We'll have to see how my voice holds up this evening. If I start coughing then we may have to curtail the message. We're turning this evening at least for a text to Revelation chapter 10 and verse 10 or verse 9. Revelation chapter 10 and verse 9. 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. And that last verse gives to us the key to this little book. What does it represent? when it represents the gospel witness of the church. John, the representative of the church, takes this book. It is such a sweet message, which brings satisfaction and pleasure to those that receive it, but for all that receive it, it will lead to bitterness, sorrow, the frown of the world, persecution. I was speaking to someone earlier today who in their workplace openly acknowledged that he was a Christian but as a result he knew the frown of all his work colleagues. He had to stand against all sorts of sinful things and it was not easy. and neither will it be for us if we are faithful witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I want to go back to chapter 9 initially, but let's look at the overview of chapters 9, 10, and 11. Well, if we include chapter 8, this forms the scene, the vision that John sees of the seven trumpets, trumpets of alarm and of judgment, the first four trumpets affected physical things. But as chapter 9 begins the fifth angel sounds and it's clear that the final three trumpets are to fall upon man and bring judgments which are of a more spiritual nature. They are the woes which verse 13 in chapter 8 says are far worse than those that have gone before. Now in chapter 9 the fifth trumpet is sounded and John sees this awful vision. The bottomless pit is unlocked, smoke arises and then out of the smoke these fearful locusts But they're no ordinary locusts. The description is of some creature which is unrecognizable from a scientific point of view. Why this lavish language? Why these fearsome creatures and so on in these various visions in the Book of Revelation? Well, we've said before that these things are to convey to our minds something of the awesome nature of God's judgments. We may ask, well, why is the book of Revelation given to us in such hidden language? Why are the messages in symbolic language? Do you remember when the Lord Jesus Christ was asked, why do you speak to the people in parables? And he gave a rather strange answer, some may think, because he said that it was both to reveal and to conceal. God's purpose is to hide his designs and his purposes from the wise and prudent whilst revealing them unto babes. And so in one sense, revelation conceals whilst it reveals. To those who love the Lord, who are taught by the Spirit, then we may not understand every detail, but we can gain the sense. But often these things are concealed from the proud and the ignorant and the worldly mind. So what do we have here? We touched on this at the end of last week. locusts. Chapter 9 verse 3. Where do we read of locusts? At the beginning of the Old Testament, the plagues of Egypt, the judgment of God upon Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt. This is a judgment. But the locusts here do not hurt the green grass. Look at verse 4. Neither any green thing. These locusts are going to hurt people. That tells us that this is symbolic language. Anyone who says well I prefer to try at least to understand revelation and take it literally. They will struggle here because here are locusts that eat people or hurt people and the description of them is superlative. It's far away above what you would expect of ordinary locusts. I said last week that this conveys those who will do spiritual harm. We know that the leader of these locusts, verse 11, is Apollyon or in the Hebrew tongue Abaddon. Both of these names mean the destroyer. We're left in no doubt. This is Satan. He is the destroyer of men. If he could he would be the destroyer of the saints. And he is the leader of these figurative locusts. Look at the language that describes them. They're horses. They are Verse 7 the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared on to battle. They were combative. They were ready for a fight. What we have here is a depiction of Satan's agenda to confuse and to mislead and to ruin men people by falsehood. and by false religion and false ideas. We read in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 9 these words. You may like to turn to them. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Despair, disillusionment, deception, moral confusion, spiritual confusion, false philosophy. We see all of those things in the world. Where do they come from? They're the judgment of God in part upon a sinful and Christ rejecting world. When a nation rejects God, God may give that nation up to strong delusion. Why do we see all false religions in the world? Why do we see the twisted moral agenda of our own society? And I touched on this last week. Why do people now call evil good and good evil? Well, it's because Satan is at work spoiling men's minds, blurring their perspectives, leading them in a way that will bring sorrow. and grief and pain, not necessarily physical pain, but mental and spiritual despair. So firstly, if we think of the anti-God agenda, if you like, of our own day, and that's certainly, I think, included here in the picture. Satan is behind it. The locusts that harm men, They are like unto horses, combative. And some of the voices that promote the twisted morals of our society and the atheistic agenda, they're