Simple Faith

Bill Henry: John here, he didn't even have to think twice about it. He just did what God told him to do. And what's interesting though is again so many who profess to love Jesus, they never read the words that he's written to them. We don't read our Bibles every day. And again reading to not just know about God, but to know God better. Not just to know about God, but to know him, and we can know him, and that is when we're born again.

Guest (Male): It has been said that if God was small enough for you to understand then he wouldn't be big enough to be your God. We need a God who is bigger and smarter and more powerful than us if there's going to be any hope for us. That makes sense, doesn't it? Today on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, we get a glimpse of this reality. In Revelation chapter 10, we're told of a mighty angel with a book in his hand and he utters seven thunders. That's pretty amazing to think about. Let's join Pastor Bill now for our study in Revelation chapter 10.

Bill Henry: This morning we're going to be looking at Revelation chapter 10, the last part of chapter 10, verses 8 through 11. It said, "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 to him, 'Give me the little book.' And he said to me, 'Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.' Then I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it, and it was 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.'"

So as we come here once again, it's quite an awe-inspiring picture that we come into here. The sixth trumpet has been sounded, the sixth seal has been opened, yet not the seventh trumpet part of the seventh seal. And we are basically taking a break from the chronological order of the book of Revelation, and we have this is the third break that we have seen within this book. And again just waiting to see what's going to happen before that seventh trumpet is blown, the third woe as we're told earlier.

But let's go back to verse 1 and kind of see where we're at to make sure we take this in context. Verse 1 says, "I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. And when he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices.

Now, when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, 'Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them.' The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and 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."

So as we come then into verse 8, we see basically that we're just about in the middle of the book of Revelation and yet it's going to wrap up rather quickly. We're going to see a lot of events that are taking place. But even notice there in verse 6, the Lord's basically saying there's not going to be a delay any longer. It is time for the Lord Jesus to come and rule and reign. There'll be the seven-year tribulation. Jesus Christ will return, and when he does, he is going to rule and reign upon the earth for a thousand years. No longer the rule and reign of man, no longer the rule and reign of even Satan upon the earth.

And so this time there shall be no longer any more delay. Even the tribulation is going to start winding down, even though it's really revving up. And so it's interesting as we come to verse 8, it says, "Now 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 as we just read, a voice had come from heaven telling John not to write down the things which he had heard the seven thunders say, and that same voice he hears once again.

I believe this is the voice of Jesus. I believe that because of the authority that is behind it, that it's coming from heaven, that he's commanding him things and what he is commanding John to do. He's commanded him to take this small book from the mighty angel that stands on the sea and on the earth. If you remember last week we talked briefly about this small book. The word in the Greek is biblaridion, and basically it means small scroll or little book, and it's different from the word that Jesus is holding the scroll, that's biblion in the Greek.

And so we see that he has this small scroll, probably not the same scroll that Jesus had, and basically he's been told to go and take this book from the angel. Now some suggest that this small book is the remainder of the book of Revelation that John is to write. As we continue on, we might see how that view stands up. Look at verse 9, "So I went to the angel and said to him, 'Give me the little book.'" Now I don't know about you, but I find the interaction here quite interesting.

If you look back just to verse 1 of chapter 10, remember what the angel looked like. "I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, a rainbow was on his head, his face like the sun and his feet like pillars of fire." Now if the Lord had told me, "Hey, go tell that angel to give you that book," I don't know that I would have gone up to him and said, "Hey, give me the book." I might have gone, "Excuse me, sir, big mighty dude angel, he told me to ask you for the book. He told me."

Because again as we look through the book of Revelation, there's two other times that John actually falls down on his face before an angel to worship them, and they weren't described as a mighty angel or in this fashion. So it's an interesting thing. But what we do know for certain is that John simply obeyed the Lord here. He simply did what he was told. And I find it interesting that he just responds to the Lord, just, "Yes, I'm just going to do exactly what you told me to do."

I think that this is a great place for us as Christians to find some good application here in the book of Revelation. How does the book of Revelation apply to us today? If we really look with a humble heart, there's plenty of places that we can find great application and here is another one, just by the simple obedience of the Apostle John. And again the awe-inspiring picture, not just from the looks of the angel, but he had this voice that cried out like a roar of a lion, every reason to be afraid, but he went and just did exactly what God had told him to do.

I guess as my question then, applicationally wise, how many times does God told us to do things and we haven't done them? How many times have we been reading through the Word of God, "Oh yeah, that's right, I need to put this into action in my life, I need to obey this," and yet we then go on for whatever reason, we're so busy in our lives or too busy to think about those things or too tired, we're too this or that, but how many times?

