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Revelation chapter 10, if you would turn there, where we look at this vision. We'll look at the whole chapter tonight. And the vision is going to focus on the descent of a strong angel who has an open book in his hand that John is called to take and eat and then prophesy to the nations. And really the meaning of the vision here is to call attention to the church's commission to feed upon God's word, to ingest God's word, to proclaim God's word even in the midst of the trials that we face in this world. Revelation chapter 10, beginning in verse one, the text says, I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud, and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little book which was open, and he placed his right foot on the sea and his left on the land. And he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. And when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices. When the seven peels of thunder had spoken, I was about to write, and I heard a voice from heaven saying, seal up the things which the seven peels of thunder have spoken and do not write them. And the angel, whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land, lifted up his right hand to heaven, and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, that there will be delay no longer. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as he preached to his servants, the prophets. Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me and saying, go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land. So I went to the angel telling him to give me the little book. And he said to me, take it and eat it. And it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey. I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it. And in my mouth it was sweet as honey. And when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. And they said to me, you must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings. Let's pray together. Our fathers, we come before you. We recognize that your word is a lamp to our feet. It is a light to our path. It gives us understanding that we would know your testimonies and that we would walk in them daily. And so Lord, as we see here, instruction to the church about how we are to live in a world that is full of the chaos and miseries and persecutions that we face. I pray, Father, that you would help us, help us to understand our commission, help us to take it seriously, and may you guide us and direct us by your word. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. When Hudson Taylor, who was the director for the China Inland Mission, would go and interview candidates for the mission field, On one occasion it was recorded that he met with various candidates for the mission field and he was wanting to determine their motives for Desiring to go into missions. So he asked them. Why do you want to go to a foreign country to be a missionary and one of them responded and said well it's because Christ has commissioned us to go into all the world and preach to every creature and And another said, I want to go because there are millions of people out there perishing without Christ. And then there's other various different views and opinions given. But Hudson Taylor stopped them all at some point and said, listen, all of those are very, very good answers. But the problem with those motives is that all of those motives will fail you in the time of testing. When trials come and you're facing possible death, just having a commandment to go preach the gospel or just being concerned about the souls of others isn't enough to cause you to push through and endure to the end. And he said, there's one motive that will sustain you in trial and in suffering, and that is the love of Christ. As we look at the book of Revelation, and we'll notice here in this book, in every section, what's being shown to us is how God is orchestrating history, and that the church is going to face and endure trials and tribulations, and yet it is the love of Christ that compels us. that motivates us to live and act in the way that God has called us to act in the midst of these trials. You see here, even in this text, John is instructed to eat a book. This little book is kind of the center of the chapter. There's a lot of things happening in the chapter, but that's really the center and the point of the chapter. It's sweet to his mouth, and yet it's bitter to his stomach. And we've seen here in the revelation the sweetness of God's promises to his people. that he does promise to get us through the difficulties and trials to bring us through the other end of them and yet we also see in the midst of that the sweetness of those promises the bitterness of the persecution and the trials in the suffering even the bitterness that we see in the sense of looking at the world as it's being judged by god and then finally will be judged by him for all of eternity And so as we think about this, what is it that keeps us from caving under the trials? What keeps us from allowing the sorrows to just put us off our goal and push us away into some other style of life? And really, it is the sweetness of the gospel truths that incline our hearts and motivate us to a profound and sincere love for God that will move us to act in the midst of these trials and sufferings. And really, that's the point. to know the price of our redemption, the sweetness of the gospel, to see what we deserve and yet know that God's love has been put upon us is truly sweet. And it's that sweetness that moves us past the bitterness that we often face in life. But the bitter comes with the sweet in this world. And so what we have in chapter 10 is an interlude. it's an interlude really between the sixth and the seventh trumpet we haven't gotten to the seventh trumpet yet we're reminded that although satan rages although we've seen in chapter