In the 10th chapter of the book
of Revelation. That's where we've come to in
our study in this book, and we're going to look at the entire chapter
tonight. I'll try not to be too long.
And where are you? Where are you at? I do want to
read all the verses, though. There are 11 verses in this chapter.
Let's begin in Revelation 10, verse 1. And I saw another mighty
angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow
was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his
feet as pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little
book open, and he set his right foot upon the sea and his left
foot upon the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a
lion roars. And when he had cried, seven
thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had
uttered their voices, I was about to write, and I heard a voice
from heaven saying unto me, seal up those things which the seven
thunders uttered. and write them not. And the angel
which I saw stand upon the sea, and upon the earth, lifted up
his hand to heaven, and swore by him that liveth for ever and
ever, who created the heaven, and the things that are therein,
and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea,
and the things which are therein, that there should be time or
delay no longer. But in the days of the voice
of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery
of God shall be finished, as he hath declared to his servants
the prophets. 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 had eaten it,
my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must
prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and
kings. Some people call chapter 10 a
prelude. It's almost like a parenthesis. One man called it. It's an interruption
of what we had been studying about, these trumpets and seals
that had been open. In chapter 8 and chapter 9, these
six trumpets have sounded, but just before the Sabbath angel
sounds, here in our text to announce the end of the history of this
world, our Lord Jesus Christ issues one last warning to this
rebellious world and he gives words of comfort to his tribe
people. You and I in chapter 7 saw a
similar event take place. You remember the four angels
holding back the winds, keeping them from blowing on the earth
and hurting the trees and the grass. But just before they were
given permission to blow, the servants of God were sealed in
their foreheads. They were sealed by the Holy
Spirit. And we see this again take place
in chapter 8, before the angels, which have the seven trumpets
of judgment, begin to sound. John sees the Messiah, he sees
the mediator between God and man, mixing his sweet incense
upon the prayers of all the saints and offering them up to God,
his Father. So we have in the book of Revelations
what we have throughout all the scriptures. We have these warnings
against the rebellious and unbelieving world, and we have comfort for
the tried saints of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes these
warnings by the grace of God and teaching of the Holy Spirit
are made effectual. Sometimes they are used to turn
men from their sins and repentance to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But not always. Sometimes they
go unheeded and sometimes they even go resisted. We saw that
in chapter 9 and verse 20. And the rest of the men which
were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works
of their hands. In Jeremiah's day, when Israel
had so sinned against God and rebelled against his word and
his prophets that the Lord sent judgment upon them, here's what
he told Jeremiah. Because they have not hearkened
to my word, saith the Lord, which I sent by my servants the prophet,
rising up early and sending them. But ye would not hear, saith
the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will bring
evil upon this people, even the fruits of their thoughts, because
they have not hearkened to my word and to my law, but they
have rejected them. And that's what we see in the
book of Revelation, isn't it? We see these trumpets of warnings,
the plagues that's coming. And yet the Lord exercises patience. He uses these things, no doubt,
so many times to bring His elect to repentance. And just before
the Jewish nation crucified the Lord Jesus by their wicked hands,
He gives them this warning. And I imagine this warning is
still of ringing in the ears of those Pharisees and scribes
who so opposed the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to what Christ
said to them, ìO Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth the prophets, and
stoneth them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her brood
under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left
unto you desolate. If this rebellious world won't
hear and heed the warnings that's in the book of Revelation, then
they'll have to do with the living Lord coming in judgment to destroy
them. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great a salvation? And I think that's why we have
this description Here given in verses 1 through verse 2 of our
Lord Jesus Christ coming down from heaven, in a vision John
sees him as this angel. It's not only to comfort the
saints, knowing that our Lord is a sovereign Lord, that everything
is under his feet, but it's a warning to this lost rebellious world.
You cannot resist Jesus Christ. He must save you by His grace,
or He must judge you in His justice. He must forgive us, or He must
punish us. And that's what we see here in
these first two verses. John sees this vision, and that's
what it is. It's not literal, but it's a
vision that he sees. And I want you to notice nine
things that he sees about this angel here in verses 1 and verse
2. And the first thing he said about
him, he noticed that he was a mighty angel. This was a giant angel. He was powerful. He was strong.
