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Recap - Ch. 9:1-12 • Church is already gone • Most of the converted Jews are gone • Many of the gentiles martyred and are in heaven • Here on this earth tremendous judgment is being poured on

earth. • The first part of Ch.9 deals with the fifth trumpet judgment. • The second part of Ch.9 deals with the sixth trumpet judgment. • At the beginning of Ch.9, we saw the unnamed personality, the

star, Lucifer falling down from heaven. • Was given the key to open the bottomless pit. • When the bottomless pit is unlocked smoke came out and out of

smoke locusts came out. • They were given power of the scorpion and given command not to

harm the vegetation, but to harm those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

• Not to kill them, but to torment them for five months. • Men will seek death, but will not find it. 2

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Recap - Ch. 9:13-21 • Voice comes from the altar. Ch. 6:9-11 Prayer under the altar is

answered here. • Release of four angels who are bound at the river Euphrates to

execute judgment and to kill one third of mankind. • We found the world population is reduced to half by this time. • Where the world is going to get hundred million soldiers and how

they are going to come to the battle? • Due to the sixth bowl judgment in Ch. 16:12 the Euphrates river is

going to dry up and the military of China and allied nations can easily cross the river Euphrates.

• From the appearance of the horses and the horse men, we realized the involvement of modern nuclear weapons.

• People on the earth were worshiping demons & idols. • A false system of worship based on humanism, materialism and

the new age movement is the worship of the tribulation. • Work of men - Murders, Sorceries, Fornication, Thefts • Men can be changed only by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 3

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Ch. 10:1-11 • One of the fundamental characteristics of God is His mercy &

grace. • Even in the darkest days of rebellion, man has been loved by God. • Nowhere in the Bible this nature of God is more portrayed than in

the apocalypses we study now, the Book of Revelation. • This book tells the story of Christ taking back this world from Satan

and reversing the curse of Genesis. • This book of Revelation which is filled with death, pain, torture,

destruction, hell being released from the abyss and one half of the population being killed, this awful book of judgment is also a book of love, mercy and grace.

• The means or the objects God is using to execute His judgment is well known by now.

• In Ch. 5 we see the seven seal book, title deed of earth, blowing of the seventh trumpets and the seven bowl judgment which is going to be poured out on the earth.

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Ch. 10:1-11 • We may be wondering perhaps God is losing this battle. It may

appear that God is losing and the evil and the hell are winning. • Chapter 10 will answer that question. • We are entering into an interlude, a parenthesis. • A parenthesis adds information to the body of the text. We

read parenthesis and store it at the back o our mind, but we never allow a parenthesis to mess up the flow of information.

• Ch.10 through Ch.11 V14 is a parenthesis. It is something that happens between the blowing of the 6th trumpet and the blowing of the 7th trumpet. It is an interlude of grace, love and encouragement.

• In between the 6th and the 7th seal is the chapter 7, the sealing of the 144,000 and the vision of great multitude.

• In between the 6th and 7th trumpet is the interlude we are studying now, Ch. 10.

• In between the 6th&7th vial judgment is the interlude Ch. 16. 5

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Ch. 10:1-11 • The recent judgments on the earth might have caused a concern

that God may be losing. The interludes remind us that God is still Sovereign. He has not forgotten His people and ultimately they are going to be victorious.

• Ch.10 gives us a vision of how its all going to turnout in favor of God so that we don’t gets discouraged.

• Studying and teaching this terrible judgment is a great burden for us. But thank God for this parenthesis.

• Ch.10 has been closely looked at by critiques in the entire Bible. I. The messenger from heaven: • V 1 (read). This is not a fallen angel, he has come down from

heaven at the call of God. We had met this angel twice before in 7th chapter holding back the judgment, and in 8th chapter again.

• There is a controversy on the identity of this angel among the students of the book.

• Some said it is Michael, some said it is a special Arch Angel without name sent by God for a special purpose. 6

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Ch. 10:1-11 • It appears that this person is the angel of Jehovah, none other

than the Lord Himself. • Angel of Jehovah is the pre-incarnate Christ. The theophany. 1. Description of this messenger. • Wearing a cloud – angel’s cloth, cloud is always associated with

God, in Mt. Sinai, as leading children of Israel, God appears to Moses in a cloud, Jesus ascended into heaven in a cloud, when He comes back, He will come in the cloud.

• Psalmist says, He makes cloud as His chariots. • Crowned with a rainbow- In Rev.4:3 we see rainbow around the

throne. In the book of Genesis the rainbow was God’s promise, that He would never again destroy the world with flood.

• Shining face - in transfiguration, in Paul’s conversion and in Malachi 4:2, they call Him the sun of righteousness.

• Feet as pillars of fire – same description in Rev 1:15, in the midst of the seven lamp stands one like son of man feet like fine brass refined in a furnace. 7

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Ch. 10:1-11 2. The deeds of the messenger: • Read V 2&3. He had a little book open in His hand. • We saw the seven sealed book in the hands of the Lamb of God.

Now the angel comes from heaven, we believe it is Lord Jesus, the book is open, because all the seals are already opened.

• Look at the Lord, right foot on the sea and the left foot on the land. It is a picture of Jesus saying, it is true that hell is left open on the earth, it appears that we are losing, but I still hold the book, the title deed and I am in control of this world.