nine the the demon horde that comes out of the bottomless pit we see this demonic army uh... in verses thirteen through twenty one and and the refusal of humanity to repent in the midst of this we're reminded that although Satan rages, Christ has conquered and he is ruling history in every way and that everything is actually going according to God's plan. And what our text does now is it reminds us of God's power, it reminds us that yes, the bitter comes with the sweet, and it reminds us of our commission to go out into all the world and proclaim that message that is both sweet but also bitter. So in the vision, there's three parts. There's no real reason I've divided it this way, other than that I think it's just the right divisions. You have a strong angel and a description of the strong angel. Secondly, you have the seven peals of thunder, and there's some interesting things that happen. There's some revelation that's sealed up there. But then the center of it all, as I said, is this little book. It appears in the beginning. And then because the seven peals of thunder, that revelation is sealed up and it doesn't get written down. Again, the little book becomes prominent as we find it again towards the end of the section. And then it focuses on John taking the book, eating the book. It's sweet to his mouth, bitter to his stomach. Now, throughout the revelation, John is using these interludes between the sixth and the seventh seal, here between the sixth and the seventh trumpet, in order to give us more insight into how the church ought to respond to the realities that we face in this world. As the demonic hordes, in our text here, are pouring out of the bottomless pit as a judgment of God upon sinful mankind, how should the church respond? I mean, what should we be doing? How should we even think about these things? And that's what the interlude is teaching us. The interludes here really are literary devices wherein the church is instructed concerning its role and its destiny during the final period of world history. And so it's very important now because as we see descriptions like we saw in chapter nine, now we're seeing our role in the world. What are we to do in the midst of all these things that are happening? So notice, first of all, this strong angel in verse one. I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud, and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. Now, the description here is interesting because it seems to bear a lot of what we might call imagery from the Exodus. God descending on his tabernacle, Moses' face, as we read this morning, glowing with the glory of God. We see the pillar of fire that led the people in the Exodus through the wilderness, and the pillars that are his feet here, the rainbow that signifies God's covenant of mercy. All those pictures here are reminding us of God's dealings with his people in earlier events. And this led to a lot of commentators who read this passage in this description they say well this this is Jesus this is a picture of Jesus coming down to the earth and so I get the reasoning why you would say that because of the imagery The problem is, grammatically, I don't think we can make that assertion. The text says, in our English, I saw another strong angel. And that Greek adjective, allon, there's describing the angel as another, and that word pertains to that which is other than something, some other thing that's implied or identified in the context. And so the idea here is the reference takes us back to chapter 5 and verse 2. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals. So we see an angel, another strong angel. Contextually, it takes us back to 5.2. We also notice that the strong angel in 5.2 is concerned about a book. And the angel here is concerned about a book, and personally I think it's the same book. It's the same book now carried by a different angel, but also one who is in this category of being a strong angel. What he brings down is what draws our attention to him. In the midst of the heavenly description, there's something peculiar there, all this Exodus imagery, and then in verse two, and he had in his hand a little book which was open. Now, that's interesting because it just seems out of place, a little book that this strong, mighty angel glowing with the radiance of God's glory is carrying. And also, you notice there, he placed his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. So in the image, or rather in the vision here, John seems to be alternating his perspectives, which happens throughout the Revelation. At this perspective, it's as if John is standing on the earth, and this angel comes down, and the strong angel lands, and he puts one foot on the land and one foot on the sea. So the imagery is that this is a gigantic spiritual being. Something that only our imagination could conjure up and what it's Demonstrating here with the one foot on the land and the one foot on the sea. Is that any time in the Bible you see? Something under the foot of another it the idea is authority God's authority over The sea and the land and everything in it and it's God's power over creation the Holy Angel he rules by virtue of God's power even over Satan's hordes. The hordes of Satan have been unleashed and yet this angel comes down and everything is under his authority. So it's the revelation here of a description of God's power in the midst of the demonic hordes that are pouring out over the earth. But we notice again the little book which was open. And as I said, I think because of the description of the angel and as well as the description of the angel here and the similarities of the book, what's happened in some sense is that this is the book that had the seals that Jesus broke back in chapters 5 and 6 and that revelation of God's power and authority over all of history is then given to this angel now that the seals have all been broken