His appearance to John was amazing. And his voice when he spoke was
mighty. It was powerful. He was a mighty
angel. And the second thing John noticed
about him was he was coming down from heaven. We read about the
beast. in the next few chapters coming
up out of the earth or the sea. We read about the dragon, that
old serpent coming up out of the bottom of this pit. But Jesus
Christ came down from heaven. He was on the throne and in this
vision, John sees Him coming down. And notice how He was clothed,
thirdly, He was clothed with a cloud. Sometimes we We see
the Lord Jesus and He's either in a cloud or He's clothed with
a cloud. And this cloud represents to
us, it's symbolic of His glory, this bright shining cloud. Remember when Moses asked the
Lord, show me your glory. And the Lord put him in that
rock and the Lord descended in a cloud. and proclaim the name
of the Lord to him. Remember in the holy place where
the high priest went in to sprinkle the altar with incense, with
the blood of the lamb, and that chicane of glory would come down
and fill the most holy place in the form of a cloud. The Lord Jesus said, You shall
see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power
and great glory. Now, who could this be here but
the Lord Jesus Christ? He's this mighty angel. So often
in an Old Testament you read that He appeared to men as an
angel. You remember when Joshua was
going out to fight the enemies of the children of Israel and
he saw this angel? And he said, Are you on our side
or the Lord's side? And this man, this angel, had
a sword. And he said, I'm the captain
of the Lord's host. And he said to Joshua, Take off
your shoes. You're on holy ground. Now, who
was that angel? That was the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's the same one that we see here. He's called the angel of
God's presence and the angel of the covenant. And that's who
John sees here. The fourth thing he says about
him is this. There was a rainbow about his
head. Now, in chapter 4, we saw this
rainbow mentioned, didn't we? And remember where the rainbow
was? It was round about the throne. The throne of God. He saw a throne,
and one sat on the throne, and he said, I noticed around about
that throne was this rainbow. Remember the first time the Bible
talks about a rainbow? Remember when the Lord had destroyed
the earth with a flood? And after the flood and after
everything got settled down, Noah and his children was yet
fearful that God was going to destroy the earth again with
a flood. And he came to Noah and said, I'll never destroy
the earth with a flood again. And I'm going to give you a sign
of this covenant that I make with you and all the earth that
I'll never destroy it again, I'm going to set my rainbow in
the clouds. And every time it began to cloud
up and the inhabitants looked up at that rainbow, they could
be assured that God was faithful to His covenant. And wherever,
brothers and sisters, you find a covenant I don't care if it's
the covenant that God made with Noah and all of humanity. I don't
care if it's the covenant of peace, that everlasting covenant
God made with His Son, or if it's that covenant that He made
with us in Christ, that He'd be a Father to us and remember
our sins and iniquities no more. Wherever you see God making a
covenant, He's faithful to that covenant. And he's faithful to
his covenant promises. Whatever that covenant promises,
God will bring it to pass. And the way we know that's sure,
we look at the Lord Jesus Christ and what does he have around
his head? A rainbow. And that tells us God is a covenant
God and God will never break his covenant. His covenant promises
are absolutely Sure. And that's what we see around
the head of the Lord Jesus Christ. John saw that. And fifthly, he
saw his face as it were the sun. And we could go ahead and add
in there the sun shining in his strength. When he saw the face
of the Lord Jesus, it was like the sun was shining. You go out sometime in the noonday
sun and look up and it will almost blind you. You can't see. And that's what John saw in the
face. I saw this was I thought this
was very telling when when the Apostle Paul was converted in
Acts chapter 9. And it was said there in Acts
chapter 9 that a light shone round about him. Remember that?
