How are you all doing today?
Awesome.
Hey, we always like to start our Sunday mornings
by saying welcome to anybody that is joining us
in our room for the first time,
and anybody that is joining us online for the first time,
we just wanna say welcome.
We're so glad you're at our worship with us
here today at Hosanna.
I am Pastor Nathan, and this morning,
we are going to attempt to answer some tough questions.
Questions like, why does God allow Satan to run rampant,
seemingly without restraint?
Why doesn't he do something about it?
Why doesn't he just end him, remove him?
I mean, he's God, right?
He has the power.
You know, there's many that struggle
with the apparent conflict between God being holy,
and omnipotent, and almighty,
with him seemingly to not intervene dramatically
against the evil that we see in our world.
And they'll think things like,
if God loves his creation so much,
why does he allow it to suffer so much?
Well, Philip Yancey, in one of his books,
he actually said that there are three questions
that lurk inside all of us,
questions that we might not ask
because they sound like they're a little bit
too unspiritual to ask.
And he said these three big questions
that even believers can be wondering in their head is,
is God unfair?
Is God silent?
And is God hidden?
And wrapped up in these questions
are all the variations of these questions
that we might come up with in our struggle
to understand God and his ways.
Questions like, why won't he just stop the work of Satan?
When will Jesus come back?
When will he come back and make the world
how he wants it to be and how he intends it to be?
Why aren't the wicked destroyed?
Questions as we've seen the tribulation
saints ask in Revelation,
when are the righteous gonna be avenged?
When will God stop waiting?
Well, Revelation answers these questions.
The answers of Revelation are all linked
to what the prophets predicted
as a time period called the Day of the Lord.
This time period is a time period
of final judgment on the earth
that we refer to as the tribulation period,
the 70th week of Daniel,
this last seven year period of history
in this age of earth's history
where God will indeed step in and judge sin.
But then interestingly enough,
in chapter 10 where we are today,
the answers to these questions
seemingly are then further linked to the seventh
trumpet judgment to come later in chapter 11.
Because in Revelation 10, seven it says,
in the days when the seventh angel will blow his trumpet,
then the mystery of God will be completed
as he announced to his servants the prophets.
It's the mystery of God that is the hinge point
to answering some of these difficult questions.
You know, the judgments of God,
they follow a pattern that we've been studying
and seeing here in the book of Revelation.
You often see six judgments, then there's a pause.
There's a break in the action, if you will,
an interlude and then a seventh judgment.
We saw that in the first set of judgments with the seals.
There were six seal judgments, seals that were broken
as the scroll that the lamb had reclaimed there
in heaven was unrolled.
And as those six seals were broken,
we got to a break in the action after the sixth one,
an interlude, where we read there was silence
in heaven for a half an hour,
and then the seventh seal as the trumpets were introduced.
Here we see the same pattern again.
We've looked at six trumpet judgments so far
through chapters eight and nine of Revelation,
and now we get to an interlude, a break,
a parenthetical, if you will,
as we are gonna be looking at chapters 10
and part of 11 next time,
which gives us a glimpse of what's taking place
in this break in the action,
after which then we will see the seventh trumpet sound,
and then later on we'll see the same pattern again
as we see six bowl judgments, a pause, and then a seventh.
But during those pauses, during those interludes,
during those parentheticals,
some things take place as recorded here in Revelation,
and things that are just more information to us.
You see, much like an author might be using a parenthetical
as they're given a chronological narrative,
they might stop and go meanwhile,
and in the parenthetical they will tell you
some other things that are taking place
where we get this information, additional information,
to understand what we've been reading,
to understand where we're at and what is happening,
and it also serves to be a break in the action
because if you look at the judgments of Revelation
chronologically like I do,
you see that these judgments
have been escalating in intensity,
escalating in their destructive intensity on the earth,
and after six it's almost like, okay, take a breath,
hold on before it gets worse,
and so we see this break in the action,
this holding your breath like we're right before
the next big drop, and so this whole progression, however,
what I see in these six judgments, pause, seventh,
six judgments, pause, seventh,
is really a neat picture of God's heart.
You see, it is not God's joy to bring the judgment
of the tribulation period.
He is not excited about it.
He is not jumping for joy to unleash it.
It breaks his heart, and as he is dropping these judgments
in each step, we see God holding back a little bit,
not unleashing the full power of his wrath,
but unleashing a little bit, then a little bit more,
then a little bit more, and a little bit more,
all while waiting for those falling under that judgment
to repent of their sin, to turn from their wicked ways
and to turn towards him, and so we see that God's judgment
is mingled with mercy, a picture we see
all through the Bible, that his judgment is mingled
with mercy, and each pause in Revelation
demonstrates that mercy, and so the interlude
we are looking at this morning in chapter 10
centers around this mighty angel
that is gonna be described here,
and a little bitty scroll,
and it answers the age-old question,
why does God delay and allow sin to reign
and abound in our world today?
But let's pray, and then we'll open with some time
of worship before we get into the word this morning.
Father God, Lord, Revelation is difficult.
It is scary and heartbreaking to see what is to come
when you finally judge sin on this earth.
