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The Bible talks about a book that he wants us to read. So take your Bible and turn to the book of Revelation. book of Revelation and chapter 10. Just a few verses here, but Revelation chapter 10. Well, let’s just start in verse 1. It’s too important to miss. This is talking about God going to pour out some judgment upon the earth. And sometimes we wonder whether or not is God justified in doing what He does. I mean, there’s a lot of bad things in this world.

If God is in control and he’s sovereign, what has he let so many bad people get away with so many bad things? And as good people, we’ve got to suffer all along with them. And then look at the world. It’s a mess. Now we know according to the prophecies in the Scriptures, in chapter 38 and 39 of Ezekiel would talk to God in the last days, he’s going to bring Russia, Syria, Iraq and Iran against Israel. And it could be the reason why when they are really dealt with in a very strong measure, because Russia will lose that very severely upon the mountains of Israel.

And because of that, could be the reason why they won’t have a peace treaty. Something has to happen in order to bring these nations together to have a peace treaty and you generally will have a peace treaty with your enemies. You don’t have to make it with your friends. So does Israel have any enemies? One or two. So evidently they’re going to be a peace treaty made, but something’s got to bring them to the table. That’s a judgment that’s coming down the road.

We’re not going to talk about that today. We’ll do that later. But right now I want you to see this in verse one and I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven. Clow with the cloud and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun and his feet as pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little book open and he said his right foot upon the sea and his left foot on the earth, cried with a loud voice as when a lion roarth.

And when he had cried seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write, and I heard a voice from heaven, sin, and to me. Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered and write them not. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven. And swear by him that live it forever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that they’re in are, and the earth, and the things that they’re in are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer.

But in the days of the voice of this seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. But to give you an idea that judgment is coming and God is a righteous judge. You see, a lot of time we question whether God is right or not. We get mad at God, bitter at God because of what God, who is sovereign, allows to happen. But understand this.

We talk about heaven been a perfect place, and I believe that it is. But also to understand there’s another place he called hell. Now I want you to look there in verse 8. Verse 8, and the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again said go and take that little book which is open in the hand of the angel which stand upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel and said unto him, give me the little book.

And he said unto me, take it and eat it up. And it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I cooked the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it up, and it was in my mouth sweet as honey. And as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. He said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many people, and nations, and tongues, and kings. Whatever was in the book, it has to do with him saying something about what was in the book.

There’s things that as we read this book, there’s a lot of things in the Bible that are very sweet, very wonderful things. But there’s a lot of ugliness also, a lot of bad things telling us what’s going to happen. So I wrote these little two statements down and I want you to look at them. Where I have the word hell is the punishment that is equal to the unbelievers’ crime. Is God righteous? Yes or no? He cannot lie, He cannot make a mistake and whatever decision He may, it will be the right decision.

You and I, because we don’t know all the facts in every case concerning every individual, were left to imagine whether God was or was not right. Well, it was a truthful decision, right punishment. But the Bible says God makes no mistakes. So, hell is the correct punishment for every unbeliever’s crime. In other words, if a man goes to hell, he’s going to get what he deserves. Now, if you and I was to go to heaven, we’re not getting what we deserved.

We’re getting what we call grace. So the next statement, grace to the believer, is equal to the sacrifice of Christ. You see, when Christ died on that cross, sacrificed Himself. How important was what He did? Without Him doing that, there could be no grace. We would have no way of getting to heaven. Without grace, we don’t go because it says not by works of righteousness. There is punishment to every person who sins, but the whole world is sinned. So no man can earn his way to heaven.

Now turning your Bible to the book of Ezekiel chapter 3, the book of Ezekiel. We’re back there in the Old Testament, Ezekiel chapter 3, and look in verse 1, but in Ezekiel and chapter 3, now this was written almost 600 years before Christ. Ezekiel was given a tremendous task to tell the people, warn the people from God, even though he knew they would not believe him. But at least they would have had a prophet among them. And God wants that done.

That was found in chapter 2 and verse 5. He says, they are a rebellious people. They are hard-hearted. They are stiff-necked. But I want you to go and I want you to preach to them. And this is a bitter message. When you study the book of Jeremiah, he’s known as the weeping prophet, he was not well accepted. He was thrown into a pit. The Bible says that the people turned on him. But see, they’re turning upon the one who gave him the message, which was God.

