Father, we open our hearts to you as
we open our Bibles.
Holy Spirit, giver of all truth, resident truth
teacher, we ask you to anoint us with
your love, your life, that we might see
what we could not otherwise see without you.
That we might feel what we would not
feel if you did not live within us.
And that we might be quickened by you,
Lord, as we study your truth so that
it quickens us.
God, let us feel every range of emotion
as we study this passage.
And when we go away from this time
together, may those feelings quickened by your Spirit
only grow.
Give us compassion, Lord, for those that don't
know you, real compassion.
And give us, Lord, a compassion and a
concern for those that have wandered from you.
And Lord, we love you so much and
we want to tell you that before we
study this time.
We don't ever want to take for granted
our relationship with you.
So pour out your love upon our hearts
as we study and worship you now.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
This message is entitled When God Delays No
Longer.
When God Delays No Longer.
It's Revelation chapter 10.
We're going to be looking at verses 1
through 11.
Someone as well said, as nothing is so
easy as to think, as nothing is so
easy as to think.
So nothing is more difficult than to think
well.
To think well.
It's very easy to think.
It is another thing entirely to think well.
And I want to encourage you, if ever
we should think well, it should be when
we think about God as it relates to
the things in front of us here.
Revelation is an amazing book.
The chapters we have been studying are unfolding
in a sequential telescopic way for us.
The seal judgments, the trumpet judgments and the
bowl judgments.
There are seven of each.
And each time when you get to the
sixth judgment, there is an interlude.
And then comes the seventh and out from
that comes the next series of judgments.
God does that to give people a break
and to give them hope and encouragement.
You must realize that during the time of
the Great Tribulation that we are studying, and
specifically we are into the last couple of
years on planet Earth right now as we
know it, that people who do not know
Jesus Christ, who were left behind when the
rapture came and took the church off the
earth, they will have Bibles.
They will have access to Bibles.
Believe me, there'll be a lot of them
left when the church is raptured out.
So Bibles will be available.
And to be going through these things that
are happening and to be able to read
them and to see them going on around
you and then come to an interlude like
we have in chapter 10 is going to
be the greatest encouragement to God's people, those
that come to know him in the midst
of all these judgments.
Why?
Because these truths are going to remind them
that he is sovereign, that he is in
absolute control and everything is going to happen
just as he said and that heaven is
waiting for them just as sure as all
the judgments that have come upon the earth
were waiting for those that didn't know Christ.
So this section, this interlude is tremendously encouraging
and comforting for those people and it's encouraging
and comforting to me to know that my
God will ultimately be victorious and I will
be victorious in him.
Now this chapter answers a big question and
that is when is God going to break
his silence?
When is he going to end his delay
and do away once and for all with
evil?
That is a question that inevitably comes up
in all of our lives.
You're going through your life, you get bombarded
with evil and finally you get to the
point where you don't think you can take
anymore and inevitably you say to the Lord,
when are you going to stop all this?
When are you going to do away with
sin that plagues me?
When are you going to do away with
this worldly system of evil around us?
And when are you going to once and
forever and for all get rid of the
devil?
Have you ever asked that question to God?
It is a heartfelt question and it's answered
here.
Here in this chapter we have obviously an
incredible angel.
He comes forth with an incredible act.
There is an incredible answer, an incredible announcement
and an incredible assignment all here with this
big, huge angel.
To begin with, let's look at this incredible
angel.
Let's talk about his identity for a minute.
Verse 1, I saw still another mighty angel
coming down from heaven.
Another mighty angel.
Now, we are seeking to be absolutely accurate
in our study of Revelation.
So we are studying and comparing Scripture with
Scripture.
There are many people who are afraid to
study Revelation.
They feel it cannot be understood.
Revelation can be understood.
Compare Scripture with Scripture.
Do your homework.
Meditate on it and you can understand it.
There are those in coming to this portion
of Revelation who say in verse 1, I
saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven,
clothed with a cloud, a rainbow on his
head, his face like the sun and feet
like pillars of fire.
They immediately jump in their mind and they
are thinking to chapter 1 and the blazing
glory of Jesus Christ.
You know, those kinds of knee-jerk instant
jumps in the Bible get us into trouble.
Oh, this is like this, so it's the
same thing.
Not necessarily.
And that is the case here.
This is not Jesus Christ.
