Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #13 of Revelation, chapter 10, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 10:7:

But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

In our last couple of studies we have been looking at this word “mystery” and how God uses it in the Bible and we have seen that it identifies with the hidden truths of the Scriptures.  As Jesus said, in Matthew 13 and Mark 4, in speaking to the disciples, “Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.”  Yet, for those that were not disciples or elect individuals, it was not given; they would hear and not understand.  That is basically a good summary of what God has done with the whole Book of the Bible.  He has sent it forth into the world and it is “given” to those He predestinated before the foundation of the world to perceive it; they will hear it and they will understand it.  They will know the “mysteries” of those things that are concealed in the Word, but remember the Bible says, “Many are called, but few are chosen.”  For the many that are called, but not chosen, it is “not given,” and they cannot comprehend or understand.  They can hear it and see it, perhaps, but they cannot perceive it and they cannot grab hold of it and that is all according to God’s perfect plan; this is how God wanted it to be. 

We have gotten to the point, in Revelation 10, of Judgment Day, the period of time which we have entered into and the final stage of earth’s history, wherein there will soon be “time no longer.” At the beginning of the time of the end when judgment began on the churches at the start of the Great Tribulation, God opened up the Scriptures.   We read of the Lord’s plan to do that in the Book of Daniel: “Shut up the words, and seal the book to the time of the end.”  Of course, that matches very well with what God has done with the Bible – He has “sealed” it up through parables by hiding truth in His Word.  Many of those truths were “sealed” unto the time of the end.

Some truths were revealed, here and there, as time was unfolding throughout the history of the world.  For instance, at the beginning of the church age God revealed a certain “mystery,” as the Apostle Paul was moved to explain, in Ephesians 3:3-6:

How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

Here is the “mystery.”  God had written about it extensively in the Old Testament concerning the fact that the Gentiles would come in and would be recipients of the promise to Abraham and his seed; they would also be counted among that seed in Christ through the atoning work of the Lord.  Yet, the Jews were ignorant of this fact.  They were furious at the Apostle Paul when they thought he had brought a Gentile into the temple.  They heeded to him and listened to him until Paul mentioned Gentiles and then they began to throw dust into the air – they had no “ears” to hear this and no “eyes” to see it.  God had held this information back from them.  But in the proper time, in the time of the church age it was the Lord’s plan to send His Word into the nations of the world (the word “Gentile” and “nation” are a translation of the Greek word), to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles.  So God opened the minds of His people.  The Apostle Paul and other Jews were now made aware of this and they could then read the Scriptures and “see” it there, even though it was always in plain sight, and now He gave the understanding concerning it.  That is how the Lord opens up a “mystery.”  So the “mystery” was revealed and that is what God has done with certain things regarding the Messiah, as the Lord Jesus entered into the human race and demonstrated the things He had done from the foundation of the world.  A good deal of that information concerning the Messiah and His Person – that He was Eternal God made flesh – and a good many other things were revealed.  The New Testament revealed much “mystery,” but not all.  Actually, there were still large amounts of information that continued to be sealed and it was God’s plan that the information be concealed until the time of the end – until the world was almost over.  Of course, we are the ones that are living at the time that God unsealed the Bible and opened up the understanding of the Scriptures to His people, in order that knowledge would increase; and we have learned many things over the course of the last couple of decades.

Now it says in 1 Corinthians 4:1-2:

Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

Here, God is speaking to the believers and He is basically giving us an “office” and a duty and responsibility as stewards.  And what are we stewards of?  We are “stewards of the mysteries of God.”  We are servants and we have a responsibility toward the “mystery of God.”  What does that mean?  What it means is that God has given us an understanding of the mystery.  Remember, again, what Jesus said, in Matthew 13:11:

He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Since it is “given unto you,” the true believer only, it is not given unto them.  Therefore, the people of the world that have no understanding or identification with the Word of God (because it is not given to them), so they cannot be “stewards of the mysteries of God.”  Also, concerning the people that populate the churches and congregations at this time (since God has ended the church age and all the tares remain there), it is not given unto them to know the “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” and, therefore, they cannot be stewards of God’s mysteries.  They are not and it is very obvious, if you just look at the doctrines the true believers hold to and compare that with what those in the churches believe.  

