You Are What You Eat

2:58 I titled today's message, You Are What You Eat. You are what you eat. Have you ever heard that before? Or maybe you've even used it with your own kids to try to encourage them toward better nutritional choices. You are what you eat. We understand what that means. What you consume affects you physiologically. That's also true in the spiritual realm. You become spiritually what you consume. What you watch, what you listen to, what flows into your life really does determine the kind of person you are. God is so concerned about what comes into our life and affects our life that he gave Paul this direction. He told him to write in Romans 12 too, don't be conformed this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. How do you renew your mind and therefore transform your life? Well, we're going to discover a very practical way to change your spiritual diet and therefore change your life in a very strange passage of scripture we're going to look at today. If you have your Bibles, turn to Revelation chapter 10. Revelation chapter 10.

4:29 Look at verse 1. And I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven. And he was clothed with a cloud. That's a reference to his celestial origin. And the rainbow was upon his head. Remember of the rainbow is a sign of both God's judgment and his mercy. And his face was like the sun and his feet like pillars of fire. But the most interesting thing about this angel is the action that he takes. And he had in his hand a little book, which was open. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. Now that's one big angel. One foot on the land, one foot on the sea. This isn't just a reference to his size, but to his authority. In the Bible, whenever you read about the land and the sea, the land and the sea, that's a description of the totality of God's creation. And for this angel to put one foot on the land and one foot on the sea is a sign that he is claiming this world for God. It's a sign of ownership. On behalf of God, he is saying this world is under the foot, under the domain of God himself. That's what this angel is representing. This whole world belongs to God. After he takes his claim upon the earth, Notice what John is forbidden to do. Verse 3, and he, that is the angel, cried out with a loud voice as when a lion roars. Can you imagine the sound of this majestic angel, the roar that he'll let out?

6:15 When a lion roars, it's a sign of conquest. It's a sign of victory. That's what this roar of the lion is. He cried out with a loud voice. And when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices. And when the seven peals of thunder had spoken, John says, I was about to write. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them. Apparently when the thunder sounded, John could hear a human voice in that thunder. There was a revelation, more information about the tribulation that was given to John, and he was about to write it down. And that made sense. After all, in Revelation 1, Jesus told John to write down the things that he saw and send it to the churches. But this same voice, perhaps that of Christ said, what you just heard, don't write down.

7:18 Don't share this revelation with anyone. There are some things, there are some truths of God, which are a mystery still. But God has revealed to us everything we need to know. But there are some things we can't know, especially about the end times. John was forbidden to write the things that he heard in the peals of thunder. And then you see this announcement of the strong angel in verse 5. Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven. And he swore by him who is forever and ever, who created heavens and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things that are in it. And what did he swear? That there should be delay no longer. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished as he preached to his servants, the prophets. This angel raised his hand toward heaven, and by God's authority, he swore two things. First of all, he swore that there would be delay no longer. What does that mean? Christ's coming will no longer be delayed. And then the angel says, not only will there be no longer a delay, but the mystery will be finished, verse 7. What does he mean the mystery is finished?

8:49 In the Bible, a mystery is a truth of God that's been hidden in previous generations, but is now being made known to man. Ephesians 1, 9, and 10, Paul talks about the mystery of God, that in the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and on the earth, there's going to come a time when everything comes to an end and people are going to understand the mystery. What is the mystery? it's one you've probably wondered about before or you've had people ask you about before if there really is a God and he's really all loving and all powerful why is there evil in the world that is a mystery but it is a mystery that will be finished when the Lord Jesus returns and that's what the angel is talking about here. The mystery of Christ will be finished. And then when we get to verse eight, we see something very strange. We see John who up to this point has been an observer of the revelation. He becomes a participant in it. Now stay with me on this, beginning with verse eight. Then the voice which I heard from heaven, that is God. Then the voice I heard from heaven. I heard again speaking with me and saying, go take the book, the little book, which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land. Now underline that word take. God tells John to go take the book out of the angel's hand. John's a little reluctant to do that. If you saw a gargantuan angel, you might be a little hesitant to take something from him.