But Lord, in the process of waiting for that time
to come, God, sometimes we could be just concerned, Lord,
about what we see taking place in the world, Lord,
the evil we see today.
God, we do understand that the evil we see today
is nothing compared to the evil as we move forward
and what will be taking place in the world
during tribulation, God, and even that is hard to fathom.
But Lord, we know that your delays aren't neglect,
your delays aren't you being slack in your promises, Lord.
Your delays have a purpose.
There's a reason, God, and they show that your heart
is that you desire all to be saved.
Lord, you waited for us, and you're still waiting
for others to come to know you, God.
Help us to understand your will in the delay.
Help us to understand your purpose in the waiting, God,
that even when we are the ones that are the victims
of suffering, Lord, we would be able to look at that
with long-suffering, God, with the heart of God saying,
Lord, the time is coming when sin will be judged,
but we're not there yet because people still
need to be saved.
Lord, encourage us today.
We love you, we thank you.
It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
With that, we are in Revelation chapter 10,
if you wanna turn there or swipe there.
It says in verse one, then I saw another mighty angel
coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud
with a rainbow over his head.
His face was like the sun, his legs were like
pillars of fire, and he held a little scroll
opened in his hand.
He put his right foot on the sea, his left on the land,
and he called out with a loud voice, like a roaring lion.
Now, the events of chapter 10 and part of chapter 11
take place between the sixth and seventh trumpet judgments.
This is the interlude I was talking about in the opening.
And so the description of this interlude opens
with the description of this very unusual messenger.
And I use that word messenger because if you remember,
the word that is translated angel there
is a Greek word that simply means messenger.
It is a neutral word, it doesn't specifically refer
to supernatural beings only, it means a messenger.
It could be a human messenger, it could be
a supernatural messenger, it could be a few different
interpretations of that, and so usually it's the context
around the word where we then understand
whether it refers to an angelic supernatural being
as we understand angel or something else.
Here, I do believe it refers to an angelic,
supernatural angelic being.
And as we've mentioned before, angels are all over
Revelation, they're referred to some 60 different times
throughout this Revelation, this book.
And angels in this supernatural sense, as you see them
in Revelation, are supernatural messengers of God.
They operate on God's behalf, they're very special,
unusual creatures, but what's specifically unusual
about them is biblically much of their work,
much of what they do revolves around little old us.
Human beings, God's creation, the apples of his eye
as the scriptures describe it, and so we can understand
at least a little bit or maybe understand why
these angels are tasked with ministering to us.
But Hebrews chapter one verse 14 tells us this.
Are they not all ministering spirits sent out
to serve those who are going to inherit salvation?
In that first chapter of Hebrews they're talking
about the angels, it refers to them,
and it asks this question, aren't they all ministering
spirits sent out to serve those who are going
to inherit salvation?
So angels are like God's army, if you will.
God's set of people doing God's work, people,
not people in our sense, but God's army doing God's work
on earth for God's people.
That's who the angels are.
Most of us probably go through our days,
our day-to-day living, we don't really think
about angels too much, you know?
We don't wake up going, oh, are there angels here?
Get up, and are there angels around me
and drive down the street?
Oh, thanks angels for flying next to me and keeping me safe.
You know, we don't necessarily think of those terms, right?
But angels exist, and they're ministering to us,
as the Bible tells us, during all of our good
and bad choices.
Now we can't forget that biblically we know
that there's a lot of angels, a uncountable multitude,
as the Bible describes it.
And the Bible does tell us that a third
of this uncountable multitude of angels fell with Satan
in the original rebellion.
And we could find ourselves over-focusing on that, right?
You know, the demons, the fallen angels,
and forget that if one third fell,
that means two thirds did not.
So what that tells us is that fallen angels
are outnumbered by good angels.
And the good ones, the Bible tells us,
are sent out to minister to, or to serve,
those who are gonna inherit salvation.
So angels are around us as God's people, serving,
according to what God wants,
and God's will, following his instructions.
And we might not know until heaven
how much, precisely, they have served in our well-being.
You know, I think that those that are assigned to serve me,
in most cases, have qualified for overtime
and hazard pay for most of my life.
But they're serving, and they're serving at God's behest.
But this particular angel in Revelation 10
is very spectacular, very specific.
It's not a trumpeting angel like we've seen
as these angels have been sounding
these six trumpets of judgment.
So who is this angel?
Who is this mighty angel?
There are two major thoughts, there's variations within,
but there's two major interpretations
on who this mighty angel is.
Now the first major interpretation is,
due to the description, people go, it's Jesus.
It's an appearance, a picture of Jesus Christ himself.
And there's a number of reasons
that people will interpret it that way.
One, people will say, well, in the Old Testament,
Jesus is called the angel of the Lord many times,
so it's not unusual to say an angel could be Jesus himself.
The description here says that he is wrapped in a cloud,
and that word wrapped means clothed in a cloud.
And you go through the Bible, especially the Old Testament,
you'll often see God with the clouds.
In Luke 21 and Matthew 24, Jesus himself said,
you'll see the Son of Man coming with the clouds
in great glory, right, so people associate that.
