Thank you, Mike. Once I found
out from Marty that she wasn't going to be able to play the
organ tonight, I made an emergency phone call. Called in reinforcements, and
I appreciate Mike coming over and helping us. It's always good to see the both
of you. Appreciate you both coming over.
Let's go back to Revelation chapter 12. And I'll give you, I started
to call this a bird's eye view. If you would bear with me, I'll
stick with that. I'll give you a bird's eye view
of this chapter. Revelation chapter 12, because
really it covers all of the gospel age that commenced with the birth
of our Lord Jesus Christ and will end, the end of this gospel
age, when our Lord returns the second time. It begins with a
statement of astonishment. And the astonishment is a great
wonder in heaven. And then, of course, John, in
this vision, he sees our Lord Jesus, born of a virgin, and
as it were, given birth to by the church. And he comes into this world,
Immediately, the enemy attacked him, was ready to destroy him. But, of course, God protected
him because it could not be that our Lord Jesus would die at the
hands of a heret. He would not die at the hands
of the angry Jews. He would die at the hand of God.
He would die a death that was sacrificial and substitutionary
in nature. He would die the death that would
redeem his people from offended justice. He would die the death
that would pay our sin debt in its totality. He would die the
death that would actually, actually save his people from their sins. And I made mention in the prayer,
we sang Jesus saves, and we could actually sing Jesus saved. He saved us by His death. At the very beginning of the
service, I read that verse from Matthew 1 in verse 21. Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, is what the messenger said to Joseph,
for He shall save His people from their sins. And I ask you,
did He do that? Well, of course He did. So that
means He saved us. He saved us, we were redeemed
by that bloody death of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the vision begins
with a word or a statement of astonishment. And that's exactly what the incarnation
was, an astonishing thing. When the Son of God join Himself
to a human soul and body prepared for Him. And there will be no
divorce, there will be no dissolution of that humanity of our Savior
and His Godhead. You see, in order to redeem us
by His grace and by His sacrifice at the cross of Calvary, He had
to be made flesh. He had to be made like unto his
brethren, Hebrews chapter 2. He had to be made like unto his
brethren for the suffering of death. God can't suffer. God is spirit. That's what the
master said in John chapter four. God is spirit. They that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. So God can't endure
any kind of pain. And certainly he can't die. He
is the eternal God. But the God-man, the God-man
can and did suffer, bleed, and die. because he veiled his deity
with our humanity for the suffering of death. You'll notice it says, a loud voice was heard in heaven. A loud voice. That loud voice, I suspect, was
the voice of the Father, the voice of God Himself. As he said in verse number 10,
I heard a loud voice, John said, saying, the voice is in heaven. It may be, it may be that that
voice would be all of the children of God, all of the Old Testament
departed saints, who had gone to be with the Lord
during the Old Testament times, but I think perhaps more appropriately,
it is the voice of God Himself. And God Himself said, now, now
has come salvation and strength. and the kingdom of our God, and
the power of His Christ. Well, the question is, what does
now refer to? Now. Well, hold your place here
and go to John chapter 12. Look at John chapter 12. And I say I believe it's the
voice of God because God speaks here in this passage. Our Lord Jesus, in John chapter
12, verse 27, He says, He talks about now. Now is my soul troubled, John
12, 27. And what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto
this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then there came a voice, a voice
from heaven. And the voice said, I have both
glorified it and will glorify it again. And the people therefore
that stood by and heard said that it thundered. You remember
this, when you hear thunder like we heard the other night, that's
the voice of God. I rejoice that God can speak
and shake the world. He can speak and get everybody's
attention, and the lightning is the flashing of his eyes.