10:38 And so John says, I went to the angel telling him to give me the little book. And he said to me, no, you take it and then eat it. And it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth, that will be sweet as honey. And so I took, underline that, I took the little book out of the angel's hand and I ate it. And in my mouth was sweet as honey. And when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. And then they said to me, you must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings. John had to take the book. The angel didn't give it to him. God doesn't cram his message to us down our throats. We have to willingly take it, but it's not just enough to take it. We have to eat it. Now don't get hung up on whether John literally ate this entire book. Remember, Jeremiah was commanded. Ezekiel was commanded to eat the scroll of God. Whether or not he ate it literally is unimportant. The point is, it was a picture of assimilating God's word into his own life. Remember, you are what you eat.

12:01 make God's word a part of your life. And so John did that. He assimilated, he digested the truth of that little book into his life before he could go out and prophesy to the nations. And when he ate the word of God, either literally or figuratively, it first of all made his stomach bitter. It was bitter in taste, but then it became as sweet as honey. We read that this morning in Psalm 119, longest chapter in the Bible talks about the power of God's word. Remember verse one, your word is as sweet as honey in my mouth. In what sense is God's word both bitter as well as sweet. I was turning that over and over in my mind this week, and it didn't come to me till yesterday afternoon. So it's not in your notes, but I want you to write this down.

13:01 There are three aspects of the bitterness and sweetness of God's word. First of all, in terms of its audience, in terms of its audience to unbelievers, this message, especially the message of revelation is bitter news. Jesus Christ is coming back to judge the unrighteous. That is not good news. If you're not a Christian, it is bitter to unbelievers, but to believers, it's good news. Jesus is coming back to reward the righteous. So in that aspect, according to its audience, it is bitter and sweet. But secondly, it's bitter and sweet in terms of its content. Regardless of whether you're a Christian or not a Christian, in the book of Revelation, there are some terrible events that are recorded, like the demon-like locust and the demonic army and the third of the world being burned up and so forth. Those are terrible events, but in the very same Revelation, there are triumphant events, like the visible return of Jesus, his millennial kingdom in which perfect justice will reign, our home in heaven, the new heaven and the new earth. Those are all triumphant events as well. And then finally, God's word is both bitter and sweet in terms of its effect on our own life. It's effect on our life. When we make God's word a part of our life, when we allow God's word to speak to us, it causes both hurt and it also causes healing. That's the power of the word of God. It produces hurt. That's bitter.

14:47 That's unpleasant, but it also produces healing. Now, what does this mean to me? We've talked about a big angel. We've talked about John digesting the little book. What does it mean to me? Remember the thesis of the message today, you are what you eat. The Bible says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. If you want the transformed life God has planned for you, you have to change your spiritual diet. You have to eat. You have to assimilate God's word into your life. And so today I thought I would close the message by giving you five very practical ways you and I can eat the book, assimilate God's word and make it a part of our life. First of all, to get a grip on God's word, to eat the word of God, we need to listen to God's word, to listen to God's word. Romans 10, 17 says, for faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ. There is something powerful about listening to the word of God. Secondly, we need to read the word of God.

15:58 Read the word of God. The Psalm is said in Psalm 119, 18, open mine eyes that I may behold wonderful things out of thy law. There's something even more powerful about reading than simply listening to the word of God. You listen, you read, but the third is to study the word of God. Study the word of God. Second Timothy 2.15 says, study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. How do you study God's word? I wouldn't even know where to begin, you may say. I'm glad you asked the question. There is a tremendous book. The best book I know of on how to study the Bible is a book that came out 20 years ago, but it's still in print. It's called Living by the Book. It's by my old professor, Howard Hendricks, and his son, William Hendricks. The subtitle is The Art and the Science of Reading the Bible. It will tell you how you can actually study the Bible for yourself. I'd encourage you to get that book, Living by the Book. You can get it at Amazon. If we're going to get a grip on God's Word, take it and assimilate it into our life, we need to listen to the word. We need to read the word. We need to study the word. And then fourthly, we need to memorize the word of God. Memorize, especially key verses that deal with difficulties we're going to encounter in our life. Do you know where to turn if you were consumed with anxiety and didn't know how to quit worrying? If a temptation suddenly came into your life? Do you know which scripture to turn to, to change your heart and attitude, to flee that temptation? You know, I remember so well reading about that 737 jetliner in October of 2018, that Lion Air 737 jetliner. The pilots started experiencing the nose of their airplane pitching

