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[0:00] The judgment is coming, and then God tells John something. He says, then I heard a voice speak from heaven again. Now that again gives us the symbol that it was the same one who told him to seal up what the seven pills of thunder said.

[0:11] So we see God saying it from the very throne of heaven. God tells John, go up to that angel and take that book from his hand. Think about this just for a minute, okay? You're sitting here near John on the Isle of Patmos, who's by this time, John is probably pretty advanced in years.

[0:25] He's probably pretty old because Revelations was written somewhere around 90 A.D. Okay, so he's near the end of his life. He is the last of the disciples or the apostles to die, but he is near the end of his life.

[0:37] He's in exile on the island of Patmos, and he sees this strong angel, this representative, clothed of the cloud, a rainbow over his head, his face shining like the sun, his feet and his legs like pillars of fire and bronze, and God tells him to do something.

[0:50] Go get that book from his hand. And I'm just a visionary guy, right? Maybe sometimes too simple. But I just see John, old John, the disciple of love, whose favorite word is love in all of his writings, except for the book of Revelation, right?

[1:05] Walking up to this mighty angel saying, here, just give it to me. Just give it to me. God told me to take it, so you give it to me, and this angel has to give it to him. And he walks up to him. He says, go get that book. Now, that book, which is open, is the seven seals.

[1:18] It contains within it all of these things. It is the very word of God. It is what God has recorded. And John goes up to the angel and says, God told me to take it from me, so let me have it.

[1:28] Friend, what that tells us is we can be bold at every command that God gives us. If God commands you to do something, you have all authority to do that very thing. It doesn't matter how big that which is before you looks.

[1:41] If God has given you a command to do it, then you have the authority and the power to do it. So he walks up to the angel and says, give me the book. The angel gives him the book. The angel tells him something. Something that we see happen in the book of Ezekiel.

[1:53] The very first couple chapters of Ezekiel, the very same thing. Ezekiel saw a hand with a scroll in heaven, and the hand told him to take and eat it, and that it would be sweet in his mouth and bitter in his stomach. We see the same thing going on with John here.

[2:05] And we see the angel looks at John and says, take and eat it. Now, what does this tell us? If this is the word of God, we are to digest the word of God. I hope that you are in the word of God on a daily basis.

[2:15] I hope that the word of God is more important to you than the food of your body. I hope that maybe you would rather skip a meal rather than skip your Bible study. You say, well, I don't know about that, man.

[2:26] I've got to eat to be alive. But Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. I hope that the first thing you do every day is open up your word, and you feast on the word before you feed your body.

[2:36] That's what I do. It's my practice. I just go ahead and be honest with you. Bone level honest, right? I haven't ate yet today. My stomach's growling. I'm hungry. I mean, I can eat. I hope we have a good lunch in just a moment. But I did read my word this morning as soon as I got up.

[2:49] It's a practice, and it's a habit, and it takes you a long time to create your habit. You say, oh, you're trying to say you're holier than me? No, I'm telling you, I need that. There have been days over the years where I have started my day without reading the word, and it is a terrible day.

[3:01] It is not a good day. I'm not saying that every day I start reading the word is a great day because some of them are still difficult days. But I can tell you, I know the difference because we need to take and digest and eat the word of God.

[3:13] Maybe you're a better night person than you are a morning person. Well, then maybe you do better at night and you need to read at night. I don't know. But I hope that you're feasting on the word of God. If there's one thing that I encourage believers in Jesus Christ to do more than anything else is get in the word.

[3:27] You say, well, I'm not a reader. I don't like to read. I got news for you. I wasn't a reader either, and I don't necessarily like to read. But I like to be in a relationship with my wife, and I want to know more of her.

[3:37] I fail at that. I don't do the best job I need to. But if I'm going to get married to someone, then I'm not just going to tell them, hey, I met you at the altar. We said some vows. I'll see you at the end of my life, right? That doesn't work that way.

[3:49] You're not going to stand up here and go, hey, that was a cool thing we did so many years ago. I'll see you at the end of my life. So many people, married, they're the bride of Christ. And they tell him, well, I'll see you at the end of my life, and I hope you're still there.

[4:01] You need to know your bridegroom. You need to know him. You need to know the God who loves you, which means you need to get into the word of God. I'm not beating a dead horse. I'm pointing you to a living Savior. You need to be in that word, and you need to take and eat all of it, which means get on some kind of reading plan that puts you in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

[4:19] There'll be some things you've got to chew on for a little while. It's like, you know, over-cooked steak. And it's kind of like, man, that's hard. And sometimes you've just got to force it down and swallow it. So the book of Revelation, I never thought I'd be preaching through the book of Revelation.

[4:30] I'm just kind of telling you my personal story here. I remember the very first time I read through the book of Revelation, I said, man, I don't get any of this. But I was just going, okay, God, I'll go through it. And okay, God, I'll go through it.

[4:40] Okay, God, I'll go through it. And I read Revelation, I don't know how many years I read it in a row without understanding any of it. But I said, God, I'll be here, and I'll feast on it, I'll feast on it, I'll feast on it. If all I get is one word from a book, if all I get is one verse from a book, then that's a pretty good meal, right?

[4:55] Take and eat all of it, and this is why. We're looking at the sorrow of the word. It'll be sweet in your mouth. You'll read the word of God, and you'll think, man, this is good. This is good.