I have great respect for a thunderstorm, but I rejoice in the midst of
it. That's my father. I'm one of his children. He's
not ashamed to call me one of his little ones. And he speaks,
and his children recognize his voice. That's the voice of our
almighty God. And his lightning is the flashing
of his eyes. To the people, verse 29, therefore
that stood by and heard, said that it thundered. Others said
an angel spake to him. Jesus answered and said, this
voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now. Now. There's that word again. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. And that's exactly what we read
over here in Revelation chapter 12. When our Lord died upon the
cross of Calvary, He cast Satan out of heaven. He dethroned him. The accuser of the brethren is
no longer admitted into the presence of God. The man Christ Jesus has conquered
Him, understand this, Satan got the victory over that first man,
the first Adam. But he was thoroughly and soundly
defeated by the second man, the last Adam, Christ Jesus our Lord. And Christ said, now, now is
the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto me. This said he, signifying
what death he should die. So as we go back over to Revelation
chapter 12, We recognize then that this loud
voice said, now has come salvation. This is the salvation that God
had purposed from old eternity. This is the salvation that God
ordained for his people. Now it has happened. Now has
come salvation. Deliverance, the rescue of all
of God's elect. We were rescued, we were delivered,
we were saved when our Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood unto his
death. Because God was satisfied. Remember this, before the Lord
can do anything for us, he had to do something for himself. He had to satisfy his own law
and justice. And he did that when he punished
his son unto death, when he poured out his wrath into the very soul
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The very hell of God's indignation
burned in the soul of our Lord Jesus Christ until the Son of
God consumed it all. And he said then with a loud
voice, It is finished. Now has come salvation. And the
salvation that we experience, and I don't take anything away
from the necessity of the experience of grace. Please don't misunderstand
me. That's when salvation becomes
a reality to us. That's when it is experienced. There must be the work of the
Holy Spirit. There must be the work of God
within the heart, creating a new heart, creating life and grace
and mercy and salvation. And like Paul said, I travail
in pain till Christ be formed in you. That's necessary. But all of that happens because
God purposed it to happen, and the Son of God has finished the
work of redemption. You see, he's not dying anymore. In the mass, they kill him all
over again, they say. No. He laid down his life once. And in laying down his life,
he satisfied every demand, every stipulation for the salvation
of those sheep the Father entrusted to him from before the foundation
of the world. And now, with a loud voice, God
says, now has come salvation. And I'll tell you another reason
I think it's the voice of God, because look over at chapter
18. And verse 4. Look at chapter 18 and verse 4. This
is just before the destruction of Babylon. And you know Babylon
is God's name for all false religion. I know the old writers used to
say it was about the Roman Catholic
Church. Well, it's that, but all other
false religions as well. That's Babylon. Just like Babylon
was the enemy of God's people in the Old Testament. So the
Babylon, the false religions of this world, they're not the
friends of God, they're not the friends of grace, and they're
not our friends either. They're opposed to us. But many of us, We came out of
Babylon. We were in false religion, but
we didn't stay in it. So he says in chapter 18 and
verse four, and I heard another voice, watch it, from heaven. And here's what the voice said,
come out of her, my people. that you be not partakers of
her sins and that you receive not of her plagues, that you
don't receive of her judgments. And you read through the rest
of Revelation chapter 18 and it's all about the downfall,
the destruction of Babylon. But Babylon cannot and will not
be destroyed. till all of God's elect had been
rescued from her and brought to Christ. See, it's like the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah. That's what comes to my mind. God's going to destroy Sodom
and Gomorrah. That's what He told Abraham. But there was one man in there
that he is one of God's people. In fact, Peter calls him a righteous
man. That's what he calls him. You see, Sodom and Gomorrah could
not be destroyed with a righteous man there. He's righteous through
the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the Lord laid his hand on
Lot and said, you're getting out of here. And he led him out
of the city, and once he is set to safety, led to safety, then
judgment fell. And that's the way it is with
Babylon. She's in for a terrible ending. She's gonna face the judgment
of God. God's gonna cast her down to
hell as though she had a millstone around her neck. And the saints
of God, according to the beginning of chapter 19, are gonna shout,
hallelujah, hallelujah, when she falls. But she's not gonna be destroyed. Till all of God's lots have been
drawn out of her. So, here's this loud voice saying,
now has come salvation. Salvation. That's what I want
to talk about. But I'll just mention this as
well. Now has come salvation and strength. Now, you want to
see the strength of our Lord Jesus Christ, the strength of
God our Savior? Behold Him at the cross. Do you
know how powerful he was and is? He was powerful enough to
deliver a soul from the gaping jaws of hell and save him by
his almighty grace. That thief. How strong was he? He bore up
under the fierceness of God's wrath. Because all of our sins were
made to meet on him. And therefore God unleashed the
fury of his anger on Christ our Savior. And in that darkness, the voice
of our Redeemer pierced through it. My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? And when I read that, I always
think of Psalm 22. It begins that way, and then
the answer comes back, for thou art holy. You want to know how holy God
is? He spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all.
Now has come salvation and strength. He was almighty to save. And the kingdom of our God. Now
has come the kingdom of our God. And the power of His Christ. He was so powerful that He snatched
The accuser of our brethren from hell, in the words of here in
the text in verse 10, he cast him down. He cast him out. John chapter 12. He was cast
out. Our Lord Jesus in the omnipotence
of his person cast him out of heaven. He took away that power that
he had. Now that's not to say that he's
totally destroyed, but he can't hurt the church of the redeemed.
But his roar is fierce and loud. And since he no longer had access
to the throne of God, he has been in pursuit against the church
of our Lord Jesus Christ. loathe these 2,000 years. And though he has done his utmost
to stamp out the gospel of God's grace and to eliminate the church
of the firstborn, he cannot do it. Because remember what I said
to begin with. The book of the Revelation is
about the victory of the lamb and his followers over the dragon and his followers. And you remember the words of
our Apostle Paul, the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter eight. We are more than conquerors through
him, not without him, but through him. who loved us. I'll tell you, Christ is all
in salvation. This is kind of the theme I've
been working on for the last few messages. I've preached on
the preeminence of Christ, and Christ is all in salvation. He's all in the works of God.
The Lord willing, I'm going to be preaching this coming Sunday
morning. He's all in the Scriptures. Christ
is all in the Scriptures. And He's all in salvation. He's all of our justification.