And then when Paul told about it, In his experience in Acts
22, he said there was a great light that was shining around
about me. And then the third time he told
this, he said there was a light shining above the brightness
of the sun. And what was that light? That
was Jesus Christ. That was Christ. He said, last
of all, he was seen of me. Aren't you glad, brothers and
sisters? that He's able to shine into your dark and sinful heart,
that He shines that brightly. God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the very
face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what we need more
than anything, isn't it? That's what a lost humanity needs,
because humanity is in darkness. But Jesus Christ's face, His
very face, is like the shining of the sun. And that's why we
keep preaching the Gospel, and that's why we keep asking the
Lord, Lord, shine into the hearts of these people. Shine Your light
into their understanding. and open their hearts. And he's
able to do that because his face itself shines as the sun. John noticed something else about
him. Sixthly, he noticed his feet. He began up at his head
and now he's down at his feet and he said, I noticed that the
feet of this mighty angel was as pillars of fire. In chapter 1 in verse 15, John
noticed his feet was like fine brass burning in a furnace. There's two things about that.
If his feet is brass, that means he's strong. And that means he
can carry our weight. The government's up on his shoulders.
All his lambs are in his arms. And he's strong enough to carry
them. But when you think about burning brass, you think about
consuming fire, don't you? And just as those feet and legs
are strong enough to carry his people, they're consuming fire
to his enemies. The Bible says he'll trod his
enemies under his feet. He has that kind of feet. And notice seventhly what John
noticed about him here in verse 2. His feet was upon the sea,
his right foot was upon the sea, and his left foot was upon the
earth. Now what does that tell us? This
angel was so huge, he was such a giant angel, that when he came
down he put his right foot on the sea, and it covered all the
sea, and his left foot on dry land, and it covered all the
dry land. What does that tell us? that everything in this world
is under the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing
that is not put under Him. God raised Him from the dead
and set Him at His own right hand. Far above all principalities
and powers and might and dominion and everything that is mentioned,
and listen to this, hath put all things under His feet. There's nothing that's not under
the feet of Jesus Christ. That's how mighty He is. That's
how powerful He is. The Bible says He must reign
until He hath put all His enemies under His feet. They're under
His feet now. It's just not manifest yet. He's
got them there. He just hasn't crushed them yet,
has He? And the last enemy He's going to crush with His feet
is death. His death. And number eight, John hears
him cry with a voice, and the voice is so loud that John said,
it's like the roaring of a lion. All of us have seen videos about
the lion roars, and you can hear him sometimes for a mile or so,
can't you? When he roars with that voice,
and they call him the king of beasts. And John says, when he
heard this mighty angel, It was as the roar of a lion. He's called
the lion of the tribe of Judah, isn't he? And his enemies can't
escape him. He's a lion. He can turn them
to pieces. He can rip them to threads. But
to those who come to him and humbly trust him, this lion is
as meek as a lamb. The lion and the lamb. And number nine, he had in his
hand a little book that was open. I thought this was somewhat interesting. Here in verse three, we found
out more about this here in verse eight through 11. I want to look
at that in a minute. I thought that's very interesting.
This little book in this angel's hand. And he tells John to come
and eat it all up. And I want to look at that in
just a minute because he closes with that. But here in verse
3 and verse 4, the seven angels uttered their voices. They spake. Each one of these thunders spake
and each one of them had a message. And John understood the message. And he had his little book out
ready to write it down. And the angel spoke to him and
said, don't write that. You take and seal this up and
don't you write it. Now, what can we learn from this,
brothers and sisters? I think there's a lesson here.
And I think it's this. That it's evident that God has
not written everything that he could have written. He has written enough in His
Bible for us to understand and be saved by it and live in the
faith of it and worship and serve Him. But there are so many things
that He has purpose to do you and I know nothing about. What
was these seven funders about? Was that about judgment? We'll
never know, will we? Until maybe God reveals it in
the last day. But don't this teach us, brothers
and sisters, when it comes to reading our Bibles, when it comes
to talking about the things of God, we should approach these
things so humbly. Those who know most, and there
are men who know a lot more than we know, but those who know most
about God and His purposes know so little. Oh, the depths of
the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable
are His judgments and His ways by His finding out. Some people
give the impression that they know everything, that they've
got the book of Revelations all figured out. Well, if you do,
tell us something about these learners, would you? I tell you,
it behooves us to approach the Word of God with humility, doesn't
it? and approach the things of the Lord. I just don't know. I just tell you the truth. I
don't know. A preacher told me one time,
he said, don't tell people that you don't know things. I guess
he wanted me to lie to us. But I don't know things. And
he hid this from us, didn't he? And there's other things, brothers
and sisters, that we don't know. And I tell you this much, we
won't know anything unless God teaches us. We can't know God,
we can't know Christ, we can't know the things of the Lord,
except He teach us and reveal it to us through His Word by
His blessed Holy Spirit. Look here now in verse 5 and
6, and we find this all through the Word of God, and this is
so important. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and
upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and swore by
him that liveth for ever and ever. Why did he swear by God?
