In the sermon 'Pictures of Hope - An Angel and a Book', Scott Brown expounds on Revelation 10, focusing on the imagery of a mighty angel and an open book. The angel, representing divine power and authority, stands over land and sea, asserting God's control over the chaos depicted in the preceding chapters of Revelation. This interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets serves as a reminder of God's sovereignty and the call to repentance amidst calamities. The sermon emphasizes that while the world may seem dystopian, God remains in control, orchestrating events for His purposes. The little book held by the angel is symbolic of God's word, which is both sweet and bitter, reflecting its comforting promises and challenging truths. Believers are encouraged to internalize the word, find hope in God’s rulership, and remain steadfast in faith, knowing that God's kingdom is unbreakable despite worldly chaos.

Please open to Revelation chapter 10. I'll be reading verses 1 through 11. This is the inerrant and holy, sufficient, sweeter than honey word of truth. Verse 1, 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 the 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. 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 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. 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 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. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, we thank you for shepherding this church by your word, that all these images, these pictures, these words here are for our benefit that they are sufficient that they are in errant they are the leadership of this church here today I praise you for that amen okay please be seated So we're in a section of Revelation of the seven trumpets. This section spans from chapter 8 to chapter 11 And now, you know, arriving at chapter 10, we're actually brought to an interlude in the midst of the blowing of these trumpets.

And then, you know, right at the end of this disclosure of natural disasters, of military disasters, of political disasters, plagues, demonic forces at work in the world, making life miserable for those who serve the devil. In the middle of this chaos is this pause, this interlude. And the chaos has been described as rebellion and unrepentance. And it's really heartbreaking. We saw in previous messages the demons are stinging their followers like scorpions.

The physical abuse, the emotional abuse, the relational abuse, the suicide, it's all pictured there in this release of demonic hordes into the world. You know there's a word that's being used quite a bit in the press today, it's the word dystopia. It means dissatisfaction, not happy with who you are, not happy with how God made you, your gender, your size, your intellect. And this rejection of God just creates a dystopian world and that's the world that we have seen unfolded before our eyes. But while the devil and his angels are out there stinging like his people like scorpions, there's a mighty angel, mightier than he and it's pictured right here.

So the sixth trumpet depicted the demonic hordes and now you have this mighty angel and well the devil hurts his people, God never hurts his people. And this is the mighty angel, the giant that is here in our text. And of course, it's hard to even look at these words without thinking about the chaos in our own world. At the same time there's a mighty angel and he has his feet on the land and the sea and his hand is lifted up toward heaven and he is ruling even though things look like they're out of control. Now you know whenever you're preaching you're always asking what do I want to do?

What am I here to do? And of course, I'm here to explain this text as best I can. That's my first responsibility. But I believe what we have before us here is a fresh vision of the kingdom of God. I pray that that would become clear and you you would see the power of God at work in the world and when you're finished today I want you to say Lord your feet are unstoppable, Lord your covenant is unbreakable.

Your face is life-giving. Your power is like a lion. Your voice is like thunder. I want us to say, Lord, your book is so sweet and it's so real. And I want us to see what's here.

It's difficult to interpret the imagery in Revelation. We know that. Now This interlude that begins in chapter 10 comes on the heels of chapter 9 verse 21 which describes the scene. Now this is the scene of our world in 921 and they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. But in chapter 10, there's a mighty angel at work in the world.

That's the logic of it. You can see the chaos in the world, but don't think about the chaos in this world without thinking of God and what he's doing in the world. And we saw, you know, the first four trumpet judgments were turmoil in the physical world, and then the final three are turmoil in the spiritual world, these demonic influencers that are about the world and there are so much tumult in the world. As long as you live you'll have a front-row seat of turmoil and the calamities of the world. And as long as you live, there'll be time for people to repent, just as there is here.

As long as you live, there will be people who won't repent at the things that God brought into their lives in order to turn them. You know, it's very interesting. I was looking again at A.W. Pink's book, The Sovereignty of God, because this really is a picture of the sovereignty of God. He wrote that book in 1918.

And in the introduction of the book he says, who's regulating affairs on the earth today? God or the devil? That God reigns supreme in heaven is generally conceded that he does so over this world is almost universally denied. And then he says, but who is regulating the affairs on earth today? God or the devil?