• Jesus is giving a picture that it is all going to be alright. • Joshua1:3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon

I have given you, as I said to Moses. His foot on the sea and the land shows that God is in control of everything.

• He cries with a loud voice as a lion - Proverbs 19:12, the king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion.

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Ch. 10:1-11 • Joel 3:16 (read), The LORD also will roar from Zion. • Bible also says, adversary the devil walks about like a roaring

lion, But you know, the roar of the devil is like a whisper compared to the roar of the Lord.

When the lion roars, when he cries, there is a seven gun salute from heaven – seven thunders uttered from heaven. Job 37:5 God thunders marvelously with His voice; Psalm 29 talks about the seven thundering of the Lord The voice of the LORD is over the waters; The voice of the LORD is powerful; The voice of the LORD is full of majesty. The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars, The voice of the LORD divides the flames of fire. The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth, 3. Now there is a message from heaven- V4 (read)

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Ch. 10:1-11 This is the only place in the whole books John was told not to write Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God • It is the glory of God to hide things. John was told by the Lord, you can’t write it, that is the sealed up message. There is a swearing message The angel of Jehovah raises His hands standing on the sea and the earth swore by Him. Swearing is done on someone above ones level. Here the angel of Jehovah swearing on himself. Read Hebrews 6:13 What he swears? He says, that there should be delay no longer. He says “this is it”. It is not the end of time. He is not saying time is no longer. He says “delay is no longer”. Robinson says, “This does not mean that kronos or time, Einstein’s fourth dimension added to length, breadth, height will cease to exist but there will be no more delay in the fulfillment of the judgment of God. 2 Peter 3:3 (read)this argument is clearly presented here. 10

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Ch. 10:1-11 What is going to happen when the seventh trumpet sounds? (Read V7)

What is the mystery of God? Lot of discussion among the scholars. Someone told that it is a mystery about the church. But church is not on the earth. Then what is it ? When Bible says mystery, it is a truth we don’t know yet or not told. What is going to end as the seventh trumpet is blown and the judgment is complete? • This mystery is all those counsels and dealings of God through the

prophets concerning His ultimate victorious reign and defeat of evil.

What is the mystery you and I deal with everyday? • Satan has been allowed for 6000 years on this world to spread

himself to all corners of the world to work evil and spoil the work of God

• He is the God of this world • He is the prince of the power of the air 11

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Ch. 10:1-11 Is it not a mystery why God allows evil to go on unpunished and His people to be crushed and broken under heavy loads over God’s children. Does it mean God is wrong? No God operates on His own timetable. So what is the mystery? It is the mystery of evil seems to triumph. How it would be finished? God is going to bring the work of Satan to an end and take complete control and will put the world upside down to be what it ought to be. • This is the hope. • This is encouragement. • God is going to solve the mystery. • Once for all the evil will be destroyed. • He wants His people to know that God is in control. 12

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Ch. 10:1-11 4. Mandate from heaven.(read V8-10) First time in the book John has been asked to act and be a part of the play. What a weird thing to eat the book! It is not the first time, it happened to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 2: 8-10, 3:1-3) If you read the rest you will find Ezekiel had the same digestive problem that John is about to have. It tasted good, but didn’t stay down too well. What is this all about? • The book represents God’s revelation concerning the future of the

world. God said, you take the book and you assimilate it, not eating physically, but taking understanding and making it personal.

• When you first do it, it is sweet, but when you allow it to settle down in your being it becomes bitter.

• When I spend hours studying this book, it is exciting and sweet. But when I realize the awfulness of the judgment, it is bitter.

• It must be true to you too, sometime the message of the judgment is so depressing and discouraging. 13

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Ch. 10:1-11 Prophecy is sweet to taste and bitter to digest. • The angel told John, here is the book, take it eat it, it will appear

sweet at your mouth, but bitter to digest. You have to do it as you have to preach.

• You taste it, digest it, make it personal and only then you will be able to preach it with power and authority.

We need to be careful about always listening to the sweet messages. We need to be careful about those who preach only the goodness of God, preaching has to balance to warn the judgment of God. • The sweet part of the Gospel gives us hope. • The bitter part of the Gospel prepares us to achieve the hope.

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Ch. 10:1-11 Only people who read it and understand it will know the sweet bitter taste of the Gospel. • The same Gospel that makes it possible for me to go to heaven

puts somebody else in hell. • The same Christ who died on the cross to save me from my sin

by His very death judge every single person who rejects Him into the Christ less eternity.

• The preacher who will only preach the positive message, not the whole counsel of God is not only unfaithful to God, he has violated the context of God’s word.

• We have to preach both bitter and sweet.

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Ch. 10:1-11 A lesson for all of us: When we preach we are not the master of everything. • Someone told that we don’t need to be all the way down at the

end of the road of doctrines, and teachings, but we need to be on the road.

• When we preach the word of God that we don’t practice in our own life, we hear empty words around. But when we preach the things we practice, we do there is great power in our words.

• Before we preach we need to assimilate the truth on our own life. • God has done a great deal of work in my life regarding my

preaching. • The message of Ch.10 is an encouragement for all of us. • For some of us it is the reminder the wonderful sovereign plan of

God in your life, for others it is the judgment of God that is about to fall.

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