Back in Revelation chapter one,
when John had this revelation of Jesus Christ,
and it was God himself appearing as the Alpha and the Omega,
it said there specifically
that he was coming with the clouds,
so again, connections there.
Here in Revelation, this angel is described
having a face like the sun and legs like pillars of fire.
Some will go, well, that sounds like the description
of Jesus in Revelation chapter one,
where his feet were like fired bronze and whatnot.
This rainbow being over this angel's head,
well, that harkens back to Revelation chapter four, right?
There was a rainbow that surrounded the throne of God.
And then when it says his voice
was like the voice of a roaring lion,
well, the prophets, specifically Joel in chapter three,
verse 16, said the Lord will roar from Zion,
and so there's a connection that people make there.
And then Revelation five, we read that Jesus is the lion
of the tribe of Judah, right?
So for that and some other reasons,
people go this mighty angel is Jesus, right?
The second major interpretation of this
is that it could be exactly what it says.
Another mighty angel, okay?
And the reasons for this are,
one is that John, especially at this point
in his Revelation and being in heaven
and watching all that's taken place,
seeing the four creatures and seeing the multitude of angels,
John knew the difference between the lamb of God,
Jesus Christ, and the angels as far as their appearance.
But specifically, John most often referred to Jesus
with a definitive article,
especially when he was using a metaphor.
The definitive article is the.
So when he refers to Jesus as the lion
of the tribe of Judah, it's the lion of the tribe of Judah.
When he refers to Jesus as the lamb, it's the lamb,
not another lamb, not another lion of the tribe of Judah,
if you're following me there.
And that ties into that word another,
which is very specific.
In the Greek, it's the word alos,
which means another of the same kind.
So essentially what John is saying here
is he saw a mighty angel like other mighty angels he's seen.
There's a few different Greek words for the word another
that we have in English that can be used
to refer to things in this way,
but John specifically chose the word alos here.
If he was referring to Jesus,
it's very likely he would have used this Greek word heteros,
which means another of an entirely different kind, right?
Because Jesus is entirely different from the angels.
But John specifically used the word alos here.
Plus, there's nowhere where there's really a biblical case
that Jesus returns to the earth
at the midpoint of tribulation,
which is kind of where we're at congregationally,
or chronologically.
And then in verse five and six,
we're gonna read that this particular mighty angel
oaths, or he swears to the creator of heaven
and the creator of earth and all that is in it.
He kind of makes an oath to the creator.
And then according to Colossians one, verse 15 and 16,
it tells us that Jesus is the creator.
So for those reasons,
people say this mighty angel isn't Jesus.
Some say it is.
I lean towards the second one personally.
But ultimately, Revelation doesn't tell us exactly.
And we have learned over and over and over
that we gotta be careful over speculating into things
that scripture doesn't necessarily clarify for us
because sometimes that can lead us
to erroneous interpretation.
So ultimately, Revelation doesn't tell us
exactly who it is.
And so whether you believe this is Jesus,
or whether you believe it's what it says,
another mighty angel of the same kind
as other mighty angels,
the point is, is this opening here,
this interlude, is a picture of God
putting his foot down, so to speak, okay?
Whether it's his messenger on his behalf or whatever,
God is putting his foot down.
This is what we're seeing at this point in Revelation.
Satan has been running rampant,
allowed to run rampant for years and decades
and centuries at this point.
At this particular point in Revelation,
earth is falling apart.
Earth has been judged.
And for so long before this tribulation period,
God has been patient with mankind.
Patient with the evil that mankind perpetrates.
Whether it's prompted by the devil
or whether it's prompted by our own flesh
and our own sinful fallen nature,
God has been patient.
But here and now, after the sixth trumpet,
in anticipation of the seventh trumpet,
which ushers in the seven bowls,
we see this mighty angel step forward,
his feet straddling the land and the sea.
And that's just a picture of authority.
It's declaring God's authority over all of creation.
And again, the idea here is, look, fallen man,
sinful man, you have been worshiping the creation
rather than the creator.
And what God has been trying to say to man
as he's judging creation itself is,
creation isn't God, I am.
I'm God Almighty.
In fact, the thing you're worshiping, I created.
So you should be worshiping me, the creator.
But we're gonna look at that a little bit more
when we get to this angel's declaration.
So again, verse three.
The angel's voice is like a roar of a lion
and it says, when he cried out,
the seven thunders raised their voices.
And when the seven thunders spoke,
I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven
saying, seal up what the seven thunders said
and do not write it down.
So this mighty angel is standing,
straddling the land and the sea,
and he calls out with a loud voice
and then it says, the thunders speak out.
And what did the thunders say?
We don't know.
Nobody knows what the thunders said.
Why?
John was told not to write it down.
He didn't write it down so we don't know.
Which is interesting in and of itself
because we've talked a lot about this book, Revelation.
This is the book of Revelation.
And that word, Revelation itself,
means an unveiling, right?
It's an unveiling, specifically,
it's a revelation of Jesus Christ
and an unveiling of who he is.
But whatever was said here by these thunders
in response to this angel,
John was told, seal it up, don't record it.
And it's the only place in Revelation
where John is told to not record something
that he saw and heard.
