7 Jan. 2001

The Mystery Is Finished

Rev 10

Today we really are going to get back into our study of the book of Revelation. We have been out of it for two weeks, and that's OK, because there were other things that needed doing. But now it's time for us to pick up where we left off, before we have a chance to forget anything.

If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to the book of Revelation, chapter 10, and verse 1. Before we start this chapter, we need to remember that this is one of those places in Revelation that steps outside of the timeline. Part of Revelation is chronological, it proceeds from one event to the next, and then there are other chapters that are like a parenthesis. In those chapters, the narrative is not really going forward in time toward a conclusion, but instead, something is being added to illustrate some situation, or help us better understand how something else is happening.

That is what today's message in chapter 10 is about. We are getting background information to better help us understand some of the other things that are going on. In this point in the narrative we are toward the end of the tribulation, and the seven seal judgements have already been opened. The seven seal judgements span the whole seven years of the tribulation. The opening of the seventh seal sets forth the seven trumpet judgements, and when the last of those seven trumpets are blown, that releases the seven bowl or vial judgements. The trumpets and bowls happen very close together right at the end of the tribulation.

Chapter 10 & most of 11 happens between the sixth and the seventh trumpet, then chapter 12 is a parenthesis where we learn some details about Christ and Israel. Chapter 13 is a detailed parenthesis about the Beast and the False Prophet. So now that we know when and what, let's get to it.

"And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
Rev 10:2 And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,
Rev 10:3 And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.
Rev 10:4 And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
Rev 10:5 And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,
Rev 10:6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
Rev 10:7 But 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."

We need to notice something about this angel; he has a lot of symbols associated with God all around him. He has the cloud, which reminds us of Jesus when He was taken up to heaven. He has the rainbow, which reminds us of the judgement and mercy of God. His face is like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire, and that speaks of judgement also. This is an angel that is vested with all the power and authority of God, and he is instructed to go and proclaim that it is time for things to come to a conclusion. In verse 6, where he says that there shall be time no longer, that does not mean that it has come to the end of time, because after the tribulation is over, the 1,000 year millennium begins, so it cannot be the end of time. It means that there will be no more delay. God has waited for a long time to bring holiness and judgement to the earth, but not any more. The time for the things of God to come to a head is present.

I have read where some scholars think that maybe this angel is the Lord Jesus, but I disagree. Look at verse 6. The angel is swearing an oath to God as to a separate person. If this was Jesus Christ appearing as an angel, He wouldn't be doing that. Whenever God makes an oath, then He swears it upon Himself, because there is no one greater. That's what He did with Abraham as described in Hebrews 6:13.

Look at verse 3, John refers to the seven thunders, and also again in verse 4. That is the voice of God. I won't take the time to go there, but in Psalm 29, there are seven thunders referred to, and they are specifically called the voice of God.

John is not allowed to write down whatever it was that God said. The words are sealed up, and the obvious question is, for how long? Until when? Keep your place in Revelation, and turn over to Daniel 8:17. The angel Gabriel is showing Daniel a vision, and Gabriel also gives Daniel the time frame of when it will come to pass. Start at the second half of verse 17: "Understand, O son of man, for at the time of the end shall be the vision." This is one of those prophecies that has two separate applications. One application, the first one, was the time of the end of the Greek empire. The final application of the prophecy is still future. It hasn't happened yet.

Gabriel gets Daniel ready to understand the vision in verse 19; "And he said, Behold I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation; for at the time appointed, the end shall be." and now to verse 26: "And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days." The vision pertains to something that is still a long time away from Daniel ever seeing it.

Turn to Daniel 12:9 "And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end." When is this time of the end? It looks to me that it is here in Revelation 10, verse 7: "But 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 angel sounds that trumpet in the next chapter, chapter 11, so I believe it is at this time, the seventh trumpet, that the mystery is revealed. The mysteries that were sealed up to Daniel, and sealed to John in chapter ten, are all revealed in chapter eleven.

What is the mystery? What is it that God will finally reveal after all these thousands of years? There are a lot of things that we don't know that God will reveal to us. An unsaved person will tell you that they can't understand how a Holy and Righteous God could allow bad things to happen to good people. The Revelation of Jesus Christ in power and glory, with His wounds of the cross still visible, will answer that question. It is a mystery how Israel could be so blind to God's Messiah, Jesus Christ. But at that day they will recognize Him, and understand who He is. It is a mystery how God could make of Jew and Gentile one body, a church. How He could call for Himself that church, a bride, out of all the nations of the world. That mystery will be revealed. There is the mystery of Christ living in His church, living personally in each one of us through the Holy Spirit. There is the mystery of how God could become man in the person of Jesus Christ. There is the mystery of iniquity, that Paul refers to. There is the mystery of the rapture of the church, the mystery of the seven stars that Jesus holds in His hand, and the mystery of Babylon.

