Okay, we return back to our study
now in Revelation chapter 10. And I'm taking the title from
the words found in verse 9. Take the Word of God and eat
it up. What good, good wisdom the Lord
tells us here. And I want you to take this personal. I want you to take the Word of
God and to eat it up. Eat it up. And it will be sweet
in your mouth. And it will also produce the
bitterness of conviction of sin. The sweet promises of God bring
the conviction of sin. Isn't that amazing? How the Lord
gives us all those special, precious, exceeding great promises of salvation
in Christ. Oh, they're great and they're
precious. And we see in these sweet promises that salvation's
in Christ, but also it teaches us what we are, what we are by
nature, sinners before God and guilty before God. The Word of
God is to be not only heard, but received and consumed, because
it is. It is what it is. It is the Word
of God. All Scripture is given of God.
And I try to, as best I can, give you the Word, verse by verse,
Line by line, precept upon precept, the gospel message of Christ
and Him crucified is a sweet promise of our sin totally, completely
put away by the blood atonement of Christ. How is sin put away? Well, it's difficult to put away.
I can't do it. You can't do it. No man can.
But the Lord Jesus Christ came and He put all the sin away of
God's people. That is a sweet and precious
promise. We eat upon it. We feast upon
the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood will be redeemed
with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all Our sin. But this Word and His sweet promises
also brings in our heart conviction of sin. Conviction of sin. And that is necessary to our
salvation. If we're never convicted of our
sin, we'll never look to the Savior to save us from our sin.
If we don't know that we're ruined and lost, we'll never look to
the Lord Jesus Christ for all of salvation. It reveals the
bitterness of our sin because our sin is against God. As David
said, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil
in thy sight. So we can say, in a real sense
of reality, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is bittersweet. It's bittersweet. We see the
bitterness of our sin because of the Word of Truth that teaches
us what we are. And we see the sweet and precious
promises of God revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's
go back for just a minute because it's been a couple weeks since
we looked at this. If we look at verse 1 down through
verse 4, I saw another mighty angel. We know this angel is
the messenger of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
came down from heaven. He came down from heaven to accomplish
salvation for God's covenant people. And he's clothed with
all majesty and glory. He's clothed with a cloud. Now,
what majesty the Lord appears unto us. And then it says next
in verse 1 there, a rainbow. A rainbow was upon His head. And of course, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the head of the church. He's the head of all things,
principality and power. And a rainbow indicates and is
symbolic of His covenant mercy. When God flooded the earth in
Noah's day, and when the water receded, God put a rainbow in
the clouds and said, I'll never flood the earth again. So that
rainbow is a sign and symbol of God's covenant word, his covenant
mercy. And his face, oh, his face is
like none other. The glory of God shines in the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ. His face was as the sun that
shines. What a glorious Savior we have,
who speaks to us His good promises, who speaks to us, take the Word
of God and eat it! Don't just look at it, eat it
up! And his feet, oh his feet, oh they're steady and sure feet.
Feet as pillars of fire, pillars of truth, pillars of a living
God. And he had in his hand this book. Now, hold your place here. This
book goes all the way back to what is said in chapter 5. Turn
back to chapter 5. Him that sat upon the throne
had this book written on the backside, sealed with seven seals,
written within and on the backside. No man in heaven, verse 3, chapter
5, in earth or heaven, was able to open the book, neither to
look thereon. I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open
the book, to read the book, to look thereon. And one of the
elders saith unto me, Weep not, behold, The Lion of the tribe
of Judah, the Root of David, Revelation 5.5, hath prevailed
to open the book, to loose the seven seals, and I beheld him
low in the midst of the throne, amidst of the four beasts, amidst
of the elders to the Lamb, as has been slain, having seven
horns, all power, seven eyes, all knowing, seven spirits of
God, Almighty God, sent forth into all the earth. He came and
he took the book. He took the book out of the right
hand of him and set it upon the throne. Now the book's in his
hand. Now back to chapter 10. And he had in his hand this little
book open. No one could open it but the
God-man mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this one, our Lord,
blessed Savior, God Almighty, He set His right foot upon the
sea and His left foot upon the earth. That is, His dominion
and His reign, His sovereignty is everywhere. There is nowhere
that God doesn't reign. He reigns absolute, supreme,
sovereign in heaven and in earth and in the sea. And he cried
with a loud, loud voice. He cried with a loud voice, a
powerful voice, as when a lion does roar, he is called the lion
of the tribe of Judah. He's called the king of kings
and lord of lords. Where the word of the king is,
there is power. Where the word of the king is,
there's power. And our God is king of kings,
and he's lord of lords. And he cries with this loud voice. And when he cried, seven thunders
uttered their voices. Now, I wanted to show you something.