So it's very interesting, but what's the point?
What's the point of that?
Like if God didn't want us to know what the thunders said,
why tell us the thunders said something
and then record specifically that you told John
not to record it so we wouldn't know what they said?
You ever been there?
Someone goes, I heard something, and you go, what is it?
And they're like, I can't tell you.
Why'd you even mention it then?
Like what is the point of that?
Why?
Well, this is what I think is why.
We as God's people need to know that there are times
when God doesn't wanna tell us everything.
And he doesn't have to tell us anything
because he is God.
He is God Almighty.
God doesn't owe us any explanations at all.
And we need to be okay with that.
We can wonder what about this God?
What about that God?
Why God, especially when we're suffering,
especially when we're hurting,
especially when we look around the world
and we see what is taking place in the evil
and some of these things we're just like, oh my gosh,
I don't understand why God.
But in asking those questions, in thinking those thoughts,
in wondering those things, we could then expect
or demand almost that God should give us answers,
that he should answer us.
I demand you answer me, God.
And he doesn't owe us an answer.
When he answers, praise the Lord, what a blessing.
But he doesn't owe us any answers.
I had someone ask me last week after the Bible study,
why is it that when a Christian is doing good things
and honoring the Lord and doing all this
and doing everything right, that things still happen,
bad things still happen?
I was like, well first, there's no such thing
as a Christian doing everything right all the time.
But not withstanding that, I go, why don't you go ask Job?
Because Job might be able to answer that question.
And they didn't like that answer.
But think about it, would an answer really help
in most cases?
I mean, is an answer really what we need?
I mean, imagine if you will, you have a loved one pass, right?
And many of us have experienced that.
And sometimes we have a loved one pass,
we go, God, why did you let that happen?
Especially if it was something tragic, right?
God, why did you allow that?
Why did you take them that way?
How could a God of love allow that to happen to somebody?
And what if he answered you?
What if he said, okay, well, let me break down
the rationale behind everything I did and why,
and let me know exactly in the picture of eternity
and everything, exactly why that took place.
Would that make you feel better,
or would you still have the pain of the loss?
Most of us would still have the pain of the loss.
In the moments of suffering, in the moments of difficulty,
we don't need a reason.
What we need is a resource to get through it.
We don't need to know why necessarily,
we just need the strength to persevere
as we grieve and as we heal.
And the big picture is that there are certain things
that we are simply unable to comprehend
about God and what he does.
That's just reality, he's infinite.
We're not.
He's almighty, we're all messed up.
We're not God, God is God.
And to expect that our tiny human,
limited human minds can comprehend the thoughts
in the mind of God to think that is naive at best
and arrogant at worst.
Now again, it's not wrong to ask questions.
By no means, it's not wrong to wonder why
when things happen that by no means.
But if God doesn't answer the question
when you're asking that question,
we have to trust his judgment.
That's called faith.
Hebrews 11 one says, now faith is the reality
of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.
Faith is God, I don't understand but I trust you.
God, my limited human mind can't even fathom a reality
of why you would allow this thing to happen
but I'm not God and I have to trust you God
because you are God.
It's incongruent for us to say I have faith in God.
I have faith in God.
It's incongruent for us to say I have faith in God.
I trust God and then fall to anger and despair
and doubt at times when he doesn't answer our questions
right away or at all.
God knows what's best in all things at all times.
We have to know that.
We need to grow to be okay with that
because there are gonna be times in our lives
where we ask why God and he doesn't answer us
and that's the best thing for us in that time.
That includes what he allows us to know,
what answers and reasons he allows us to have.
We have to trust him and sometimes as I said
the best thing is for reasons only known to God
is that we aren't given the reasons.
And you guys remember Jesus said to the disciples
at one point, I have many things to share with you
but you can't bear them now.
J.I. Packer said this, we should not pry into God's secrets.
We are to be content to live with what he has told us.
Reverence excludes speculation about the things
God has not mentioned in his word.
We must be content not to know
what the scripture does not tell us.
So what did the thunder say?
We don't know.
And there is so much written,
spend some, don't spend some time, I did on your behalf.
Books and websites and blogs and volumes and volumes
and volumes of stuff on this is what the thunder said.
Don't waste your time.
We don't know what the thunder said, we're not to know
and we're to be okay with that, amen?
But we do know what the angel here said
so let's look at that, verse five.
Then the angel that I had seen standing on the sea
and on the land raised his right hand to heaven.
He swore by the one who lives forever and ever
who created heaven and what is in it,
the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it.
There will no longer be a delay,
but in the days when the seventh angel
will blow his trumpet, then the mystery of God
will be completed as he announced to his servants
the prophets.
So it says he raised his right hand and he swore.
The picture of that is what we might see in a courtroom.
That word swear means to take an oath.
It means taking an oath where you are affirming
the truth and the certainty of what you're about to say.
In court you'll go and sometimes they used to,
I don't know if they do it anymore,
swearing into Congress, put your hand on a Bible,
raise your hand.
I swear that what I'm about to say is the truth,
I'll tell you about the truth, right?
But the idea is that when you do that,
and the whole idea of putting your hand on the Bible,
when they would do that is that you're promising
by invoking a divine witness
that what you're about to say is true.
