Open your Bibles to Revelation
chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1. Let me read the first three verses
to you. Chapter 1, this is not the revelation
of Saint John the Divine, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ. The word was given to John by
the Spirit of Grace. The revelation of Jesus Christ
which God gave unto him to show that is to manifest, to expose
unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it
by his angel unto his servant John. And then it says of John,
John who bare record of the Word of God and of the testimony of
Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that
readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep
those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand."
Here's my subject, John Bear Record of the Word. Scripture begins this way, the
revelation of Jesus Christ, and as I said last Lord's Day, certainly
this would be a good title, not only for the last book of the
Bible, But if you wanted to give a title to all of the Bible,
to all of the Scriptures, this is the best title. It is the
revelation of Jesus Christ. It reveals Him. It sets Him forth. It manifests Him. We won't know
anything about the Lord Jesus Christ. We won't know anything
about God saving mercy to sinners. We won't know anything about
blood redemption. We won't know anything about
being justified by the righteousness of Jesus Christ unless God reveals
Himself through His Son. This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. All revelation, all of the Word
of God is a revelation of God's Son. This is the one we focus
on. This is the one we look to. No
other can save you. No other could come and wash
away the sins of His people. No one else's righteousness could
ever be imputed to someone, and then God, on the basis of that
imputed righteousness, therefore justified them. This is the one
we need to know. This is the one we need to focus
on. This is the one we need to direct
our attentions to, and this is the one the Bible sets before
us. It is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. Now notice this next expression,
the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto Him. While the Lord Jesus is indeed
God, John says, in the beginning was
the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. He is God. While He is God Himself,
and as such He has life in Himself, and He has light in Himself,
and He has all knowledge in Himself, yet He is also God's faithful
servant. The Lord Jesus became Jehovah's
servant in the covenant of grace. And therefore he took a position
in which he was answerable to the Father. Though equal to the
Father in every way. Now don't miss that. He is equal
to the Father in every way, in His person, in His essence, in
His authority, in His power, in His eternality. He is equal
with the Father and with the Spirit. Yet, in order to save
us, in order to redeem us, in order
to be the sacrifice for our sins, God's only begotten Son humbled
Himself And He made Himself likened to sinful flesh. We read, and
without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God
was manifest in the flesh. He had to be manifest in the
flesh. He had to become Jehovah's serpent. Jehovah's servant, our sacrifice
for sins, our substitute, He had to do that in order to save
us, in order to redeem us, in order to lay down His life as
a ransom for our salvation. Now in that capacity, as Jehovah's
faithful servant, and as our mediator, that which He spoke
when He came into this world, were the things that God gave
Him to speak. And notice the language of the
verse again. The revelation of Jesus Christ
which God gave unto Him. And most people, when they read
those words, they just assume that it's the revelation of Jesus
Christ which God gave unto John. But this is not a reference to
John. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto
Jesus Christ. Now let me help you a little
bit with this and look at that word, O-F, of, in the first statement. The revelation of Jesus Christ
can also be translated this way, the revelation from, from Jesus
Christ. It's from Him. The revelation
from Jesus Christ which God gave Him. In other words, God gave
Him the revelation and the revelation that He gave to the Son of God,
to the Lord Jesus Christ, He then gives to us. So this is
the revelation that God gave to Jesus Christ. It comes to
us from the Savior by God's grace. By God's grace. He receives information,
He receives instruction from the Father. The Lord Jesus, our
surety, and the friend of sinners, as the scripture says, in His
state of humiliation, He is said to take these things from the
Father and then to show them unto us. Let me give you a couple
of references on this. Look over at John chapter 12.
John chapter 12. This takes nothing away from
His deity. Please understand this. It takes
nothing away from His deity, but it sets Him forth as our
Mediator. It sets Him forth as our Great
High Priest. It sets Him forth as Jehovah's
faithful servant. In Revelation chapter 12 and
verse 49, right at the end of chapter 12, and our Lord has
now finished His public ministry. That which He has to say from
here on out, He will speak to His disciples. As chapter 12
comes to its end, listen to what the Savior said in verses 49
and 50. For I have not spoken of Myself,
but the Father which has sent Me He gave me a commandment,
what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment
is life everlasting. That's His Word. The Word of
God. Whatsoever I speak therefore,
even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. Everything that He had to say,
He received from the Father. So this is indeed the revelation
that came from Jesus Christ as He reveals to us the things that
God gave Him to say. He is the faithful servant of
Jehovah. This revelation was given to
Christ by the Father for us. The Lord Jesus in Himself, the
great trustee of divine revelation. Everything God would have His
people to know. All of the information that God
would have for us to have and to understand. He has given to
His Son and His Son gives it to us. In that capacity, He's
our mediator. He takes the things of God and
He shows them unto us. And listen, if the Savior doesn't
do it, the things of God won't be known. You can't know the
things of God. You can't know God Himself except
through Jesus Christ the Lord. He is the great Mediator. For
there is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the man
Christ Jesus. We need to learn this therefore.
