A Second Interlude Pt 1

Okay. Would y'all stand with me? I hear the mic. Good evening. I want to welcome y'all to Calvary Chapel this evening. Those of you who are joining us online, we welcome you. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity again to gather, to worship you, Lord, in song, to study your word together, Lord, to grow your grace, Lord. I want to lift up the service

tonight. I want to lift up those in the nursery who are looking after the little ones, that you'd bless them and the little ones, and bless the children's church area, the section of kids through fifth grade, and then that youth group. Just bless all that goes on tonight here in this fellowship, that you'd be glorified, that we would be built up in the faith and be encouraged in our walk and witness for you, Lord. We thank you, we praise you, and we love you.

That you gave us, that you would not leave us comfortless, but you did leave your spirit here to lead and guide us, to comfort us, Lord. And we thank you for the faithfulness, Lord, that you are to us. You're faithful, you're glorious, you love us, Lord. You're worthy of, would you open hearts to receive, ears to hear, eyes to see what you would have tonight, and then ways in which we can serve you, Lord. Bless our time, Lord.

Encourage, we ask, Lord. May we trust you. Your word says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lead not into their understanding, and all thy ways acknowledge you, and help direct your paths. For I know the thoughts I have toward you in Jeremiah, thoughts of good, not of evil, to bring you to an expected end. Thank you, Lord. May we remember that, knowing that you are in control. Father, this world has nothing to offer.

In fact, it's rather discouraging, and those who think they're in control really aren't, because you're doing a work that amazes us all, Lord, as we look to you, and we give you praise and thanks. And bless Ryan as he comes up, Pastor Ryan, as he comes up to teach your word now, anointing you by the power of your Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name. Amen. Good evening. If you would, please open up in your Bibles to the book of Revelation,

chapter 10. Revelation, chapter 10. Tonight, we look at another interlude that John takes, or Jesus allows John to take in the book of Revelation. As a matter of fact, the title of tonight's message is A Second Interlude, part one, because chapters 10 and 11 are really a part of this interlude that's taken. And praise God. What we've looked at over weeks in both chapters 8 and 9 are what are known as the trumpet judgments. And as each of those

trumpets sounded, a new form of judgment came forth. The first four had to do with destruction upon the earth. It affected the green part of the earth, the water, the sea, even the light. But then the last two of the trumpets that we looked at, trumpets 5 and 6, both had to do with humanity. And the death and destruction that we read about in chapter 9 was awe-inspiring. As a

matter of fact, I don't know about you, but just studying it, perhaps hearing it as well, was almost a little bit of an exhausting experience because it just kept taking you deeper into this judgment that God would bring. And so as we come to chapter 10, it's almost like you just hit the climax of the movie, and now there's a little bit of a dip before we move back into the next part of the scene. And that's exactly what takes place in chapter 10. And so chapter 10, there's really two parts to it. One is the judgment that God would bring. And so chapter 10,

there's really two parts to it. One is the judgment that God would bring. And so chapter 10, there's really two things that we'll look at. We're going to look at the strong angel in the little book. And so we pick up in chapter 10, verse 1, and this is what it says. It says, And 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. 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 peals of thunder had spoken, I was about to

write. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken, and do not write them. Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven, and he 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. Now, the first thing that you should take note

of is that John appears to be in a different location in chapter 10. Up to this point in time, over the last few chapters, we've taken note of the fact that he's been in heaven watching these things. It would appear from the verbiage that's used in verse one that John is now on earth, because he didn't say an angel. He saw an angel descend. He said, I saw an angel coming down, meaning that now he's on earth. So God has now allowed him to be

on earth watching the things that are taking place. And so we take note of the fact that John is in a different location. But the first thing that it says that he sees is he sees, strong angel. Now, the last time that we saw a strong angel in the book of Revelation, the strong angel had in his hand a scroll. And the scroll had seven seals on it. And no one was able to open