As some would interpret this to be.
This is an angel.
You say, well, how do you know that?
Another mighty angel.
Well, I know that because in the Old
Testament, you read of the angel of the
Lord.
You read of the angel of the Lord
in the Old Testament.
When the angel of the Lord shows up
in the Old Testament, it is effectively a
Christophany.
In the New Testament, you do not read
of the angel of the Lord again, because
Christ has come.
Thus, in the New Testament, he is never
referred to as an angel.
So you come to this passage, he is
not referred to as an angel.
This is, by the way, not the book
of Revelations, because it's the revelation of Jesus
Christ.
In this book that is the revelation of
Jesus Christ, he is not spoken of as
an angel.
He is revealed as God, sovereign, almighty God.
Further, in the original language, when you read,
I saw still, and you read the word
another, in the original language, in the Greek
language, there's two words you find translated another
in the New Testament.
It's one of two words, alas or heteros.
When you have another of exactly the same
kind, it's alas.
If I say to you, my glasses are
ruined, can you get me another pair?
I need another of exactly the same kind
so I can see.
Alas.
When the word heteros is used, that is
another of a different kind.
So here, for this to be Jesus Christ
following on the heels of all the angelic
activity, be it holy or fallen, it would
have to be heteros.
To be Christ, it is in fact alas,
another of the same kind.
Another angel who is a created being, not
the uncreated God, our Christ.
So this is an angel, that's his identity.
He is a very high and lofty angel.
His origin is he comes down from heaven
instead of up out of hell.
Now, if you're there in the tribulation and
you're reading these things, that's very refreshing.
Because you've just come through reading about 200
million demons.
Frankly, it's refreshing for me just reading it.
After reading of the sting of the demons,
the infestation of demon possession, and all of
that, to read of another angel coming down
from heaven, oh, thank God, it's about time.
So this angel comes down from heaven, very
refreshing.
Now, what does he have in his hand?
He has a little book open in his
hand, a scroll.
It is the title deed to the earth.
It's the scroll Jesus took earlier in the
book.
He is coming to take control of the
earth.
It's the title deed to the earth.
He comes out of heaven in his apparel.
He's clothed with a cloud.
We read in verse one.
In the book of Revelation, clouds have to
do with judgment.
He's coming for judgment.
His feet are like pillars of fire.
That is effectively to say this angel's feet
and legs indicate the firm resolve with which
he will execute the day of the Lord
judgment.
Pillar of fire, his feet, his legs.
There is a rainbow about his head.
Because God throughout Revelation manifests his mercy in
the midst of judgment.
The rainbow is the sign of God's mercy.
Remember after the flood, God put the rainbow
in the sky as a sign of his
mercy.
Here is the rainbow about his head.
He is clothed with a cloud, which is
indicating judgment and the fire of his feet.
So you have the mercy of God in
the midst of judgment.
That is in fact what this chapter is,
this interview.
It is time to stop and contemplate.
If anybody is out there who could give
their life to Christ, this is the time
to do it.
So we take a close look at this
angel.
We understand he's from heaven.
We understand his apparel.
Let's look at his countenance.
I love this.
Revelation 10, 1.
Now, bear in mind, let me just back
up.
In chapter 9, it was all about demons.
There was torment by demons.
There was death by demons.
It's all about demons.
It's all dark.
It's all ugly and horrifying.
How refreshing to come to this countenance of
this angel.
It says in verse 1, his face was
like the sun.
Don't just dismiss that.
Oh, his bright face.
Move on.
No.
His face was like the sun.
What is the sun like?
The sun is wonderful, isn't it?
Especially after winter.
The sun is wonderful.
You get on a jet flight to a
tropical island.
You wake up in the morning.
The sun is coming through your window.
It warms you.
Oh, my.
You go out in the unpolluted skies.
They're blue.
And there is the sun.
The sun is wonderful, isn't it?
And it's bright in an unpolluted sky.
The sun, one sun, lights up this whole
earth, doesn't it?
Makes daytime out of nighttime.
Pretty bright, isn't it?
OK.
Here is an angel.
And his face is as bright as the
sun.
That means when he shows up, everywhere on
earth is daylight all of a sudden.
All the way around the earth.
His glory is so bright that it lights
up the whole world.
Now, think about this.
This is still a created being, still an
angel.
This is not Jesus Christ.
