THE LITTLE BOOK

Sermon of the Week #200718 – April 29, 2007

In the tenth chapter of Revelation John says he saw a mighty angel coming down out of Heaven. He was arrayed with a cloud, a rainbow was on his head; his face shone as the sun, and his feet were like pillars of fire. In his right hand he held a little book; a little book that was open, wide open. This little book will be mentioned eleven times in eleven verses. His voice was as a lion when it roareth, and when he sounded off, seven thunders uttered their voices. John started to write down what the seven thunders said, but a voice from Heaven told him to seal it up, and write not what the seven thunders uttered. Then the angel put his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and with his right hand lifted up, he swore that time should no longer be. Then the voice that John heard from Heaven told him to go to the angel, and tell him to give him the little book. John went and told him, and the angel told him to take it, and eat it, and the eating would be sweet in his mouth, and bitter in his belly.

So this is the story of the little book. It is indeed the New Testament. Even if you do not agree from a prophetic standpoint, you will have to agree that the things we will say about the little book are true.

For one thing the little book in the hand of the angel was brought down from Heaven. That is the origin of the Word of God. It is from Heaven. Peter said, “Holy men spake from of old as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” Paul said that all scripture is inspired of God and is profitable.… The New Testament is a Heaven-sent book. It is the only book ever given to men that is the authentic revelation of Jesus, and a book that tells us what God says we must do to go to Heaven.

Then too, note that the book that was opened is a little book. The New Testament is a little book. Some copies can be bought for a few cents; some copies are so small that it can be carried comfortably in the shirt pocket. The New Testament is indeed a little book.

Note also how the little book is opened. Open on land and sea; the angel stood with one foot on the land, and one foot on the sea. Has there ever been a book like the New Testament that is open everywhere? Open on land and sea. No book can compare with the Bible when you consider that it has been translated into hundreds of languages and dialects. It is an open book. Think again how that little book was open regardless of the lifestyle of the people. At the close of the previous chapter, we are told that men repented not of their fornications, murders, adulteries, sorceries, and thefts. No matter what the lifestyle of people will be in the last days, the little book will always be open. The New Testament is open and preached today as never before in this permissive society. This broadcast can be heard today everywhere on this planet.

This little book will be open until the end of the world. When the angel stands with his foot on the sea and the earth, the little book is still open as he declares that time shall be no more. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away but My word shall not pass away.” Peter said, “All flesh is as grass and the pride thereof as the flower of the grass. The grass withereth, and the flower falleth, but the word of God abideth forever; and this is the word of good tidings that was preached unto you.” Now there are three things John will tell us about the little book.

First we note that the voice from Heaven told John, “TAKE THE BOOK.” John told the angel, “GIVE ME THE BOOK”, and the angel told John, “EAT THE BOOK!” Take the book-Give me the book-Eat the book. First, take the Book.

TAKE THE BOOK

The voice that John heard from Heaven, he heard again saying unto him that he should go and take the book that is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the earth and the sea.

That is good personal advice for every one of us, “Go and take the book.” The only way we can ever find time for the book is to take it. The Devil will so order your life that you will not have time for the book, so take it. The song says, “Take time to be holy.”

Take the book into the pulpit; take it. Notice how the Apostles took the book into the pulpit. The book of Acts is a book of preaching. Consider the first gospel sermon by the Apostle Peter in the second chapter of Acts. It takes twenty-five verses to record that sermon. About thirteen of those verses are where Peter is quoting scripture. Quoting scripture is apostolic. Half of the sermon was scripture. This sermon is not an exception. The seventh chapter of the book of Acts has the sermon of Stephen. That sermon has fifty-three verses, and of the fifty-three verses, fifty of them are where Stephen is using scripture. While he did not quote by and large he did paraphrase. He told the scriptural story. He only had three verses of his own preaching. Take the book into the pulpit. The Apostles and early preachers used the book when they preached.

Take the book; take it to those who are still walking in darkness. Most of us preachers spend most of our time preaching to the saved. We need to take it to the lost. We need to take the book out to the world, because the lunatics are running the asylum. Take the book. And now secondly, consider that John told the angel, “Give me the Book.”

GIVE ME THE BOOK

John went to the angel who had the little book open in his hand and said, “Give me the book.” That is the wish of the people who are starving for the Word of God. They do not say, “Give me the works of the philosophers”; they are hungering for the Word.

My dad gave me the book at an early age. As a child he had me to read aloud out of the family-sized Bible while he followed in another. I remember reading the whole Bible through as a child. The stories were pressed into my mind indelibly. I remember walking down an alley and seeing a neighbor boy in his yard. I called to him over the fence, “Hey, do you know the names of the twelve sons of Jacob?” He said he didn’t. He probably thought Jacob was one of the neighbors. I recited them for him: “Reuben, Semeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Isacher, Zebulon, Joseph and Benjamin.” I knew those names as a child. Some might say that is too much to expect from a child. Just ask the average child to name some of the characters from Star Wars, and they have no problem.

