Simple Faith

Bill Henry: Look guys and gals, whether we like it or not, God owns everything. He owns the heavens, He owns the earth, He owns the sea. It doesn't matter what, God owns it all. And notice, basically he's saying now it's time for Him to come and rule and reign upon the earth.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, presented by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. We trust you're ready to go with your Bible in hand as we continue our chapter-by-chapter study through Revelation. Today we'll again be looking at chapter 10, and after the destruction and loss of life we saw in chapter 9, chapter 10 is a chance to catch our breath a little bit and meet a big angel with a little book.

There has been much speculation over the years as to the identity of this angel. In fact, many biblical scholars think it may very well be Jesus Christ. Pastor Bill will discuss that possibility and many other interesting aspects of this chapter on today's program. Here's Pastor Bill Henry now with a look at Revelation chapter 10.

Bill Henry: If you look at the study of biblical prophecy, the last 120 years it's exploded within the church. And a lot of people say, "Well, that's the reason you can't trust it because it's new and this and that." I understand that to a point, but it goes right along with what Daniel was told, wasn't it? All of a sudden, "Hey, I want you to shut up the word, seal the book until the time of the end. And many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase."

Well, it's interesting to look at our world within the last 150 years. What are the two things that have totally changed our world? Transportation? All of a sudden you can drive somewhere in two hours it used to take two weeks to do in a covered wagon. But also knowledge shall increase. Anybody heard of something called AI? Sincerely, knowledge has increased the last 150 years like never before in the history of the world.

And so, did God then open up these things that were sealed? Again, we could keep going on there, but turn with me please to Revelation 22. Now, there are places like this talking about the sealed of God's word throughout the Bible. Let's look at Revelation 22:10 briefly. Revelation 22:10: "And he said to me, 'Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.'"

Now, as we're looking at these things, the rest of the book of Revelation, God wants everybody to know. The time is at hand. We need to know these things, that these things are coming. But the application as we look at this to me is quite clear, quite plain to see. That God has revealed to us through His written word all of the things that we need to know as Christians, even as human beings.

God has revealed to us all that we need to know. We don't need to add to the word of God. We might have more questions: "Lord, I wish you would have explained the Trinity a little better. Hey, I wish you would have told me why you let this happen or what happened there." Amen, anybody? I mean, seriously. But we need to trust that what God has given us, even things that might be sealed away, that we need to trust in God with that.

So many today are wandering off into what's called Gnosticism. Gnosticism's been around since the writing of the New Testament where people come in. Gnosticism, from the word *gnosis* in the Greek, basically meaning extra knowledge. So they're adding knowledge to the Bible. "Well, I know the Bible says this, but let me tell you there's some other stuff." People who add onto the books of the Bible, those Gospel of Judas or different silly things. And they try to add on or, "Hey, we can look into things."

I'll give you a perfect example today. There's a book called *Jesus Calling* that's out there. Many of you might even have it at home. I have a big problem with that book, and I'll tell you why. Because it's written in the first person from Jesus. It's written in the first person like she's literally hearing from Jesus and writing down. And that's what she basically said she did. She heard from the Lord and wrote it down to give to the people.

Now, there are several things wrong with that. First of all, God stopped speaking, as we read in Hebrews chapter one, right here in the word of God. This is it. We've heard through His son Jesus Christ. Now, again, that doesn't mean His Spirit isn't alive today moving in our lives, speaking to us, but not with the authority of the word of God. Now, the second thing which you may not know of.

So her book is called *Jesus Calling*. It's based upon a book called *God Calling*. And it was a book written by three nuns back in the 1970s. It's a devotional. Same exact thing. They locked themselves in an apartment, I believe it was in New York City, and they all heard from God and wrote down what they heard from God and turned it into a devotional. I know that because I was a Catholic back then and I actually had that devotional.

So it's based upon extra words of God and claiming to be from Jesus. I have a huge problem with that because, honestly, what it's really saying is the Bible isn't enough. The Bible's good, and I'll bet some of us might even feel this way: "The Bible's good, but man, I need this extra stuff to help me really hear from God." That's a lie from the pit of hell, by the way.

Usually when people are saying that, honestly, it's people that when I really start to talk to them, usually they haven't even read through the whole Bible one time, let alone studying their Bible and reading it every day and continually going through their Bible. And to be honest, these are those people that are like this in their walk. And maybe this is you here today or watching.