[5:06] But I've got newsflash for you, and this is probably going to push some of you from doing what I'm encouraging you to do. Do not read the Bible to feel better. You say, well, that doesn't make sense, Pastor.

[5:18] Because if you feast on the word, it's going to get all up in your grill, and it's going to make you feel bad. That's called conviction. You say, well, that was not really a proper way of saying that.

[5:29] And then after you get past your conviction, it's going to get all up in your business, it's going to give you a burden for other people, and your heart will be broken for other people. And then after your heart's broken for other people, you'll realize that people are perishing, and they don't know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and it'll compel you to do something.

[5:45] It may send you overseas to the mission field. It may send you next door to the mission field. But it's going to make you do something that'll get you out of your comfort zone. It may put you behind a pulpit preaching the word of God, which you never thought you would do.

[5:56] It's going to push you to do something. It is sweet in your mouth, but it's bitter in your stomach. Because the truth of the word of God is real. It tastes good. But when you begin to apply it to your life, it is uncomfortable.

[6:09] And it produces sorrow. And it produces heartbrokenness. One of the most difficult things I've ever done is to become a pastor. So why? And this isn't trying to get sympathy from anybody.

[6:19] This is not it. This is where the bitterness comes. It's because you go home, you'll have your great day, and hopefully everything will go well with you. I go home, and God puts the burden of each one of you on my heart and mind. I'll think about who's not here. I'll think about who was here.

[6:31] I'll think about what caused them not to be here. I'll think about was it me, was it something else, did I need to be there, and did I need to be this? And sometimes it gets a little bitter in the stomach. That's the sorrow of it. Right?

[6:42] That's okay. God gives you burdens from his word. And that's why John was told, eat that book. It's going to taste good, but it's going to make you feel bad at times. But friend, listen, it's worth eating that book.

[6:56] How many of us eat things that we know is not good for us? How many of us, we eat things, like, man, if I eat this, my stomach's going to be tore up. But it tastes good going on. I did that last night. A lot of it, right?

[7:07] I know. I'm probably going to do it in a minute. I told you, I haven't ate yet. How much more so? I'm just being honest with you. I don't tell people to come to Christ so their life will be easy. I tell you to come to Christ because you need a Savior.

[7:19] Satan's going to oppose you. He's going to throw darts at you. He's going to make things terrible. He's going to make it difficult. He's going to make you stumble. I'm not going to tell you that it's all going to be roses and buttercups and daffodils and, you know, all this fluffy stuff.

[7:32] I'm going to tell you it's a warfare, right? But I'm going to tell you he's worth it. I'm not going to tell you to read the Word of God because it's pleasant, because it is pleasant. But if you read it long enough, it will also be sorrowful. I believe in being honest.

[7:45] It's worth it, every bit of it. And, man, even that burden is great to carry when you're feasting on the Word of God. So here we see the sorrow of His Word. Number four, and finally, the summons of His people.

[7:58] John was told to go take the book and to eat the book. And he took the book and he ate the book. And it was sweet in his mouth and bitter in his stomach. It didn't make him feel too well. And then it says, look at this, great, I didn't see this until this morning.

[8:09] It says, and they said to me, and they said to me. Not he, not the angel, not one, not singular. And they said to me, friend, listen to me. This cry is the cry of all of the hosts of heaven, I believe.

[8:22] This is, the Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11, we have the heroes of the faith chapter, right? We have the hall of faith, if you will. So in Hebrews 11, we read about all of these heroes of the faith, those who went before us, who did not have the promise of Jesus Christ.

[8:37] These are the Old Testament saints, those who died without knowing the promise of Jesus Christ. And then Hebrews 12 makes this great transition. And it speaks of the host of heaven and the witnesses we have of what we're doing on earth.

[8:50] And this is what I believe. And they said, this is the cry of the host of heaven. Those who didn't have the opportunity to do what we have the opportunity to do are calling out, saying this.

[9:00] You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings. The cry of heaven is, John, don't be silent. But you must talk about these things.

[9:11] You must tell people these things. You must speak of the truth of these things. You must speak of Jesus Christ. And it is, I know it makes you bitter. I know it upsets you. I know it produces a little bit of sorrow in you.

[9:23] Charles Spurgeon used to say, no man has a right to preach about hell who can do it without a tear in his eye. That if the sorrow of the reality of hell does not move us to weeping and does not move us to mourning, then we have no right in talking about it.

[9:38] Because we do not really know it as it is. Same man also said, some people want to know why he was called the prince of preachers. He also said, if men must go to hell, may they go leaping and jumping over our pleading prostate bodies as we cry out to God to redeem them and rescue them.

[10:00] You want to know why he had such a mission? It's because he had a heart that was broken and he knew he must tell others about it. Friend, there are people in your path that you can tell that I'll never be able to tell.

[10:11] My job is to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. And here, saints, I want to give you some of the work of the ministry. You must tell many people and nations and tongues and kings these things to come.

[10:26] We must tell. This does not remove me from the responsibility of fulfilling the Great Commission. But this is the recommissioning of every one of us in light of these things. Friend, listen. We must be all people and nations and tongues.

[10:41] We must. We can't just sit back and go, oh, I'm not going to be able to. This is the recommissioning of your people. This is the summits of your people. We must be people who proclaim.

[10:53] I'm not saying that it is a common. Friend, I'm willing to talk to many of us who want to begin and become. You do not know Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior, but I hope to tell them to you. Friend, without me, without me, I will vote for you.

[11:06] Friend, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, with God, Thank you.