, but it's only right
that he does it because he's king. He's the lion. Christ is
to be heard and he's to be obeyed and believed. Look down at verse
5, we'll get into this more next week, but look here at verse
5. 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. This is Christ the true and faithful
witness. He's to be heard and he's to
be believed. It's like he's standing there
on the sea and the land, raising his hand, swearing to tell the
truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And you know he
can do that because he is the truth. He is the whole truth
and nothing but the truth. He is to be believed. He's the
truth. And he's worthy to be believed.
He promised he will save his people from their sin. He didn't
lie. He did. He promised, come unto
me and I'll give you rest. He did. No one the Father gave
him will ever be lost. He's the truth. This gospel is
to be believed because it's about him. Now that will comfort and
encourage the hearts of God's people in the midst of the woes
that we're still going through and those that are yet to be
revealed to us. That'll comfort the hearts of God's people. That'll
encourage them to continue in the faith no matter how dark
the hour gets. All right, I hope the Lord will
bless that too.