Now, think of this.
And this is revealed to mankind.
The Bible says God dwells in an unapproachable
light.
No man can see him at any time
in this flesh and live.
So even this light is filtered with this
angel.
But to see this kind of brightness and
glory, and this is an angel, just stop
and contemplate how bright and glorious the face
of Jesus Christ is going to be when
we get to heaven.
We are told in Revelation that in the
new heaven, the new earth, and the new
Jerusalem, that Christ is the light that lights
that whole world we'll live in.
The brightness of his glory.
We will gaze upon it forever.
And that glory is going to get into
us.
For this light affliction that we go through
here, the trials, this light affliction, Paul said,
is working for me an eternal weight of
what?
Glory.
The glory of Christ.
When you lay in the sun on a
nice warm day, and it sort of soaks
into you and you feel all yummy, just
imagine how you're going to be with the
glory of Christ soaking into you in heaven.
Oh my.
Take yummy and sanctify it by infinity and
you might get it.
Okay.
So this incredible angel and he comes with
this incredible act in a gigantic way.
He shows that God is taking absolute control
of the earth.
I say gigantic because he's gigantic.
Look at Revelation 10, too.
He said his right foot on the sea
and his left foot on the land.
And he cried with a loud voice is
when a lion roars.
He is huge.
He's huge.
There's something amazing about angels.
They seem to have this zoom control that
they can use when they are here, when
they're interacting.
I mean, he's huge.
He has his foot on the sea and
on the land.
He's gigantic.
And he has his book.
So he's huge.
And he is bright.
He's coming to say God's taking it all
back.
Incredible act standing as he does over towering
over the earth.
Then comes his incredible answer.
Verse four.
God thunders out from heaven.
Now, when the seven thunders uttered their voices,
when the angel cries with a loud voice,
it thunders.
Verse three, then verse four.
When the seven thunders uttered their voices, I
was about to write and I heard a
voice from heaven saying to me this incredible
answer.
Don't write it.
Seal up the things which the seven thunders
uttered.
Do not write them.
God tells John not to write this part
down.
Whatever is in here, he doesn't want anybody
to know until the time when it actually
comes.
But John heard it.
Isn't that amazing?
He can't write it down.
He can't share it.
He can't pass it on.
But he heard it.
You know, as I see John standing there
bathed in the glory of this shining angel,
as I see him hearing the voice of
God and hearing these thunders.
I can't help but think that, you know,
when John got in that boat and they
took him over from near Ephesus there over
to the island of Patmos.
It had to be a bad voyage.
He was old.
It was near 100.
The end of a long life.
He'd seen a lot of things, a lot
of persecution.
He had gone a long way from the
Last Supper when he laid his head on
the chest of Jesus.
He'd lived a long life, decades, decades of
preaching Christ.
He'd seen persecution.
He'd seen many of the churches fall away.
Many people backslide, so on.
And then he's taken to this island.
I know he was he had to be
depressed.
But, you know, something as I look at
all of this and John is interacting with
it.
This is real.
He's actually interacting with it.
God is talking to him and we're going
to see him interact with the angel in
the book in a minute.
This is real.
God effectively turned Patmos.
Into heaven.
On Earth for John.
That's something.
And what made it heaven on Earth.
Was not isolated to John.
It was deep interaction with the living, risen
Christ.
And deep interaction with his word.
And though we are not going to be
given these kinds of visions and everything else.
We can still interact with the risen, glorious
Christ and his word.
When we worship the Lord and we're just.
Our hearts are fixed on him.
I can sing of your love forever and
the spirit is filling you.
That's interaction with our Christ.
The warmth of God's love flooding your soul.
The Holy Spirit filling you when you study
the word and it's alive to you and
you keep stopping going.
Wow.
You read on a little bit.
Wow.
You read on a little bit.
Wow.
You know, at that point, it doesn't matter
what is going on in your life around
you.
It is as the days of heaven on
Earth to quote an Old Testament passage.
And it's real.
It's real.
Thank God.
So here is John in the middle of
all of this.
This incredible answer.
Don't write it down, but he got to
experience it.
Then comes an incredible announcement.
We see the angel, the act, the answer.
We come to the announcement.
This angel swears that God is going to
sovereignly end his silence and delay.
Look at verse five.
The angel whom I saw standing on the
sea and on the land raised up his
hand to heaven.