You're going like this in your walk: "Whoo!" and then "Sin, sin, sin." "Whoo, going and doing really good. Oh, sin, sin, sin." And you think that's the life of a Christian. That is not the life of a Christian. That is the life of either someone who's not a Christian or someone who is a prodigal son or daughter. You see, I have a really weird conversion story. I'm not going to get into it, but I was saved in the charismatic part of the Catholic church. Put that together.

But when I got saved and I started going to Catholic church again, they told me not to read my Bible. And so I grew in certain ways, but in other ways I found myself in some of the old sins that I'd been in before. Golly, I'd sit down with priests and nuns and get drunk. I mean, it was like this weird thing. But then some things happened, my knee went out, major knee surgeries, different things.

I started reading my Bible, my Catholic Bible even. Started in the Gospel of John and guess what? All of a sudden God did something so radical in my life as a Christian, if you will. And I don't know if I came to Christ or if I just got solid. I was all of a sudden the guy who was actually hearing the word of God and doing the word of God. All of a sudden, I went from this, and honestly, mostly down here, to this. Just going up.

And don't get me wrong, it's not perfect. There are some things because I still sin. But man, when I base my life upon the word of God and do my best to walk in loving obedience to the word of God, and it's a joy for me to do so. It's like I've told this to you before, but I remember reading and all of a sudden it said, "Be not drunk on wine." I didn't sit there and go, "Oh man, I can't get drunk on wine anymore." You know what went through my heart? "Lord, I don't have to get drunk anymore."

"Let no corrupt communication proceed from your mouth." It wasn't like, "Oh man, I can't curse anymore." No, it was like, "Lord, I don't have to curse anymore, do I?" And I realized how set free I was by the power of the Spirit of God through the word of God. And you see, guys and gals, God's word is what I'm trying to get back to is perfect. It is more than enough.

Every time I read through it, I try to do it once a year. Every time I read through it... By the way, just real quick, if you need a quick plan how to do it: Don't just start in Genesis one and go. Read at least three places in your Bible every day. At least one chapter in each three places: Genesis, Psalm 1, and then start in John chapter one. Read one chapter and then the next day, read the next chapter and keep going.

And that's how you do it so you stay fresh. And if the Lord wants you to stop halfway through, stop, pray, meditate, hear. If He wants you to read two chapters that day, go ahead, do it. Get highlighters, pencils, mark your Bible up. That's your sword. But here's the thing: As we're seeing within our text here today, remember something: We are His children, we are His bride, and we are His disciples.

We're to come to the word of God and submit ourselves under its authority because it is God's word. Not like say, "Oh, I can't believe that God didn't tell us this or God didn't tell us that." This is where we come and we trust and we humble ourselves before God because we're not God. And we humble ourselves under His perfect goodness and His perfect holiness.

Imagine if God told you everything you wanted to hear. We think, "Oh, I'd be fine." No, think about Moses. Remember Moses when he went to the Lord and said, "Lord, I just want to see you, man. I want to see you." "Moses, dude, if you see me, you're going to just... you're going to die." And it wasn't because, "Oh, you saw me, I'm going to kill you." No, it was because God is so magnificent, so glorious, so awesome that if Moses were to see Him, he just would have dissolved away.

Anybody ever see *Raiders of the Lost Ark*? That's the picture, sincerely. Because we can't do that. God has made us as human beings. We are not gods. And it's the same thing if all of a sudden He poured out all the information that He has, we would just... Elon Musk dude. He's trying to do that thing to tap into the brain. Have you seen that? He's trying to do that, seriously.

He wants everybody to have this thing to tap into the brain. I mean, even if you did that and all of a sudden you poured in all the knowledge that God wanted, your brain would explode. Because we can't handle all the knowledge that God's had. We have all the knowledge we need right here. We just need to trust it and live by it. What is it Mark Twain said? He said, "I don't worry about the things in the Bible I don't understand. I worry about the things that I do." Whoa.

Look at verse five in our text: "The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer. 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 He declared to His servants the prophets."

Notice what he's saying here, that there should be a delay no longer, that the mystery of God would be finished. The angel is declaring here that the forbearance and the mercy of God for the people of earth has come to an end. It is coming to an end. And it's almost like they can see the light at the end of the tunnel because here at this time in the Tribulation, remember what happens?