the scroll except for the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world who has overcome. He was the only one that was able to open up the seals. Now, this next scene that we see is very similar, right? It's another strong angel. I lean toward this being a different angel. We'll talk about who this angel might be. And it's holding another little book that, again, I think

is different from the scroll that was first opened. But we have to ask ourselves the question, who is this other angel? Well, there's a handful of explanations that are given. The first explanation that a lot of people have, and I just want to say before I go into these explanations, I think they're all very plausible, okay? Whichever one you chose, I don't think you

would necessarily be wrong until we get to heaven. We find out, hey, you might have been wrong. Anyway, so here's the thoughts that most commentators have. Number one is that this angel is Jesus. Because of the things that we see that he is clothed with, he has a rainbow on his head, and his face is like the sun. His feet are like pillars of fire. And he is able to place one foot

on the land and one foot on the sea. People say this is Jesus. And that makes a lot of sense. Matter of fact, I could almost go along with that. Because if you look at lots of Old Testament every time it's mentioned that the angel of the Lord is there, it is an Old Testament reference to Jesus. It is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. This is where I can't go with this

being Jesus. Nowhere in the New Testament is Jesus referred to as the angel of the Lord. Because in the New Testament, he has come as the son of God. And now he is the lamb of God that has taken away the sin of the world, the lamb of God that has overcome. Now, Chuck Smith is one who thinks that this is Jesus. So I'm not trying to be disagreeing with some people that have much more knowledge than me. But for me personally, I have a hard time

seeing that. The second thing that people say is that this is Michael the archangel. Partly because there's some similar descriptions in Ezekiel of him being such a strong angel, a very plausible idea. The third, which is the one that I hold to, is that this is another strong angel. That's the one I hold to. I just think it's another strong angel. Now, listen, don't get me

wrong. This angel is strong, right? Because we'll go on to describe everything about him. I do believe that this is a messenger of God. I believe that it's part of Jesus's entourage. He's coming straight out of heaven. This is perhaps one of the angels that is right there in the midst of Jesus all the time. I do believe that it is just another strong angel. I personally believe it's different from

the angel that's holding the scroll. And I think that the little angel that's holding the scroll is different than the scroll with the seven seals. Although people disagree with me on that, some of the commentators that I read disagree with that thought. You can do whatever you want to with it. But I believe that it's a different angel holding a different little book.

So that being said, let's not worry about who it actually is. Let's worry about what is described here. It says, I saw another strong angel and he was coming down out of heaven. I love the description of this. Again, I have a cartoon mind. But he's clothed with a cloud, right? I just picture sweet clouds all over this thing, right? Just like the best suit ever anyone's ever seen that's all like fluffy, right? It's like the best

cottony looking thing ever. And he's just floating down all covered in clouds. Now, I'm not trying to make light of this, but it's sort of a funny scene, right? And on top of his head is a rainbow. Now, I want to point out why these things are important. Number one, the fact that he's clothed with the cloud means that he is coming out of heaven. It speaks of the

heavenly power of God. And I want to point out why these things are important. Number one, the heavenly nature of this angel. And I do believe that there is something special about this other strong angel. I do believe that he is a part of Jesus's entourage, if you will, that is close to the son of God and him being clothed with the cloud speaks to him coming out

of heaven. Second of all, it says he has a rainbow on his head, which speaks of the fact that this angel has been blessed with that promise of God because the rainbow, anytime we see it in scripture, as much as it's been hijacked by our culture, is always the rainbow. And I want to point out that the rainbow is a symbol of the promise of God. And I don't think we can understate that. I don't think we can overstate. I don't think you can say it enough that the

rainbow is a picture of God's promise, that God had made a promise to humanity that he would never again destroy the world with a flood. And he has never destroyed the world with a flood. As a matter of fact, when you see that rain, I know scientifically we can explain what a rainbow is, but spiritually we know what a rainbow is. It is God's, declaration of the fact that, see, I still keep my promises. And the reason why I think that this

is important to point out is because we can sometimes fail to remember those promises of God, right? It sometimes is easy for us to lapse into faithlessness when we see the things of the world going on around us, or when we see the events take place in our own lives. And we think, Lord, are you still that God of the promises? But he is, and he always will be because he hasn't failed to keep a promise yet. And he doesn't plan on starting with you.