18:04 upward, pitching upward. And finally it did it and it stalled the aircraft. They started plummeting toward the earth. And the last moments of that plane, the captains were furiously flipping through the flight manual, trying to find the answer, the solution to the problem they were in. They crashed. 138 people died on board as those captains and pilots were looking through that flight manual. Let me tell you something. If you wait until you're in a crisis to try to figure out where to go in scripture to help you. You've waited too long. The time to put God's word in your heart is before that crisis comes into your life. Isn't that what Jesus did in the wilderness when Satan assaulted him? His only hope for survival was to be able not just to quote any scripture, but to quote those exact verses from Deuteronomy that dealt with the temptation he was facing. If it was necessary for Jesus to hide the word of God in his heart, how much more important is it for us to do it? Psalm 119 11, thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against God.

19:19 We listen, we read, we study, we memorize. And then fifth is perhaps the most important one. we need to meditate on the word of God. Meditate. And what do I mean by meditate? You mean get yourself in some transcendental trance and you know, no, that's not what meditation is. Here's the definition of meditation. Literally it means to turn over in your mind, referred to a cow chewing its cud to turn over in your mind. The living Bible, Psalm one captures it best. oh the joys of those who do not follow evil men's advice who do not hang around with sinners scoffing at the things of God but they delight in doing everything God wants them to and they are day and night meditating on God's word here it is thinking of ways to follow him more closely that's what meditation is god didn't give us his word to make us smarter sinners he gave us his word to make us more obedient disciples of christ that's what it means to meditate thinking about god's word thinking about how it applies to you and making what change is necessary this week earlier in the week i was listening to god's word i was listening to a sermon and it happened to be on malachi chapter 3 bring all the tithes into the storehouse malachi said and i was listening to that sermon and i thought to myself boy that preacher has made an excellent point. I need to go share that with my church next Sunday. And then the Spirit of God said to me, no, before you share it, you need to apply it. And God brought to my mind some extra income I

21:24 had received, didn't expect to receive, and I hadn't written my tithe check on it yet. now I'm going to tell you I'm going to be painfully honest with you when I realized what I had to do it was bitter for just a moment it hurt just a little bit as I thought about writing that check but that bitterness was replaced by sweetness right away as I was able to thank God I even had the income to be able to tithe on it was a great blessing and yes in the first service I deposited that check into the offering plate if you're wondering. But that's exactly what God's Word does. Yes, it hurts, it convicts, but it does so in order to bring blessing into our life. And if you want to experience God's blessing in your life, you have to assimilate God's Word into your life. Again, not just to increase your knowledge, but to increase your level of obedience.

22:25 Isn't that what God said to Joshua in Joshua 1.8? This word of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night and be careful to do what is written in all that is in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success. that's the value of eating the word of God. The Apostle John said, I hope you're prepared to consume the Word of God with a voracious appetite. The psalmist said that God's words are sweeter than honey. As you're ready to take your next steps toward consuming God's Word, let me remind you that I've written a best-selling book for you called Final Conquest. It contains my verse-by-verse commentary on the book of Revelation.

23:25 Revelation is filled with mysterious symbols and fantastic future events, but at the core is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Without a doubt, this is the most important and comprehensive book I've written on Bible prophecy. And when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request a copy of Final Conquest. As you give, please know that your investment in Pathway to Victory is truly making a difference around the world. For example, I heard from Wesley who said, Pastor Jeffress, I pastor a small church in Northern Ireland. My wife and I are truly blessed to watch your Revelation series on television. Sadly, in our country today, the powers that be are heading towards secularism and anti-Christian attitudes. Thank you for your forthright exposition of the word of God.

24:21 Well, thank you, Wes. And thanks to anyone who gives generously to Pathway to Victory. You are making it possible for us to pierce the darkness with the light of God's Word all around the globe. Here's David to tell you more.