For instance, look at the doctrine of “deeper spiritual meaning.”  Does the “Christian” in the churches hold to that doctrine?  They may acknowledge there is a deeper spiritual meaning in the Bible in some instances, but, for the most part, they do not look for it and they do not teach it.  They just look on the surface and look for the “plain, literal” meaning.  Or, we could look at the timeline of history in the Biblical calendar God has opened up to us, which is based upon the genealogies in the Book of Genesis.  It is just remarkable that the Lord has provided a history of the world from the creation and that we have the actual date of creation: 11,013 B.C.  We can know the actual date of the flood in Noah’s day: 4,990 B.C.  We know, from creation, that it was exactly 6,023 years, and so on.  God has given us the date of Abram’s birth and the date for the birth of Isaac 100 years later and the date for the birth of the twins, Jacob and Esau.  We know the actual date when King David became king and the date the foundation of the temple was laid.  We have the chronology of the kings of Israel and Judah and the date of Jerusalem’s destruction at the hand of the Babylonians.  We know the date of the birth of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, in 7 B.C. and the date of the baptism of Jesus and the entire timeline of Christ’s ministry as it fulfilled the 1,335 days mentioned in Daniel 12.  We know that Jesus was crucified in 33 A.D., and so on.  We have all of this precise information that was “hidden” in the Bible and, therefore, a mystery that was not revealed until the time of the hand.  God has graciously given it to us and we are “stewards” of this information. 

That is why it is such a horrible and awful thing when people quickly say, “Oh, I do not trust that Biblical calendar.”  They do not refer to the calendar or speak of the calendar or share information about the calendar.”  They were “burnt,” they believe, by trusting a date that came from the calendar and now they have put it behind them. 

It is the same thing with other information concerning the church age.  We have exact dates based on the Biblical timeline of history which God has opened to our understanding.  We can know the 1,955 years of the church age, from 33 A.D. to 1988.  We can even know the very date of May 21, 1988, the day before Pentecost, when the church age came to an end.  We know of the 2,300 evening mornings and where they fit and we know the timeline for the latter rain, beginning on September 7, 1994 and continuing for the duration for the Great Tribulation.  We know precisely the date of the Great Tribulation period: May 21, 1988 until May 21, 2011, an exact 23 years or 8,400 days.  And we know the date for Judgment Day. 

What do some people want to do with this information?  They do not want to look at it, for the most part.  They are putting it behind them and distancing themselves from it.  They do not want to talk about it any more.  Is that being a “steward of the mysteries” of the things God has revealed to us?  Of course not!  A good steward would hold onto these things and share these things with others.  That is what a good steward does, as it says in 1 Corinthians 4:2: “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”  You need to be faithful concerning the “mysteries of God,” and the mysteries of the kingdom that are “given.”  It is a gift of God that is given to you and to me and that we heard and believed these things.  It is given to those that have eyes to understand.  For anyone to turn and go back from them, it is not a good thing at all.

Let us turn to Luke, chapter 12, where God is going to continue addressing this idea of a steward, in Luke 12:41:

Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?

Notice that this is a parable, just like Matthew 13, when they asked Jesus about a parable.  It goes on to say in Luke 12:42:

And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward…

This is the same Greek word for “steward” that is found in 1 Corinthians 4, where God speaks of being “stewards of the mysteries of God” and this talks about being a “faithful” steward.  If you are a steward, it is a necessity and requirement of God that you be found “faithful.”  God has no time for unfaithful stewards.  God does not suffer unfaithful stewards of His mysteries. 

Here, it goes on to say in Luke 12:42:

And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?

The “in due season” could be translated as “in due time.”  The phrase “in due season” is a translation of the Greek word “kairos,” and it is often translated as “in due time.”  Now this could relate to harvest, but the word “kairos” is used in various ways in relationship to various times in God’s program of “times and seasons,” and there is the time of harvest in Matthew 13:30, where the word “time” is also “kairos.”  Yet, the context in Luke 12:42 has to do with the time of the end, so I think we are being very safe to understand that this servant whom the Lord is addressing as “that faithful and wise steward, who his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season,” represents those believers living in our day (of Judgment Day). 

