A Daily Walk

John Randall: We need to give people what they really need to hear: the truth. Proclaiming the truth, if you don't know this yet, it won't always make you popular, or liked, or accepted, or applauded. It's not going to be easy.

This is the day and age when the church of Jesus Christ needs to care less about what people think and more about where people are going.

Guest (Male): Hello, welcome to A Daily Walk. Today we make a return visit to Revelation chapter 10. This chapter is a chance to catch our collective breath after the cataclysmic events in chapter 9. We're in between the sixth and seventh trumpet judgments, a parenthesis if you will. Pastor John Randall has noticed a mystery here: the mystery of God, and it's about to be fully revealed.

John Randall: This is an interesting point to consider because John has been told what to write, writing things down obediently, and now he's told to stop writing. Why stop writing? We don't know, but it does illustrate another divine principle and application.

Listen carefully: while there are many things concerning God and His character and His nature that we understand and that have been revealed clearly in His word, there are also things that I don't fully understand, that I don't always comprehend. There is some information which God has seen fit not to reveal at this time.

This principle can be difficult sometimes for us to accept, especially when we feel we need an answer yesterday. Some even choose to walk away from the Lord at points like this: "God didn't answer me," "I didn't hear," "I don't understand why this happened," so they walk away.

The first thing we need to understand is we need to resist the thought that God is somehow trying to antagonize us here on the earth from heaven: "I know something you don't know, you're never going to find out, sorry." That's not God. There are certain things that we couldn't handle, that we couldn't comprehend.

It's a liberating day as a Christian when we realize we don't know it all, we don't understand it all, but what we do know about God and what the Bible reveals, we can hold on to. It's enough. Never exchange what you don't know for what you do. God has revealed Himself.

Recently I was speaking somewhere and there was a Q&A. There was a group of pastors sitting there and for some reason I got all the tough questions. I asked for the easy ones but the guy did the exact opposite. Somebody asked me a question: "What does this mean and that mean?" It was a pretty deep theological question, live on the radio. My response was, "I don't know."

I think that shocks some people. But the fact is, there are certain things I just don't know. This is what I do know, and I was able to answer what I know for sure, but I don't know. That's a good question. Heaven will reveal some things that we don't know this side of heaven.

G.K. Campbell Morgan was a famous commentator and preacher in England. He had a daughter who became severely ill, to the point of death. He began to intercede and pray for his daughter's healing. He was reading in Mark chapter 5, the story where Jesus told the parents of Jairus and his wife that their daughter would rise from the dead.

When Morgan read that passage of scripture right where he was praying, he was confident that this promise was about his daughter and that she was going to be okay. Three days later, she died. She did not rise physically to be restored to her family. However, the Lord pointed out to Morgan that she did rise and was taken to heaven for eternity.

Here's the place we need to come to: I don't always know why, I don't always know how, but I do know who, and that makes all the difference in the world.

There's the angel standing with the book open over heaven and earth, speaking loudly. John tells us what the angel said in verse 5: the angel was standing on the sea and on the land, he raised his hand to heaven and he swore by Him who lives forever and ever. He's making an oath by the one who created heaven and the things that are in it, and the earth and the sea: there's not going to be any delay any longer.

The mighty angel stands with foot upon the sea and foot upon the land, raises his hand, takes a solemn oath, and he calls as his witness someone greater than himself. He calls God as his witness and with this oath, the angel declares the character and the nature and the attributes of God.

He points out that He's everlasting. The angel emphasizes that God is eternal. There was never a time when God did not exist. He has always existed. He's not created. He is the creator and the sustainer of all things. He is everlasting.

He also confirmed that He is the creator, and thirdly, that there would be no more delays. Some of your translations may read: "time no longer." There's no more delays, and what he's saying is everything that's been promised, everything that's been prophesied, it's about to come to pass. Everything is about to come to a culmination.

Right here is the answer to the prayer of believers throughout the ages who have pleaded for the kingdom of God to come and for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. No more delays, no more waiting, it's here, it's happening, is what the angel is declaring.

Not only will there be no more delays, but John also said that there is a mystery that's going to be revealed. In verse 7, it says, "but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as declared to his servants the prophets."

There's not going to be any more delays and the mystery of God is going to be finished. No more delays and it's complete. A mystery in the Bible, in biblical vocabulary, isn't something that no one knows. A mystery is something no one could know unless it had been revealed to them.