After the seven-year Tribulation, Satan is bound for a thousand years. Jesus comes to rule and reign upon the earth for a thousand years. Guess what? There won't be no more mankind ruling and reigning upon the earth. No more Satan ruling upon the earth. There will no longer be any delay of God's wrath in that time of the Tribulation, but now God is going to rule.

Again, the time of Satan is over. The time of humankind ruling themselves is over. The time of darkness and sinfulness and rebellion is almost over. Anybody ready for elections to be over? You know what we get to choose, the least of two evils, no matter how you look at it. Maybe more evils, who knows? But this is what's coming. Notice, there's not going to be a delay any longer. This is what's happening. He's describing what is happening.

Now, notice the inclusiveness here. The angel was standing on the sea, on the land, raised up with his hand to heaven. Notice again: Sea, land, heaven. This is all-inclusive, all-encompassing. Verse six: "And swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, and the earth created the earth and the things that were in it, and created the sea and the things that are in it."

Look, guys and gals, whether we like it or not, God owns everything. He owns the heavens, He owns the earth, He owns the sea. It doesn't matter what, God owns it all. And notice, basically he's saying now it's time for Him to come and rule and reign upon the earth. He gave mankind a shot back in the garden when He said, "Tend my garden."

They handed it pretty quickly over to Satan as they submitted under his lordship. He became the god of this world. And remember when Jesus was tempted and Satan said, "Hey, I'll give you all this," because this is basically saying mine to give. Jesus didn't say, "No, no, it's not yours to give." He didn't say that because it was at that time.

But no longer. He's declaring that God is coming and He is the one who has created the heavens, He has created the earth, He has created the sea, and He is taking it back because it belongs to no one. Now, the application is very clear for all of us. Guess what? Everything that you have is not yours. Everything that I have is not mine.

"Wait a minute there, Pastor Bill. I worked hard for this. I own that gold in the bank. I own this house, I own this car. I worked hard. Look at these clothes. Look at this body that I've been working out, man. This is mine." No, it's not. You have it for a time. You have the stuff for a time. Part of it is God's blessings to love you, to take care of you. Other parts of it are responsibilities.

What are you going to do with what God has given you? The time He's given you, the strength He's given you, the stuff He's given you? Are you going to hog it all in? "This is mine, mine, my precious!" If you've read Tolkien's *Lord of the Rings*, I think that's what he's talking about there. He's a Christian. I think he's talking... what is so precious to us?

Is it your IRA? Is it my gold buried in the backyard? Is it my car? Is it my stuff? What is so precious? It's not yours. You're not taking any of it with you. As has been said, I've been to many funerals and I've never once seen a U-Haul being towed by the hearse. Never once. We don't take anything with us. And imagine even if we could.

"Oh, you can take one thing, whatever you want." "Oh, I'll take all my gold! Yeah, got it buried in the back here." You get to heaven and somebody goes, "Hey, what's that gold? What's that in that wagon you got?" "Oh, it's all my gold from earth." "That's great. Hey, you know over there we got a pothole in the road. Can you use that to go fill the pothole?" Because that's what the roads are made out of in heaven: Gold.

For me, I read this and it's proclaiming to the world the power of God. This is His heaven, this is His earth, this is His sea. And it reminds us as Christians, to me, everything that we have is God's. The voice that we've been given, the talents that we have, even not the talents. Are we using it for the glory of God or for our own comfort?

Notice the patience of God, if you will. The time of mankind is almost over as far as being able to come to Christ in this manner. Do you notice? That's what's happening. There's a time of the Gentiles. That's going to be over, and then there'll be a time basically, if you will, of the Jews and people coming to Christ during the Tribulation.

But here's the thing: Why has God been so patient? Because Second Peter 3:9: "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." God wants everyone to come to repentance. God has shown such grace over the last millennia.

Some have reached out and received the grace of God by faith, coming to faith in Jesus Christ, receiving the new life in Jesus Christ. But most have rejected it, and they've chosen to walk on that path that is wide, that path that is easy, that leads to condemnation and hell. But you see, here's the thing: As we hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as we hear the word of God even here this morning being preached, it does one of two things to us: It either softens us or it hardens us.

