SNBS - Revelation Part 6 with Pastor Josiah Shipley

Good evening and welcome to Sunday Night Bible Study with Pastor Josiah Shipley of Witton Baptist Church. We are here for part six of our study of the book of Revelation and we are in chapter 10. So without further ado, let's get started.

Revelation 10 and the Sealed Seven Thunders

Revelation chapter 10, and if you haven't had a chance to be with us thus far, you can always go to Witton Media Ministry on YouTube and watch the previous five videos or listen to them. You can change the speed, you know, the listen back speed, the play like speed to get through them faster, whatever you got to do.

All right, Revelation chapter 10. We just finished Revelation nine, which had the fifth and six, well, the fifth trumpet and we are in the middle of the sixth trumpet. Okay. So remember when it comes to God's judgments over that seven year period, we have the seven seals, the seven trumpets and the seven bowls.

But there is another little thing within, within this trumpet that doesn't get talked about a lot. And it's the seven thunders. And there's a reason it doesn't get talked about a lot. It's not because people are hiding it because God doesn't give us much detail about it.

So here we go. The seven thunders. Revelation 10, then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven wrapped in a cloud with the rainbow over his head and his face was like my son, his legs like pillars of fire.

He had a little scroll open in his hand. He said his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. He called out with a loud voice like a lion roaring. He called out and seven thunders sounded.

When the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying seal up the seven thunders and don't write it down. And the angel whom I was standing on the sea and the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and what is in it and the earth and what is in it and the sea and what is in it, that there will be no more delay.

But in the days of the trumpet call be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled just as he announced to his servants, the prophets. Verse eight, then the voice that I heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, go take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who's standing on the sea and the land.

I went to the angel and told him to give me a little scroll. He gave it to me and said, take and eat. It will make your stomach better in your mouth, but it'll be sweet as honey. And I took the scroll in the hands of the angel and ate it.

It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but I'd eaten it and it made my stomach better. I was told you must again prophesy to many peoples, nations, languages, and kings. There is chapter 10. All right. So let's take a look at this.

So we have an angel come down, a mighty angel, puts his right foot, well, puts one foot on the sea and puts one foot on the land. His right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. He's arrayed.

He's got a rainbow over his head. He's wrapped in clouds, his legs are like pillars of fire. And he called out with a loud voice like a lion roaring and he called out and seven thunders sounded. When the seven thunders sounded, whatever that is, John was about to write them down just like he has all the other visions.

But as he was about to write them down, a voice from heaven said, seal up the seven thunders. Don't write it down. Think about that. Seal them up, but don't write them. Well, how did he seal them up? I think it was in his mind.

I think John was told seal them up, keep them in your brain because you're going to need to know later, but don't write them down. God has done this before. There were a few times where Daniel saw things and asked about what they meant.

And God said, that's not for you to know right now. Seal that up. It's for a future time. Whatever the seven thunders are, God didn't want us to have details about those. And I don't know why, but we will know why one day.

It's difficult to say whether or not these are seven judgments like the other series of seven or that they're proclamations or what. But they sounded, John was about to write them down, and then he was told not to.

The angel then takes an oath. He raises his right hand to heaven and takes an oath before God that there will be no more delay. God's plan is coming to fruition exactly in the timing God has planned. Little interesting phrase here.

He swore to him who lives forever, who created the heavens and what is in it, and the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, and there will be no more delay. First off, a little bit about the triune nature of God and the deity of Jesus.

Remember the Trinity, the triune nature of God is that God has eternally existed in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. See, when you see the word God in the Bible, quit picturing just the Father.

Picture a triune God. So when it says God sent his Son, it's God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, sending Jesus to do this job, sending the Spirit to do this job. The triune God is doing that collectively, who lives forever.

Well, you know, that's said of God, triune God. It's also said of Jesus specifically in Hebrews 7, he ever lives to make intercession for us. Well, on top of that, it says who created the heavens and everything in it, the sea and what is in it, the earth and what is in it.

Very specific. I don't just mean he created the earth and then saw what would come of it. He created the earth and everything in it. He created the sea and everything in it. He didn't just create it and like a watchmaker set it to go and then see where it went.

No, he specifically created everything that's in it. You know, the Bible often speaks of in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. John 1 says in the beginning, Jesus created the heavens and the earth.

So which one is it? Yes, because Jesus is God. So yes, God created the heavens and the earth. Verse 7, but in the day of the trumpet call be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled just as he announced his servants and the prophets.

Then yeah, so we're still on the sixth trumpet, seventh trumpet hasn't sounded yet. Then I heard the voice say from heaven, go take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who's standing on the sea and on the land.

So God told John, hey, go grab that little scroll that's in that angel's hand. I want you to take it and I want you to eat it and it'll taste sweet in your mouth, but it will be bitter in your stomach.

Well, that scroll most likely contained judgments of God. This happens a lot. We see this in the Old Testament a lot. Reading God's word is sweet as honey, but sometimes we don't always like what it says.

You know, Pastor Jeff often says that reading the word of God should make you happy, sad or mad. And the point in that is, you know, sometimes we in our fallen nature don't like what God has to say to us, but it doesn't make it not true.

Reading the Bible is not always just for you to feel better. Reading the Bible is for you to learn and apply the things of God. And the beautiful thing about God is as you become more sanctified, you will hate more and more about your sin and you will love the things of God more and more.

You won't really want to do. You'll follow me now and then, but you won't really have the desire to do the things you used to. And your desire to love and serve God will grow more and more and more. That's the beautiful thing about sanctification is, it's a changing from the inside out.

See, salvation is past, present and future. You are saved before the foundation of the world. You are being sanctified right now and you will be glorified. Past, present, future. Grace didn't start at your conversion.

When you were converted, when you professed that Jesus is the Lord of your life, God didn't go, all right, I can finally start now. He had been dispensing his grace to you before he ever said, let there be.

Sanctification is the process of training your body and mind of how you should act with your new heart. So when you're saved, God takes out that heart of stone and puts in that heart of flesh and he's changing your desires and he sanctifies you slowly to become more conformed to his image.

That's why sanctification is so beautiful. Your salvation, your moment of conversion was not the end of your Christian life. It was the beginning. The fun part, the beautiful part comes after that, when your life is transformed little by little.

So you quit doing the things you used to love doing because you don't really want to do them anymore and you want to please God. Sometimes the word of God can taste bittersweet and that's okay because eventually over time we'll grow more and more to love the things of God and less the things of self.

John was told, you must again prophesy about many people's nations, nations, languages and kings. I said nations. Hey John, you got a lot more prophesying to do. Don't worry. A lot more work to be done.

Sanctification, Grace, and the Bitter-Sweetness of God's Word

Alright, chapter 10 is a pretty straight forward chapter. There is chapter 10. Next week we'll cover the two witnesses of chapter 11 and next week we're going to spend a little time, not really a side note, it's important, on logic.

Let me explain. Next week we're going to talk about how God has given us minds to critically think, to logically think and I've got six steps on how to use that logic when reading the Bible. God gave us that as a tool to understand Him and we're going to go over that next week.

So next week is all about Revelation 11, the first three or four verses, using logic when reading the word of God. That's our goal for next week. Alrighty, I know it's a little bit of a shorter video, I hope that's okay with you guys.

Preview of Revelation 11 and Using Logic to Read Scripture

That was Revelation part 6, chapter 10. Next week, Revelation part 7, chapter 11. Hopefully we'll get through the whole chapter after we get through our logic spiel. I love you guys very much. I'm always glad to be here with you guys.

God bless. See y 'all next week.