This phrase "mystery" or "mysterion," as it is used in the Greek, is found throughout the Bible. In fact, the Bible tells us that the ultimate conversion of the Jewish people turning back to God in Romans 11:25 is a mystery, but it's been revealed.

The bringing of Gentiles into the family of God: a mystery. God's promise for the church is called a mystery in Ephesians 3. The living presence of Jesus in the life of a believer is called the mystery of God. The gospel itself is referred to as a mystery of Christ in Colossians chapter 4.

It's a mystery, but the mystery's been revealed. In this context, the mystery of God refers to the unfolding of His resolution of all things, the completion of His plan throughout all the ages.

The things that the Old Testament prophets pointed to, prophesied concerning, looked to, but did not fully understand. Prophecies that told about the Savior's first coming and also about His second coming. They couldn't see how they came together.

Here in Revelation 10, it's coming to an end. It's going to be completed. No more delays. God's purposes are going to be fulfilled. Things are coming to a close, things are winding down at this point in the tribulation period, and the fulfillment of what the prophets predicted long ago is coming to pass. Judgment no longer delayed, there's no longer a mystery, it's a living reality.

I believe that today there are things that are winding down, that we are living in the last days, that the Lord is coming soon. I don't know when, but I'm anticipating His arrival. We could see it in this generation, in our lifetime. We need to be ready for it. Look around at all the things that are happening.

John says this mystery is being revealed. After John observes this mighty angel, he's actually given a command from this angel. Look at what it says in verse 8: "Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, 'Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.' So I went to the angel and said, 'Give me the little book.' And he said to me, 'Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be sweet as honey in your mouth.'"

"So then I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. And he said to me, 'You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.'"

Interesting, John is told to go up to the big angel and ask for the little book. So he walks over and says, "Hey, I'll take the little book." And the angel says, "Here you go, eat it." The book? What does this mean, take the book and eat it? Let me just help you out here for a second.

This doesn't mean that John took a physical book and began to physically eat it like when you were a little kid and you ate paper in kindergarten. He's not talking about that. If you still eat books, we need to talk.

In the scriptures, in the Bible, this is symbolic language. The eating of a book means assimilating or digesting what is written. Read it, in other words, understand it, understand what it says.

There's something similar again: Jeremiah, the Old Testament, chapter 15, verse 16. You remember Jeremiah said, "Your words were found and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, Lord God of hosts." Jeremiah didn't physically eat the word. He's saying, "I took it in, I received it, I assimilated it, and it was a blessing in my life."

The prophet Ezekiel, similar experience in Ezekiel 3: "Moreover he said to me, 'Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll and go speak to the house of Israel.' So I opened my mouth and he caused me to eat the scroll. And he said to me, 'Son of man, feed your belly, fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.' So I ate it, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness."

Again, the Lord said, "I want you to take this in, and once you read this and once you assimilate it and you digest it and you think about it, now go and prophesy what I've shown you in my word." And that's exactly what Jeremiah did, that's what Ezekiel did, and that's what John's about to do.

When John took this book and assimilated it, it was sweet to his taste, but it was bitter in his stomach. It would seem that the picture of sweetness in the mouth but bitterness in the stomach is an indication of the quality of God's word.

There is a sweetness to what John had taken in concerning the Lord ruling and reigning and in His kingdom being established, the glories of heaven, but there was also a bitter taste in the sense of the rebellion and sin of mankind that produced judgment.

The word of God is likened to a double-edged sword. There's two sides to it. There is heaven, there is hell. There is truth, there is lies. Found in this world, Jesus can save you, but if you choose to reject salvation, then you'll be judged.

There's a double-edged sword to this. There are certain things that are sweet to the taste and there are other things that are troubling to stomach. The gospel is sweet to the person who responds to it. The person today who might come and receive Christ as their savior at the end of this service, the gospel will be sweet to you because it'll transform and change your life forever.

Forever, you'll never be the same. But to the person who hears the gospel and rejects the gospel and walks away and goes back into a life of sin, it's going to be bitter to you.

The Bible gives us an invitation to taste and see that the Lord is good. The Bible encourages us to taste that He is gracious. Have you tasted and seen that the Lord is good? Have you partaken of who He is? Try it.

