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Living Hope SDA Church

Chris Holland

God Still Speaks

As we give God the glory for the things he hath done, we will turn our eyes upon Jesus and look in his wonderful face.

Heavenly Father, You have brought us here for this time and in this place.

And now I pray that you would teach us, open our eyes that we might see, and help us To see the character of Jesus plainly, that we might desire to follow Him more closely.

The course of my work as a pastor and evangelist, many have asked me the question in the midst of my confusing journey, which took me through multiple denominations, multiple worldviews and multiple philosophies, how was I able to finally come to a conclusion?

I want to be clear as we begin this journey in Scripture.

My goal is not for you to simply listen to what I have to say and take it at that.

My goal is that you would be able to come to your own conclusions through the study of His Word.

I also want to remind you of the ever-present principle of God's Word.

You do not go to a church looking for the truth.

You go to the Bible and you find the truth, and then find fellowship in a church which most resembles the truth you have found.

If you have your Bibles with you this morning or you have your electronic device, I'd invite you to either open or go to the book of Revelation, Revelation the 10th chapter.

I'm going to tell you in advance that there will not be words on the screen, and in fact, this morning in the prayer, it was almost as if the prayer was predicting what was going to happen this morning.

The scriptures will not occur on the screen, or excuse me, the scriptures will not appear on the screen.

And what I would really ask you to do, that I would desire for each of you to do, is to take out a piece of paper, to take out a pen or a pencil, or to use your device and to take notes.

So you can return to the Scriptures that I will be sharing with you.

You can return to the quotations that I utilized this morning and study for yourself to taste and see for yourself.

If you have your Bibles, the book of Revelation, The book of Revelation is right at the heart of the book.

Excuse me, the 10th chapter of Revelation is right at the heart of the book of Revelation.

In Revelation chapter 10, God outlines for John the rise of God's last day people who will return to an original, pure, unadulterated faith and to the living Word of God.

The Bible says, beginning in 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 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, 7 thunders uttered their voices.

Now when the 7 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 7 thunders uttered, and do not write them." The Bible says that there was an angel, and he was holding a little book.

Why was that angel holding a little book?

Is there any book in the Bible that is described as being a sealed book which this angel might have been holding.

The reality is is that in Keep Your Finger in Revelation chapter 10, And I'd like you to turn to Daniel the 12th chapter.

We will find in Daniel the 12th chapter a scene that is remarkably similar to the scene of Revelation chapter 10.

There in Daniel chapter 4, the Bible says the following, Daniel chapter 4, "'But you, Daniel, shut up the words "'and seal the book until the time of the end.

"'Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase.'" And so I would like to ask you a question.

For those of you who have studied the book of Daniel, was the entire book of Daniel sealed at the end of Daniel's writing?

Daniel was given understanding of Daniel chapter 2.

He understood, in fact he was the 1 given the dream to give the king understanding of Daniel chapter 2.

Daniel was given understanding of the prophecy of Daniel chapter 4.

He understood it and explained it to Nebuchadnezzar.

The prophecies of Daniel chapter 5 and Daniel chapter 7, they were not sealed because Daniel clearly understood them because they were clearly explained to him by the angel.

But there was a particular portion of the book of Daniel which was not understood.

You'll remember in Daniel chapter 8 and verse 14, the Bible says, for 2, 300 days, then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.

But later in that same chapter, in Daniel chapter 8 and verse 27, I want you to take note of the words of Daniel.

And I Daniel fainted and was sick for days.

Afterward I arose and went about the king's business.

I was astonished by the vision, but no 1 understood it." Later in Daniel chapter 12 and verse 4, which we read just a few moments ago, the angel instructed Daniel that he needed to seal the book.

He needed to seal up those things which were not intended for him to understand.

In fact, the Bible says that they would not be understood until the time of the end.

Both Daniel chapter 12 and verse 4 and Daniel chapter 12 and verse 9 tell us that the time of the end would be when Daniel, the book of Daniel, would be unsealed.