So we see he's got this rainbow on his head. And then, of course, his face shone like the sun, which just speaks of the light that comes forth. And his feet were like pillars of fire. I'm picturing Iron Man just drifting out of the sky, covered in clouds with the, right as he's coming down. But of course, the fire of his feet speaks of the judgment that this angel is going to bring,

because that fire always speaks of that purification of judgment. And then he has in his hand a little book. Now, again, we'll talk about what this little book is here in just a little bit. I think it's different from the scroll, but he has this little book in his hand. And notice that this book is, it's open. We'll talk about why that's important here in a

few minutes. And then he placed his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. Now, I battled a little bit with how to interpret this because I went, okay, so is this hyperbole? It's hyperbolic in nature that it's saying he placed his foot on the sea and on the land. But most commentators all agree that no, this is a strong angel. And when it says that he put his

foot on the sea and on the land, this is a large angel that has placed his foot on the sea and on the land. And it speaks of the fact that the coming judgment will be global, that everything will fall underneath the judgment of this angel. And so we've seen this other strong angel. Now, let's see what takes place. With this strong angel that has this book in his hand. The first thing it says that takes place in

verse three is he cried out with a loud voice as when a lion roars. Now, as he cries out with this loud voice, it is so loud that it catches the attention of everyone. As a matter of fact, I was at a zoo one time. I've never actually been in the jungle. I don't plan on going in the jungle if I don't have to, but I was at a zoo one time and I was across the zoo and they had a large male

and this lion roared. It's the first time I've ever heard that happen of a lion in captivity. I'm sure it happens all the time, but this is the first time I'd ever heard it in my short lifetime. This lion roared and everybody in the zoo paid attention to it. As a matter of fact, pretty soon we all found ourselves wondering over to where this lion was because we're going,

what is this lion roaring about? Because there was a, uh, there was a depth of sound that came out of this animal's mouth that caught everyone's attention. And it carried, it's that boom, booming voice that just carried everywhere. And that's the idea of when this angel spoke, it was like the roar of a lion and that it caught the attention of everyone and caused everyone to pay attention. That's how deafening the roar was. It came out of this angel's mouth.

And as this angel roared, it says, and when he had cried out verse three, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices. And when the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices, had spoken, I was about to write. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, seal up the things, which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them. Now I would assume that you have at least one question here. I have two.

Hopefully you have those two questions as well. The first question I have is not, what did they say? The first question I have is what are the seven peals of thunder? You know, I really don't know. And neither does any, anybody else because we're just told that there's seven peals of thunder. Although I do have a thought I want to present to you. Once you turn over really quickly, hold your finger here and go over to Psalm 29.

I think I had her put it up there. Oh, I did. Look at me go. Psalm 29, because there's an interesting Psalm that speaks of the voice of God. I'll give you just a second to get there. Psalm 29. And I'm going to read this to you. Psalm 29, Psalm of David, pretty short Psalm. It says, Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty. Ascribe to the Lord, glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord, the glory due to his name. Worship the Lord in holy array. The voice of the Lord is upon the upon the waters. I'll pay attention to this next part. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. Yes, the Lord breaks in pieces.

The cedars. The voice of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon skip like a calf and Syrian like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord hues out flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer to calve and strips the forest bear in his temple. Everything says glory. The Lord sat as king at the flood.

Yes, the Lord sits as king forever. The Lord will give strength to his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace. Two things I'd like to point out to you out of that song. First thing I'd like to point out to you comes in the middle of verse three where it says the God of glory. What's that word that's used there? Thunders. Kind of interesting, isn't it?