Attempt to take a serious and comprehensive look view of the world. Now remember, he's writing in 1918, right around the time of World War I. He says, what A scene of confusion and chaos confronts us on every side. Sin is rampant, lawlessness abounds. Evil men and seducers are waxing worse and worse.

Today, everything appears to be out of joint. Thrones are creaking and tottering. Ancient dynasties are being overturned. Democracies are revolting. Civilization is a demonstrated failure.

Half of Christendom was, but recently, locked together in a death grapple that now, and now that the titanic conflict is over, instead the world having been made safe for democracy, quote unquote, we have discovered that democracy is very unsafe for the world. Unrest, discontent, lawlessness are rife everywhere and none can say how soon another great war will set in motion. And he goes on and on about statesmen and all matters of culture and things that are going on around him. You will always experience calamities in this world. And what we're finding today seems different and new and they do seem to have different twists, but they're not really new fundamentally.

We will see kingdoms fall, we'll see mountains shake, we'll see climates change, We'll see people wrecked from their sins. This is what we will see. And that's what the whole previous section is about. And the whole point of these trumpets is to call the world to repentance, to see the pain and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so these pictures give a sense of the backdrop of the world.

Now, there's something happening behind the curtain and that is that there's a mighty angel. And I've been so helped by one writer on the book of Revelation, Dennis Johnson, his book, Triumph of the Lamb. When evil is everywhere and the world is ripe for judgment, can God protect his own? When economies crash, when civil order falters, and the social fabric frays, when restraint and respect give way to rude aggression and random violence, when greed and animal appetite begin to reign supreme, when consensus and community decompose into culture wars. This question weighs on the hearts of God's people.

Can God keep his little flock safe as they stand, it seems defenseless in the crossfire. Well, that's really the question that I think is being answered in this text. When you see all the trouble and the lack of repentance, Is there any hope? And the answer of course is yes, there is. And this is a picture of hope in the midst of the chaos.

And it's a picture of the kingdom of God and his rulership over the world. So this is the message. Now, in this interlude, in this pause, what seems to me is when you read about all the troubles, it's just easy to lose heart. It's easy to say, who can stand? And God is always before his people to say, no, you can stand because I'm standing.

And I'm standing and my feet are on the land and the sea and my hand is lifted up to heaven. And the message here is for anyone who might be concerned about where things are going in our culture. Are you concerned? If you're concerned, here's what this passage is teaching us. There's no chaos in heaven.

There's a divine being with his feet firmly planted on the land and the sea, and all of the events of the earth are under his dominion, under his foot. And the chaos on earth is not chaos to him. It's choreographed. It's controlled. Nothing is ever out of control in God's world.

And God is always glorifying himself in the judgment of the wicked and the salvation of the lost and the sanctification of his people. He's always bringing many sons to glory. He's always demonstrating his power even particularly through the calamities in the world. Now again just to go back and just talk about how do we interpret this book. The first three verses in the first chapter tell us how to interpret this book.

First of all, it's symbolic, it's pictorial, theology, it's theology in pictures that John saw. They are like films or snapshots or pictures that are put before you to teach you a biblical truth. Secondly, it's a revelation of Jesus Christ. Every page is a picture of Jesus Christ and his power. Third, it's a message of encouragement, because Jesus wins.

What's the book of Revelation about? Two words, Jesus wins and he's ruling and he's reigning and you know God desires to encourage and comfort his people in the midst of the chaos in which they live And then finally the book represents cycles of history that lead up to the Second Coming and there are three of these cycles represented by first of all the seven seals, then the seven trumpets, and then the seven bowls of wrath poured out. These are cycles of history. Each one of them ends in the Second Coming. When we get to the end of the seventh trumpet, this is the Second Coming.

This is in chapter 11, in the last few verses of chapter 11. So this cycle ends in the second coming as the others have as well. And now the things that are happening in Revelation, you know, my view is that these things happened during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, like the partial preterists say. These things have happened in history, like the historicists say. These things have been happening in history like the dispensational say that these are just the last seven years of world history.

These are the things that happen in history. They have always happened and they will continue to happen and they quite likely will escalate in their intensity. So you have this interlude. Now, it's very interesting when you have the seal judgments, there's an interlude between the sixth and the seventh seal. Now we have an interlude between the sixth and the seventh trumpet.