Here in Revelation we come to that time in history when God will open all those mysteries up, and everyone will understand. Not everyone will be happy with what they learn, because the unsaved will be really unhappy, but everyone will understand the mysteries.

Verse 8: "And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth."
Any time the Bible refers to a book, it is almost always a scroll of some sort, so we would think of this little book as a small scroll.
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.
Rev 10:10 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.
Rev 10:11 And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings."

This seems a very strange and obscure sort of thing, but actually it is very simple, and if you have been a Christian for any great length of time, you have experienced what John is going through here. Keep your place in Revelation, and turn to Ezekiel chapter 2, verse 3. "And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day."
Skip to verse 8: "But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee."

Something that every one of us have seen, and probably every one of us has done, is the little kid that won't eat his food. "Here, eat this; It's good!"
"NO!" You stick the spoon at their mouth, they won't open their mouth, turn their head, spit it out, totally rebellious. And you know what happens when you turn them over and give them a swat: they start to cry and wail and they still won't eat because now they are making all this fuss.

If you are ever tempted to wait until the kid has his or her mouth wide open screaming, and just take the spoon and dump it in, don't do it. Either the kid keeps screaming and it just drools out, or the kid strangles and gags, things go from bad to worse, you don't want to know the details, but it's not worth the trouble.
Feeding a happy compliant kid is fun, and messy, and rewarding, and frequently hilarious, but trying to feed a stubborn and rebellious child is one of life's stupid little frustrations.

That is the way that God has to feel about us, much of the time. There is so much good stuff that He wants to feed us, and it could be fun, it will probably be messy, but God doesn't mind that. He has a lot of experience at cleaning up His kids, and if you will just let Him feed you, He will clean you up great when the meal is done. And both of you could be happy and enjoy the experience. Or you could be stubborn and rebellious; God will see to it that you get fed, and grow, and become what His will desires for you, but there will be a lot of tears, and wailing, messiness and wasted time in the process. It's your call. How do you want to do it?

Verse 9: "And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein;" (He is obviously looking at a little scroll) "And he spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.
Eze 3:1 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.
Eze 3:2 So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.
Eze 3:3 And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.
Eze 3:4 And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them." And now go to verse 14: "So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me."

Ezekiel's experience, John's experience was the same thing, and many of us will have the same experience. If we love the Word of the Lord, it will be sweet to us, and it will be something that we need to fill ourselves with, eat it, feed on it, let it nourish us in the things of the Lord. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, and so it is.

But then comes the bitterness. When we learn the truth, we want to go and tell others about the salvation we have in Jesus Christ, how He changes our lives totally, about holiness and judgement, and lots of times no one wants to listen. That causes us inner grief, an anxious spirit, sometimes even bitterness when those we love ignore what we have to say. Families, friends, co-workers shake us off and go on their way, and it hurts, it frustrates, it disappoints us, but that's the way it is. Kinda' bitter. Sometimes we don't want to go because of the kind of reception that we expect to get, but the Spirit of the Lord drives us on anyway. Like Ezekiel, we go in the heat and bitterness of our spirit, but we go anyway. John is experiencing the same things that we experience as we try and witness about Jesus, he is just doing it on a bigger scale.

The important thing to us is that we do what we are told. Verse 8 could be written to each one of us individually: "And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
Rev 10:9 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."
God gives us His Word from the hands of one that has all authority over the land, over the sea, over all the earth, and He wants us to eat it all up. He wants us to go and willingly take it, devour it, and make it our own. He will make it sweet to us, it will be wonderfully pleasant in our mouth, but there are times when it will not sit too well with us. If we sin against what God tells us in His Word, we can expect indigestion.

If the Word of God is in our mouth, but our walk is contrary to what we say, we can expect to stumble, we can expect the ground to come up and hit us pretty hard. That is not a good lesson to learn, but if our mouth is contrary to our walk, our real testimony, we should expect some bitter times.

There will also be times when we are doing everything right, and the times will still be bitter. God does not always prune us and trim us because we are growing badly: sometimes He prunes us because we are growing well, and He wants to produce even more fruit. That doesn't mean we like the pruning; but God knows what the results will be, and He is satisfied that it is worth the trouble.

Spend time in His Word this week. Eat it. Feed on it. Digest it. Meditate on it. It will nourish you. It will do you good. It will make you grow. Jesus considered the Word of God more precious to Him than His necessary food. Ask God to make it that precious to you this week, ask Him to make you really hungry for it, and then go eat it. See if it doesn't make you healthier in Him. I think it will.