That which God has to say to His people, He says through only
one person. Jesus Christ the Lord. That is
always the truth and there are no exceptions to the rule. God the Father reveals Himself
in, through, and by His Son. God speaks to us through Christ. We speak to God through Christ. God will not speak to nor will
He be spoken to by any son or daughter of Adam except through
Jesus Christ the Lord. Everything God's got to say to
you, He says through Christ. And everything you've got to
say to God has got to go to God through Jesus Christ the Lord,
who makes it presentable to the Father. He's the great Mediator. That's what the writer of the
Hebrews is saying in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 1. He says,
God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time
past unto the fathers, He hath in these last days spoken to
us by His Son. By His Son. God has spoken to
us by His Son and God has spoken to us about His Son. We know
that God spoke to men in the Old Testament. He spoke to men
in types and shadows and ceremonies and figures and pictures of the
law. He spoke to men in the Old Testament
through the Old Testament prophets. The Savior said to the Pharisees
in John 5 and 35, you search the scriptures. For in them you
think you have eternal life and these are they that testify of
me. Understand this, all of the law
and all of the Psalms, and all of the prophets spoke of and
pointed to Jesus Christ the Lord. And now in these last days, and
this is what is being said there in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse
1, in these last days since our Lord Jesus has come into this
world, God has spoken one more time. He has spoken with finality. with finality and in one way,
by or through His Son. The Lord Jesus is not one of
many revelations. He's not one of many words from
God. He is the Word of God. He is
the revelation of the invisible God. He's all of God you'll ever
hear from and He's all of God you will ever see. He is Himself
the mediator between God and men. We read in Revelation chapter
19 and verse 13, and our brother read this to us a bit ago. His name is the Word of God.
He is the Word of God. He is the one who communicates
to us the message that God has. It's a blessed verse. Look over to John chapter 1,
a special verse on this. John chapter 1. Look down in verse 17. John chapter 1 in verse 17. For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The grace of God comes
by Jesus Christ, and all of the truth of God comes by Jesus Christ. There is no truth of God. There
is no knowledge of God. There is no grace of God that
comes to sinners except through Jesus Christ the Lord. He is
the revelation. He is the revelation from God.
All that God's got to say to you He says through His Son.
And those who deny the deity of Jesus Christ, who don't speak
of Jesus Christ, who don't glory in Jesus Christ, therefore of
them we may rightly conclude they have no message from God.
They have not received a message from God because they ignore
His Son. All of these religions that bypass
the Son of God, they are absolutely worthless. They are worthless. You say, but preacher, there's
so many people who believe that sort of way or whatever religion
You want to think about that they bypass the Son of God. They
deny His deity or deny who He is or just say He's the Son of
God. All those people are well-meaning preachers. They may be well-meaning,
but they're lost. They have no knowledge of God.
You can't know God except through His Son. That's what the Scripture
says now. Go back to our text. Now look
at it again. We've got to be insistent upon
this because the Bible is insistent upon this. This is the revelation
from Jesus Christ. It's the revelation from Jesus
Christ which God gave to Him to give to His servants, to give
to us. And those who don't believe the
Lord Jesus Christ, give absolute evidence that they have received
no message from God. No message from God. You and
I, we cannot see God, we cannot know God, we cannot deal with
God, we cannot speak to God, we cannot be spoken to by God,
we cannot come to God except through Jesus Christ the Lord.