Jim, what does that word justification mean? That's a long word. Well, it is a long word. But
you see, justification is when God himself as the righteous
judge gives a verdict. that all for whom Christ suffered,
bled, and died, all of those whose sins were borne away by
the Savior at the cross of Calvary, God has passed verdict on all
of us, and He says, justified, which means just as if I never
sinned. And it means more than that. Just as if I had always been
righteous and perfect. Because in the Lord Jesus Christ
we are. Oh, how amazing. God has justified
us. Romans chapter three and verse
24. We're justified by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has justified us freely. That's a really good word right
there, freely. The word freely means without
a cause in us. without a reason found in us. The reason we're justified is
not because of anything we've said, done, or thought. It's
because of what He's done for us. Who He is and what He's done.
You ever Google anything? Every once in a while, I'll Google
something just to find out what Mr. or Mrs. Google, whoever that
is, just to see what Google has to say. And I looked up the word
justification and justify. And it said, it's what God does
to somebody who believes on Jesus. We are justified by faith only
in this sense, not legally, but believingly, because legally
we were justified through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in the Savior makes it
evident of this justification. But you're not justified because
you believed on Jesus. You're justified because of what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you in your stead and in
your place. You're justified. I recognize
the fact of the necessity of faith. But you need to understand
this. Everything we need, God gives. And that includes faith, faith. Christ is all in our justification. For you see, we were really justified
eternally in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we were gifted to the Son
of God, way back in eternity, When God gave us to Christ, and
I say when, really there wasn't a time. We've always been in
him. But that doesn't compute in our
minds. We've always been justified in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Justified by the grace of God
given to us in him. And we were justified at the
cross of Calvary. Romans 5, 9 says we're justified
by his blood. At conversion, justified by faith. And in life, justified by works. Now what James says, sure. But we were justified in eternity
in the Savior. who purposed all things for his
beloved people. And in Christ, we're declared
to be righteous. Christ is all in our justification. He's all in regeneration. John
chapter five, the son quickeneth whom he will. Have you been quickened? Oh, I have. Yeah. I don't see anybody's head bobbling,
but I've been quickened. I've been regenerated. The Son quickened me. The Son
of God who is life. He is life. He quickened me. We sometimes sing that song,
Christ liveth in me. In me. He who is my life. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. Life? I have life. I have life in Christ. Christ is my life. I have spiritual
life. I have eternal life. Eternal
life's to know God. And I have everlasting life. I have a life that'll never end.
And Christ is all in our conversion. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
Paul and Silas said to the jailer, and thou shalt be saved. Salvation
is not believing there is a God. Now there's no salvation apart
from believing that God is. But just believing that God exists,
that's not salvation. It's believing somebody. I remember I was years ago, a
long time ago, early 70s, like 72. And Nancy and I lived in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and I worked at Rosemont Baptist
Church and was the music director. We had a choir. I was a choir
director. I'd studied that in college.
taught Sunday school and preached. I always appreciated the fact
that the pastor, he must have seen something in me, detected
some degree of preaching gifts, because he gave me the last Sunday
night of every month, that was mine to preach. And I appreciated
that, and just as a side note, when Tim James informed me that
he was going into the ministry, I said, you come up and preach
for me the last Sunday night of every month. And he did. It
also helped that Nancy and I were very poor then, and Tim owned
his own butcher shop. And when he came up, he'd bring
a cooler of meat. That was kind of a plus, too.
But anyway, get back to the story of Winston-Salem. We had this
guest preacher came in from 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland,
Kentucky. And I met Brother Mahan, and
I heard him preach. And he said something that floored
me. He said salvation is not in a
plan. He said it's in a person, a person. And I'll never forget,
he went to that passage in Luke chapter two, Simeon in the temple. Said, now Lord, let us thy servant
depart in peace at thy word. For mine eyes have seen, he didn't
see it. I remember him saying, he didn't
see a plan. He saw somebody. He saw the Savior. Christ is all in our conversion.
We see Him. And John the Baptist said, Behold
the Lamb of God. And I tell you, every preacher
that is of any worth at all, every preacher called by God
will always direct your attention to the Lamb of God. Look to the
Lamb of God. Not to a plan. And when he said, look to the
person, salvation's in a person, I have not gotten over that to
this day. Tell you what, when the word
of God comes home to you in great power, you won't get over it. When you get a glimpse of the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're not gonna get over that. And you don't want to. Now I'll
tell you something else real quick. Christ is all in our sanctification. We were set apart in him. And
he is our holiness. Christ is all in our preservation
or security. That passage in Jude comes to
mind. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling. and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. It's something
he enjoys doing. To the only wise God, our Savior,
be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. And I'll tell you, Christ will
be our all in eternity. would just love sitting at his
feet. I've told Al many times, I said, you're going to see the
Savior face to face. Now won't that be something? I can't imagine the bliss that
fills the heart of a child of God as soon as they depart this
life and they're with Christ. I just imagine the Savior embracing
every sheep that comes home. I just imagine him kissing them
on the cheeks and welcome home. Welcome, welcome to my presence. And we'll say thank you, Lord.
And we'll be saying thank you, Lord, forever. We sure will. And I tell you, that'll be glory
for us, won't it? Oh, that will be glory for me.
When by His grace I shall look on His face, that will be glory
for me. Let's get the songbook turned
to 505.