And so we would understand, people would say,
phrase God is my witness, right?
They're invoking a divine witness,
the highest divine witness to affirm
what they're saying is true.
And so notice here who that divine witness is.
It says the angel invokes the creator
of the very creation he is standing upon.
So the first thing is he invokes the character
of that creator.
He says the one who lives forever and ever.
You can't be much more above and over creation
than to be the one who created time and space itself,
and therefore being outside or not subject to time and space.
And so the one who lives forever and ever,
who is infinite, who is eternal,
and then he invokes the authority of the creator,
who's the one who created the heaven and the earth
and the sea and everything in them.
And so by this point of tribulation,
the land, the sea, the fresh water, the trees,
I mean, much of the environment has been devastated
as God has been trying to get people to understand,
look, the mountains and the rocks aren't gonna save you,
only I can save you.
So stop trusting in the false gods
that you have raised up made of the creation I created, stop.
So this angel is swearing by the one who created it all.
And by doing that, he is saying that the one
who created it all is the one who has power
and authority over it all because he is God.
And so the judgment that is coming,
the escalating judgment that is about to come,
it's on those who worship the creation
rather than the creator.
And this should not be an unfamiliar concept for us
because Paul addressed this in Romans chapter one.
In Romans one, starting in verse 18, Paul said this,
for God's wrath is revealed from heaven
against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people
who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
What is the truth?
Since what can be known about God is evident among them
because God has shown it to them.
For his invisible attributes,
that is his eternal power and divine nature,
has been clearly seen since the creation of the world
being understood through what he has made.
As a result, people are without excuse.
For though they knew God,
they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude.
Instead, their thinking became worthless
and their senseless hearts were darkened.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God
for images resembling mortal man,
birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.
Therefore, God delivered them over
in the desires of the hearts to sexual impurity
so that their bodies were degraded among themselves.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie
and worshiped and served what has been created
instead of the creator who is praised forever.
Amen.
You see, the world, the universe,
and all within it was created.
It was created.
It didn't just happen by some evolutionary accident.
It wasn't the right accidental combination
of the right amino acids at the right time
with the right star that exploded,
and you throw it all together and poof, life.
That's silly.
That's just, it's silly thinking.
And yet, very educated people still hold to these truths.
And what does the scripture tell us?
Claiming to be wise, they became fools.
People refused to acknowledge that creation was created.
They still do, and why?
Because they want their sin.
That's what the Bible tells us.
They want choice without consequence.
And the easiest way to remove the consequence from my choice
is to say there is no morality.
There is no right and wrong.
We're just an existence that happened by accident,
and when we die, nothing happens,
and so therefore, there is no standard of righteousness.
And so they exchanged the truth of God,
which is clearly seen in his creation.
Romans tells us, for the lie.
The lie that we're all just random accidents of evolution.
So morality doesn't really exist,
or at least morality is relative.
Right?
Your truth is your truth.
My truth is my truth.
So just do what you want.
Do what you want.
Live however you want.
Indulge.
And what we're seeing in reading in Revelation
is that one day, the judgment for that will come.
It will come, and it will be severe.
But this mighty angel, what he says under oath, verse 6,
there will no longer be a delay.
But in the days when the seventh angel will blow his trumpet,
then the mystery of God will be completed
as he announced to his servants the prophets.
And so the time is coming and will come
where God says, time's up.
I have been patient.
I have delayed.
I had bared, bore what mankind does.
But I'm no longer waiting.
Time has run out.
But today we ask, why the delay?
Why, God, when so much evil is happening,
why don't you do something about the evil?
Why don't you do something about the wicked?
And really, it's a mystery to us, isn't it?
It's a mystery.
We're trying to reconcile holiness with allowing evil,
goodness with allowing bad.
And we don't get it.
And it has been a mystery since the very beginning.
And I believe it's the mystery that is referenced here
in Revelation chapter 10, the mystery that will be complete.
And that word complete means be fulfilled or fully come
to pass in the days of the seventh trumpet.
Now, the days of the seventh trumpet, when we get there,
we're going to see that the seventh trumpet ushers
in the seven bowl judgments.
And these seven bowl judgments are seven severe final
judgments on those who refuse God.
These bowl judgments are understood to take place
at the very tail end of the tribulation period.
Some even suggest that the bowl judgments all take place
within the last 30-day period of history.
And so it's just this rapid succession of judgments.
We'll deal with that when we get there.
But the idea is that in the days of this final pouring out
of judgment, the mystery will be complete.
And so what is the mystery?
What is the mystery of God as it is referred to here?
The mystery that was announced to the prophets.
Well, I believe that the mystery of God is the purpose
of God's silence.
It's the answer to that question, why God delay his
apparent lack of action towards sin and evil.
I believe the mystery of God is the very answer to when we
ask that question, God, why do you delay?
Why do you keep waiting?
You see, the prophets all spoke of God speaking from heaven,
saying one day, roaring from the heavens like a lion,
that God said that there will be a day, a time,
of cataclysmic judgment on sin.
That all the prophets said that God will judge sin.