so combative. They're like horses ready for battle. They want to force their agenda and press people into their particular way of thinking. They had on their heads crowns, not of gold, but like gold, giving the impression of victory. We're going to win these moral arguments. We're going to force through the abortion movement. We're going to impose these things upon the new generation. They had faces like the faces of men, determination. They had hair as the hair of women, so appealing, so attractive. Believe these things, yield to them, follow and accept that this is the new modern morality. If you do, it will lead to pleasure and enjoyment and freedom. Probably that's the sense here. Their teeth were as the teeth of lions, destructive, breastplates of iron. They give the impression of invincibility. In John's day, there was, of course, all the paganism of Rome, which had deceived the multitudes of the Roman Empire. But often it was an appealing religion, but at the same time, it led to such moral and spiritual confusion. And I'm just applying it today to our to our own particular amoral society. Both are included. Satan brings, he is the cause of all these ills in society. But we must move on. Look at this. Verse 12. One woe is past, and behold, there come two woes more hereafter. Verse 13, the sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God. This is telling. When this trumpet sounds, it is going to depict war. War is a judgment of God upon man. But note the source. The sixth angel sounds A voice comes from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God. God gives license to the wars that are going to be described. This verse is not making God the author of war. He's not the author of evil but he may permit it and he may harness it for his own just ends. Verse 14. The sixth angel sounded and is told, loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. This is confusing language when we first read it. Euphrates was associated with both Assyria and the Babylonian Empire. That's where the river was. It's associated with the great warring armies of the Old Testament prophetic era. The Assyrians, Sennacherib, Rabshake, Babylonians, Nebuchadnezzar, and so on. And this is a picture of the forces of warmongers being unleashed or let loose. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour a day a month and a year. I'm not going to suggest the significance of that time period. It's clearly a specific and allotted time period. But John then sees the number of the army 200 million the vast forces of warfare which God is going to appoint and permit as acts of mini judgment upon the world of men. Now we've already noted that sometimes even believers are caught up in warfare and it may bring the end to their life but not to their happiness. They will be with Christ which is far better. But the warfare here look look at verse 17 The horses have heads like lions. It speaks of fire and brimstone, smoke. This is clearly a picture of military power and the harm and the destruction that it unleashes. Why do wars happen? Well, it's easy to say because there are wicked men. who gather armies, who build awful weapons and then commission them, because there is hatred and disagreement, fighting over territory and ideologies. Yes, all these things are true. But Revelation tells us that God permits war as a judgment upon the world of fallen and Christ-rejecting men. That's why wars happen. He may permit it for the sanctifying of his people or for the bringing them home to glory. But ultimately war is appointed by God as a warning and as a judgment to a wicked world. And we're told here verses 20 and 21 really the purpose. The rest of men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, idols, that they should repent of their murders and sorceries. You could say the first table of God's law and the second table of God's law are noted here. Even despite the heartache that these judgments bring, and they are only mini judgments, they're not the final judgment, they're warning notes, they're trumpets of alarm that sound throughout the era. For the most part, men still hold out against God. They do not say, why are these things happening? Why are there catastrophes at sea? Catastrophes in the rivers? Why are there all these miserable ideas that we embrace to our own folly? Why does war happen? There's a voice in it from God, but men ignore the voice. John, that's the world you're going to be living in. So we come to chapter 10. Do you remember when we looked at the vision of the seals after the sixth seal was opened there was an interlude and in that interlude before the seventh seal is opened the saints receive the seal of God in their forehead. They are marked lest the trumpets of judgment should harm them. So here before The seventh trumpet sounds which brings the end of the world. There's an interlude and John sees something else. So that's really what chapter 10 and the first part of chapter 11 sets before us. Verse 1 in chapter 10, I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven clothed with a cloud and a rainbow was upon his head. We know from this description, his face like the sun, his feet as pillars of fire, that this is an angel, if it is an angel, loyal to Christ. This is the description of Christ himself in chapter one. And so this is one of God's agents. And he had in his hand a little book open. This is the book which reveals God's mystery. If you look down a little further you will see in verse 7 it speaks of