And he swore by him who lives forever
and ever.
Somebody might be thinking, wait, the Bible says,
swear not.
Well, that is given to sinful.
That's a command given to sinful human beings
who swear and lie all the time.
This is an angel who does the will
of God perfectly as it is in heaven.
He is not taking the name of the
Lord to make us believe him.
He is vowing for God that God is
about to do without fail what he says
he's going to do.
He's going to judge.
He's going to take back the earth.
He's going to judge Satan, sin and sinful
man.
He swore by him who lives forever and
ever, who created heaven, things in it, the
earth and the sea.
What?
That there should be delay no longer.
This is the final announcement, the ultimate announcement
that God is going to delay no longer.
There is a fixed end to evil.
Look at verse seven.
In the days of the sounding of the
seventh angel.
When he is about to sound, the mystery
of God would be finished.
Then this as he declared it to the
prophets.
As he declared it to the prophets, his
servants, the prophets.
So all of what we see in revelation
was in one form or another revealed to
the prophets.
And yet you remember that sometimes the prophets
would receive the vision and they would write
down the word of the Lord and they
wouldn't even understand it.
Peter says that concerning the prophets.
Daniel and Daniel chapter eight, verse twenty six
and twenty seven was given a vision and
God told him seal up the vision.
Don't write it down.
It refers to many days in the future.
Daniel fainted after he got that vision.
That's how powerful it was.
He fell over and fainted.
Then when he came to, he was sick
for days.
And afterward, he said he arose and went
about the king's business, but he was astonished
by the vision.
It so deeply moved him.
Well, here God has now come to the
point where the mysteries that were given to
Daniel and Ezekiel and other prophets in the
Old Testament that even they didn't understand.
Now it was speaking of this time.
It will be finished.
I need to know.
I'll tell you, the more I serve the
Lord.
The more I want my life to make
a difference.
The more I understand what it means to
pick up my cross, deny myself and follow
Jesus Christ.
I need to know that there is a
fixed end to evil.
The more I look at the Bible and
I see a holy God who says, Be
holy as I am holy.
And I find myself as Paul, the apostle
in Romans 7, saying the good that I
would do, I don't.
And the evil that I don't want to
do, I find myself doing.
The longer I live through those struggles.
The more deeply I understand that the pathway
to holiness is paved with a sense of
my own wretchedness.
The more I draw sweetness from verse six
and seven and chapter 10, there is a
fixed end to evil.
And it's announced right here.
It is coming.
And I draw strength from that to continue
on.
Second Peter 311 says, Therefore, seeing all these
things will be dissolved.
What manner of persons are you to be
in all holy conduct and godliness?
Knowing there's an end.
I have that fixed hope that beyond the
end of evil is the beginning of eternity
of righteousness with God.
What manner of person ought I to be?
How about this?
I can be strengthened to be that manner
of person by that truth.
That's the truth that makes you free.
It's when you're thinking, you know, this is
never going to end.
God's never going to do anything about the
devil.
And the devil comes to you and says,
God's never going to do anything about the
devil.
Of course, he says that.
You know, you fall into sin.
He's behind you shoving.
Oh, look how God let you fall.
And he's shoving.
He's never going to help you.
It's always going to be like this.
You smash your thumb with a hammer, pounding
a nail and you miss.
You smash your thumb.
It gets a pulse.
You know, that pulse.
It seems as big as the moon as
you're walking around.
You feel everyone staring at it.
Boom, boom.
Doesn't it feel like, you know, I've always
had this thing and it's never going to
go away.
Or you get a pimple on your nose
underneath in the end and your nose turns
red and swells up and no one can
really see the pimple because it's inside.
You haven't had that happen.
Wait till it does.
Boom, boom.
It feels like it's never going to go
away.
Well, it's even worse with sin and the
devil.
And he says, you know, this is never
going to go away.
Sorry.
Slam the door in the devil's face right
now.
Verse six and seven.
There is a fixed in the mystery of
God will be finished.
There will be delay no longer.
It is coming.
Now, this angel then swears that God is
going to sovereignly end all of this evil
and sin and put an end to Satan.
When we talk about God sovereignly doing something.
What does it mean?
If I say to you, what is the
sovereignty of God?
What is it?
I venture to say you have questions about
the sovereignty of God.
You may bandy about the term.