When we get to, you might expect, when we get to the bowl judgments, we'll have an interlude between the sixth and the seventh. It's a pattern that John has. In this passage, you have an angel and a book, but that's not all. In the next chapter you have a reed and we'll get to that next week. But the whole point of this is that God is moving in the world through natural disasters, through plagues, through wars, through actually demonic activity.

He is working in the world so that people would repent. He desires that people would come to the end of themselves and say, I can't take it anymore. I need Jesus Christ. I can't take living for myself anymore. I need Jesus Christ.

I can't atone for my sins. I can't do what's right. I need him. So that's what this whole picture is. So okay, let's look at this angel, this first angel, verses 1 through 7.

You have an outline in front of you. There are two main points here that we'll cover. And the first is this angel. I've called this point the diverse excellencies of the mighty angel. I stole that terminology from Jonathan Edwards.

He speaks of that. I'll speak of this a little bit later. So beginning in verse one, we through four, we read of this mighty angel. And again, we're seeing what's behind the curtain of a chaotic world. And we see an angel.

Now, angels are mentioned over and over again in Revelation over 70 times. There are over 200 references of angels in the Bible. Many of them are in revelation. You can't see them. This is the way it is about angels.

There's a lot to learn about angels from this passage of Scripture. This angel is not seen in the same way that the multitudes of angels, the armies of angels that we read about in 2 Kings 6, verse 17 through 20, were not seen either. What was happening is that a massive army was attacking, and Elisha prayed that God would open the eyes of his servant to see the angels surrounding and protecting them. Nobody could see them but they were there. Millions of angels, armies of angels were there and nobody could see them and we read in 2nd King 6 then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha, not seen to anyone but these two.

In Psalm 34 verse 7, we read that the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. Those who fear the Lord, the Bible says there's an angel camping out wherever you're camping out and he delivers. But it's for those who fear the Lord. In Psalm 68 verse 17 there's this language that I think is reflective of this the chariots of God are ten thousands and thousands of thousands. So there's an angel.

Here's what I want us to recognize. Consider who is near. Consider who is an authority. Consider what kind of authority this is. And it's disclosed as we'll get to that kind of authority that he possesses.

But if when you're trying to figure out your life, whenever you're afraid, remember who's near. The Lord and his angels. The Lord Jesus himself said, I will never leave you or forsake you. Now, who is it? Who is this?

Now, there are only three angels with names in the Bible, Michael and Gabriel and Lucifer. Now, the cherubim and the seraphim are also called angels. This is a mighty angel, and angels play a very big role in the book of Revelation. By the way, angels are not feminine beauties with wings. They are not fat babies with arrows, the way that they're often depicted.

In the Bible, angels are depicted as warriors, and they are called watchers in Psalm 103. They perform military functions in Jeremiah 5. In Revelation 9, they're called stars. Now, they reveal in Revelation 1, 1, in chapter 7, verse 11, there are myriads of them. In chapter 7, verse 1, they're posted on the four corners of the earth in chapter 8 verse 3 they actually carry prayers they convey prayers from earth to heaven in our section they sound trumpets that's what the angels are doing In chapter 14 they gather unbelievers and they crush them in a wine press.

They carry the seven bowls of plagues in chapter 17. In chapter 20 there is an angel with the key to the abyss. In chapter 19 there's an angel standing in the sun. In chapter 2112 there are angels on the gates of the city. Of course, we know in Hebrews that they render service to those who will inherit salvation.

But who is this angel? Now point by point, the attributes of this angel mirror the attributes of Jesus Christ and things that were explicitly said about Christ in chapter 1. His feet are like fine brass. You would just have to go back to chapter 1 verse 15. His feet are like burnished bronze.

And in chapter 1 16, his face is like the sun, just like in this text. In Revelation 4 3, there's a rainbow around his throne. In chapter 14 14, he's clothed with a cloud. And previously we read that he is coming with cloud so these these attributes that we read about are also attributed to Jesus Christ and that's why you know so many commentators say that these are just unmistakable features of divinity. I was just quoting Gregory Beale.

Unmistakable features of divinity. Now, who is this angel? We had a really interesting discussion about this at Bible study on Monday. I've gone back and forth so I here I am convinced I am convinced that this is either an angel like the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament or a mighty angel that just simply reflects the glory of God or it is Jesus Christ himself. I am convinced that it's one of those.