and then it is further given to John and John is then paradigmatic of how the church is to receive God's revelation of his authority over all things. So the scroll that was opened by the Lamb is brought to the earth by an angel to give the revelation of God in Christ to John for the benefit of the churches. Notice verse 3, And he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. And when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices. There's the scene, that's really the whole scene. The angel comes down with this heavenly glory, he has a book in his hand, it's open, he cries out with a voice like a lion, and then these seven peals of thunder utter their voices in reply. Now the seven peals of thunder here take us back to chapter four in verse five. Out from the throne came flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder, and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. I don't think it's any stretch at all to say that the peals of thunder are the voice of God in response to the voice of the angel. Phillips writes this, as the pillar of cloud and fire guided and protected Israel in the desert. you are being led and protected by Christ so that you will arrive safely in the new world of the age to come. The key to following Christ, which you must do for salvation, is to receive, trust, and obey God's word, which is why the mighty angel came to John with the little scroll open in his hand. Now, the seven peels of thunder I find to be really the most intriguing part of the passage, as does, I think, every commentator. Notice this in verse four. When the seven peels of thunder had spoken, I was about to write, and I heard a voice from heaven saying, seal up the things which the seven peels of thunder have spoken, and do not write them. So, we have two things happening here. We have that which is revealed in the little book, and then we have that which is concealed. And this verse is the object of all kinds of wild speculations as to what the seven peels of thunder said that John was not allowed to write down. You can imagine the scene here John's been writing everything down thus far and then the thunder speaks and John's going this is important and he he begins to write and yet God speaks from heaven and says no No, don't write that Seal up the things which these seven peels of thunder have spoken and don't write them. I Now, as you imagine the scene of the vision, the angels roars like a lion, the seven peals of thunder answer, John ready to write, God says, nope, seal it up. It's really anticlimactic for us. We didn't get the information. And the idea here is there are things that stay hidden in God's counsel that you and I don't get to know. We don't get to know them. And the point here is being made. God's word in the scriptures that he does give to us, the open book in the hand of the angel, that's sufficient. It's sufficient for everything we need for life and godliness, even though the scriptures don't tell us everything that's going to happen or everything we would like to know, nor do they answer every mystery question that we have in the scriptures. Now this isn't uncommon for us in the Bible, especially the New Testament. Remember Paul in 2 Corinthians, he's caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to speak, he says. Paul gets information that we don't get to have, inexpressible words that he was not allowed to speak. And it's an interesting issue because those who speak for God are only authorized to reveal what God has authorized them to reveal. In Paul's case, God gave him much insight and much understanding into God's mysteries that he wrote down for us in the New Testament. John was given insight into great mysteries here in the Revelation, but they didn't get authorized to give all of that information away to us. There was only a portion. And I think this really helps us to understand the role of the preacher as one who preaches the word. That's all we're called to preach is the word, not speculations, not our ideas, not our thoughts about life, but rather we're called to preach and exposit the word of God. God's Word is sufficient, and that's the point. Although there is more knowledge out there, God has given us what is sufficient to keep us in life. Secondly, we see the strong angel make an oath. And I think this is interesting as well. Look at verses five and six. Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, that there will be delay no longer. So you notice his posture. He puts his right hand up to heaven, which is the posture of an oath. He's making a solemn oath and he's swearing by God. He's swearing by the creator, the ruler of creation, the eternal God, that there will be delay no longer. Now, what does he mean here? First, it's the affirmation that God is in control of all the spheres of creation. He is eternal, he is creator, he is ruler over all things. But also, the oath is that the mystery of God will be revealed and that there will be an answer to the perplexities of history at one point. He says there will be delay no longer. Now the sounding of the seventh trumpet is what he's kind of speaking about here. When the seventh trumpet sounds, it will bring the mystery of God to a close. the plan that is given to us in his word, that has acted out in history, will come to its final consummation. Notice this in verse seven. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as he preached to his servants, the prophets. You notice that the mystery of God, as he preached to his servants, the prophets, is speaking to us about the whole of the scriptures, the mysteries of what God is doing in the world, why he is doing the things the way he is doing them. At some level, according to our own finite comprehension, God's going to answer those questions at some point. And this is why the peals of thunder are sealed up, because it answers these mysteries. It tells us some of the things that are going on. It will be shown to us how the purposes of God played out to bring about his now accomplished plan of redemption when this seventh trumpet sounds. One writer said, when the New Testament speaks of the mystery of God, it refers not to clues for us to figure out, but rather to redemptive truths for history that can be known only as God reveals them. When the end comes, this mystery plan of judgment and salvation will be brought to a complete and total fulfillment. Just as the rainbow, he writes, encircles God's throne above, his covenant will be wholly completed. The mighty angel solemnly swears the certainty of this fulfillment. Just as God said in Isaiah 55, 11, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Sometimes we want the, not sometimes, I think all of the time, we want the information that we don't have and we want it right now. I want to know why God does things the way he does things because frankly it confuses me the way he does things. It's not the way I would do things. And we think somehow that by virtue of being a creature that we have some right to that information, but we don't have that right. And God does conceal things, and that's okay. The things said by the seven peels of thunder are sealed up for now, but they won't be sealed up forever. And why are they sealed up? Well, it's God's plan. It's not my plan. I wouldn't understand it even if he explained it to me in this sinful state. And so what we're called to do in the scriptures is to trust and obey what God has revealed to us in his word. Now this is one of the reasons why the charismatic movement is such a dangerous movement. The charismatic movement with its supposed prophecies into the mystery of God that he hasn't revealed to us in his word, what it does is it scratches the itch of sinful men to know what has not been revealed so that they don't have to live by faith in God's word. They can have something other, they can have secret mystery knowledge and go beyond everyone else. Go beyond God's word, just the boring old Bible and get these great insights so that we don't have to live in this tension that we live in now. The questions of why, the questions of how, the questions of what in the world is this all coming to and what's the purpose of it? See, these all force us to live by faith, to just simply trust what God says to be true. When we hear, though, that there is certainty in God's plan, that the power of his word, the sovereignty of his rule over all of history, when we hear this over and over, it's as if God's saying to us, yeah, I haven't told you everything yet, but don't worry, I'm taking care of it. What would we do with the information anyways? We don't do much with the information that we have now. We struggle with that information. And so God is calling upon us not to look to our own insights into why the things happen in history the way they happen, and how we can figure out maybe to thwart some of those things, but rather he's calling us just to trust him that he has everything under control. We notice this with our kids, right parents? Kids always want to know why. Why are we doing this? Why are we doing that? And sometimes you recognize, yeah, I need to explain things to my children, but sometimes these things are so over their head that if I did explain it, it would confuse them even more. And so what do we say? Just trust me. Mom and Dad got this figured out. We know what we're doing here, okay? There's a reason why you can't eat two gallons of ice cream every night. There's a reason why you can't just live on junk food and stay up till three o'clock. There's reasons for this. You don't get them now, but you'll get them one day. And I think that's sort of a way in which God is relating to us. There are things we don't know. That's okay. God does know. And as His children, we're called to a childlike faith where we trust the Lord in the midst of all the circumstances, knowing that He's got it figured out. Now look at this next part. This is focusing in on this little book, verse eight. Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me and saying, go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land. Now this is interesting because during the intermission or the interlude here, after the first six seals, as you go back to Revelation 7, John was shown how God kept the church safe during tribulation by sealing the people of God on their foreheads. So now we have another interlude or an intermission between the sixth and seventh trumpet here. And we see the church in the midst of a world in which the demonic hordes are pouring out of the bottomless pit. And what does God do? He gives him, the church, his word, the comfort of his word. The church is given the Word of God and then we are told to eat it to ingest it to proclaim it to all the earth and This serves really as an explanation for the judgment that falls on mankind Why is this judgment falling on mankind perpetually and it's because they rejected God's Word spoken by the prophets proclaimed now through the church and they as a result suffer the judgment of God and So how do we live in the midst of a world that is under God's judgment? And the answer here is telling us we build our lives around and upon the very word of God. We take the word, we ingest the word, and then we go and proclaim the word. Notice what he says here. And it's not just what he says, but how he says it. Go, take the book, which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and the land. Don't just stand there, John. First of all, notice the book's been opened. God has revealed these things to his people in the church. And now, he has sent it to his church, who is commanded to act, not by passively waiting for the word to come to them, but by taking it. You notice this emphasis on taking it. You see it there, also in verse