But you see, in the book of Revelation,
we see so much of the sovereignty of
God.
I wanted to stop right here, digress and
talk about it for a few minutes.
So it's clear in our minds, because the
more you understand the sovereignty of God, the
bigger your God becomes, the more you understand
he's in control.
This is right here.
Then, you know, he's in control of your
life.
And I will never leave you or forsake
you.
Jesus said it has a big impact on
your life.
What is the sovereignty of God?
Let's define it.
You could say that it means that God
is the most high lord of heaven and
earth.
That's the short answer.
Anything good as a short answer and a
long answer.
Most high lord of heaven and earth.
In other words, he is subject to no
one.
He is influenced by no one.
He is absolutely independent.
God does as he pleases.
He does only as he pleases.
He does always as he pleases.
He's sovereign.
So that I would venture to say you
basically believe one or two things.
You believe maybe like this.
We are the result of a fatalistic philosophy
which says we are part of an impersonal
system that is set in motion that cannot
be changed and cannot be altered.
Do you think like that?
Do you believe like that?
Oh, I believe God created everything, but then
he kind of let it go.
He wound up the watch and got it
ticking and gave it to me.
He dealt the cards and gave me his
hand and it's up to me to play
them right.
That's what the deists believe.
You believe that?
Or do you believe that you and I
are part of a sovereign, personal, redemptive plan
for creation and for the whole world?
That's what I believe.
And God is working that plan.
And I see it unfolded in the most
glorious detail in Revelation.
He's sovereign.
Isaiah 46, 10.
My counsel shall stand and I will do
all my pleasure.
We need to hear these things.
We need to read them.
God is sovereign.
It's seen graphically in Revelation.
He's sovereign over nature.
Three years.
One third.
You have all these numbers that are exact
and precise because these aren't random acts of
nature going wild.
And you have earthquakes and all these other
things.
God has a limit on all of it.
He's in control of nature.
In the book of Revelation, we find he's
in control of angels.
Here's an angel we just looked at.
He's in control of Satan.
In chapter 9, we saw the bottomless pit
open and the demons that were chained in
there from the time of Noah were released.
Why were they chained?
Because God is sovereign over Satan.
The ones that are loose and at large,
he's sovereign over them too.
Sometimes you look at the thing with the
devil and temptation and all of that and
you start to wonder, well, how could he
be sovereign if there's still so much wickedness
and suffering in the world?
You get the idea that you look at
all that Satan does and you get the
idea that God is sort of trying to
catch him.
You know, he'll put an end to the
devil if he can only catch him.
He's fast.
You know, you kind of get this picture
of a frenzied God with frenzied holy angels
running all over the cosmos and the universe
is trying to catch Satan and his demons,
but they're fast, just like in the movies.
You know, the whole movie, the bad guys
are always winning.
And then at the very end, the good
guys just barely eke it out, you know.
And then Darth Vader gets away and there's
going to be a sequel.
You know, somehow the evil never goes away.
Well, don't have a picture of God in
a frenzied state with the holy angels chasing
the devil all over the universe.
Know this.
The Bible says in Revelation that Satan will
be bound for a thousand years in the
millennium because God is in control of him.
The Bible says that in the end, he's
going to throw him into the lake of
fire where he will meet his doom for
all eternity.
God is in control of him.
And if he's in control of them, why
does he let him do what he does?
Because he is used by God to deal
with men.
Righteous and unrighteous.
Job was righteous, unrighteous.
First Corinthians five, five.
There was that individual in the Corinthian church
who was immoral, an immoral relationship with his
stepmother.
Paul says, I can't believe you let this
go on.
He says, I'm telling you right now, put
him outside the church and turn him over.
It says First Corinthians five, five.
Deliver such a one to Satan for the
destruction of the flesh that the spirit may
be saved in the day of the Lord
Jesus.
Is Paul saying put him outside the church
so the devil can kill him?
Kill his body and his soul will be
saved?
No, we find in Second Corinthians the man
repented.
They put him outside the umbrella of God's
protective love and the church in the realm
where the devil is active.
And he got buffeted by the enemy.
His flesh got banged around and it brought
him to repentance.
He sorrowed unto godly repentance.
So God uses the devil with men.
When he is done.
He will finish it.
And he will put the devil in the
lake of fire.
He's in control of him all the time.
So you say, but why all this suffering?