In this entire song speaks of the voice of the Lord. As a matter of fact, for those of you note takers, there are seven mentions of the voice of the Lord here. If you're an underliner, this would be a good thing to underline. Verse three, the voice of the Lord is upon the waters. Verse four, the voice of the Lord is powerful. Again, in verse four, the voice of the Lord is majestic.

Verse five, the voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. Verse seven, the voice, the voice of the Lord hues out flames of fire. Verse eight, the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. Verse nine, the voice of the Lord makes the deer to calve. The God of glory thunders in his voice. Those, those seven different things. What are these seven peals of thunder? We're not given an exact definition of what they are in there, but one does have to wonder

is the thundering that's heard simply the voice of the Lord, because the voice of the Lord is powerful. And in the midst of all of this judgment, during this interlude, John hears the seven peals of thunder. Perhaps here's the voice. The voice of the Lord in those seven peals of thunder. Go back to Revelation.

Now, the angel cries out, the seven peals of thunder utter their voices. And when the seven peals of thunder utter their voices, I was about to write. Now, John's finally gotten the idea. Remember how many times God had to tell him to write things down? Dude, you should write this down. Take a little note. Remind yourself in case you didn't know, right? Tell yourself, I love you and I don't want you to go write this down.

That's a country song. Anyway. Every time God's like, write this down. Only this time God says, don't write that one down. Seal that one up. And you know, John's like, oh man, this one's going to be awesome. And you know, every Bible study, every Bible study is like, oh man, it was going to be awesome. And so you know what we should do now? We should speculate on what he said.

No, let's not do that. Because he told him to seal it up. Actually, I hope you have another question here. Why? Don't ever stop asking questions of the text, please, because that's how you study it. You should always ask questions. Why did he tell him to seal it up? Why didn't he just let him say everything that the voice of the Lord said? After all, this is revelation.

This is the unveiling of Jesus. Why did he hold this piece of information back at this seemingly pivotal time? I have no idea. John has no idea. But you know what? That's okay. There's a verse in the Bible that I have found a great deal of comfort in. It comes out of Deuteronomy chapter 29, verse 29. And it says this, the secret things belong to God. The revealed things belong to us.

Brothers and sisters, there's a lot of things in life I don't understand. And it's not just because I'm not that smart. It's because there's just a lot of things in life that are kind of hard to understand. And God doesn't always give us every piece of information. Even in the midst of this unveiling, he still holds back pieces of information. And I don't always understand why.

I really genuinely don't. Sometimes I'm like, Lord, I just, I want to know why. Why did that happen? Why did this take place? Why is this happening now? And we ask ourselves, we ask ourselves these questions sometimes, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The problem is God doesn't tell us. And I don't know about you, but sometimes I can get a little bit frustrated with God

about that. I'm like, Lord, I don't ask a lot out of life, right? Sweet sneakers, a nice leather covered Bible, a good cup of coffee, and sometimes just have some questions answered.

And sometimes God's like, no, I'm going to seal it up because you don't need to know right now because the secret things belong to God. The revealed things belong to us. And so I started really meditating on this over the past couple of days as to why God would have him seal that up. Why God would withhold sometimes pieces of information from us. And I've come up with one, maybe two reasons why.

Number one, because we just might not be able to handle it. We just might not be able to handle everything right now.

I remember when we were having our first baby.

And when we had our first baby, a friend of ours lost her baby. She hadn't had a baby. She had an infant, died of SIDS. I remember that rocked everybody in our friend group to our very core. And it really messed with Aaron and I because here, I think it was six months old, that's how old this baby was. And it just rocked us to our core. And I remember thinking, you know, it's a good thing that from the outset,

God doesn't tell us everything that we're going to have to deal with. Because if he did, we may never do it. We could not handle everything if he gave us all of the information in advance. And there are certain things in life that God says, you're just not ready for that. You can't handle that on this side of eternity. You can't handle that right now. And we say, but Lord, I want to know.

