The Sovereign God Over it All
Notes
Transcript
He Owns it All (vv. 1-3)
He Owns it All (vv. 1-3)
God sends a mighty angel which John describes as the following:
He’s coming down from Heaven
He’s wrapped in a cloud
His head is encircled by a rainbow—a reminder of God’s promise
His face is shining like the sun
His legs were like pillars of fire
He’s holding a little scroll (as opposed to the other scroll mentioned earlier)
One foot is firmly placed on the land while the other is firmly placed on the sea
His voice is like a roaring lion, and when he cries out John says “seven thunders sounded”
This is a different angel than those mentioned previously...some believe this to be Michael, the archangel, but we do not know for sure. Regardless of the identity of the angel, he is MIGHTY in form and appearance, and has the full authority and power that God has given him.
While we could spend an entire service focused on the different aspects of the angel, there is one I’d like to note in particular...where his feet land (one on the land and the other on the sea).
John MacArthur says this:
Although Satan has temporarily usurped the sea and the earth, this symbolic act demonstrates that all creation belongs to the Lord and He rules it with sovereign authority.
Another says:
The angel positions himself with “his right foot on the sea” (earth’s oceans) and “his left foot on the earth” (earth’s continents). The combination indicates “the totality of God’s creation” (Beale 529), with the angel’s exaggerated size probably symbolizing the sovereign authority of God over all and the certainty of the announcement. “This asserts the divine right and determination to execute judgment against a world that exhibits its rebellion through idolatry and immorality”
There is not a square millimeter that God does not own!
Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it.
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.
The earth and everything in it,
the world and its inhabitants,
belong to the Lord;
Abraham Kuyper put it this way:
“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”
Not only does He own it all, we also see...
He Controls it All (vv. 4-5, 7)
He Controls it All (vv. 4-5, 7)
As John is about to record what he has just seen, the sovereign God of the universe tells him to seal up what he’s seen and he is not allowed to write about it.
Notice Revelation 10:4-7
Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them.”
The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer, but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.
At the end of verse 6 John declares what the sovereign God of the ages decides...
THAT THERE SHOULD BE DELAY NO LONGER
God is in control of the TIME TABLE of the universe, end-time events, and everything else we can imagine!
He, not the devil, not the demons, not the angels, not chance, not the politicians...He and He alone is in control of it ALL!
A question that may arise is why is He over it all and why does He control it all? Verse 6 answers that question
and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer,
He Created it All (v. 6)
He Created it All (v. 6)
It is still vitally important that we understand that
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Colossians 1:16 “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.”
We are not cosmic accidents floating through space. We are intricately designed by Creator God!