nine. So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book, and he said to me, take it. In other words, I'm not just gonna hand it to you, you come over here and get it. Take it and eat it. And it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey. So John walks up, give me the book, angel. Probably not quite in that tone, but the angel says to him, no, you need to come and take the book. The idea is, the effort has to be expended. He has to actually do something and make an effort with God's word and not passively sit there expecting that God's just going to throw it into his lap. I think so many Christians, recall this isn't talking about unbelievers here. We're talking about the church receiving, ingesting the word of God and then going out to proclaim it. And so many Christians think that God just kind of zaps us into a spiritual state of maturity where we can just kind of go from I got converted to I got a second blessing and now I've risen in the ranks and I really understand things. But that's not how God works. Spiritual maturity, God has designed it to come about through what we call means, means of grace. And the means of grace for building up our faith is the ministry of word, sacrament, and prayer. And those things aren't something that we just passively receive, but rather we're continually commanded and exhorted to pursue. If you don't, you could be a Christian, converted genuinely and all of those things, but if you don't sit under the ministry of word and sacrament and prayer, you can't expect to mature spiritually. We grow up in our salvation through feeding upon the very word of God, through taking bread and wine and eating it, through prayer. through the singing of Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. These things are things we actually have to do to grow up in maturity that if we don't do and we neglect, we find ourselves spiritually immature. And we see this all throughout the New Testament and the Old as well. And this idea that we have to get from this is John himself must expend effort in giving ourselves to the means of grace, giving himself to taking the word in order that he would grow up in Christ and know the mysteries of God's revelation. So twice he's told here, go and take, go and take the word. Now, the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, she might get in trouble quoting in a Reformed church, but it has a good phrase here. Speaking of the scriptures, it says, we are to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest God's word as that which nourishes and enlivens our souls. No matter where that comes from. That's absolutely true. That's what we must do with the Word of God We have to get into it. We have to mark it learn it and inwardly digest it as that which Nourishes the soul that builds up the soul and strengthens us in our Christian walk And so the angel says the John take it and eat it Don't just take it and have it Don't just take it and put it on the shelf. Don't just take it and kind of, you know, talk about owning it, but rather let it live in you, consume it, dig deep into it, devour it, let it go deep into your soul and change and nourish you. Man doesn't live by or on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. You can't live without the word of God. And so the point's very simple. We are to take as a church, we're to take God's word. We're to take it to heart. We're to apply it at every level of our existence. We're to let it dwell in us. The word preached here tonight is for you. The word read here tonight is for you. The word sung here tonight is for you. That it would go into the deepest part of your soul and that it would nourish you and build you up. And you have to get into the habit. of forcing yourself to know that every time you read the word, every time you hear the word preached, every time you hear it read, every time you sing it, don't take the stance that's so easy to take. Oh, this would work. This passage or this sermon or this song would be so good for so-and-so. The point is always, this is God speaking to you in this moment. Whenever the word is heard, preached, sung, whenever it's reflected upon, that is God himself not speaking to so-and-so who really needs to hear this, but to you. He's speaking to you. When we get in that habit, that's when the word starts to dwell within us. When we really take it seriously, oh, that's God speaking to me again. And yes, at times, in fact, I wouldn't say at times, most often, it will make your stomach bitter. Most often, when the word of God comes to us, it convicts us of our sin. It shows us the extent of our idolatry and our rebellion against God. It shows us how we have failed to keep God's commandments. It is bitter to know how truly wicked my heart is. It's a bitter reality. to stand in front of the mirror of the word of God, to instead of turning the mirror towards everybody else, to turn it back on myself and see that reflection. That's a bitter thing. It's very hard. And it's also bitter to know this, the word itself teaches me I can't do anything about my condition. That I'm left and I'm stuck with sinful inclinations until I die and go to be with the Lord. And that in this life, I live it constantly in the reflection of God's word, mortifying those sinful desires that are so bitter to face and to reflect on, and then to go and actually deal with in my life. But I think here in the context of Revelation, there's another bitterness. And that's God's judgment on sin. Is it not bitter to know that many of our loved ones who continue to reject Jesus Christ and rebel against God, one day will face the penalty of their sins in the final judgment? There is a bitter reality, and we don't like to think about this, that one day we will all be lined up, the church on Christ's right hand and the goats on the left. And as you stand there on that judgment day, you will look across to that other line and you will