Hi, I'm Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to serve as your Bible teacher every day on this great radio station.
On today's edition of Pathway to Victory. You are what you eat. We understand what that means. What you consume affects you physiologically. That's also true in the spiritual realm. 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. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress.
Jesus said, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The Bible is our daily source of spiritual encouragement. And today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress teaches from an unusual passage in Revelation that reminds us of our dependence on God's Word. Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David. And welcome again to Pathway to Victory.
There's always something going on behind the scenes at Pathway to Victory. And right now we're already planning next summer's vacation for you. So why not escape the pressures of your everyday life and join us? The dates for the 2024 Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska are June 15th through 22nd. We will begin in Vancouver, British Columbia, and guiding through the calmer waters of the Inside Passage on our way to Alaska.
And I guarantee that after one full week aboard a luxury cruise liner, you'll come home spiritually and physically refreshed. We have special guests going along with us, including musical artist Rebecca St. James and Michael O'Brien. You'll enjoy the comedy of Dennis Swanberg, and I'll be teaching from God's Word as well.
The wonderful itinerary, information on our guest entertainment, and all the details for reserving your spot can be found by going to ptv.org. Now, before we begin our study in Revelation chapter 10, I'm going to pique your curiosity about a brand new book I've written for you that was prepared to coincide with our current study in the book of Revelation. It's called Mysteries of the End Times, five little known truths about God's plan for the future. If you find biblical prophecy a little challenging to understand, you're not alone. And in my new book, I address five very common mysteries that often stump Bible readers. You can own a copy of Mysteries of the End Times when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. More details later on, but right now, let's turn to Revelation chapter 10.
I've titled today's study, You Are What You Eat. If you have your Bibles, turn to Revelation chapter 10. Look at verse 1. And I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, and he was clothed with a cloud, and the rainbow was upon his head.
Remember, 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. And he had in his hand a little book which was opened. Now, I've read theory after theory about what this little book the mighty angel had in his hand was.
I think the best answer to it is it's the same book we've looked at earlier, the seven-sealed book from chapter 5, the book of redemption. In what sense was this book a little book? Well, compared to the mighty angel we're going to look at, just by perspective, it was a small book. And look at how large this angel is.
He placed his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. Now, that's one big angel. 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? And then, when we get to verse 8, 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 8. 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. And so, John says, I went to the angel telling him to give me the little book. And he said to me, take it and then eat it. And it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it 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. 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. In what sense is God's word both bitter as well as sweet? 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. In the book of Revelation, there are some terrible events that are recorded, 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, its 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. You know, when you go to the surgeon and want him to remove a cancerous tumor, the first thing he has to do is take that scalpel and slice you right down the middle and open you up.
Now, were it not for the anesthesia, you'd be in a lot of pain. For the doctor to open you up, that's hurt he's inflicting upon you. But the reason he opens you up and brings that hurt into your physical body is not because he's a masochist, but because he wants to produce healing. Hurt is a prerequisite to healing.
It's the same way with God. In Deuteronomy 32, 29, God says, I am the one who wounds and I am the one who heals, Deuteronomy 32, 39. It is I who wounds and it is I who heals.
And you know the scalpel that God uses to produce that hurting and healing? It's the word of God. Hebrews 4, for the word of God is alive, it's active, it is sharper than any two-edged sword. That's the power of the word of God. It produces hurt, that's bitter, 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. Now, remember what the angel commanded John to do? He said, take the book. Here's the angel, the mighty angel with a book in his hand, and John was supposed to take it, and he ultimately did take it from the angel. He didn't just use one finger to take it. If he had used one finger, he couldn't have grabbed the book. If he had just used two fingers, he could have easily lost the book. To get a grip on that book, he had to use all five fingers. In the same way, there are five ways you and I can get a grip on God's word, eat it, make it a part of our life.
And I want you to write down these five ways to do that. For some of you, this is a review. You've heard it before.
But for a multitude of you, this is brand new. 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. That's why we assemble together once a Sunday. Every Christian, if you're watching this broadcast someplace else, every Christian needs to be a part of a local church and sit under the preaching and teaching of a God-anointed man who will share with you the truth of God's word. But that's not enough one time a week. Our world has become so polluted that we need a regular intake through the ear gate of God's word.