He's gonna judge the world and the sin in the world.
And they all spoke of it, this time where God would
intervene in human history and judge the earth.
They were all speaking of it and they predicted it over
and over and over.
But since their predictions back in the Old Testament
and the prophets speaking, there's been this long delay.
This long delay where judgment hasn't happened.
Where Satan is apparently just running wild,
carte blanche all over the world.
And God's people in that time have been left wondering,
God, when are you gonna restore your kingdom?
Right, when Jesus rose from the dead,
what did the disciples ask him?
Will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?
Is now the time in Jesus, in Acts chapter one, verse seven,
he said to them, it is not for you to know the times
or the periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
Again, God doesn't have to tell you everything.
Walter Scott, who was a poet in England, said this once,
does it not seem strange that Satan has been allowed
for 6,000 years to wrap and twist his coils
around the world and to work evil
and spoil and mar the work of God?
Is it not a mystery why God, the God of righteousness
and holiness allows evil to go unpunished
and his own people to be crushed and broken on every hand?
Truly, this is the mystery of God.
God bears with evil until the hour of judgment arrives
when he will avenge the cry of his elect
and come out of his place to punish the wicked.
Evil, now tolerated and allowed, will be openly punished
and then the mystery will be at the end.
Christ is about to reign.
So today, we live in that delay,
we live in the time of the mystery.
We live in this time that often cause us to ask why God?
And I believe the answer to that question
is sprinkled throughout God's word.
In 1 Timothy chapter two, verse four,
it tells us this about God,
that he wants everyone to be saved
and come to the knowledge of the truth.
Guess what everyone, who everyone includes?
Everyone.
That's tough for us, isn't it?
There are certain crimes people could commit
and we're saying, we, I'm in that boat with you, no, no, no,
you're the one that deserves eternal hell, no salvation.
And yet God includes that person in everyone.
And there are crimes out there
we're all thinking of right now.
Not that person, not that person.
Not that person, even the most evil of sinners God loves.
And he wants to save them and transform them
and redeem them and so he is patient, the Bible tells us.
He is patient and we sometimes can't understand
why he would wait, why he would delay,
but he delayed for you, he delayed for me.
Who are we to dare say, yeah,
but that person doesn't qualify?
That person doesn't qualify.
Well, I didn't do what they did.
God's like, yeah, I knew you were gonna say that
and so guess what, all who fall short,
all who sin and fall short of the glory of God
are worthy of the judgment.
That sin is sin.
And yeah, we see scales in that.
And there are definitely things we might say,
well, that has to be worse than this.
And from man's limited tiny mind perspective,
sure, we can delineate things
and I don't even say that's wrong.
But all of that compared to the holiness of Almighty God,
all of it is sin.
Sin that had to be judged.
Sin that was judged at the cross.
And at the cross, that salvation was then offered
to everyone who would call on the name of Jesus Christ.
To say, God, I've sinned against you and you alone.
It doesn't matter what the person next to me did,
I sinned against you.
God, please forgive me.
And God says, I was waiting for that.
And he goes, boom, he offers salvation
through the blood of Jesus Christ.
So our faith in what he's done and what he did
and who he is, we're saved.
And he's still patient.
He is still patient.
So every sinner would have the opportunity
to receive salvation.
That's why I believe that every time a sinner is saved,
we're not immediately caught up to heaven.
Right?
When I was younger in my faith, I used to ask God that.
Lord, I don't understand.
I believe in you, I'm saved.
I trust in you.
I plead the blood of Jesus Christ.
I'm washed clean.
And you left me here?
Come on.
I'm reading about heaven in your word.
Like, let's go.
Like, can you believe that?
I'm reading about heaven in your word.
Like, let's go.
Like, can I buy a ticket?
I mean, how do I, what do I do?
And the Lord spoke to me over and over.
He goes, yeah, you're saved.
What about your mom?
Well, Lord, she doesn't know you yet.
Well, you got work to do, don't you?
What about the barista?
Checker at the grocery store, what about the coworkers?
What about the, right?
And it just, and then it becomes this like sea of people,
and I'm like, wow.
There's a lot of people that still don't know Jesus Christ
that I have personal connections with.
Well, got work to do, right?
Acts 1-8 says this.
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem
and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
Disciples to Jesus, hey, Jesus,
are you gonna restore the kingdom now?
It's not for you to know that, but guess what?
You're gonna receive power to be witnesses
into all the earth.
But there is a mighty angel posed somewhere in the heavens
who will one day blow the seventh trumpet
and say, it's over.
The delay, the silence, the waiting,
it's over, it's completed.
The purpose of that is fulfilled.
What do I think that means?
It's everybody that is saved is saved.
The number is complete, the number is fulfilled.
Nobody else is gonna call out to me.
I know that, why?
I'm God, I'm outside of time, I see the end.
And so final judgment is gonna fall.
Severe, brutal final judgment is gonna fall.
It is over, and what will be said to the devil
and the demons at that time?
You're done.
And it says the devil will be cast into the bottomless pit
and bound for a thousand years.
And God will say to the unbelievers,
you had your opportunity, but the time has passed.
And God will say to the believers,
your persecution and your suffering is over.