Now whether this angel represents Christ's attributes or is Christ himself, it just is a matter of debate. You can read about the debates, it's very interesting. This is how I will be talking about this this morning. Whether this is Christ or an angel, What is clear is that he represents the excellencies of God and his son and his kingdom. That's what I'm really, really confident in interpreting this.

He's a picture of God's power in the midst of chaos. He's a picture of that song. All night, all day, angels watching over me, my Lord. So you can trust him in the chaos. So if you believe that he is Christ, then see his glory, trust him in the chaos, and remember that he said he would never leave you or forsake you.

If you think he's an angel, then recognize that God has his representatives, and they're beautiful and they're holy and they're powerful and they're here for his people. Now the language here mirrors Old Testament passages. You knew that was going to, I was going to say that. In Daniel chapter 10 verses 5 and 6 you see the same language. Now this is not the only mighty angel in Revelation.

There are two other angels that are called mighty. This is one here in Revelation 5 2 the mighty angel cries out who is worthy to open the scroll. It was a mighty angel who cried that out. If you go back to that picture of outpourings of joy at the throne of God. That's what you find.

It was an angel who said who is worthy to open the scroll. In Revelation 18, another mighty angel shows up And what does he do? He throws a millstone into the ocean. And he's really symbolically describing what kind of violence Babylon will be destroyed with. It's violence, like the throwing of a millstone.

Remember what Jesus said about millstones? Well that's for another discussion, another day. But there are other mighty angels. So let's look at let's look at this one in a little bit more detail. First his origin.

He's coming down from heaven. He's coming down from heaven. He's a heavenly being come to help. Second, his clothing. He's clothed with a cloud.

Now of course in Revelation 14 Christ is coming out of a white cloud and Revelation 1 7 we're told that Christ is coming with clouds you know in his second coming but It's quite likely too that there's more to it than that, that Christ is always coming, He's always coming to His people and He's blessing them. You can read in Daniel 10, 13 and 14 and see imagery of this. You can see the imagery, if it's the second coming in Matthew chapter 24 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven With with power and great glory and he will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to another here you have the angels coming at the same time is the Lord in a cloud. The angels may also be represented here as coming in a cloud. Look at what is on his head.

A rainbow was on his head, which a rainbow symbolizes God's covenant-keeping promises. He promised not to flood the earth and he has kept his covenant and he has sent salvation to his people. He shed his blood. He promised everlasting life to those who would believe and who would call on his name. He's a covenant-keeping God.

This rainbow is on his head, this beautiful rainbow which has been co-opted by the bad guys. But this rainbow is a beautiful rainbow. And then his countenance, his face was like the sun. You know, there's much to say about the face. We shall see his face in Revelation.

I have a whole book called, that's on this whole subject of seeing his face in Revelation. But when you read this kind of language, you think about Christ's face shining upon the faces of his children. Moses' face shining when he saw the Lord. This reflection of the glory of God. Your face reflects the face you're looking at.

If you're looking at the face of Jesus Christ, your face will show it. If you're looking at some silly, stupid, or immoral, you know, picture on your screen, your face will show it. Your whole life will show it. But this is, this angel's face is like the sun. Now if it's the Lord Jesus Christ, his face is like the sun.

If it's an angel, his face is like the sun because he's been looking in the face of Jesus Christ. And then his feet, his feet like pillars of fire, remember earlier the Lord Jesus Christ's feet are described and his feet are unstoppable. Nothing can hold back his hand. Nothing can keep him back from what he's going to do. He is going to do what he's going to do in your life and mine and in the world and he's gonna use absolutely everything happening in your life and in mine and in the world to glorify himself.

So Christians just have, according to this, have no reason to be discouraged about what's going on in the world. And so you see the majesty and the beauty of this mighty angel. Now he's giant, he's a giant. Well is Jesus a giant? Are angels giants?

Jesus a giant, is our angels giants. The picture is that this being owns land and sea And he dominates the environment. He dominates three spheres of the environment. He dominates the land. He dominates the sea.

And he dominates heaven with his hand lifted up to heaven. Three spheres of the environment is under his control. And David spoke of this in Psalm 8 verse 6. If it's the Lord Jesus Christ, You have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet.

All things are under his feet. By the way, when we get to Revelation 13, the beast has his feet planted on the sand. Very, very different. But all things are under his feet. Ephesians 1.23 says, he has put all things under his feet and gave him to behead over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all and all well there's another characteristic he's like a lion verse three and cried with a loud voice as when a lion roars now this is a depiction of power you know in Joel 3 16 we read this, the Lord roars from Zion.