I don't know about you, but I think about my rebellious fleshly heart, and it continues to war against the new heart that God has given to me and to us. Galatians chapter 5 describes this battle between the flesh and the spirit, and it will be going on until this old flesh, this corruption, this corruptible has put on incorruptible as we're told is going to happen one day. But it's interesting, how many times as we're reading through the Bible, how many times as we're living our lives that we could say to ourselves, "Oh, I know God told me not to do this," or "God told me to do that," but because of grace I don't have to do that or I can do this?

I think of many times we can excuse our disobedience with grace. We excuse our disobedience with grace and again not in a healthy biblical manner. Grace comes in when we have sinned and when we've fallen down. I'm talking about before when we come to that place when it's like, "Well, am I going to obey the Lord or not? Well, there's grace there so I can go ahead and take it and I can go ahead and disobey." And that's a terrible place to be.

Applicationally, there's so many children and young adults who say they love Jesus yet they're not obeying the instructions, the commands of God in submitting to their parents. Or so many wives who refuse to obey to the clear commands in the Word of God to submit to their own husbands as unto the Lord. So many husbands who refuse to obey the clear commands of the Lord to lead in their homes, to lead in their marriages, to lead in their families, to love their wives as Christ loved the church, to bring their children up in the ways and admonitions of the Lord.

What is it that we just feel so free to disobey these commands? Just these three simple things and most of us feel free just to disobey them for some reason. I think a lot of us don't want to go into legalism, right? "I don't want to become legalistic." But we need to understand something. We're not saved by anything we do. We're only saved by what's been done at the cross of Jesus Christ. We are not kept saved by anything we do. God isn't more happy with us when we do a lot more things for him or are lot more obedient to him. He doesn't love us more than. It doesn't keep us in salvation. We are saved and we are kept by the grace of God. Can I have an amen?

So important for us to understand this. We're not kept by these things that we do, but we do them because we are kept by the grace of God. We do them because we love them. It's interesting, so many others who profess to love Jesus, they don't even read their Bibles because they don't want to know what God tells us. They don't want to know. "Oh, I've never read that in the Bible." Well, are you reading your Bible every day? "Well, kind of." When's the last time you read a book? "Well, just the other day." What did you read? "Well, it wasn't really the other day, I guess it was a few weeks ago. Don't remember the last time I was actually reading my Bible."

Sadly, how many of us would that be today? Don't raise your hand. Not trying to embarrass you, but I am trying to point something out that's very, very important. When's the last time you breathed? You didn't even think about it. When's the last time you ate? Anybody ready for lunch or a late breakfast here? It's like, "Oh yeah, dude, we're heading right over there." You see, it can become so easy for whatever reason to excuse away our disobedience to the Lord.

John here, as natural as breathing, he didn't even have to think twice about it. He just did what God told him to do. And what's interesting though is so many who profess to love Jesus, they never read the words that he's written to them. We don't read our Bibles every day. Reading to not just know about God, but to know God better. Not just to know about God, but to know him, and we can know him, and that is how when we're born again into the family of God by the Spirit of God, we are born again into a knowing relationship with him, that we may know him who has saved us.

It's interesting is when people don't read their Bible, I always like to say, "Why aren't you reading your Bible?" And sadly, I'll be honest, probably most of us here are not reading our Bible on a systematic basis. I'd like to ask you this question: how many times have you read through the Bible? You should be reading through the Bible once a year, once every two years. Again not to be legalistic, but that's just kind of a thing that we should all be doing as Christians, just as we're breathing and we're eating.

I ran into a fellow years ago and I said, "Do you read the Bible every day?" He goes, "Oh, I read that a few years ago. It was a good book." He literally said this and he said he was a Christian and all that stuff, but he never read it anymore. Do you understand that this book is living, it's alive, and that every time you read it, the Holy Spirit opens up new things to you because this is his main way of speaking to us?

God isn't dead. You don't need a pastor just to hear from God. Now the pastor teacher is a gift from the Lord so you can hear by the Holy Spirit, but we're to be giving feeding God's people God's Word, God's food. And so again, we need to as Christians, as we're coming to the Word of God, first of all, we need to be reading the Word. But secondly, we need to come also with a heart to know God, to know him better, to know about him, but also how we can obey him better, how we can walk in loving obedience better.

You see, again, it's really interesting to me how many people feel that they have no need to pray every day, like in a prayer closet, not just before meals or real quick on your way to work. How many people feel no need to fast? Jesus didn't say, "Hey, when you feel like fasting." He said, "When you fast," Matthew chapter 6. We need to understand that these are not to be things that, "Well, if I feel like doing it." There are people who feel like they have no need to tithe and to give. It's the weirdest thing in the world to me. Others who feel there's no need to serve at the church or to serve anywhere for that matter. Matter of fact, some people will come to church to be served.

I always tell people because I used to be like, people say, "So what does your church have to offer us?" We still get that and I just write back. It's like, "Well, we'll give you the teaching of the Word, but what are you bringing? What are you coming to offer the church?" God has given each of us gifts if we're Christians, God has given each of us gifts for the edification, the building up of the body of Christ.