As I look back on it I now realize, as a child I was very interested in Star Wars, before it was made popular later on. I had learned from Revelation 12 about a great red dragon cast out of Heaven, and he took one third of the stars with him. Those stars were some of the morning stars that sang together, and shouted for joy when God laid the foundations of the earth. Those stars, as Jude tells us, are now kept in chains of darkness unto the judgment of that great day. Now that is a real star wars story! Give me the Book.

There was a well-known journalist years ago that said he never went to a church service, because no man can speak as often as a preacher does, and have anything important to say. There is some truth to this. Stand-up comics can’t speak to the same audience week after week, and have anything interesting to say on their own hook. These people have writers who help them with their material. Without writers they could not succeed. Yet a preacher has to speak to the same people week after week, sometimes three, and four times a week.

There is no way he can do it, unless he has writers a Ghost writer—Holy  Ghost, the author of the Word of God. Whenever a preacher uses the Bible, no matter how many times he speaks to the same people each week, he will have something important to say. Give me the Book.

I have heard it for many years from many preachers, but it needs repeating, “Sir Walter Scott, a great historical novelist, on his deathbed, called for someone to bring him the book. They said, “Which book?” He said, “There is only one book; bring me the book.”

Some may note that we spend little time on some of the social ills of the day, racism, abortion, drugs, drunkenness, and others. The reason for this is because these things are only limbs on the Devil’s sin tree. Actually the roots of all those problems are the same roots. Lust, envy, hatred, jealousy, greed, selfishness, and pride and the gospel, is the only thing that can cut the roots in the sin tree. Give me the Book.

One missionary states that in some parts of India there is an average of five rats in every home. Rats eat twenty percent of the grain, and cannot be killed because they believe the dead come back in other life forms. To kill a rat means they may be killing a former relative. So the starving of these folk is a spiritual problem. If you could stand with a native and look at a cow grazing on the hillside, and muse, “Wonder how many standing rib roasts are in that beast? How many succulent hamburgers could we get out of that cow? How many rib eyes could we obtain?” The native standing there with hollow eyes, and emaciated skeleton would say, “HOLY COW!” Take the Book, give me the Book, and now thirdly, "Eat the Book."

EAT THE BOOK

The angel had the little book open in his hand and he gave it to John with these instructions, “Take it, and eat it.” He did not say, “Read it”, he said, “Eat it.” When you eat, it will be sweet in your mouth, and bitter in your belly.” John did as he was told; he ate the Little Book. It was sweet in his mouth. It tasted better than any strawberry short cake he had ever eaten. It tasted better than any chocolate bar he had ever enjoyed. It was sweet in his mouth, but as soon as he ate it, he got a bad case of heartburn. It was bitter in his belly.

John’s experience is duplicated many times in life today. It was Peter who said, “If ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious…” On the Day of Pentecost, the day the church was born, the sermon that day accused the audience of killing the Lord. That accusation can be repeated to any audience living in the world today. We all had a hand in the crucifixion. Christ died for our sins. In their agony of conviction they cried out, “What must we do?” What a sweet taste the announced remedy had that day, as they tasted that the Lord was gracious, “Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

The preacher today knows that to preach that message will be a bitter experience. People don’t want to hear it, so the preachers get up, and burp out a sour message; a message full of the bile of compromise. Isaiah has a statement that speaks to this situation when he says, “Now go write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever, and ever: That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: which say to the seers, See not, and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.” (Isaiah 30:8-10) The message today must be as smooth as silk.

The modern-day preacher must be inspirational; never use any part of the Word of God that as Paul would say, reproves or rebukes, or in any way imply the need for repentance, Make it smooth.

Isaiah again comes to mind when he says, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice as a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins.” (Isaiah 58:1). The preaching situation today is described very well from a physician in India who writes, and I read now what she said,  “I listen to your program every Sunday over Radio Sri Lanka’s All Asian service and find your messages deeply satisfying. I can still remember the time when pulpit teaching was all hell fire and brimstone, and now it is all love and forgiveness, no matter what one does or thinks. Your messages speak of both the goodness, and the severity of God, so relevant in our day of partial Christianity.”

And so the preaching of the gospel today may be a bittersweet experience. It is true the message may be sweet, but translating the message into a saving message for the lost has embittered many a servant of God. But as John stood there with a bitter belly, he got no relief for his heartburn. He was told to preach anyway. “Thou must prophesy again over many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” And the same goes for us. Take the Book; Give me the Book, Eat the Book.

CONCLUSION

First the Old Testament scriptures tell how the prophets foretold,

How Jesus would come to redeem us, that story never grows old.

Read then the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, tell us too

How Jesus came to redeem us and give us all life anew.

Read then the plan of salvation, Acts of Apostles will show;

It is the book of conversions, read it and you will know.

Twenty-one letters will follow showing us all how to live;

Adding to faith Christian virtue, faithfulness then we can give.

Last of all comes Revelation telling of heaven so fair;

How we will meet the dear Saviour together His heaven to share.

So open the Bible and read it, ponder its message so true;

You’ll find the great plan of salvation, why Jesus died for you.