the mystery of God. Not something mysterious but something which was concealed which God and his sovereign purposes has seen fit to reveal. It's the everlasting gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that we should be the means for the gathering in of God's people from Jews and Gentiles into the safety of his kingdom and salvation. And so, initially, this mighty angel, in verses two and three, that cries with a loud voice, we can't look at every detail here, sets forth certain things. And in verse four, there were seven thunders, which John heard, and he was about to write down what he heard, and he is told, by a voice from heaven, seal up those things, which the seven thunders uttered. and write them not. Thunder suggests the voice of God, the purposes of God. And Hendrickson suggests, and I have no reason to argue with his suggestion here, that these thunders represent seven further purposes or forces of God which he uses to bring about his purposes that John is not permitted to reveal. In other words, John, you've seen certain things that God uses to hasten his purposes. He uses wars. He even uses satanic deception. He uses catastrophes. He uses the preaching of the gospel, as we shall see, but there are other agents and powers that God has at his disposal and they are irresistible like the authoritative voice that thunders from heaven and they will ultimately bring all God's purposes to his own decreed end. But John you're to keep those things sealed. Man is not permitted even the saints are not permitted to learn all these things. But come to verse five. The angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven and swear by him that liveth forever and ever who created heaven and earth, the sea. End of verse six, that there should be time no longer. Some translate that phrase, no more delay. The angel that holds the book is now looking forward to the sounding of the seventh trumpet. The time for gospel preaching is about to draw to a close. The time for the ingathering of the lost is about to end. No more delay, no more time. But, verse seven, in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. The time is coming, friends, says the scripture here, when that gospel door will be shut, when the message of the prophets, the apostles, the gospel preachers, that will come to the end as the seventh angel begins to sound. But the seventh angel hasn't sounded yet. And John is going to see in these following verses a glimpse of what the church is to be doing before that seventh angel sounds. It will be in a world where these other trumpets are already sounding. There will be war. There will be moral and spiritual confusion. There will be false religion. There will be mighty and fearful catastrophes. All those things that the first six trumpets have set before us. But what is the church to be doing in the midst of that world of many judgments? What John is told here, verse 8, go and take the little book. which is open in the hand of the angel, which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. This heavenly being that to him the ocean is but the width of a step. He's to take the little book, but when he takes it, he's told it's going to be bitter. Well, I already explained these things a little earlier. The little book, is the gospel of the mystery of God. It is the testimony of Jesus Christ and salvation. It speaks of eternal life. It speaks of reconciliation with God. It speaks of hope beyond the grave. It speaks of a God of all comfort, a God who will be a shepherd to his people. It speaks of Christ who will be the atonement for our sin. It speaks of his resurrection, his triumph over sin and death and the grave. It speaks of his return. No wonder John can say here, when I ate it, it was in my mouth as sweet as honey. It's figurative language, but the gospel to those who believe it and who experience its power in their life. It is a sweet message. But as John says here, and as I said in my introduction, it speaks, but it brings to those who embrace it, bitterness too. Because the world will hate us for that which we declare. And so when John's taken this book, angel said in effect giving to him an understanding of what this symbolic vision sets forth you must go and prophesy again before many people and nations and tongues the seventh angel hasn't yet sounded we're not to see these things chronologically by the way they are all going along at the same time. The six trumpets are not one after the other. They are all describing events that will take place in that same time period. Now we come to chapter 11 and I want to look at two or three verses here before we draw to conclusion. I think that the two witnesses is something we'll have to leave for another week but there are some time periods here which may seem perplexing. In chapter 11 verse 2 John reads of the Gentiles trampling underfoot the holy city forty two months. Then in verse three the witnesses shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty or three score days. If you work it out the forty two months the twelve hundred and sixty days If you say a month is 30 days it's the same period of time but described in two different ways. If we come to chapter 12 and verse 6 we'll understand what this time period represents. We may not understand why this number is used but we can see what it represents. So this is the next vision. The woman is clearly the church. She gives birth to the man-child, Christ, the deliverer who will bruise Satan's head. But