So there’s people who live their life who are mean and ugly toward you because they’re feeling that way about God. And God says regardless of how they are, I want you to be adamant in the message. See down there in verse 9, as an adamant, harder than Flint have I made died forehead. They’re hardheaded, but I want you to be more hard-headed. They don’t want to hear it, but you be more convinced you tell them, even though you don’t want to.

Jeremiah even says, I refrained myself. I said, I will not tell him. I will not speak. But he says, his word was like a fire in my bones and I could not stay. In other words, I just have to tell him. This is what he tells Ezekiel. So he says, go and speak to the house of Israel. Now, notice what says there in verse two. So I opened my mouth and he caused me to eat that role. He said unto me son of man caused thy belly to eat, feel thy bowels with this role that I give them.

Then did I eat it and it was in my mouth as honey. For sweetness. Now you’ll notice in chapter two in the last verse, verse 10, and he spread it before me and it was written within and without, and there was written their lamentation. Bitterness. Morning bitterness. Whoa, bitterness. But it was sweet, but it was bitter. Did you realize what it would be like to live your life without the knowledge of this book? And yet when you study the book, you’re studying truth.

God wants us to know the truth. And with much knowledge, true knowledge comes great sorrow because you know what God said. And what he says is there is a place called heaven and there is a place called hell. And so there is sweetness in it, there’s bitterness. And even after you have trusted Christ as your Savior. There’s also this problem with you as a child of God seeking to decide whether or not am I going to serve the Lord or not serve the Lord?

Serving the Lord can be sweet. To rebel against the Lord can be bitterness. So even though people who know Christ is Savior, if you study the Bible, you’ll find out how God has so blessed and promised that what He would do for us, and reward us when we get to heaven, and it will be worth it all, and yet people will still rebel against that. Instead of having the sweetness, they have the bitterness, and they go through life and they’re soured.

It’s like they’ve been baptized in lemon juice. There’s nothing sweet, everything bitter and they’re always like Jonah down in the mouth. But now notice, he says here in verse 4, and he said unto me, Son of man, go get thee into the house of Israel. Speak with my words unto them. God wants them to hear the word, but they don’t want to hear the word. They don’t want to believe it. Well, God told them that that’s what they’re going to do.

So he says here in verse 5, for thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel. Not to many people of a strange speech and of a hard language whose words thou can’t not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee, but the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee. For they will not hearken unto me.” In other words, God says, they won’t listen to me, so they’re not going to listen to you.

Did you know, and I believe this after all these years of preaching, about 50-something years now, that I believe there’s a lot of people who’ve come to church. They hear, but they will not obey. They hear the word taught. They sit in the Bible, but live their life as though they never heard a word. It’s like looking into a mirror. And if you’re getting what you see and you didn’t brush your teeth, you didn’t wash your face, then you get the matter out of your eyes.

You didn’t comb your hair. It was like you never looked in the mirror. And so there’s people who will live their lives in total rebellion to the will of God. I’m glad there’s nobody like that here. Now notice, in verse 8, Behold, I have made thy faith strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their forehead. Regardless of how hard-headed they are, you and I, as a child of God, ought to be just that hard-headed about doing the will of God.

Just because some people won’t doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t. I’m not going to let people dictate to me whether I should should not obey God. All I know is that He saved me. He gave me eternal life. I’m His child and He told me how I’m supposed to live and what I’m supposed to teach. Well, I’m just going to go ahead and do that and if people like that, that’s fine. If they don’t like that, that’s fine. I’m not God.

I can’t make anybody do anything. Neither could God’s prophets. They just delivered the word. and people are responsible to obey, and if they choose to disobey, then God will have to intervene in their life. And instead of the sweetness, they’re gonna have the bitterness of life. So he says here in verse 9, as an adamant, harder than Flint have I made thy forehead, fear them not neither be dismayed at their looks though they be a rebellious house. Now this is what he says, but he says, I am going to do this.

Now I want you to see one of the verse, look at it in verse 14. Where he says, so the spirit lifted me up and took me away and I went in, and here’s that word, bitterness in the heat of my spirit, but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me. In other words, he got better. He don’t want to do it. And you can get better. You can know the will of God and get so bitter in your spirit because you don’t want to live your own life.