Remember what 1 Corinthians 4 said.  You are stewards, not over (physical) bread or water.  The Bible is a spiritual Book and God is concerned with one being a good steward regarding the “mysteries of the kingdom,” and it is given unto you to know those mysteries and the Lord is addressing who will be a “faithful and wise steward” when He will make them ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season.  In other words, this ties in with the Lord Jesus speaking to Peter in John 21 after the great catch of fish, which typified the great multitude that came out of Great Tribulation.  Then Jesus said to Peter, “Lovest thou me?”  Peter said, “Ye, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.”  Then Jesus responds, “Feed my sheep.”  This is in the time period after the Great Tribulation; that is, “in those days after that tribulation.”  This is what the Lord wants His people to do.  He wants them to give to His household their “portion of meat in due season,” or in the time of harvest and in the time of Judgment Day.  This is what Luke 12:42 is related to, and it continues on to say in Luke 12:43:

Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.

This is our expectation and our hope – that we will continue to obey God, to trust God and to trust His Word, being “patient after having done the will of God” concerning the evangelization of the world in getting the Gospel out.  The time of sowing has been completed and that aspect of the will of God has been accomplished and, following that, there is a need for patience.  So, we are “waiting on the Lord” and we have an expectation He will return after 1,600 days.  If He does return on that date (or whatever date He returns) to fulfill this prolonged period of Judgment Day, it is hoped we are found faithful and good “stewards of the mystery of God;” that is, we have maintained the end or the church age; we have maintained the Biblical calendar of history; we have maintained the teaching that Christ was slain from the foundation of the world; we have maintained the doctrine of annihilation and that this is what God requires for the payment of sin; we have maintained that May 21, 2011, based on that calendar of history, was the beginning of Judgment Day, and so forth.  We have maintained these “mysteries” that have been revealed, after being long hidden and, therefore, “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing,” in maintaining the mysteries of the Word of God.

Then it goes on to say in Luke 12:44-45:

Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken;

Now verse 45 is speaking of an individual who claimed and professed to be a steward of the mysteries of God and, yet, notice what prompted or caused this servant to leave that responsibility to be a good and faithful steward of God’s mysteries.  It is related to the fact that the “lord delayeth his coming.”  But is it an actual delay?   Notice it says: “But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming,” and this does not mean that God actually delayed.  Rather, God is following His time table, the time which God has always known.  There is no actual delay and that is why the Bible says, “Yet a little while…and will not tarry.”  The coming of Christ and every aspect of it is perfectly designed and worked out by God to the smallest detail and God is fulfilling everything according to His perfect will. 

But, from the perspective of that evil servant who said in his heart, “My lord delayeth his coming,” it is because this servant does not believe in a “spiritual judgment,” because it is not something he can “see.”  He begins to doubt these other things: “The date that Christ was supposed to come on May 21, 2011, was based on the Biblical calendar and, therefore, I now do not trust that calendar.  This calendar also tied into the end of the church age and the date when the church age ended and, therefore, I do not trust the end of the church age either.”  Everything begins to unravel for this individual. 

On top of that, notice what he does next: “My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken.”  He is not taking care of the household and giving them “meat” and their portion in due season.  Now he is beating the members of the household.  How quickly some have turned, almost like a snake, and they have started reviling and casting reproach at the very ones they were once standing with.  Now they point the finger and cry, “Heresy and heretics,” just like those in the churches that did not like to hear of the spiritual judgment upon them and they, too, denounced Family Radio and those that were teaching things concerning the end of the church age.  It is a tragedy that this is happening and that these individuals, due to their perception that the Lord has delayed his coming, now have turned upon those they should have been feeding as good stewards of God’s mysteries.

Then it says in Luke 12:46-47:

The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

Sadly, this is going on right now in this Day of Judgment.  Many have turned their eyes away from the Word of God.  They have turned to politics or trying to better society or whatever else there is “under the sun,” and they have turned away from true and earnest searching of the Bible concerning the things of the end.  They are sick of it.  They want nothing further to do with it and, therefore, they are going to be ignorant when God completes His judgment upon them.