I was looking at this earlier, and I thought of this scripture,
if I can find it. When he cried with a loud voice,
Seven thunders uttered their voices. Verse 4, when the seven
thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write, and I heard
a voice saying in heaven, seal it up, don't write. Now here's
what I want you to turn to. Turn to John chapter 12. John
chapter 12. I kept thinking, thinking, thinking
about this scripture, and I couldn't find it, but I finally, I finally,
I finally found it in John chapter 12. Look at verse 28. Look at verse 27. John 12, 27.
Now is my soul troubled. What shall I say? Father, save
me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto
this hour. Talking about the hour of His
crucifixion. Father, glorify Thy name. And
there came a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified
it and will glorify it again. And the people therefore stood
by and heard it and said, Oh, it thundered. Now all they heard
was a thunder. The Lord heard God speak in that
thunder. And others said, an angel spake.
And the Lord said, this voice came not because of me, but for
your sake. Now the judgment of this world,
now shall the prince of this world be cast out. Talking about
Satan. And I, if I be lifted up," talking
about his death, "...will draw all," leave out the word men,
"...all unto me." This, he said, signifying what death he should
die. So, next time you hear the thunder
roar, think about this. His glory and everything he does
in an absolute way of sovereignty. As John was about to write it
down, The voice of the angel said, don't write it down. Don't
write anything down. Seal it up. Seal up those things
with the seven thunders. Seven is always a number of completeness,
complete power. What they uttered, do not write
them down. Now, we don't need to know everything
God knows. Do we? The only thing he wants
us to know and what he has revealed to us is what is written in the
word of God. So don't speculate upon what's
not written, rather believe what is written. He was told not to
write it down. Now we read this in Deuteronomy
29, 29. Let me just read it to you. The secret things belong
to our God. Now there are many secret things
that we don't know anything about. But those things which are revealed
belong to us and to our children. What He's revealed in His Word
unto us, we're there to be received and heard as the Word of God.
One old writer, one old preacher of the past said this, there
are many things working in God's universe that we know nothing
about. Do we? What they are, we do not know,
but let us be very careful in making predictions regarding
things in the future. We may be leaving out some very
important factors we don't know. We know in part, we preach in
part, so let's not speculate upon what we don't know, but
rather let's preach what we do know from the word of God. from
the Word of God. We do know this, who holds the
future of all things and who controls all things, because
our God has decreed all things. That's what this book contains.
It's the book of God's decrees in which he has decreed everything
that takes place in time. Now you think about that, that's
a lot. Everything that takes place in time, God has decreed
from all eternity, known unto God are all His works from the
beginning, upon the earth, upon the sea, and heaven and earth.
You remember the lesson the Lord taught that pagan king? And he
said, the pagan king, after he was taught of the Lord, that
all that happens to the earth are reputed as nothing. And He
does according to His will in the army of heaven and among
the heavens of this earth, and none can stay His hand or say
unto Him, Lord God Almighty, what do us now? Whatsoever the
Lord is pleased to do, that's what He does. Whatever He's pleased
to do, that's what He does. There's nothing happens, and
I know we see some horrific things happening in our day. There's
nothing happened in our day, in our life, that is not ordered
of Almighty God. He's decreed all things. All
things. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that's what He did. And heaven, earth, sea, and all
deep places of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things.
Are all things in heaven and on earth. There is a deep, profound
mystery to the divine providence of God that finite creatures
cannot comprehend. We just don't know. You mean,
preacher, there's some things you don't know? There's a whole
lot of things I don't know. I know whom I have believed.