in verse 6, after The woman has given birth to the man-child, not literally of course. She flees to the wilderness, to a place prepared of God that they should feed her. That is the church, a thousand two hundred and three score days. I suggest to you that this period is the period of the church's persecuted era upon earth. From the time when Christ ascends to heaven, to his return, the church, like this woman in the wilderness, it is the church in the world. And in the book of Revelation, the time period here, it means the whole of that period of persecution. If you go to the end of chapter 12, verse 14, it's described in a different way. The time period is where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, probably three and a half years. is what is being quantified here, 42 months, 1260 days. Three different ways of describing the same period of time. And of course it's a figurative period. It's not that the church is only going to be on earth for three and a half years. But that's the way scripture here describes the whole era. Why is it described in these three different ways? When you think of a siege militarily in the in the old world of the Assyrians the Babylonians it was often counted in terms of months. The church is going to be persecuted for 42 months. The Gentiles are going to trample upon the holy city months but gospel work is a daily thing. Therefore the time period is described as 1260 days but it will also be a suffering period. Look here in chapter 11 and I'm sorry young folks here this evening I hope I'm not confusing you too much. I'm not meaning to. I'm just trying to suggest some thoughts to some very difficult passages. We see that the two witnesses here. described in verses 5 and 6 in chapter 11. Look at verse 6. Who does this remind you of? These witnesses have power to shut heaven, but it rained not in the days of their prophecy. Elijah. How long did it not rain in the days of Elijah? Three and a half years. For the whole of this time period, three and a half years, as it's viewed symbolically, the church has power over the world. Elijah had power over the nation of Israel. Ahab hated him. Does the world hate the church? When Elijah prayed, it brought misery upon Israel. It was designed to warn them that God was not well pleased with them. They didn't repent, not all of them. Jezebel, Ahab certainly didn't. But Elijah, the witness of God in Old Testament times, when he prayed, the heaven gave not rain, three and a half years, same time period. Who is Elijah in the New Testament? Are you John the Baptist you can say yeah. But Elijah. Is a spokesman for the truth. There's another witness referred to here verse 6 have power over waters to turn them to blood. To smite the earth with all plagues. Who's this witness. Moses. Did Pharaoh king of Egypt. Love the people of God? No. Did Pharaoh esteem or fear Moses? He feared him. The witnesses here, and we can't look at all the detail this evening, they're like Moses was to Egypt. They're like Elijah was to apostate Israel. The church like these two witnesses must carry the same baton. Isn't that what John's just been told? You must witness before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings. And as you witness, you will be treated like Elijah and Moses. The world will hate you, but you have power over the world by prayer. We saw that at the beginning of chapter eight. So this time period, And I cannot explain totally why it's 1260 days, but you can see that it's parallel with the three and a half years. It speaks of God's power being harnessed or being brought to bear upon men as a result of the prayers and witness of the church. Well, we must draw to a conclusion this evening. In some ways this is a remarkable passage of scripture. In other words, in other ways it is quite complicated. But the purpose of God is to show to his people and those who prayerfully reflect he is in control. Even the bad things that happen, God has harnessed them. He's behind them, he's called for them. in order to sound an alarm to an unrepentant world. But the people of God need not fear. Just as they were sealed in their foreheads in the vision of the seals, in this vision, they're protected. How do we know? First two verses in chapter 11, John is told, go and measure the temple and the altar And those that worship there, the inner court, the ones who are real worshipers, who are in union with their God. Measuring equals marking them off as gods. So as this chapter 11 progresses, we're going to see the solemn judgment of the world again. But the people of God need not fear. because they who are in the inner court, they're measured, they're known, and they belong to God himself. Well, may the Lord help us at least to glimpse some of the truth behind these chapters. Let's pray together. Oh Lord, we thank thee for thy holy word. We thank thee that even these passages which conceal rich doctrine from The minds of those who would scoff also reveal to us in a wonderfully reassuring way that the world in which we live is a world under the supreme authority of Jesus Christ and that those who are with him shall be safe whatever woes are unleashed and experienced by the world around us. We thank thee that if our lives are hid with Christ in God, then we are safe in time and for all eternity. Grant that that may be true of each and every one of us here. We ask for Christ's sake. Amen. We close with hymn 304. Day of judgment, day of wonders, Hear the trumpets, awful sound. 304.