And he goes, you can't handle it yet. You're not ready for that yet. And that's when you have to sit back into the easy chair of God's grace and say, the secret things belong to God. And the revealed things belong to me. I can't do anything about what I don't know, but I can do something about what I do know. I can continue to believe that God is good. I can continue to believe that God is in control.

I can continue to believe that God certainly does have a plan and his plan for us is always good. And so what I can do is seek God with all of my heart. But not only sometimes is it that I can't handle everything right now. It's that God doesn't want to tell me everything right now. And you say, Ryan, I don't accept that. You don't have to. It's just true. Sometimes God is just not going to tell you right now.

As a matter of fact, there are a lot of things on this side of eternity that you may never understand. Because right now we see through a glass dimly. But when we step into the light, we see through a glass dimly. But when we step into the light, we see through a glass dimly. But when we step into eternity, we'll see everything clearly. We will see everything like it's face to face.

And God will make it all known to us. And at that point in time, you know what we'll all say? Now I understand. Now I understand why I couldn't know then. Now I understand why you had me keep walking by faith, even when it didn't make sense. Now I understand. Because he will make all things clear to us. Brothers and sisters, rest in the fact that the secret things belong to God.

The revealed things belong to us. You just keep seeking God with all of your heart.

And so he says, seal up what the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them down. And so John shook his etch-a-sketch and they moved on. It says, Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven. And he 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.

There is so much to unpack right here. So let's spend just a few minutes unpacking it, shall we? Okay, so this angel who is standing where his foot is on the sea, his foot is on the land, he holds up his right hand to heaven and it says he swears an oath. He swears an oath by God. And then he describes this God who he swears. He swears the oath by. Number one, he describes him as him who lives forever and ever.

Brothers and sisters, can we just take a moment to bask in the fact that we serve a living God? I don't know that we do that enough. I know that I don't. I can sometimes take for granted the fact that I serve a very living God who lives forever and ever. That I don't serve a God who is dead. I don't serve a God who is a statue. I don't serve a God who has ears but cannot hear, who has eyes but cannot see,

who has hands but cannot move, who has feet but cannot walk. I serve a very living God that is very powerful, knowing that he hears everything that I have to say to him and he pays attention to everything that's going on in my life. We serve a living God. He says he raised his right hand. He swore an oath by the God who lives forever and ever. And not only is he alive, he overcame death.

Then he describes him a second way. He describes him as the God who created all things. All things in heaven, all things on earth, and all things in the sea. He is the God who created all things. And of course, from that knowledge that God is the God who created all things, we're reminded of three things. Number one, God is all-knowing. God is all-knowing. There's a really great word for that.

It's called omniscient. He knows everything. Because after all, he gave us knowledge. Not only is God all-knowing, God is all-powerful. Because after all, think of the most powerful thing in the world and know that God created that. Spoke it into existence. But not only is God all-knowing, not only is God all-powerful, God is eternal. He always has been, and he always will be.

He has no beginning, and he has no end. Because he is eternal. Brothers and sisters, this is not a great interlude to remind ourselves of this wonderful God that we serve. This wonderful God that we serve, that though is pouring out judgment on the earth, still makes himself known to us. And what does he swear to him? He swears that there will be delay no longer.

There will be delay no longer in the things that are coming. There will be delay no longer of God bringing about the judgment upon the earth. There will be delay no longer in any of those things. And isn't it funny? What's the one thing that we feel like is never going to come? Jesus, right? You ever feel that way sometimes? Sometimes we can be like the people that Peter

talks about in first Peter when he says, listen, some people don't believe God's promises because they say he's slow in keeping his promises, but God is not slow in keeping his promises. God is merciful, wishing that none should perish, but that all should come to everlasting life. And though it may seem like God is delaying, there will come a time when he will delay no longer. He will delay no longer to defeat all of the enemies of this earth. He will delay no longer