Let's close real quick on what the angel then says to John.
Then the voice that I heard from heaven spoke to me again
and said, go, take the scroll that lies open
in the hand of the angel who is standing
on the sea and the land.
So I went to the angel and asked him
to give me the little scroll,
and he said to me, take and eat it.
It will be bitter in your stomach,
but it will be sweet as honey in your mouth.
Then I took the little scroll from the angel's hand
and ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth,
but when I ate it, my stomach became bitter.
And they said to me, you must prophesy again
about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.
And so, remember the mighty angel, right?
He's the one that's been here in this whole chapter,
feet on the land and sea, and verse two told us
that he was a mighty angel with a little scroll in his hand.
And he gives it to John and he says, eat it.
Now that's kind of weird, right?
But what is this little scroll?
Again, many different ideas,
but it's not the scroll that Jesus took,
the scroll that had the seven seals that he opened.
It's not that scroll.
This one is qualified.
It says little scroll, right?
That's one Greek word, and it's a Greek word
that is different from the Greek word used
to describe the scroll that Jesus took
from the hand of the one who sits on the throne.
The one that Jesus took, the Greek word is biblion.
It means scroll.
The word John used here is bibli-daryon.
It means little scroll.
It's a different piece of writing,
but when we look at what John does with it
and we look at what verse 11 tells us,
we get the idea that the contents of the scroll
is likely the rest of what John
is gonna prophesy in Revelation.
He's getting the final piece of the picture.
The angel says, eat it and then prophesy.
Now we've all read a book.
Hopefully we've all read a book
like we couldn't put it down, right?
You ever read a book and you're just like,
wow, I just devoured that book.
You ate it, right?
The idea is like you took it in.
You consumed it.
That's what the idea of eating means.
It means to fully assimilate or to take something in.
This is language the Bible uses a few different times.
Jeremiah 15, 16.
He says, your words were found and I ate them.
Your words became a delight to me and the joy of my heart,
for I bear your name, Lord God of armies.
Psalms 119, 103 says, how sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey in my mouth.
This picture of the word of God being something
that we're to consume and assimilate,
it's all over the place.
Jesus himself, he likened scripture to bread, right?
Remember in the wilderness when he was being tempted.
Peter likened scripture to milk.
The idea here is that we see biblically
that we're to feed on the word of God, to feed on it.
Not just to underline a verse here and there.
Not just to log into our Bible app and go,
oh, verse of the day, that's cute,
and to post that on our social media.
I mean, do that, right?
I mean, we're getting the word out, but not only that.
We're to feed on it.
We're to bring it into what we are.
John is saying, don't just read my word,
but take it into you, eat it.
Let it become an integral part of your life.
And that's what the word of God,
all of God's word should do.
Become an integral part of who we are.
Not just an outside thing we engage with periodically,
but an inward thing that is a part
of the very fabric of who we are.
And so this is the picture we see here
when the angel says, John, eat this.
And so this particular word of God that John eats,
it's sweet at first and then bitter in his stomach.
Looking at the prophecy that comes and everything,
I believe the sweetness is referring to the fact
of the truth that, oh, we're almost at the end.
Jesus is about to reign.
Jesus is about to step up and take over.
The end of sin is upon mankind.
Sin and evil will be dealt with.
Jesus is gonna reign.
How sweet that truth is.
We look forward to that truth, don't we?
We're excited for Jesus to come back and him to reign.
And that's the whole purpose of this book.
It's the revelation of Jesus Christ.
That's sweet.
He's gonna take back the earth.
He's gonna reassert his lordship over all that,
his rulership, redeem it all.
But then it's also bitter
because of what's still to come upon the earth,
on the peoples, nations, languages, and kings.
And the word of God can be that way for us too today.
It could be both bitter and sweet.
Right, I mean, not all of the word of God
is sweet to us in all times.
I think most of us probably underline highlight
or social media posts, just the sweet verses.
Right, I don't see a lot of Instagram posts of like,
and hellfire and brimstone will fall apart.
It's like, no, it's the I love yous and stuff like that.
And those are sweet.
They're beautiful.
We read those things and there's joyful assurance
and promises and stuff and that's part of scripture.
But other times there's scripture
which is equally God's word that calls us out
and rebukes us and rebukes our behavior
and stirs us to change.
So the word of God, it's both sweet and bitter.
Right, the same beautiful gospel message
that leads some to heaven through accepting Jesus
will condemn some to hell through the rejection of him.
But every child of God, all of us,
we should read all of it.
We should feed on all of it.
We should declare all of it and that's why
we've said many times here at Hosanna, right?
We study and teach and preach all of it.
That's why we go verse by verse.
That's how I was trained.
That's how Pastor Gary was trained before me, right?
We start in Genesis 1-1.
We get to the end of Revelation and then guess what?
We start over in Genesis 1-1.
We don't get to the end of Revelation and say,
well, church is done.
Have a nice life.
But we keep going through it.
And some of it is good as in sweet like candy.
Oh, that's really just, oh.
And some of it is good for us like cough syrup.
It's bitter but it's healthy.
It's necessary.