There's no in-between. The same cross that gives life to so many is the same cross that shows the condemnation of so many more. As Charles Spurgeon said, he said, "The same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay." Look, here we go, like as we saw last week, there were so many that heard, that knew there was a God, saw His wrath, but they still would not repent.

And yet a couple chapters ago we see that countless numbers came to repentance. So again, some it hardens, others it softens. Here's the thing: That choice is up to you, it's up to me. This clown that's standing up here before you, don't listen to my words, listen to the word of God. Take what you hear and go, "Hey, is this really what the Bible's teaching?" And if it is, you better pay attention.

It's time to change. It's time to say, "Hey, Lord, I want to walk in accordance to your word, what you've shown us." And by the way, Lord, help me to remember that everything is yours. Now, notice as we're closing in verse seven at the end it says this: "But in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel"—so that is to come in the next few chapters—"when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished."

And again, the mysteries are all over. Jesus comes, rules and reigns for a thousand years, there's no more mysteries, it's all completed. But notice, as He declared to His servants the prophets. You know, it's interesting, today I talk to so many people over the last at least couple years specifically about this, that their pastors won't teach on prophecy.

They won't talk about prophetical issues. Now, let's be real: There are some people who get too far into it and all they'll do is study Daniel and they'll study the book of Revelation. You can't do that. But we also can't ignore almost 30% of the Bible, which many do. And I talked to a pastor a couple weeks ago and he says he won't teach the book of Revelation.

It's too fantastical, people get too weird. And dude, this is the only book that promises a blessing to those who hear it, those who read it. And can it be hard? I mean, when we first read this this morning, I'm sure you were going, "Uh, what's this say? I don't get it." But when you slowly go through it and you compare with other scripture, guess what? The Holy Spirit does this: "Oh, yeah, that makes total sense."

And so look, he declares. He's declared to His servants the prophets. Look, guys and gals, we cannot ignore prophecy. Because God has declared to His servants the prophets. We look and we see: This is what God hath said. This is what's coming. So what do we do with that? Well, hey, let's learn how to make money this way. This is going to happen, that's going to happen.

I'm not saying that. I'm not saying not to be wise in these days. But here's the thing: How about we look at this and say, "This is what's coming, man, I want to be on fire for Jesus Christ." I want to be on fire for Jesus. I want to be one of those who's a good servant. You see, when people tell me that, "Oh, you're too focused on the last days. You guys are getting too whatever."

Look, that's the same thing we just remember what we just read in Peter, where Peter said God's not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance. Just before that, he's saying, "Look, there's going to come a day when people will be making fun of you, basically attacking you, saying, 'Where's the promise of His coming?'" And I believe these are Christians, professing Christians or Christians attacking other Christians.

"Where's the promise of His coming?" Since the beginning, the fathers have been saying this. And I know people, I've had people come up to me, "Dude, ever since the sixties and seventies, Chuck Smith, Hal Lindsey, these guys have been saying this." Praise God, Hallelujah! Because it doesn't start with them, it actually starts with Jesus back in Matthew 24:42 where Jesus said it's the good servant who stays awake.

It is the good servant who is watching for the return of their master. Hey, even if Jesus doesn't return for a thousand years, we're still commanded to be watching for His return. Why? Because it gets us excited. It helps us to remember that this is not all there is. And hopefully it lights a fire. Not that let's go build a bunker out in the middle of, you know, Montana and hide. Let's build a commune. Sounds good still, doesn't it?

But let's go amongst the people and be the salt and light that we are in Jesus Christ. Let's have a heart that's less and less cares about ourselves and our stuff and more and more about the Lord and His love for all these people. Man, it's getting so dark out there. It is so dark. But you know, guys and gals, we're here for a reason. You are here for such a time as this. You are not an accident.

No matter if your parents told you that or a teacher or your friends even today, anybody, those are lies from the pit of hell. You are here on purpose by the God you were crafted in the womb by God Almighty. You are called here, you are equipped by His Holy Spirit with gifts. And we're all to go forward and make disciples, planting seeds, watering. Let's be used of God for His glory. Amen.

Guest (Male): I hope you were blessed by today's message from Pastor Bill Henry. This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. And today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill's new series in the book of Revelation. If you'd like to hear today's message again or share it with a friend, it's available at our website to either watch or listen or download in MP3 format.

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