It's going to end versus six and seven.
Tell us that.
Why all the suffering now?
It's bound up in the purposes of God.
Romans 8, 28.
All things work together for good in general.
No.
To them, for them who are the called
of God.
According to his.
What?
Purpose.
That does away with that whole permissive will
thing.
Man made that up.
God has a perfect will for you.
All things work together for the good for
those that love God and are the called
according to his purpose.
Why?
Romans 8, 29 says that you might be
conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.
That is why all things work together for
the good.
So just as Adam and Eve in the
garden had a choice between light and darkness.
So do we.
And the Lord uses the devil and the
demons of darkness toward that end.
And he's going to use them in revelation
because he's not done yet to judge the
entire world.
And when he's done, they'll be put away
in a lake of fire forever.
He's sovereign over nature, angels, Satan, men, everything.
Everything.
Now, if that's true.
Then somebody thinking is going to ask the
question.
Wait, if he's in control of everything.
Which he is.
Then how can I have free will?
As a human being.
How can I have free will if he's
in control and he's absolutely sovereign?
I'll tell you why.
Because God in his absolute sovereignty willed that
you could have freedom of choice.
God in his absolute sovereignty willed that you
could have freedom of choice.
Follow this.
He did not decide the choices you will
make.
He decided you could make choices.
He did not decide the choices you will
make.
He decided that you have the freedom to
make choices.
What man does with that freedom is he
repeatedly follows evil and Satan.
Because he doesn't want to submit to and
serve a holy God, a sovereign God.
Now.
If he then sovereignly gave me the freedom
to make choice.
How far does that freedom go?
It is a limited freedom.
God has declared the outcome of the choices
because everything is going to end up at
the end of his plan of redemption.
Exactly where he wants it with every single
thing in place.
Right?
None of his decrees will be overthrown.
He has decreed there will be an end.
Verses 6 and 7.
And he will, and he's spoken of it,
create a new heaven and a new earth.
That will happen right on time, exactly as
he says.
All right.
Then what about man along the way, making
all of his choices?
How can we, how can we arrive right
on time with God doing it right his
way when man is making his choices along
the way?
Because God allows man a certain amount of
freedom.
Let me give you an analogy from A
.W. Tozer.
An ocean liner leaves New York bound for
Liverpool.
Its destination has been determined by proper authorities.
Nothing can change that.
This, he says, is at least a faint
picture of sovereignty.
But let's go further.
On board the liner, there are several scores
of passengers.
These are not in chains.
Neither are their activities determined by decree, but
rather they are completely free to move about
as they will.
They eat, they sleep, they play, they lounge
about on the deck, they read, they talk,
all together as they please.
But all the while, the great liner is
moving steadily toward the predetermined port.
Both freedom and sovereignty are present here, and
they do not contradict each other.
They don't contradict each other.
So it is with man's freedom and with
the sovereignty of God.
The mighty liner of God's sovereign design keeps
its steady course over the sea of history.
Tozer goes on to say, God moves, so
good, God moves undisturbed.
Unhindered.
Toward the fulfillment of those eternal purposes which
he purposed in Jesus Christ before the world
began.
We do not know all that is included
in those purposes, but enough has been disclosed
to furnish us with a broad outline of
things to come and give us good hope
and firm assurance of future well being.
End quote.
And that's exactly where we are in Revelation
10, 6 and 7.
He will put an end to all things
right on time as he sees fit according
to his plan.
In the meantime, we wake up, we make
our choices, you know, I don't know, maybe
I'll seek the Lord today, maybe I won't.
I'm late, I can't read my Bible now,
but I have time to stop at Starbucks,
you know.
And so our life goes, we make our
choices, but all the while we are moving
inexorably toward the end as God has designed
it.
In other words, he's woven it all together
in his great master plan.
I love my God.
He is so huge.
And everything he does, don't ever forget it.
God is love.
So everything he does in his sovereignty is
driven ultimately by infinite.
Gracious love.
This is my God.
So the angel swears by him who lives
forever and ever that the end is coming,
that he would delay no longer the great
announcement.
Finally, we come to this incredible assignment.
Verse 8 through 11.
We have the interaction of John with this
vision.
This is so tremendous.
I'll tell you one thing.
When it came time for John to die,
he didn't die with doubts.
He had interacted with heaven already.
Verse 8.