You can absolutely forget about coming to God by means of some
dead saint. That's an impossibility. Forget about coming to God through
Mary. She can't help you. She can't
help you. She is not the mediatrix of all
graces, as the popes have taught for many years. One pope said,
there is no fruit of grace in the history of salvation that
does not have as its necessary instrument the mediation of our
dear lady. That's absolutely a lie. A lie. A recent pope, the pope before
the one who is the pope now, said, let us give thanks to God
the Father and to God the Son and to God the Holy Spirit from
whom and through the intercession of the Virgin Mary we receive
all the blessings from heaven. That is absolute error. That
is blasphemous. I'm telling you, everything you
receive from God doesn't come through Mary, it doesn't come
through Saint Christopher, it doesn't come through Saint Jude
or Saint John or any other saint. It comes to you in, through and
by Jesus Christ the Lord. It's the only way. You say, well,
I'm going to get me a little emblem of some saint and wear
it around my neck. Bless your heart. Listen, that's
pagan. That's pain. And I know people
don't understand that. And I'm not trying to be cruel.
I'm not trying to be mean. I'm trying to be honest with
you. And I'm trying to magnify God. That's blasphemous now. These things like that, you shouldn't
have those things. Get rid of it. If you got here
with somebody... I had a dear lady once, she said
somebody gave me a pendant of some, I forget what dead saint
it was. She said, It was one of her children
who gave it to me. She said, it means so much to
me. And I said, that's a golden opportunity for you to go to
your child and say, listen, I'm going to tell you why I can't
wear this. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm not trying to be
cantankerous with you. I'm not trying to be hard to
get along with. But let me tell you why this
is wrong. We live in a society today where anything goes, there
are no rights and wrongs. Well, let me tell you something.
In the Word of God, there's that which is right and there's that
which is wrong. There's that which is the truth
and everything else is error and it doesn't matter what kind
of religious umbrella it falls under. It may even fall under
the religious umbrella of Baptist or Protestant. It's still error
if it's not according to this book. This is the truth as it is in
Jesus. Our Lord Jesus, He is the truth. He is grace and truth come to
us by Jesus Christ. He said, I am the way, I am the
truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. There is no prophet like our
prophet Christ Jesus, the Lord. He's the way, without Him there's
no going. He's the truth, without Him there's
no knowing. And He's the life, and without
Him there's no living. No prophet like our prophet.
He is unrivaled in His excellence as the revelation of the invisible
God. So this is the revelation of
Jesus Christ and it is also the revelation from Jesus Christ
which God gave unto Him to show, to manifest unto His servants. We are His servants. We are His
servants. Things which must shortly come
to pass. Why must things come to pass? Because God's ordained them.
You see, everything that ever happens, and we can't comprehend
this. I know people say today, well,
I only believe those things I can wrap my mind around. Well, bless
your heart, you're not going to believe much then. Everything that's ever going
to happen, God has ordained it. I hear people talk about, well,
God permits this to happen. Well, that works in His sovereign
will. Everything's got to be according
to His sovereign will. Either God governs everything
that exists, or He governs nothing. Now, it's got to be one way or
the other. Either God reigns upon His throne
over everything good and evil, before it doesn't rain at all.
Amos said, shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hadn't
done it? I know the way the world thinks. Don't you think this
way? The world thinks this way. Well, those calamitous things,
those tumultuous things, those troublesome things that happen,
the bad things that happen in this world, that's the devil.
When a hurricane hits or a tornado strikes and many people are killed,
that's the devils doing that. You need to read the scriptures.
You need to find out that God reigns. The devil doesn't reign.
He's reigned over. You see, our Lord Jesus Christ,
He reigns over the devil and all of the fallen angels and
over all the good angels and over everything that exists everywhere. King Jesus reigns supreme. There is nothing left out. There
are no exceptions to that. That's the reason when trouble
comes, when sickness comes, when disease comes, when something
comes that strikes in your very heart and your soul and lays
you low and it pains your flesh, you as a child of God can look
up and say, even so Father, for so this seemed good in my sight.
That's what you say as a child of God. When something happens
that causes you to weep, to weep, to cry and your heart is broken,
still you can say in your soul, my God rules over this. He rules
over this. In Job chapter 1, indeed Satan
was used of God. He was used of God to lay Job
low. And Job, after he lost all ten
of his children, lost all of his possessions, he didn't say
the Lord gave and the devil took it away. Don't talk like that. Well, the devil is ruling the
world today. Well, I tell you, if he is, just
forget it all because we ain't got a prayer if he's ruling the
world. King Jesus rules the world. Job said, The Lord gave. The Lord hath taken away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. Just buried my ten children.