When our kids were little, we have four children. You remember the days. Certain things that you'd want them to try because it was good for them, but the color made them avoid it. So you tried to hide it under different things to make it palatable for them, and they would taste it and spit it out or cry, and you'd try to give incentives: "If you would only eat this, you'll be strong. If you only eat this, it'll help you."

They didn't necessarily believe it. And then they tried it and they realized, "Wow, this isn't as bad as I thought it was." And with the Lord, if you taste and see that the Lord is good, you have no idea how good He is. You need to taste it. "I don't want to taste it." You need to taste this, trust me, taste this, you'll never be the same.

Interesting, when you read the Bible, it's referred to in several different ways. It's referred to as the meat of the word, the milk of the word, the bread of the word, the water of the word of God. Used in all these different ways.

You remember in Ephesians 5, it says the washing of the water by the word of God. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 4, "It's written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Peter tells us that there's the milk of the word in 1 Peter chapter 2: "As newborn babies desire the pure milk of the word that you might grow, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

The Bible tells us that the word of God is like solid food that belongs to those who are mature. Having pointed out all of these scriptures, the word of God sustains our spiritual lives. But sometimes we get so filled with so many other things of this world that we don't have an appetite to stomach the word of God.

For example, today, if I were to leave this place and my wife said, "John, we're doing a barbecue at home," and maybe that's what you're doing today. I've already talked to some of you and you laid out the menu. You've told me all of the glorious things that you're going to grill.

But if my wife said, "When you get home today, we're having this barbecue, I'm making this and I'm making that and it's going to be great, you're going to love it, it's your favorite," and I said, "Man, that's awesome."

But then I decided that on the way home, I'm not going to do that. I'm so hungry I can't wait. So I'm going to go through Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru and I'm going to order a dozen and I'm going to eat 11 of them. And then I get home and I walk through the door and I smell that aroma, you know what I'm talking about, of meat. And if you don't eat meat, then something else.

And all of a sudden my wife says, "Here it is, I've got this for you," and I'm like, "I can't." "What do you mean you can't? What's that glaze on your face?" "What glaze? Oh, that? That's nothing, that's..." "What happened?" "I've got no stomach for solid food because I've eaten garbage."

Sometimes it's like that with people. They feed on the world all week long and there's no stomach for the word of God. They never take it in except one day a week right here and they wonder by the time they get here why they're like, "Man, is it over yet? I'm so sick of this solid food."

Friend, what are you feeding on? What are you feeding on? Are you only feeding the flesh, or are you feeding the spirit? Taste and see that the Lord is good.

After John receives this information, he takes it in. It was sweet to his taste but it was bitter to his stomach. But then notice this: the Lord said to him, "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings."

Even though it was sweet and bitter, there was still more truth to share. No doubt this was hard for the Apostle John to swallow these things, to read them, to assimilate them. But the Lord said, "John, you're not done. You've got to speak truth. Your job isn't over. There's more work for you to do. You've been shown these things for a reason."

Oftentimes, when you're the bearer of truth that is both sweet and bitter, it isn't always easy to deliver the message. It's not always easy, it's not always palatable to the masses. There's a great responsibility that comes with it, but we've got to continue to preach the word of God. We've got to continue to tell people the truth. We've got to continue to tell people the gospel and how to get saved. That's why we're still here.

John could only proclaim the word of God if he had taken it in. Such an action symbolized the reception of the word of God into the innermost being as a necessary prerequisite to proclaim it to the world. I can't give out what I don't take in.

Proclaiming the truth, if you don't know this yet, it won't always make you popular, or liked, or accepted, or applauded. It's not going to be easy. In fact, Jeremiah got into trouble. The Lord gave him the word, he processed it, he understood it, and then he went to preach it.

Then there came a moment in his life when he said, "Lord, I'm tired of doing this. I don't want to do this anymore. Every time I do this, people get bent. They want to throw me into prison, they want to stick me in a pit. They don't want to hear what You have to say. I keep telling them Babylon's coming and they think that I'm against them, that I don't love them."

But this is what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah chapter 20: he said the Lord induced me and I was persuaded. "You are stronger than I and have prevailed. I'm in derision daily, everyone mocks me. Because when I spoke, I cried, I shouted violence and plunder, because the word of the Lord was made to me a reproach and a derision daily."

And then he said, "You know what? I'm not going to make mention of Him nor speak any more in His name." But then he said, "His word was in my heart like a burning fire that was shut up in my bones, and I was weary from holding it back and I couldn't."