to take out vengeance upon his enemies and those who have harmed so many. There will be delay no longer. He swears to him that there will be delay no longer. In verse seven, it says, 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. When that seventh angel sounds his trumpet,

when that last angel sounds his trumpet, something amazing will take place. The mystery of God will be finished. Now, the mystery that's spoken of here is not a mystery like you and I usually think of mysteries where we try to figure out who the culprit is. The mystery is something that was somewhat concealed. In the old Testament that is now revealed in the new Testament. Well, the last mystery to be

revealed is the coming of the kingdom to be established on earth, the coming of the king to establish his kingdom. And there was a building expectancy of it within the old Testament, starting off in the very beginning, as there was this building that there would be a king that would come. There would be a king that would come that would rule righteously and justly. There would be a king that would come that would take out vengeance upon his enemies.

There would be a king that would come that would have, peace throughout the entire earth. There would be a king that would come that would finally rule in the way that a king was intended to rule. Not with corruption, but with righteousness. And he says there will be delay no longer because when that seventh angel sounds his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled as it has been preached to the prophets.

That word preached can also be translated gospel news. As, as the gospel, this good news has been preached to the prophets. The good news of the fact that the king is coming. The king is coming. My friends, it doesn't feel that way right now, but the king really is coming. And there won't be a delay any longer because God is coming quickly. And listen, the things that

we're seeing take place in the world today are reminding us that the king has to be coming. The king has to be coming. He says there will be delay no longer, but the mystery of God is about to be finished as he preached to his servants, the prophet. And so that's what the angel does. Now we see this little book. Let's look at it more closely. Look at verse eight. It says,

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 as sweet as honey.

And 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. Okay. So he hears a voice again from heaven. Now again, meaning he heard it one other time. What was the other time he heard the voice from heaven speak? It said, stop writing these things down.

Don't, don't write down what the seven peals of thunder said, seal that up. Don't write that part down. And so he continues to watch as this angel takes his oath about the fact that, that Jesus is coming. The King is coming and he won't delay any longer. Once the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, the mystery will be fulfilled. And then he hears a voice again. And the voice

says, John, I want you to go. And I want you to take the little book that's in the hand of the angel. And I want you to eat it. We'll talk about that part in just a second, but let's, first of all, talk about what this little book is. This little book is perhaps the last of the events of the second coming of Christ. Again, I do not believe, that it is the, the seal with the seven or the scroll with the seven seals. It very well could

be, I could be wrong on that. I'm willing to have my mind changed, but at this point in time, I don't feel like that's what it is. I feel like this is a separate book because this is referred to as a little book. The Greek words are different than the scroll that was mentioned earlier in revelation. And so this little book is mentioned in this little book seems to have in it the last

events of the second coming of Christ. I'd like to quote John Walvoord on this. He says the contents of the little book are nowhere revealed in revelation, but they seem to represent in this vision, the written authority given to the angel to fulfill his mission. It is somehow a statement on the last of the judgment that's to come upon the earth. So he's supposed to take this little

book and he's supposed to do something fascinating with this little book. He's supposed to eat it. Now, I don't know about you, but I like a good snack. I have never wanted to eat a good snack. I have never wanted to eat a good snack. I once thought to myself, you know, it looks awfully tasty. A book. Now I have a little dog. I have two old dogs in my house, but one of them is named Carl and Carl likes to eat everything,

including books. I actually have a Bible that is damaged now because Carl looked at it and thought, Hey, you know, what's going to be tasty. That sweet little leather Bible. I'll eat it. And so I have one that's damaged now, but I've never once thought to myself that looks really, really tasty. But he tells them, I want you to take that book and I want you to eat it. He said, something's

interesting is going to happen. He says in your mouth, it's going to be really sweet, but in your stomach, it's going to become bitter. Now, if you're a studier of the Bible at all, you know that this is not the first time the eating of a book has been mentioned. There's actually another time in the old Testament that has been mentioned. And that is Ezekiel.