In Amos 3, the voice of God is like the voice of a lion and we read, a lion has roared, who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken, but who can but prophesy? So the lion is roaring, he's like a lion. You see all these characteristics in the midst of the chaos. Jonathan Edwards writes about this.

The lion and the lamb, though very diverse kinds of creatures. He's saying They have particular excellencies. A lion has some excellencies of its kind, and a lamb has excellencies of its kind. They're different. The lion excels in strength and majesty and voice, but the lamb is meek and patient.

And he's talking about the diverse excellencies of Jesus Christ that are pictured in the lion and the lamb. He is both. And then his voice is like thunder verse 3 when he cried 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. Now thunder is always a picture of judgment in the Bible. You can read about that in 1 Samuel 7 and Exodus 9 and Psalm 29, but these are seven thunders.

But John wants to write down what they're all about. He's been writing these judgments down and now he's told don't write these down. Hide them. They will be hidden. Seal them up.

Lock them up and put them away. Don't tell anybody about them." And John, of course, is obedient. God is withholding information from us. That's one thing that we learn. There are things that will happen that we don't know about.

We are not supposed to know about them. God is doing things. There are mysteries and we do not need to know about everything and we don't need to understand everything. And so we ought to be just content with what we have and John did not write them down for us. There are things that will happen that are not prophesied here anyway.

And then look at his commitment and his grasp of all things. The angel takes an oath in verses 5 through 7. The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised 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 So this is an announcement of the next trumpet and the idea is time is running out. The King James Version says time shall be no more. It's not that time ends, It means that the clock has run out.

The hourglass has the sand completely at the bottom. And there's no more time. This is an announcement of that. The same imagery is in Deuteronomy 32 Where the Lord says where I for I raise my hand to heaven and Say as I live forever if I wet my glittering sword and my hand takes hold on judgment I will render vengeance to my enemies and repay those who hate me, I'll make my arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh." And he goes on and on. It's a picture of God's judgment.

And so he lifts up his hand in an oath Daniel 12 7 is a picture of this as well but the timer has run out the counting is over the role is called up yonder you know that you know that song when the role is called up yonder when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more. It's reflected in that song. So we've just seen what Edwards calls the diverse excellencies of Christ. And he's coming down from heaven first, second, he's clothed with cloud, Third, he has a rainbow on his head. Fourth, his face is like the sun.

Fifth, his feet are like pillars of fire. He's like a lion. He has voice like thunder. And he has grasp over the earth and all that's in it, the sea that's all that's in it, and heaven and all that's in it. This is who he is.

Edwards says diverse kinds of creatures have their particular excellencies. And he goes on and on in this sermon about these excellencies. He talks about the infinite highness and the infinite condescension of Christ, The infinite justice and the infinite grace of Christ, the infinite glory and the lowest humility of Christ, the infinite majesty and the transcendent meekness of Christ, the deepest reverence toward God and equality with God, the infinite worthiness of good and the greatest patience under sufferings of evil, exceeding spirit of obedience with supreme dominion. This is Jesus Christ. You have these diverse excellencies of Jesus Christ, or of his representatives who reflect his face.

So, then you see the little book, verse 8, 8-11. Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the on the earth on the sea and on the earth. And so he took the book and he says eat it and it will be sweet as honey but it will be bitter in your stomach. So John is taking and eating, in other words he's incorporating the words of the book and he's charged to deliver what's in the book to the people. He's really being told, take it, eat it, and speak it, those three things.

And it's a book. My view is that it's the Word of God. In Jeremiah 15, 16, we read, 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 O Lord of hosts in Ezekiel chapter 2 Ezekiel's called to eat it and then to preach it but you son of man here what I say to you Do not be like that rebellious house.

Open your mouth and eat what I give you. Now when I looked there was a hand stretched out to me and behold a scroll of a book was in it. Then he spread it before me and there was writing inside and on the outside and written on it were lamentations and mourning and woe. 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 that scroll and 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 that 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 and sweetness." I mean, that's why David in Psalm 119 said, Lord, how sweet are your words to me, sweeter than honey in my mouth. So he eats the word and it's sweet. Like David said it was in Psalm 19, you know, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. And then he says, he says, they are sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb, but then he says moreover By them is your servant warned. They're not just sweet. They are also warnings of things You know when you look at the way that this text is laid out, you have, first of all, this disclosure of this mighty angel, and then you have the Word of God. These two things you must have in the time of chaos.