He says, the Lord gave them to me and the Lord took them away.
I'm going to worship God. When something happens that burns
your flesh, that hurts you deeply, that scars you and brings you
tears, and I'm not saying there isn't real pain, there is real
pain, but you've got to bow at the throne of God and say, Lord,
I know you did it. And I know it's according to
your eternal purpose. I know your ways are mysterious.
Your ways are past finding out. Read the last few verses of Romans
11. Isn't that exactly what it says? You can't understand the
ways of God. But everything that happened
is fulfilling His redemptive purpose. Listen. God has ordained
to exalt His Son. And God has ordained to give
him a people and those people be conformed to his image. I
know that. from this book. So everything
that's happening in the world, I don't care what's happening,
I don't care where it's happening, I don't care how it's happening.
Everything is fulfilling God's eternal purpose to the exaltation
and glory of King Jesus and the fulfillment of God's redemptive
purpose to save a people through the blood and the righteousness
of His Son. Everything is serving that purpose. Everything is serving the purpose
of God. I may not understand it and you may not understand
it, but bless your heart and bless my heart too. We don't
need to understand anything. We just need to believe. Isn't
that right? We need to believe. Oh God, help
me to believe you. I told somebody last night, I'm
texting them. It's amazing you texted me. But
I said, I hope the Lord give you sweet rest tonight. As you
remember, God's on the throne. That'll give you sweet rest now.
Yeah. You figure out by the enabling
power of the Spirit of God that the Savior who died for you and
who redeemed you, who took your place, who paid your sin debt,
who died that God might be just and the justifier of all who
believe on Jesus. When you find out that he who
died arose from the grave and ascended, he's seated on the
throne and he rules the world to fulfill the purpose of God.
When you find that out, when I find that out and we believe
it, when it's not just a doctrine in the mind, but a doctrine in
the heart, When we learn that and we've taught that by the
Spirit of God, that's when we'll have some peace. That's when
we'll have some joy. That's when we can go to the
funeral home and even stand before the casket that bears the body
of the dear loved one that we hugged and loved and appreciated
for however many years they gave him to us. And we can bow our
heads and say, Lord, thank you for giving him to me. Thank you
for giving her to me. And I'm going to worship you,
Lord, my heart's broken. But this is your work. You rule. My Savior rules. And He shows us things that must
come to pass. Why do things come to pass? Listen,
I've got a history teacher here. I've got some other history buffs
in here. I know this about history. It's
not a bunch of disorganized random happenings throughout the world
that are disconnected or not connected at all. Everything
that happens is fulfilling God's eternal purpose. And everything
is happening on schedule. It's right on track. And I know
we get anxious. We look at the state of the world
today and this is a perverted world and there's no question
about that. And that grieves the hearts of
God's people, the perversion, the immorality of the day. And yet I know whatever God's
purpose is, it's being fulfilled. And maybe this nation, maybe
our days are coming to an end, I don't know. I don't know. I'm so thankful to live here
I'm thankful to be born a Virginian. I'll tell you that. I'm thankful
to be born in the South. And a Virginian. And to be born
in the United States of America. Greatest country in the world.
But, having said that, the United States of America is not the
nation that God loves and that Christ died for. That's another
nation. It's a spiritual. There are many
out of the United States of America, but a people out of every nation
throughout the world. That's the nation God's interested
in. And whatever His purpose is for
this liberal country, I pray that He'll preserve, as I prayed
in my prayer, because this has been burdening my heart of late,
I pray that He'll preserve our rights and our liberties that
we have, which I fear are eroding very quickly. But, whatever happens,
it'll be alright. Don't you feel that way? Doesn't
that give you peace in your heart? It'll be alright. Because God
reigns. The Son of God reigns. My friend
reigns. My Savior reigns. My older brother
reigns. Think about what it would mean
to you if... And this may be true. I mean, a lot of... I don't
know. if your brother or your sister
was elected to Congress? Well, what if your brother or
sister was the President of the United States? Well, what if your brother ruled
the world? Well, there's no if there. He
does. He does! He rules the world! People all the time tell me,
they say, you know, I met Senator so and so. I met the congressman. Well, I know the king. I know
the king. And he shows to us, according
to his will, things that must come to pass. They must come
to pass. And He signified these things
in the Word of God by His angel unto John. So really, if you
want to get the... Here's the order in this verse. God gives to Jesus Christ this
revelation. And Jesus Christ gives it to
an angel. And the angel gives it to John,
who shows it to the servants. And right here is the record.