Ezekiel was given a scroll and he was told to eat the scroll. He was told the exact same thing in your mouth. It's going to taste like honey, but in your stomach, it's going to become bitter. Well, if he doesn't actually, we want him to eat some sort of a book. If we're not actually supposed to be eating books. And what is he talking about here? Well, he's talking about the assimilation of the word of God

because whatever this little book contains, we know it contains the words of God. And it's talking about taking in what God's word has to say about the ending of the things of the world, about this second coming of Christ. But you should ask yourself, why is it sweet in his mouth and then bitter in his stomach? Well, because just like you and I, we're studying the book of revelation right now. And I'm assuming that most everybody in here

knows Jesus. And so while it's hard to take in the things that we say in the book of revelation, there is still a sweetness to it because we are well aware of the fact that we serve the God who is in control. And we don't believe we're going to be here for any of this stuff because we believe that Jesus is going to take his bride home to be with himself before all of this is unleashed upon the earth. Therefore, as we read the book of revelation, there's a certain amount of sweetness to it because we see the sovereignty of a holy God. As he reveals,

Jesus to us. And yet, as we take these words in, we can't help but think about the people living on top side of planet earth during this time of the tribulation, during this time of judgment unleashed upon the world, the Jewish people who have will find themselves fooled by the antichrist who think they finally found the Messiah only to have him turn on them and destroy so many of them. I think of all of the Gentiles who will find themselves seeking after, this one leader who seems to have brought peace, but ultimately only brings destruction upon the world. And the things that we saw in those first six trumpets, the things that we saw in those seven seals and the absolute destruction that's unleashed upon the earth. And while it's sweet in

our mouths, because we know it's the words of God, it's bitter in our stomachs because we are reminded that there is a world that is fit for judgment. There's a world that will experience the judgment of God. Brothers and sisters, this speaks a very interesting word to us, I believe, because it speaks a word to us about the importance of what we must do with God's word. We have to take in what God's word has to say, and then we have to give out what God's word has to say, because I want you to notice in verse 11, what John is told to do. And they said to me,

you must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings. When he takes in this little book, it's not just for him to take it in. He takes it in so that he can then go out and prophesy. And brothers and sisters, we are no different. I've been thinking a lot this week about my own calling and ministry and what God has done in me and just trying to

bring myself back to some understandings of some things, because it's just an important thing to do at certain points in time in your life to remind yourself of God's calling. And the strength of God's calling came to me out of the book of Ezra, chapter seven, verse 10. Matter of fact, turn, really quickly, because I think this really speaks to what he says here. So first and second Kings, first and second Chronicles, Ezra. I want you to look at verse seven. Ezra was the priest

that went back to help rebuild the temple. I want you to notice what it says about Ezra in chapter seven, verse 10. It says this, for Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, to practice it, and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel. The Lord really brought this verse back to my mind this week as he reminded me exactly what I was called to do. But I am called first of all,

to set my heart to know what God's word has to say. You see, that's taking it in. That's eating the little book. It's consuming everything of God's word. And there is such joy in consuming the things of God's word. Am I right? There's a, there's a joy in taking those things, taking them in. But as I take in God's word, I can't just know what it has to say. I then have

to practice it in my own life. I have to live it out in my own life because what an unfortunate thing when somebody can say everything that God's word has to say, but then have their life, not at all reflect the truth of what God's word is in their lives. And so I have to take it in and then live it out. But then for me personally, once I've taken it in and I'm living it out, now I'm supposed to be teaching it to other people, giving it out. And I don't know that any of us are any

different like that. You may not be called to stand up in front of people and actually teach them. But you are commanded to take God's word and give it to the people because we are all called to be witnesses. You are all empowered by the Holy spirit to go and take God's word to the people that are around you. Sometimes you will do it through your service. Sometimes you will do it

through direct teaching or preaching. Sometimes you will just simply do it by the example of your life or the testimony of how Jesus has changed your life. But you're to take in that little book and you're to allow it to be sweetened. You're to allow it to be sweetened. You're to allow it to be sweetened in your mouth and listen, allow it to be bitter in your stomach.