Because he could swear by no greater. But look how he identifies
God, who created heaven and the things that therein are, the
earth and the things that therein are, the sea and the things which
therein are therein, that there shall be delay no longer. I had a lady tell me one time,
she said, to me it don't matter. if God created everything in
six days or if they all evolved. She said, don't make any difference
to me. Everywhere in the Bible, from
Genesis in the beginning, God created. Now you find that you're
in the last book of the Bible. God created everything. In the book from Genesis to Revelation,
God is revealed as the Creator By Him were all things created,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. He made everything,
didn't He? Everything in its original form. Now, I know we have some evolution.
I mean, that's evident. Wayne's got a beautiful little
dog. But I doubt seriously when God
made dogs if it looked like Wayne's dog. Cindy's got another breed
of dog. There's different breeds of cats.
There's different breed of horses. There's different species of
plants and so on. But in their original farm, God
created those. He created the species of cats,
horses, cows, different vegetables, different fruits, and man has
has enlarged upon that. We've got all these different
breeds and species and so on, but you ever notice that you
never have a cow turn into a horse? You never breed a dog with a
cat and it turns into a cat-dog? God created everything in its
original form and He did it in six literal days. And it shows his power and it
shows his wisdom. And that's what the Lord's speaking
about here. He lifted his hands and swore by the creator of all
things that there should be delay no longer. Here in verse seven,
this seventh trumpet, in the days of the voice of the seventh
angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mysteries of God should
be finished. as he had declared unto his servants,
the prophets." This seventh trumpet is the last trumpet. And when
this seventh trumpet sounds, it brings about the end of this
world. It brings about the end of the
history. It brings about the resurrection
of the dead, and it brings about the judgment. We're told again
about it in chapter 11. Look at it in chapter 11 in verse
15. This is the seventh trumpet. The angels had seven trumpets,
and this is the last trumpet to sound. And the seventh angels
sounded, and there were great voices in heaven saying, The
kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and
of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. And the four
twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon
their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks,
O Lord God Almighty, which art, and was, and art to come, because
thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned, and
the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of
the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou should
give rewards unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints,
and to them that fear thy name, small and great, and that thou
should reward those, or destroy those, which have destroyed the
earth." So what does this seventh trumpet do? It announces the
end, doesn't it? The end. You know the Apostle
Paul talked about this seventh trumpet. Remember that? He said,
I'll show you a mystery. We're not all going to sleep,
but we're all going to be changed. Not all of us are going to die,
but we're going to be changed in a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye. When? At the last trumpet. And what trumpet is that? That's
this seventh trumpet that John announces to us, the resurrection. and the changing of this world
and the judgment of the Lord. Now, let's look at this in closing.