Just get off my back, leave me alone, and just let you enjoy this world. But God says, you aren’t made just to enjoy this world. I have a perfect will for you. That’s what everybody in the world does, is whatever they want. God said, I want you to do what I want you to do. The children of Israel, they didn’t ask to be the children of Israel and yet all of a sudden, there they are done in that iron furnace done in Egypt.

God brought them out to a wilderness. Most of them didn’t know what they were getting into. They didn’t ask for all of that. But when Moses came down and gave them the law, all the people says, whatever he wants us to do, we’ll do it. And so for 1500 years they didn’t do it. they rebelled. And when they were prophesied by Moses in the book of Deuteronomy, says, a prophet just like me is going to come. Him shall you hear, and Jesus comes.

And Jesus says, if you had known Moses, you’d know me. If you’d listened to Moses, you’d listen to me. And so he says, you will not come into me that you might have life. So it’s written. I want you to see the, look there in verse five of chapter two. And they, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear for they are a rebellious house, yet shall know that there have been a prophet among them. See, God’s gonna use the prophet as the testimony that yes, I did tell you and yes, I did warn you and this is the man that I sent to tell you Even though God says, I knew you would not believe.

You are still told. You see, God does not override the will of man. He’s not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance. To believe on Christ, that’s the will of God. So God says, going to all the world and priests of God, for to every creature, whether they want to hear it or don’t want to hear it. But I want you to tell them. and verse six, and thou son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words.

So he says, don’t be afraid of their looks in the next verse. In other words, don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. You remember last, with the graduation, Peter sung that song when we see all those faces, all the faces, when you get to heaven, you see all the faces. You see, I believe there’s a time coming. we may see the faces of those that we also witness to and did not believe. But we’ll see the faces of those who did believe.

Won’t that be sweet? And won’t it hurt when you see the faces of those who chose not to believe? And it didn’t have to be that away. But God says, when you don’t be afraid of their faces, good or bad. And like I said, that great big old strong husky man that’s, you know, well, he’s going me too hard and you look at that sweet little dainey lady, that’s going to be easy picking. I got news for you. That man can be as meek as a mouse and that little woman can be like a rattlesnake.

Don’t try to figure it out ahead of time. Sew the seed. Just keep sowing the seed. Now, I want you to look back there in your notes. You could not help being born. wasn’t even your choice. You could not help having a sinful nature. You couldn’t help that. You didn’t ask for that old sinful nature that you have. But you see, you didn’t ask to be born and you didn’t ask for that old sinful nature. You didn’t ask to be what you are.

You didn’t get a choice whether you’re male or female. Whether you could do all those bad things that you do because of that rebellious nature that you have. You said, I didn’t ask for this. Maybe you didn’t, but you got it. Hello? You have been given the world so you could reasonably assume that there is a God to pursue. And I want to show you this. Take your Bible. Turn to the book of Acts, chapter 17. Acts, chapter 17.

This is an awesome verse. You need to know it’s in the Bible. The the Apostle Paul and talking to the people in Athens, he says, you have an unknown God, an idol to an unknown God. He said, I want to talk to you about that one that you don’t know. So, look at verse 24. Verse 24 says, God that made the world and all things therein, sin that He is Lord of heaven and earth, to all of not in temples made with hands.

Neither is worshipped with men’s hands as though He needed anything. Can you think anything God needs? He says this. seeing He, God, give it to all life. So He gave us life and breath and all things. He’s the one who gave us. Then He makes His statement, and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth. Regardless of whether a man is black, red, yellow, pink, white, chartreuse, pinstripe, it doesn’t matter.

Wherever he is in the world, you can always do blood transfer because we’re all one blood. And he says this, and hath determined the times before a point in the bounds of their habitation. See the only way we can live on the moon is if we take some of the atmosphere from here and take it up there and have some oxygen live. It’s amazing how they’re always looking for a place where when they destroy this earth, we can go there.

There’s always trying to find another place out there where it’s possible for life. Well, I got news for you. There is a place out there that will sustain life. And then the people, you ought to see them. They are supernatural people. They live forever. Total happiness. They don’t have any sin for nate. There’s no killing there. There’s no murder going on. There’s nothing. There’s nothing. No dying. You see, where’s that it? Call heaven. It’s already there. So we don’t have to look for that utopia because regardless of where it might be, you only got a few years to live.