Because when we see the judgment that's coming on the world, you should not turn your back and say, thank God, that's not me. No, it should hurt you. You should allow God's word to ruin your life in the best way possible. You should allow God's word to make it to where you can't just walk by when you see that somebody's lost. You can't just walk by when you see that somebody hurts.

You can't just walk by when you see that somebody's lost. You can't just walk by when you see that somebody's lost. You can't just walk by when you see that somebody's lost. You can't just walk by when you see a need. God desires that his word would move you to compassion. Best definition I've ever heard for the word compassion is this. When it hurts so bad, you just have to do

something. That's that bitterness in your stomach. You see, that's that bitterness that was in John's stomach from taking in that, taking in that little book. He says, and you must continue to go and prophesy. You must continue to take the truth to people and listen in the world that we're living in right now, where you can get canceled for telling people the truth. Keep going out and

prophesying. I would venture to say, none of you in here watched the NCAA wrestling championships, maybe a handful of you did, but not very many. There was a guy who won the NCAA championships. He was from Pitt, Pittsburgh. And this guy gave the greatest testimony. I can't think of his name right now, but he gave the greatest testimony to Jesus Christ after he won the championship.

It was amazing. Of course, he's just like sweating and is, I don't know how he could think of the verses he thought of when he literally just came off the mat from winning an NCAA national championship. But they're asking him, how'd you do this? He's like, Holy Spirit, man, Holy Spirit did it. How do you, he said, they said power. And what was the other words that they use? Power and

charisma, power and being smooth or something like that. That's how you won. Where does that come from? He said, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit did it. Acts chapter, Acts chapter two. And he's just going and naming all of these scriptures. And he's like, it's all about following Jesus. He said, well, and he's asking him more questions. He's like, the whole reason I have,

this platform to be able to win this is because it's a platform for me to give out the truth of Jesus Christ, not false prophets like Muhammad. Oh, dang. That's when things went south for him. So the first article that I read was amazing. I was like, Oh, what a cool. I watched the interview dude was jacked and it was amazing. I was like, man, this, he is getting it. And I appreciate it.

Well, a little while later, I saw an article posted. He's in trouble now for calling Muhammad a false prophet. I'm like, darn straight. He called him a false prophet because he is a false prophet. Keep going, buddy. Keep hanging in there. Keep prophesying. Keep telling the truth. And brothers and sisters, the same is going to happen to you. When you make a stand,

when you take in the book and it's bitter in your stomach, when you have to give it out to somebody else, somebody is going to say, how dare you say that I'm wrong. And you're going to have to be like, but, but it's what it says. It's what it says. And people are going to come against you. But listen, you must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues

and Kings brothers and sisters. We just got to keep taking in God's word and giving it out to the people around us. Amen. What a beautiful little interlude that we're given here in this book of revelation. After all of the intensity, what a beautiful moment to relax and remember that Jesus is still on the throne. Would you bow with me? Father, we come to you now and we praise you for who you are. Lord, we praise you for being our

God. We praise you for being our savior. We praise you for being the God who lives forever and ever the God who has created all things, who is all knowing, who is all powerful, who is eternal, the only wise God. And Lord, we praise you for this book of revelation that reveals to us everything that you are. Father, may we rest in you. May we find our hope in you. May we find our joy in you.

And Father, would you continue to purify our hearts and our lives? Lord, would you help us to take in what your word has to say, live it out and then give it out. Father, move in this body, move in this church, move in this city, in our nation, in our world. We just want to see that Holy Spirit that that young man testified of so powerfully. We want to see that Holy Spirit move,

move in conviction, move in comfort, move in power, move in revival. Lord, we want to see that happen. So Lord, do your work in our hearts that help us to take that work into the people around us. Lord, we thank you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.