This little book. What in the world is this little
book? And you read the commentaries. Some of them say one thing and
some say another. Some say it's the same book that
our Lord had in His hand in chapter five. But here's what I think. Here's my opinion, my understanding. of this little book. It's simply
the Word of God. It's the Word. John said, when
I ate it, it was in my mouth as sweet as honey. And when it
got down in my belly after I digested it, it was bitter. Listen to
these passages of Scripture. Jeremiah 15, 16. Thy words were
found And I did eat them. And thy word was unto me the
joy and the rejoicing of my heart." Listen to Ezekiel 3. The Lord told Ezekiel, son of
man, eat this roll, this scroll. It was God's Word. And I opened
my mouth, Ezekiel said, and he caused me to eat the roll. And
he said, son of man, cause thy belly to be filled, and thy bowels
were this roll. And he gave the roll to me, and
I did eat it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey." So
that's what the Word of God does when we eat it, isn't it? It has this sweet aspect to it. It has two aspects to it. Sweeter than honey, Solomon said,
in the honeycomb. I rejoiced at thy word, as they
that find great spoil. But John says it has another
effect. When you get it down in your
stomach and digest it, it creates also a bitterness within. That's the effects of the gospel,
even upon the children of God. When you eat it, is it not the
rejoicing of your heart? Is it not the sweetest, best
news that you've ever heard? But when you digest it and get
it into your heart, does it not create a bitterness within also? Does it not create a controversy
within your heart? The flesh lusting against the
spirit and the spirit against your flesh. You never had a warfare
until the gospel came to you and gave you new life. But now
you do, don't you? And it's this resistance of this
old man, this flesh. that causes this bitterness.
And when this sweet gospel is preached to this rebellious and
unbelieving world, it brings about bitter persecution. ìI have given them thy word,î
the Lord Jesus said to His Father, ìand they will believe it, and
they will preach it, and whatís the effect of it? The world hath
hated Did you ever, when the Lord saves you, did you ever
go to your loved ones and talk to them about the gospel? You ever preach the gospel to
them? Of course you have. And I bet some of you have had
a reception that you've never forgotten, have you? I mean,
it was a bitter reception. You could see it in their eyes.
You could hear it in their voice. It was sweet to you, but boy,
it brought bitter persecution. of this lost world. It always
does, doesn't it? It always does. Verse 11, the
Lord Jesus here told John that he was going to have to preach
to many nations, to many tongues, and even to kings. And for that
reason, he was going to have to get this word of truth deep
unto his belly. He was going to have to digest
it. It must become a Bible part of who he was. Brothers and sisters,
it's not enough to carry a Bible under our arm. It's not enough
to take a Bible and set it upon our shelves. It's not even enough
to read the Bible. We need to get the Word of God
down deep in our hearts to the point that it becomes Part of
us that it saturates our being. The Lord Jesus told his apostles,
let these sayings of mine sink down deep into your hearts. Get it into your hearts. Thy word have I hid in my heart,
that I might not sin against thee. Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly in all wisdom. When Peter and John was preaching
before the Sanhedrin, boy, they got so mad at Peter and John.
They said, if we hear you preach in the name of Jesus anymore,
we're going to deal with you. They threatened to beat them
and finally did. And remember how Peter and John
answered that Sanhedrin. They said, we can't help. We
can't help it. We've got this word in our hearts. We've got it down in our souls
and we can just as well deny ourselves before we can deny
the Word of Truth. Boy, that's what enabled our
forefathers to go to the stake on a pile of wood and have their
bodies burned. That's what enabled them to go
down in a dungeon and be strangled to death or drowned in a pool
of water. That's what enabled them to be
cast into a batch of boiling oil. They had this Word in their
hearts. It was a vital part of them.
It sustained them when persecution came. And the Lord tells John,
He said, John, you're going to be delivered from this isle of
Patmos. And you're going to preach to kings and nations and tons
of people. And to do that, You're going
to have to get this little book, not only in your mouth, but get
it down in your belly, deep in your affection. That when you
go preaching, you can deny yourself before you'll deny this Word.
Oh, isn't that good instruction, brothers and sisters, for us?
It is, isn't it? May the Lord bless His Word.
Our Father, we thank You for Your blessed Word. how it guides
us, how it instructs us, how it reproves and rebukes us and
corrects us, and we thank You for it. But Lord, every time we stand
and declare Your Word, we see sin mixed with everything we
touch. Oh, forgive us, our Lord. Forgive
us of the iniquity of the holy things, and bless Your Word to
the hearts of this dear people and to the hearts of all who
hear. Let your word be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto
our pathway. Oh, our Father, we ask these
things for Christ's sake. Amen.