Jeremiah said, "I was proclaiming what God told me to proclaim and the people were not responsive." You know Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet because nobody got saved during his ministry? You would weep too. He kept on saying it and they weren't listening.

So he said, "You know what? I'm done talking about it. Why should I even talk about it anymore? Nobody likes it. I'm done with this, I'm going to do something else." And then he said, "I couldn't hold it back. I couldn't. I had to keep proclaiming it regardless of what people thought."

Listen, this is the day and age when the church of Jesus Christ needs to care less about what people think and more about where people are going. It's not going to get easier. But is the word of God like a fire? Are you weary from holding it back? You can't hold it back.

I'm going to tell you right now, if you're here today and you're not saved, if you're not a Christian, I'm going to say this in absolute love: apart from Jesus, apart from Jesus and accepting Him as your Savior, you'll be separated from God in a real place that the Bible calls hell, where there is burning and gnashing of teeth for eternity and an eternal cognizance and awareness of the decisions that you've made to reject Christ.

But listen, that's why Jesus came. That's the bitter side of it. Here's the sweet side of it: Jesus came, died on a cross for your sins so that you never have to go to hell. He paid the price for you, He took the judgment for you, He rose again from the dead and He offers you salvation.

And today, you talk about independence, you talk about freedom, there's no freedom like the freedom in Jesus Christ. You want real freedom? How about the freedom from the bondage of sin? How about the freedom from the fear of hell? How about the freedom to know that you're on your way to heaven? That's freedom. That's freedom. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.

I plead with you today, as the word of God is in my bones like a burning fire calling out souls that are not saved to come to Jesus today. Why not today? You'll never forget the day you went forward and gave your life to Christ. That was the day that I was truly free.

Cause listen, you can live in a free country and be a slave to sin. You can live in a free country and be in bondage to your lusts, to your addictions, or you can be free, totally liberated.

Jesus is the Savior. He came to free the captives, and all of us are captives before He came. We were lost, we were in chains, we were in bondage, but Jesus came to set us free. If you want to be set free today, today could be your day. Because listen, there's coming a time when there's no more delays. But now the Lord is waiting for you, longsuffering, calling you to salvation.

In a moment, I'm going to give you an opportunity to get up out of your seat if you want to be truly free and come and stand below this platform and receive Christ as your Savior. At this moment, nobody moving around, nobody driving away. This is the most important moment of our time here together.

Be praying. In a moment, I'm going to invite the worship team to come back up to close us in a song. It's a song of invitation, encouraging you to get up out of your seat and come and receive Jesus Christ, the freedom that's found in Christ alone.

And if that's something you desire, today could be your day. You'll never be the same. It's time to stop running from God and start running to Him. It's time to turn from your sin and receive salvation. Will you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, this morning we take in Your word, we receive it, we've tasted it. We know the truth that's found within it. The sweetness of the Savior and salvation. Lord, I pray today if there are any who have yet to receive Christ, that today would be the day. No more delays in turning to Christ.

Lord, maybe some have been putting it off, finding excuses why not to come to You, but Lord, today's a perfect day to receive Jesus, to be forgiven, to have the hope of heaven, to have chains broken, eyes open, hearts transformed. So Lord, I pray that You would call people. Call them by name, Lord, as if You were shouting in their ear, "Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." Lord, call people to Yourself today. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Maybe God is calling you to Himself today. Answer the call and receive the rest and freedom He alone can provide. You're listening to A Daily Walk with Pastor John Randall, and part of our Through the Bible study. Hear A Daily Walk online at adailywalk.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

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It's not hard to point out all that's wrong in this country and at times we may wonder if there's any hope. This is the time to be praying for our country and its leaders, and so we'd like to suggest a helpful little prayer guide written by Jack Countryman. It's titled "If My People," based on a verse you're probably familiar with, 2 Chronicles 7:14.

With biblical and historical reminders of the power of prayer, this will show you how to make a difference on your knees as our country heads into another election season. It's available for the cost of $8, and you can order it online at adailywalk.org or by phone at 877-242-0828. That's 877-242-0828.

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Include your prayer requests as well. Contact us there at the website, adailywalk.org. Thanks for being with us. Come back next time when we'll again study the book of Revelation together. That's here on A Daily Walk with Pastor John Randall, where you never have to walk alone. This program is brought to you by Calvary South OC and made possible through your generous support.