And God is showing us things right here in this book. Things
that must shortly come to pass. You say, well, what does shortly
mean? Well, they are short according
to the way God measures time. Because with the Lord, a thousand
years is a day. And a day is a thousand years.
In other words, time does not mean anything to God. That is
provided for our benefit. Look at the second verse. I'll
just make a few statements here. "...who bear record of the Word
of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all the
things that He saw." What does John do? Well, John bears record
of that One who is the Word of God. And this expression, "...who
bear record of the Word," is an expression unique to John. In other words, no other writer
uses this expression, who bear record of the Word of God. Only
John does. He bears record of the living
Word, the incarnate Word. In 1 John chapter 1, he talks
about the Word, the Word, the Word that we have handled. We
have handled Him. We have hugged Him, John said.
Our eyes have looked on Him. He's a full expression of God.
He's everything that God has to say to us. Our Lord Jesus,
talking with the disciples one day, and Philip said to Him,
if you'd just show us a Father who'd satisfy us. And the Savior said, Philip,
I've been with you this long, and you don't understand. Well,
the Lord, He's patient with His people. You don't understand,
He that's seen me, He's seen the Father. I'm so thankful that
the Lord puts up with our ignorance and how little we know, how little
we comprehend. I'm thankful He's our all. I'm
thankful my relationship to God is not dependent upon me, but
dependent upon my Mediator, my Savior, and His doings for me
on the cross. Aren't you thankful for that? John bear record of the Word
of God. He bore record of the testimony of Jesus Christ. That's what John did. And every
preacher of the Gospel, here's our duty, here's our job, to
bear record of the Word. Kind of puts everything in summary. Our sole responsibility is to
bear record of the Word of God, to preach Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. He says, and of the testimony
of Jesus Christ and of all the things that He saw. And then
He says, blessed is he that readeth. Reads diligently, reads honestly,
reads prayerfully, reads purposefully. Blessed is he that readeth. They
that hear the words of this prophecy. And by the way, when you read
the word prophecy, it doesn't always mean to foretell. It doesn't always mean to foretell.
Sometimes it does. But it also means just to foretell. Blessed are those who read those
that hear the words of this prophecy, those that keep those things
which are written therein. If you can read the Word of God
with a measure of understanding, with a degree of comprehension,
and see in this book salvation by substitution, and salvation
by satisfaction, And if you can hear the words of this that's
being foretold, I mean to hear with understanding that Christ
is all. Salvation is by grace. Of the
blood and the righteousness of the dear Lamb of God. If you
keep those things that are written, keep them. You adhere yourself
to them. You take hold of them. You know,
we do take hold of the Word of God, pull it in. You know why
we do that? Because the Word of God takes
hold of us and pulls us in. Somebody says, I'm holding on
to the Lord. Well, it's not your hold that keeps you, I can tell
you that. It's His hold on you. But we do take hold of Him, don't
we? Isn't that faith? Tell you what, Peter is walking
on the water for a little ways, and then he got troubled in his
soul, and he said, Lord save me. When the Lord put his hand
down, what do you think Peter did just? I bet he went, oh yes! But you know what? It wasn't
Peter's hold on the Savior that saved him. It's the Savior's
hold on Peter. Oh, he is hanging on for dear
life. But His life wasn't dependent upon Him holding the Savior,
but the Savior holding Him. That's the way it is. We hold. I do hold to Him now. And I say
to you, hug up to the Savior. I told this to somebody last
night. I said, hug up to the Savior. You know what I mean,
don't you? Hug up to the Savior. Tell you what, sometimes you
just need somebody to hug, don't you? Have you ever said to anybody,
I need a hug? Could I have a hug, please? Is
there a hug in the house? Let me tell you something. I
do hug up to the Savior, but I need His hug more. And you
know what? He hugs us, He embraces us, and
He never lets go. But there are some times when
we are more aware, we are more aware of His hug than others. Isn't that right? Oh, I say come
to the Savior and hug Him. He's the Word of God. Everything
God's got to say to sinners now, He says through Christ Jesus.
No other helper, no other mediator, no other Savior, no other comforter
for your soul but the Son of God.