And it's like water for a parched soul. It's sweet because its promises are so consoling. The commands are so life-giving. They really are the path of life. Moses said they are your life.

Where would you be without the word of God to sustain you, to buoy you up, to change your mind about things? And he ate it, it means he incorporated it into his soul. This is what we're designed to do, is to be changed by it. Not like the man in James who looks at the word and then he goes away and doesn't remember what kind of person he was. It's actually meant to change us.

The word is meant to be ingested. You know, Paul said, let the word of Christ dwell richly. I pray that in this church, that's what we're doing. We're feeding upon the word. You know, if you're dry and parched and discouraged, most likely it's because you're not feeding your soul good things.

You're feeding your soul things that don't nourish. You've got cisterns that don't hold water and you're spending your time on silly things rather than the things that will really build your soul. And so I think this is just a picture of being sustained in the chaos by the word of God. You know, if you've ever had a dog and you put that dog in your truck or in your car and the window's down in your car, you know what that dog is going to do that dog is going to stick his nose out the window or off the side of the truck as far off the side of the truck as he can get his nose and he is going to take in as much you know why he does that? Because he has one hundred thousand times greater ability to smell than you do and he's doing that because he's taking in billions of odors that you can't smell because he has 220 million brain decoding smell senses in his nose.

So he puts his nose out there because he wants more of that. Well that's what we should be like with the Word of God. Lord I want more. You know put your head in that book and saturate your mind with that book, just like a dog does with the wind going down the road. But the word is not just sweet, it's also bitter.

It's a two-edged sword, isn't it? It cuts and the Bible says that the Word of God is a fire, it's a hammer, and it means that the Word of God doesn't always make you feel comfortable. It convicts you. The Word of God exposes you. It warns you.

It can scare you. It shows you who you are. So in one sense, The word of God can be very disturbing. It shows you holiness and you realize how unholy you are. So there's the sweetness, but there's also the bitterness that's there.

When you speak the Word of God, it can be bitter because it causes persecution. If you quote the Word of God in this world, you might have a lot fewer friends. And it breaks your heart as well. It breaks your heart for unbelievers who don't repent, who just can't seem to find it. The Word of God causes division.

The Word of God can cause division in a church. The Word of God can split a church wide open, and that's a good thing if it's the Word of God that did it. So the Word of God is sweet but it's also it can be it can be very bitter. There's so much that the Word of God would call us out of. So then in verse 11, and he said to me, you must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.

So, John is charged to continue to speak of the sweetness of the Word of God and the bitterness of rejecting Christ and the bitterness of the power of that word. And I think it means that we ought to go and do the same, is we should eat it and ingest it and know the sweetness and feel the bitterness and then go out and speak it in the world and let it do its work. And John must just continue to taste and see that the Lord is good and to declare the judgments that are coming on the world. And so the chapter ends that way. So delight, church, in the beauties of God's glory and reflect these things in your church, in your family, in your work, and let your life reflect his face and his feet and his rainbow and his voice and his word and live by the word of God and internalize it and eat it and become a living picture of it and speak of it And if you've been neglecting the daily ingesting of the word of God, let me just say I'm standing here as a man sent from God to urge you to change your ways.

You have time for it. Here's what I know about men. Men always have enough time to do what they want to do. That's just the way it is Don't say do not come and tell me you don't have time. I know that's not true Men do what they want to do and women do what they want to do as well If you've been neglecting the word of God, it means that you have not wanted to do it and it means you need to repent.

You've fallen away from the passion that you need to sustain your life. I would just encourage you to take some time every day. I do it in the morning because everything breaks loose after that and I just sit there and I just read and I say Lord fill my soul teach me something I need something and then I write something down that he taught me. Maybe it's just one line, maybe it's just one verse or one sentence, and I want to carry that through the day. All of us need to be sustained by God in the midst of the chaos of the world.

So let's do it. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it. Father, I pray that you would bless this church. I pray that you would help us to be people of your word and that we would always keep before us a vision of your face and all of your goodness of your kingdom so that we might reflect it as we've just read. Amen.