The voice which I heard from heaven spoke
to me again and said, Go, take the
little book which is open in the hand
of the angel who stands on the sea
and the earth.
Can't you see, John?
Whoa, that don't look like no little book
to me.
Take the little book.
How am I going to do this?
So I went to the angel and I
said to him, hey, give me the little
book.
Oh, the jolly white angel.
So I said to him, give me the
little.
I'm sorry.
You know, my imagination.
I hope you have one, too.
He said, give me the little book.
The little book.
Hello.
He's huge.
Can you imagine how big the book is?
Give me the little book.
And he said to me, here, take it
and eat it.
Take control.
All right, John, here's the book.
It's tablet size.
Go ahead and swallow it.
He had to zoom down to John's size
and make the book small enough that when
was the last time you ate a book?
You know, paper is kind of dry.
So he had to make it small enough
that he could eat it.
God's amazing.
Sure, John was excited.
Verse nine.
So the angel said, take it.
It will be.
Make your stomach bitter, but it'll be sweet
in your mouth.
God did the same thing with Ezekiel in
chapter two and three.
Back in the Old Testament.
Same thing exactly.
Use the same terminology.
You know what it is?
It's all the good things we've read in
Revelation.
Chapter four, heaven, the glory of God's throne,
the rainbow colors, all the worship, all the
singing, all the glory.
Everything in the book of Revelation is so
sweet.
It's in that book.
It's so sweet to his mouth.
And all the judgments that are coming that
he's seen already and that will come because
he says you're going to have to prophesy
some more.
There's some more coming.
That is what's bitter in his stomach.
It makes him sick to his stomach.
Just as Daniel saw the visions, fainted, woke
up sick to his stomach.
Probably the same thing you saw.
So here is John, on the one hand,
is so sweet.
The things of the Lord that are given
to him, on the other hand, so bitter.
I'll tell you something.
I think that all of us need a
much bigger dose of what John got that
day.
I need to rejoice in the sweetness of
the truth of God and Jesus Christ and
the hope that is there for me.
And I need to have that bitter feeling
in my heart that there's people I know
and love and they do not know and
love my savior.
And they so desperately need him.
I need a compassion of bitterness in my
own heart where I feel it.
I feel it.
These people need Jesus and I can go
and give him to them.
It doesn't mean that everybody comes to the
Lord right overnight or instantly.
Hey, when those people came to me and
just sat and smiled at me and talked
to me, I saw what they had.
And finally, I came to believe it was
Jesus Christ risen from the dead, living in
them.
And when I was convinced he was real
and he really did live in their hearts
and he was shining through them to me,
I could not resist.
My heart was melted.
My chains fell off.
My heart was free.
I arose, went forth and followed thee.
And now there's only one thing left.
Verse 11.
He said to me, you must prophesy again
about many people's nation, tongues and kings.
You know, Jesus in the Gospel of John.
He said, I must work the works of
him who sent me as long as I
am in the world with you.
And he did, didn't he?
Jesus Christ had one life, the will of
the Father.
He died, he rose again, he went back
to heaven, he is on the right hand
of the Father interceding for you and for
me now.
And I must work the works of him
who sent me while I am in the
world.
God says to John, you must finish.
God would say to you, you must finish.
There's more to do before it's over.
Be about the Master's business.
The other day I was driving down the
road and I thought, I live in Chicagoland.
Wonder of wonders, your life can change in
a day as a Christian.
I live in Chicagoland.
And I was driving along and I said,
Lord, I just thank you so much for
bringing me here because what you're doing is
so fresh.
It's so real.
It's so led of your spirit.
This is not anything man is doing, something
you are doing.
And I love it so much.
And we've only just begun.
And I said, Father, is this the road
home?
Is this my last charge, my last assignment?
Living streams?
He said, if that be the case, it's
okay with me.
Because I must finish what he sent me
to do.
We must.
His commandments are not grievous.
Because our God is love.
In his way, all of his paths are
peace.
So how do you know what God wants
you to do?
You follow the peace in your heart.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you so much for loving us
as you do.
And thank you, Lord, there is a fixed
place in heaven for each one of us
in the Father's house.
And when our time comes, we will go
there to be in the heavenly bliss with
you forever.
In the meantime, Father, give us the strength
and the grace to finish our race.
And we will give you all the glory.
For we ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.