So, you know, in the big picture, you know,
I don't wanna be a pastor who only comes up with messages
that make you feel good and warm and fuzzy
inside all the time.
As we teach the word and are faithful to the word
here in our church, you know, I fully understand
that sometimes you might be mad at me.
I'm just the messenger, you know.
But Paul, he said this in Acts chapter 20.
He goes, therefore I declare to you this day
that I am innocent of the blood of all of you
because I did not avoid declaring to you
the whole plan of God.
And that's what we do as a church.
We wanna declare the whole plan of God, right?
But Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon said this.
He goes, many, when hearing a sermon,
sometimes ask, how did you enjoy it?
If you always enjoy sermons,
your minister is not a good steward.
He is not acting wisely who deals out nothing but sweets.
God's people need that the word should at times
be medicine to them.
So let's end with this question we opened with here.
Why does God delay and allow sin to reign and abound today?
It's because God is incredibly patient and longsuffering.
And God's desire in this age of grace
is that he doesn't want any to perish,
but all, everyone to come to repentance.
That is his heart, that is his desire.
And yes, God could just with a mere thought
wipe out every wicked person.
All who cause suffering, he could do that.
But then when does he start that?
You know, most of us will go, well, right after I got saved.
And no, it's when God decides according to God's calendar.
And so he waits patiently for even the worst to turn to him.
And here's the deal.
God created each one of us with free will.
He did, he created all of us with a free will,
the ability to make choices.
He created us with the ability to choose to say,
God, I don't believe in you, I hate you,
I'm gonna live however I want.
And in God's infinite understanding and wisdom,
because of that free will that he created within us,
sometimes if someone is saying, I don't want God,
if they say that all the way to the end of their life,
God will honor that choice.
He won't force them to believe in him.
That doesn't mean he condones their choice.
That doesn't mean he's happy about what they're doing,
but he'll honor their right to choose.
And that's what's tough for us to deal with.
As he is waiting, okay, you're still gonna reduce
me, I'm gonna keep waiting patiently for you to repent.
You know, the Bible says all have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God.
Unfortunately, the scale of what is bad,
really bad and not so bad at all,
that scale, it's not set by us.
It's not set by us, it's set by God.
It's his standard of righteousness.
Even though many of us like to measure ourselves
against the standard we set, especially when it comes
to our own determination of who God should
and shouldn't judge and strike down.
Now, I don't say any of this to diminish suffering
and diminish persecution.
I don't say this to diminish the atrocity
that is some of the things that we read in our world today.
But we ultimately have to trust God.
God who possesses all love, all mercy, all grace,
all patience, and makes every decision he makes
in every circumstance based on his perfect capacity
for all love, all mercy, all grace, and all patience.
And as we continue as witnesses praying
and trusting in his perfect will
and his perfect understanding, even when we don't understand
why he waits for those who are waiting for him,
why he waits for those evil sinners,
we trust in his perfect will that waited for us.
We trust in his infinite perfect understanding
that waited for us who are sinners as well to repent.
And we pray for those who haven't yet repented
while praying for God to protect and work against evil
and trust that the day is coming.
We know the day is coming, that justice will come.
We know the day is coming where God is gonna say enough
and pour out wrath upon this earth.
But like God, we shouldn't look at that
with eagerness and glee.
It should break our heart
that any would perish without Christ.
And hopefully that heart that God has
that he would want everyone to come to be saved
would be a part of us praying passionately
for those who are doing evil to stop and get saved.
That somehow, someway, something would come along
to lead them away from the evil they're doing
into the salvation that Christ has for them
and that we would prayerfully, wisely, and lovingly
pray that God would use us even if need be
to shine the light into their darkness, amen?
Let's pray.
Father, Lord, we know it is a difficult topic.
None of us want to see evil continue.
But in this time, Lord, it does.
Lord, none of us wanna see anybody get hurt.
Some of the things that are happening in our world today
are just atrociously disgusting.
And we pray against those things, God.
We pray, Lord, that you would protect the innocent
and protect kids who are being forced into trafficking
and that you would save them, that you would deliver them.
Lord, we pray for those who are being hurt and abused
that you would save them and deliver them.
And Lord, as much as we might not want to sometimes,
we pray for the perpetrators
that you would save them and deliver them.
We pray for the wicked and the evil
that you would save them and deliver them.
And that, God, when we come to these times
where we simply cannot understand,
that we would still, through the power of the Holy Spirit
who dwells within us, be able to trust you
and to have faith in your perfect will
and to have faith in your perfect understanding
and to have faith in your perfect way of doing things.
Help us, Lord, where our faith is weak.
Help us, Lord, where our faith lacks.
Lord, we know you don't in any way celebrate evil.
It breaks your heart.
But Lord, let us not in our own hearts
consign people to eternal damnation
to ever think that they are beyond,
that they are the ones that cannot possibly be saved
so that we wouldn't pray for them,
we wouldn't reach out to them,
we wouldn't hand them tracks, but quite the opposite, Lord.
We would do everything in our power
to see that they would come to know Jesus Christ,
that they would be transformed and redeemed
and delivered from the power of evil.
God, we love you, we thank you.
It's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
God bless you guys, let's worship.