I'm persuaded he's able to do all things. I know that. Write
him not, he said. Everything we do know about God,
the way of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ is found in the
Word of God. We are to study what he said
and study what has been given unto us. Now, take the Word of
God, take it with you, go home and read it, eat it, consume
it, meditate upon it, We're not to speculate upon what not is
written, but rather what is given. We simply do not need to know
all that our great God knows and what he does. You remember
what Abraham said, and this is a good confession. Whatsoever
the Lord please, or he said this, whatsoever the Lord please, shall
not the judge of all the earth do right? And whatever he does
is right. Whatever he does is right. He
works all things after the counsel of his own will. Now, verse 5 and 6, Revelation
10, verse 5 and 6, And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea,
and he still had dominion everywhere, He's never relinquished his reign
upon the throne, absolute sovereignty. He stands upon the sea and upon
the earth and he lifts up his hand, the hand of God. You remember,
none can stay his hand or stand to him under heaven. And he swear
by him that liveth forever and ever who created heaven. who created the things that are
in the earth, who created the things that are in the sea, who
created all things, and this one who is a mighty creator said,
time shall be no more. Time is done. It's over. Now, on this word about our creator,
turn back to Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one. Our God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
God, our savior, everything that was created, Angels, elect and
demon, all angels are created by Him and for Him and for His
glory. Of Him and through Him and to
Him are all things. You turn to Colossians chapter
1. I'm thinking about another scripture
here. You turn to Colossians chapter
1. But it says here, all things were made by Him. Without Him
was not anything made that was made. In Him was life. And the light was the light of
man. The light shined in darkness, and the darkness comprehended
it not. Now, you've got Colossians chapter
1, look at verse 16. Verse 15 says this, Who is the
image, that is our Redeemer, in whom we have redemption, through
His blood the forgiveness of sin. Who is the image of the
invisible God, Colossians 1.15. The firstborn, or Lord, of every
creature. Who is your Lord? He is the Lord
whether you acknowledge it or not. He's your Lord whether you
acknowledge it or not. He's the firstborn, which means
He's the Lord of everything. His Lordship reigns over all.
For by Him were all things created that are in heaven, that are
in earth, visible, invisible, whether it be thrones or dominions,
principalities or powers. All things were created by Him
and for Him. They're created for Him. Man
was created for Him. Look at verse 17, and He's before
all things. And by him all things consist,
are held together. He is the head. He is the head
of the body of the church who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence,
the first place, the chief glory. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell. He made peace for us with the
blood of his cross. He reconciled us unto himself.
through the blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. In eternity,
God decreed all things. In time, He brings all things
to pass. Known unto God are all of His
works from the beginning. A prime example of this, turn
one page to Revelation 13. The Lord Jesus Christ is described
here as the Lamb slain, verse 8, the last part, the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. God had decreed the Lord Jesus
Christ to be the atonement for the sin of God's people from
the foundation of the world. And in time, what happened? He
came. He came because God decreed it.
Him being delivered, do you remember Acts chapter 2? Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have
taken and by wicked hands have crucified the Lord of glory,
those wicked men, those wicked Jews, those wicked Romans, those
wicked people, just like us. They took the Lord Jesus Christ,
misused him, nailed him, put a spear in his side, a crown
of thorns on his head, danced around His cross and mocked Him,
they only did what God determined before to be done. You see, those
things were decreed from eternity, and in time they came to pass.
In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made of a
woman, made under the law. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us. So He's the Creator
of all things. Who created salvation? Salvation
of the Lord. It's His doing. It's His doing. His dying. And He says, the Creator,
the Mighty Lord, the Angel and Messenger of the Covenant said
that there will be time one day. One day soon, we'll no longer
know anything about time, for time will be consumed in eternity. that just be eternity. When creatures
of time, we are creatures of time, God is creator of time. In him there is no time, just
the eternal presence. God, our God, he said, I'm God,
beside me there is no other. Our God inhabits eternity. Our
God is not in the universe. The universe is in him. He's not in our hands, we're
in His hands. He declares that one day soon
when all the decrees of God are finished, finished, we're going
to see that in verse 7, when all the decrees of God are finished,
time as we know it, Time as we live in it will be swallowed
up in eternity. There'll be no more time. As
some have said, there'll be no more delay. When all the decrees
of God have been executed, there'll be no more delay. I mean, after
that's done, judgment. Judgment's coming. Judgment's
coming. Now look at verse 7 for a moment. Well, goodness. Verse 7. Let me go back to the first part
of verse 6. When he sware by Him that liveth forever and ever.