And now let's return to the book of Revelation chapter 10 and see what the little book and what happens with this little book.

Beginning in verse 5, 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, he who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer." If you're reading from a different version, the word delay is the word time.

In the original Greek it is the word chronos.

It is the word that is the root for our English word chronology.

It is in that context that we are unable to understand what the message of the angel was to the Apostle John.

We need to remember that the angel spoke in regard to the sealing of the book of Daniel, and as we just discovered, the portion of the book of Daniel that was sealed until the time of the end was specifically Daniel chapter 8 and verse 14.

That prophecy is a prophecy that concerns Time.

The angel was very clear in his message to John.

Once the book of Daniel was unsealed, specifically Daniel chapter 8 and verse 14, prophecies concerning time would be no longer.

And remember, Daniel 8, 14 says, and for 2, 000, excuse me, for 2, 300 days, then the sanctuary shall be cleansed." The timeline of Daniel chapter 8 and verse 14 is 1 of the most important prophecies of the Bible.

Now if you have not studied that before and you would like to, listen I want you to pull out a Connect card right now.

So if you want to understand more about Daniel chapter 8, you pull out a Connect card and you write down your name, you write down your phone number, you write down your email address, and you drop it back in the offering box as you leave today, and we'll make sure that someone studies with you.

If you're watching online, I would like you to write an email to info at hopelives365.com and we'll make sure that somebody connects with you to study with you on this subject.

But as we review the 2300 day prophecy very quickly, it is the longest time prophecy of the Bible.

It came to a conclusion in the year 1844.

In 1844, according to the Bible, the judgment began in heaven.

Jesus' ministry, while he continued to minister and mediate on behalf of human beings in need of a Savior and in need of grace transitioned to a ministry of judgment.

This marked a time after what the Bible calls is the time of the end.

The time of the end began in 1798 which was the conclusion of the 1260 year prophecy.

Revelation chapter 10 and verse 7 continues, 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.

The finishing of the mystery of God is God's powerful final proclamation of the Gospel message to the entire world.

Jesus gave the same promise in Matthew chapter 24 in verse 14.

This gospel will go into all the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end shall come.

We continue in Revelation chapter 10 and verse 8.

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." What we are about to read and what we are beginning to read is John's experience of what I will call a living parable.

John would act out a variety of items to teach us about a coming event in Earth's history.

For us, it will be a past event, but for John it would have been a future event.

John would experience the parable, and as we read the text, we will see what will happen at the end of time that helps propel the mystery of God being revealed and the finishing off of the work of the gospel.

Verses 8 and 9 of Revelation 10 say this, 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." As the parable was acted out, John asked for the little book.

We already know what that little book is.

That little book is the book of Daniel, in particular, the portions of Daniel that were sealed for the time of the end.

And the latter part of verse 9 of Revelation 10 tells us that John took the book and he ate the book.

Verse 9 says, 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.

The word eat here in the original language is the word to masticate, to chew on.

It conveys the idea that John will take this book and not literally eat it, but he will figuratively eat it.

He will thoroughly chew on it, so to speak, which means in reality that He would take this little book and He would study it thoroughly.

And when He would study it thoroughly, what would be revealed would be sweet as honey in his mouth, but bitter in his stomach." I want you to imagine for just a moment that you were the Apostle John there on the island of Patmos receiving this vision.

I want you to imagine that you're the Apostle John.

Have you ever had the kind of experience that the Apostle John is describing?

Maybe Sometime you've eaten something and mmm, it was so delicious in your mouth.

But then 2 hours later, you begin to regret that you ate whatever it was.

Maybe it was that you decided to have seconds or thirds of that favorite dessert, and several hours later, your stomach shouts out to you with great clarity.

John had an experience following the instruction of the angel that he ate something that was sweet as honey in his mouth, but somehow, someway it was bitter in his stomach.

And verse 10 goes on to describe this event.

Then I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth.

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God Still Speaks

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