see family members, you will see friends, you will see neighbors. And you know where that line's going. And that's a bitter reality for us. I've often thought about this in regard to the book of Revelation, as we see in chapter 19, we come riding with Christ as he comes to judge the earth. And thinking about how are we going to consider that when perhaps as I'm riding behind Christ, as he's coming to judge the sinners of the world, that I'll be looking upon people that I love, that Christ is coming to crush. There is a bitterness there. There are bitter realities in God's word. But he also says, in your mouth it will be sweet as honey. The glorious truths of the gospel, the promises of forgiveness, the promise of future glory, the magnificence of justification by faith alone in Christ alone. I mean, these are sweet to our mouth. These are beautiful truths. The love of God for sinners that he loved us so much that he sent his only son to die for us. The blessings of the church that we find in this life. The great expectations of glory in the heavenly kingdom. Even the sanctification of our lives in the here and the now. These are sweet as honey in our mouths. It's delicious truth. Look what he says there in verse 10. I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it. And in my mouth it was sweet as honey. And when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. The glory of the good news of the gospel is accompanied by the bitter knowledge of sin and the coming judgment. One of my favorite parts in the book Pilgrim's Progress that I'll quote again tonight is when the portrait you have the portrait of the pastor in the house of the interpreter and I reflect on this a lot specifically as it relates to this passage And I think it's very important. I wish more people understood this. I'm gonna read it to you tonight. So Pilgrim goes into this house. The interpreter takes him into a room. It says, so he had him into a private room and bid his man to open a door. The witch, when he had done, Christian saw the picture of a very grave person hanging up on the wall. And this was the fashion of it. He had eyes lifted up to heaven, the best of books in his hand. The law of truth was written upon his lips. The world was behind his back. He stood as if pleading with men. And a crown of gold did hang over his head. And then Christian said, what is this? The interpreter says to him, the man whose picture this is is one of a thousand. He can beget children, travel in birth with children, and nurse them himself when they are born. And whereas you see him with eyes lifted up to heaven, the best of books in his hands, and the law of truth written upon his lips, it is to show you that his work is to know and unfold dark things to sinners. His work is to know and unfold dark things to sinners. He goes on, even as also you see him stand as if he pleaded with man and whereas you see the world is cast behind him and that a crown hangs over his head, that is to show you that slighting and despising the things that are present for the love that he has to his master's service. He is sure in the world that comes next to have glory for his reward. Now said the interpreter, I have showed you this picture first, because the man whose picture this is is the only man whom the Lord of the place where you are going has authorized to be your guide in all difficult places that you may meet with in the way. Wherefore take good heed to that which I have showed you, and bear well in your mind what you have seen, lest in your journey you meet with some that pretend to lead you right, but their way goes down to death. Now the importance of that is shown to us in John's revelation and his taking of the book. If the ministry of the Word of God, to summarize, if the ministry of the Word of God is never bitter, if it is never difficult, if it is always from a person who is full of levity and is just sort of a happy-go-lucky, feel-good kind of attitude, if it's always sweet and never bitter, it's because it's from a person who pretends to lead you right. but the way that they're leading you goes down to hell. God's word is always sweet in the mouth and bitter in the stomach. And that's our commission though, isn't it? Is to preach the whole counsel, to proclaim the whole counsel of God, the sweet and the bitter. Notice verse 11. They said to me, you must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings. So we see that the word is taken, the word is ingested. It's sweet to his mouth, it's bitter in his stomach. The word actually affects us, not in just one way, but in a couple of ways. It's sweet to our soul, but it's also bitter. It's sweet to the tongue, bitter on the stomach, and it's that word that we are commissioned to take to the nations, teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded, knowing that He's with us always, even to the end of the age. And so, what John has been commissioned to do now, to preach judgment for sinners, to preach against sin, to preach the bitterness of the failure of sinners to keep the law, but also to preach the gospel, to take them hand in hand, as Luther divided the word into two categories, law and gospel. Those are the two things that we preach. One's bitter, but one is sweet. And we preach eternal life then to all who believe. We preach eternal judgment to those who continue in their sin. And in this way, in this way the church becomes conquerors. Notice chapter 12 and verse 11. They overcame him because of the blood of the lamb and because of the word of their testimony. And they did not love their life even when faced with death. We're going to close there in prayer.
Revelation 10:1-11
Series Revelation
Sermon ID | 11102154138350 |
Duration | 46:14 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday - PM |
Bible Text | Revelation 10 |
Language | English |
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