You see that? He sware by Him. We have the
word of His oath on this. We read in Hebrews 6.13, For
when God made promise to Abraham, because he could sware by no
greater, he sware by himself. He swear by Him that liveth forever
and ever. God has sworn to it. He will
do it. He will do it. What he says is
true. He said, I've spoken it. I'll
bring it to pass. I've purposed it. I will do it.
Isaiah 46. Now, verse 7 refers to the seventh
angel. As it says in chapter 11, Verse
15. Let's read verse 7. Revelation
10 verse 7. But in the days of the voice
of the seventh angel, talking about what's going to happen
when the seventh seal, when the seventh angel sounds forth his
trumpet, when he shall begin to sound The mystery of God should
be finished. And we're going to talk about
that. Let's read chapter 11, verse 15. And the seventh angel
sounded. Remember, this is a little bit
confusing, but when the seventh seal was opened, there were seven
angels that had seven trumpets of judgment. And this is the
seventh angel with the seventh trumpet of judgment when the
seventh seal was opened. There was a great voice 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. Chapter 11, verse 16. And the four and twenty elders,
that represents all of God's elect, which sat before God on
their seats, fell on their faces and worshipped God, saying, We
give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and was,
and are to come, because thou hast taken to thee great power
and hast reigned." So when that seventh angel sounds that seventh
trumpet, judgment is there. Judgment will be done, as it
says in verse 18 and 19 of chapter 11. But in the days of the voice
of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery
of God shall be finished. And it will be, because God has
decreed, remember how we started in Revelation? He decreed the
end from the beginning, as He declared that the mystery of
God should be finished. As He declared to His servants,
the prophets, all the prophets, bear witness to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now verse 8. Verse 8, And the voice which
I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go take the
little book which is open in the hand of the angel, which
stands upon the sea, upon the earth. And I went and said to
him, Give me the book. Give me that little book. Give
me the word of God. Give me the decrees of God. And he said to
me, Take it. God will not withhold from you
if you ask Him. He will not upbraid you, but
He will give you. Ask Him to give you the Word.
Ask Him for mercy. Take it. Eat it up. And it shall
make thy belly bitter, but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as
honey. Now we know this from reading
the Word of God and in the Revelation. God shall have the total and
final victory over all His enemies, and we are safe in His hands. He went forth conquering and
to conquer. He's going to defeat every foe. And we are safe in His hand. We are more than conquerors through
Him that loved us. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God, which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
going to read over after chapter 15. In chapter 16 and 17, we're
going to see those seven bowls of wrath. But we're safe in His
hand. There's no condemnation to those
who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me get to the rest of
this, and I'll let you go. John is instructed to take the
Word of God and to eat it up. To eat it up, as our Lord said,
except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in
you. Except we partake of his person
and work, who he is and what he did, putting away our sin
by the sacrifice of himself, establishing perfect righteousness
for us, except we bow to His Lordship and sovereignty and
believe Him, we have no spiritual life. We have no salvation. It
is true, the Lord's servants and the Lord's people, they delight
in His Word. It's made sweet unto us as the
Lord reveals, He takes the things of Christ and shows them unto
us. The psalmist said this, In Psalm 119, how sweet are thy
words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey, sweeter than honey
to my mouth. There is a sweetness to all the
exceeding and great and precious promises in the Lord Jesus Christ. These promises total forgiveness
of sin, righteousness forever, salvation forever. Not one promise
will fail. Not one word of God will fail.