You know, think about it. 50 years ago, 40 years ago, if you wanted to hear a message from the Bible, you had to come to church, and we did that joyfully, but you had to come to church physically to hear it, or you could maybe tune in on the radio and watch it at the same time it was happening live. But there were no podcasts. There was no Christian radio 40 years ago that had nonstop messages being produced on it. God has given us a great privilege today that we can listen to God's word anytime we want to and hear it and let it change our life.
And again, we need it more than just once a week. You know, I'll tell you personally, when I'm driving to church in the morning, my first inclination is to go to talk radio. But I think I don't want to start my morning like that, listening to that stuff. I get all worked up and I'm yelling and so forth. I do it on the way home, but I've stopped doing it on the way to church.
I don't want to start my day. So I either turn on Christian radio or I listen to a podcast. I need an intake through the year gate of God's word to start my day on. Isn't it a blessing that we have some ways to listen to God's word regularly? We need to listen to God's word. That's the thumb.
That's the first finger, but that's not enough. Secondly, we need to read the word of God. Read the word of God.
The Psalm is said in Psalm 100 in 1918, 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. And hopefully as this new year begins, you have a plan for regularly reading God's word.
It doesn't matter what plan you use. Some people read through the Bible in a year. That's fine if you want to do that. Other people like to take a book of the New Testament, especially one of the shorter books. Did you know two-thirds of the New Testament books can be read in 20 minutes or less? Some people use the plan of taking like Philippians and reading it through once a day for 30 days until that book just saturates your thoughts, then moving to another one. If you're in a longer book like Romans or Matthew, divide it into thirds, and do a third for a month, the next third for the next month. But the idea is a regular plan for reading God's word. That's the second finger. You listen, you read, but the third finger is to study the word of God. Study the word of God.
2 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. Do you know what the difference is between a tourist and an explorer? A tourist, when he's in a new area, a new country, a new state, his goal is to get to the destination as soon as possible and just pause long enough to note the high points of what he's looking at. I grew up in a family where my father was a tourist. He took us lots of places, but the goal was to make it to such and such before nighttime. And he was focused on getting us to the destination.
I've picked up that bad habit, by the way, and passed it on to my kids. You know, it was just kind of like the old Chevy Chase movie. We'd get to the Grand Canyon.
Okay, kids, you've got five minutes. Take a picture and back into the car because we've got to get to the motel tonight, you know, and so forth. That's a tourist. An explorer takes his time.
He studies in depth what he's looking at, takes in all the details. And the riches of God's word are really reserved not just for tourists, but for explorers of the book. 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. I'll 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, the fourth finger, 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 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. We listen. We read. We study. We memorize.
But that fifth finger 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... No. That's not what meditation is. Here's the definition of meditation. Literally, it means to turn over in your mind.
It referred to a cow chewing its cud. To turn over in your mind. The Living Bible, Psalm 1, 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. Turning God's word over in your mind, thinking of ways to follow God more closely. 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 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 predicts, 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. 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. In the words of John as recorded in his book of the Revelation, 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 and the drippings of the honeycomb. As you're ready to take your next steps toward consuming God's Word, let me remind you that I've written a brand new book for you. It's called Mysteries of the End Times, five little-known truths about God's plan for the future. Over the years, we have received literally thousands of questions from our Pathway to Victory followers about Bible prophecy.
And my book distills the five most common areas of confusion, as I provide my best effort at unraveling the mystery surrounding topics like the day of the Lord and the marriage of the Lamb. In addition, I answer one of the most common questions, where is America in the end times? And when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request your copy of Mysteries of the End Times.
As you give, please know that your investment in Pathway to Victory is truly making a difference around the world. I recently heard from Wesley, who wrote, 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. 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.
David. Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request a copy of Mysteries of the End Times, the brand new book by Dr. Robert Jeffress. Call us at 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org.
And when your gift is $100 or more, you'll also receive the complete CD and DVD teaching sets for this month's series on the book of Revelation. Plus, we'll send you the bestselling book by Dr. Jeffress called Final Conquest. To make your request, call 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org.
You could write to us if you'd like. Here's the address. P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins. You know, we may be bound by the limits of space and time, but to God, what we see as future, He sees as history. Hear a message called Breaking News Friday on Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.