They feel no need, a lot of Christians don't feel a need to die to self. We're commanded to do this. We're commanded to put off the old man, to put off the old woman, but we don't care about doing it. They feel no need to love others as Christ loved, and on and on it goes. They don't feel any need to obey the commands of God. So many seemingly say, "Well, I'm just too tired." They fall into the "I'm too tired" category.

Don't raise your hand again, but seriously. "I'm too tired from school, I'm too tired from work, I'm too tired from watching the kids all day." And because they are tired, because and again, you can be weary from these things, don't mishear me, but then we believe it's okay to ignore the plain and clear commands of God for whatever reason. It's the weirdest thing in the world to me. And usually, as even evangelicals, we'll approve our disobedience saying that we're under grace.

And since we're under grace, we say we don't need to obey God. I'd love for, if you feel that way, if we're under grace and don't need to obey God, can any of you come forward after study and show me that Scripture? Anybody? If not, then why don't we have more of a heart? Why don't we have more of just an imperative within us to walk in loving obedience with our God? Can I sincerely ask you that? Unless you can point to a Scripture that says, "You know, I'm under grace, I don't have to do anything, bro." Again, that's taking God's grace for granted. That's taking God's grace and twisting it. That's doing what it says in Jude 4: "For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ."

Let me read this out of a paraphrase, love it. It says, "What has happened is that some people have infiltrated our ranks. Our Scriptures warned us this would happen, who beneath their pious skin are shameless scoundrels. Their design is to replace the sheer grace of God with sheer license, which means doing away with Christ Jesus, our one and only Master." You know, it's interesting in the New King James there, it's interesting it says they deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I like how Jude is pointing out Lord, Lord. He is our Master, he is our Lord.

Grace is not the permission to ignore the commands of God. Did you hear that? Grace is not the permission of God to ignore the commands of God, but grace is the power of God to obey the commands of God. Grace is the power of God to obey the commands of God. If we say we love God, Jesus said we would obey him. Now again I always have to reiterate this time and time again. It is not to be saved, it is not to keep our salvation, but it is because we have been saved. Read Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8, 9, and 10. We are saved by grace through faith, even that faith isn't of ourselves so we can't brag about it, but we are saved then unto good works that have been prepared for us by God.

The response of someone who has been saved by the grace of God is going to be someone who has a godly sorrow over their sins. We read about this in 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Can I ask you even this this morning: do you still have a godly sorrow over your sin? Sometimes when we're singing worship, I like to go back to when I was sitting on my surfboard before I knew Christ. I was still half high, I was still half drunk, and I cried out to Jesus. I cried out to him to be the Lord and the Savior of my life, and I weep over my sinful life. And I still weep even as a Christian so many years later that I'm like, "Lord, even as a Christian I still sin and you still love me."

And I feel this godly sorrow. Now it's not a godly sorrow that discounts me from doing ministry, it's not a godly sorrow that I step back and go, "Oh, I could never be used of the Lord." By the way, amen for all of us. None of us are worthy to be used by God. "Oh, Pastor Jay, he's a more holy man than most of us here so praise God he can be used. Pastor Bill, well, he's not, but God can still use him." None of us are. No matter what us pastors like to say, we're no more holy than you.

We are made holy by the blood of Jesus Christ. That's it. Now we are to be holy as he was called us as holy. But we enter into that as we have a godly sorrow over our sins. It causes us to come to this place where we're humble and where we come to the Lord and it's like, "Lord, you chose me, you called me, I love you, I choose you." And we're in this place, but I don't deserve it. So everything you tell me to do, man, I want to do it because you're now my Lord.

What is it about us Christians? We still want to be the Lord of our lives even after we realize we're sinners on our way to hell. I used to love to do it my way. Anybody else? Some people used here still want to do it your way. Dude, what a mess it makes. Some of you have maybe messy lives today. It's a mess. You say you're a Christian but your life's a mess. What do I say? Give up, walk away? No. Welcome to the club.

But don't stay there. Your life doesn't have to stay a mess. In Jesus Christ, he is the God that heals us. He is the God that strengthens us, he is the God that equips us. He doesn't say, "Hey, I want you to go do this and I'm going to command you to do that," and then not give you the strength to do it. He doesn't enjoy, "Oh, just watch this, there's no way that he's going to be able to do this, watch guys, he is going to fall in his face." That's not God.

He says, "I want you to walk in this way as I'm showing you in my books, my Word. And by the way, I'm going to give you the Comforter, I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit. He's going to come and dwell within you. He's going to do a lot of things, but one of the things he's going to do is he's going to give you the grace to walk in loving obedience with me. You're not going to be perfect because you still have your flesh to contend with, but your goal is to walk after me, deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me."

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill's series in Revelation. It's our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today. If you'd like to share today's message with someone, it's available at our website to either watch or listen, and you can actually download an audio MP3.

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