He's given this exceeding great and precious promises that by
these we might be partakers of a divine nature. But there's
also with these sweet promises that God gives us, when we take
His Word, eat it and consume it, it brings the bitterness
of conviction of sin. How do we know that we are sinners
before God? How do we know that we're guilty
before God? You didn't just arrive at that by your natural thoughts. It's God has taken the Word and
given you the Word and has shown you that you're guilty before
God. Remember Romans 3, let every
mouth be stopped and all the world become, what? Guilty. Guilty,
guilty before God. As David said, my sin is ever
before me. So in the sweet promises of God,
we have what we call the conviction of sin. There is a bitterness
and conviction of our sin against God. Let me give you some examples
of that. Believers who had eaten the sweet
promises of the Lord, and it brought conviction of sin in
their heart, in their belly, in their inward part. You remember
Isaiah when he saw the Lord high and lifted up? And his temple,
his presence filled the temple? And the seraphims, the angels
cried, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty, the sweet promises
of God. And what did Isaiah say? Woe
is me, I'm undone, I'm a man of unclean lips, bitterness of
conviction of sin. I dwell among a people of unclean
lips. Job, the servant of the Lord. You remember what Job said
when the Lord had taken his family? his substance, his health. His
wife said, why don't you just curse God and die? And Job said,
the Lord has given, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the
name of the Lord. That's in chapter 1. When you
read through the book of Job and see everything that he went
through, Now his three friends mocked him. And then he comes
down to chapter 42, to the last chapter in the book of Job, and
he said this, I've heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, wherefore
now I see thee, wherefore I hate myself. I repent in dust and
ash. You see, those sweet promises
of the Gospel bring us to the bitterness and the reality of
the conviction of sin. If there's no conviction of sin,
there's no conversion, is there? Not at all. I'll give you another
example of Daniel, Daniel chapter 10. You read that, and Daniel
received that revelation of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when he saw the glory of the revealed, and revealed glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, my comeliness, my beauty,
my vigor, It turned into corruption and I retained no strength. Bitterness of conviction. Now
this is a blessed thing. The sweet promises of the gospel
bring to us in our experience the bitterness of conviction
of sin that we sinned against God, that we're guilty before
God. You'll never seek mercy unless
God makes you miserable because of your sin. You'll never seek
the Redeemer unless you know that you are totally ruined in
your sin, dead in trespasses and in sin. You see, as I've
said to you many times, there has to be a stripping before
there's a clothing. There has to be a wounding before
there's a healing. And the good news of the Gospel
is, He denied them of a broken heart, save as such as be of
a contrite spirit. Bitterness, I believe, can also
be rendered as the bitterness of persecution. I took a little
book out of the angel's hand and ate it up, and it was in
my mouth sweet as honey. As soon as I'd eaten it, it was
bitter in my belly. Number one, the conviction of
sin, but also there's the bitterness of persecution. Why is John,
as he gets this revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, Why is
he on this Alcatraz of his day? He was on that island banished
from society for the Word of God, for the testimony of the
Word of God, for those sweet and precious promises given unto
him, he was banished. Bitter persecution. You take
a public bold stand for the gospel of God's sovereign grace, that
He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and you'll get
persecuted from your most religious lost friends who are going about
to establish a righteousness of their own. Our Lord said,
if they hated Me, Remember this, that hates you too. I don't expect
lost religious people to think nice things about me. Brother,
I've had some very harsh things said about me. But that's OK. It just comes with it. You take
a public, bold stand for the gospel, and you will suffer persecution. The Apostle Paul, prime example
of that, went everywhere preaching the gospel. How many times was
he whipped, beaten, stoned, put in prison for preaching the gospel? Bitter persecution. Oh, the sweet
promises, though, they bring bitter persecution. Let's quit
with this. Verse 11. And he said to me,
as we read the Ezekiel, when he told Ezekiel, eat the Word
of God and then preach it. And this is what he said to John
in verse 11. He said to me, that is the Lord,
the angel of the covenant, the sovereign Lord of heaven and
earth. He said, you must preach again. You must preach again. You must prophesy again. before
or concerning many nations, people, tongues, and kings." John, your
ministry is not over. You go on preaching, preaching,
preaching the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You must prophesy
again. And John will do that very thing
for us through the rest of the chapters of the Revelation. We'll see more of God's decrees
out of the little book. The Lord has ordained His church
to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
We must preach again and again and again. Preach the gospel,
preach Christ and Him crucified. The Lord will honor and bless
the plain preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. As
Paul said, I'm determined to know nothing among you but Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Christ in His person who He is,
in Christ and His work, what He did. The Lord had promised
to give faith to God's elect through the preaching of the
gospel. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of the
Lord. In Isaiah, he said, the word of the Lord will not return
void. It will accomplish whereunto
God is pleased to send it. Of His own will begat He us with
the word of truth. Let's make much of the word.
Let's take it. Take the Word of God. And eat
it. Eat it up. Consume it. Meditate
upon it. It's a children's bread. Being
born again, not of a corruptible seed, but of an incorruptible
seed by the Word of God. Of His own will, He begot us
with the Word of truth. Take the Word of God. Eat it
up. Receive it. It's a sweet, sweet
blessing. Yeah, it'll bring bitterness.
He's nigh them of a broken heart. Save us such as be of a contrite
spirit.