You’re not going to live forever, not in this world. Now look in verse 27, God that made thy heavens and the earth in verse 27, that they should seek the Lord. One of the things God wants His people, the world people, the created seek, the Lord, Lord and get this. If happy they might feel after Him and see those next two words, find Him. In other words, the Lord is not lost. I know we often say, I found the Lord.

Like the Lord was lost and I found Him. No, you’re the one that’s lost. But the Bible says that God created this heavens and the earth so that every one and the Bible says He created the heavens so that you would know there’s evidence there’s a God and that you might take the evidence and use it to come to the conclusion there is a God and every man has this light that lighteth the world when a man comes into the world there’s a world that is the evidence that there is a God and God’s gonna hold every man responsible for that light that he has.

So, look at the next verse. And though he be not far from every one of us, you see, God doesn’t live on some other planet far away. God is right here. And he says, how close? Faith. You read that in the book of Romans in chapter 10. It is neither even in thy mouth. Faith. Look in verse 28, for in him we live and move and have our being as certain also of our own points have said for we are also his offspring.

We are made in the image of God. And because we are in the image of God, God wants us to know Him. And God has given us enough evidence and if you’ll take the evidence, you’ll believe that there’s a God. Unless you harden yourself and deny that there is a God. You deny the evidence. And whenever you doubt how God put us here by creation, then you’ve got to go into a different religion. There is no God. There is no Creator.

So we must not have been created. We had to evolve. So every person who believes in evolution is a nutcase. Totally absent of facts. There are no facts for evolution, not one. Now, but there is the evidence the world is here and I got news for you. I didn’t make it. Did you do it? Was that Evelyn somebody dead? A lot bigger and powerful than us. And And so God said he will not let in man be excused. The evidence is here.

What’s the consequences if I don’t believe God? What difference does it make? We’re all going to live and then we’re going to die. And that’s all there is to it. I got some news for you, but it’s bittersweet. You see, as you read the Bible, you’ll find out that God in His sovereignty chose to give man a free will so that you can choose to believe it, the evidence or not. You don’t have to believe there’s a God. You don’t have to believe in creation.

You don’t even have to believe you’re a sinner. You don’t even have to believe you’re going to die. There’s a lot of people to believe in. believe that. They call them Christian science. It’s like great nuts, flates, not grapes, not nuts. Christian science is not Christians, not science. Just nuts. When you take the word of God and you read it and study God says I got something for you. Now I want you to see this also. In the book of Acts chapter 17, Luke what he says in verse 30, and the times of this ignorance God winked at but now command that all men everywhere to repent.

That means to believe the message. Believe that there is a God in the evidence because now he says you saw the world but now there’s more evidence, the evidence of the resurrection which is mentioned in verse 30, because he hath appointed a day in which He will judge, He will judge the world in what? Rightism, this is the rightist judge. God does not make mistakes. He knows the truth about your life. He knows what you know and He knows what you don’t know, but He also knows what you could have known if you would only avail yourself and seek the truth.

He knows whether you’re hard-hearted or not. God knows that. You will not be able to say when you are cast into the depths of hell, I don’t deserve to be here. God has the evidence. You can deny those evidence. You can deny there’s a God. You can deny there’s a heaven and deny there’s a hell deny all you want. But the righteous judge says, I got news for you. It’s appointed under every man wants to die. And after this, the judgment.

judgment. And if you are found trusting in your works and your righteousness, God says you had, bud, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith. If God gave me his righteousness, then I get to go to heaven on his righteousness. And that’s why that is so important. This is your invitation to join us for our third Sunday dinner held in the Florida Bible College of Tampa building on the Calvary Community Church Campus.

The dinner is a family-style, covered dish dinner, and a great way to showcase your favorite dish and pick up new recipes. Each month, you have the opportunity to invite your family and friends to join us for our Sunday morning service at 1030, And then stay for our third Sunday dinner immediately following noon. Third Sundays at Calvary Community Church, where you’ll be fed spiritually and physically. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us.

The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. friend one day it will happen the trumpet will sound and we will be changed caught up to meet the Lord in the air so live today and every day believe in that the Lord is coming soon just keep looking up