chapter it's taken from, Isaiah
chapter 53. What a blessed Redeemer. Look at Revelation chapter 1. Again this evening, Revelation
chapter 1. The first verse again reads the
revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him. God gave him
the words to speak, the message to convey to us. And I said this morning, tried
to say, and I'll try to say it again tonight, everything God's
got to say to us, He says through Christ. And if you've got something
you want to say to God, only way He's going to pay any
attention to you is to say it through His Son. It's the revelation of Jesus
Christ which God gave unto Him to show, to manifest, to expose
unto His servants Things which must shortly come to pass, and
that's everything. And he sent and signified it
by his angel unto his servant John. Notice that word signified. That, if I would paraphrase that,
I'd say that he speaks in sign language. That's what that is,
sign language. And actually, isn't that what
the Old Testament is? It's scientific language, full
of pictures and figures of our Lord Jesus, types of Him. Well, in the book of the revelation
of Jesus Christ, the message that the Savior delivered to
the angel, and then the angel delivered it to John, is a message
of full of sign language. When in chapter 5, the multitude
see God holding a book in his hand, that's merely sign language
for God's invisible. Right? God's invisible. And the
book, the book Not so much a literal book. We think of a book. We
hold up a song book. We hold up a Bible. The thing that we're to take
away from that is, here's God, the awesome, everlasting God. Invisible. Non-conceivable. Nobody's ever
seen God. Our God has ordained everything
that will ever come to pass. And He signified this. He sets
it forth in great language by saying there is a book written
within and without sealed with seven seals. Now if it would
help you to imagine a book with seven locks on it, Well, go ahead
and imagine it that way if you want to, but it's actually sign
language. And the message it's conveying
to us is that God has ordained everything. And then John sees
this one who is the Lamb of the tribe of Judah. Now you don't
envision in your mind a literal four-legged lamb, do you? You know what kind of language
that is? Sign language. By that we understand the One
who has all authority. And He's the One that takes the
book out of the hand of God. God has no hands. But He takes
the book from the hand of God and then He begins to open it.
He begins to loose the seals. There is sign language. And much
of the book of the Revelation is indeed, like the Old Testament,
it's delivered to us in great sign language. And those only
can understand it, who are given understanding by the Spirit of
grace. We've got to have a spiritual
understanding of it. And so the Lord says, this word
is given to Jesus Christ, who gives it to His angel, who gives
it to John, and it's filled with sign language. Well, what did
John do? What does John do? The second
verse says, who bear witness or record of the Word of God.
The word record means it's virtually the same as testimony. He bears
record, He bears witness, virtually the same Word. Witness, record,
testimony of the Word of God, that is the incarnate Word, Christ
the incarnate Word. And all of the testimony of Jesus
Christ. What did John do? He bears record
of the testimony of Jesus Christ. And this is the ministry of every
preacher of the Gospel. We bear record to, we give a
report. That word record is the same
as report. You remember back in Isaiah 53,
and it's the very beginning of the chapter from which the song
was sung by Susanna. Isaiah says, who hath believed
our report? That's the same word here as
record. Who hath believed our record? Or who hath believed
the testimony of Jesus Christ? The record that we give is an
accurate record. It's an accurate report if we
deliver it from the Scriptures. You know, you listen today to
the news people. Their job ought to be and their
job is to just deliver the news. Not to doctor it up. Not to put
their kind of belief or their persuasion in it, but just to
deliver the message as it is. Here's the story. This is what
happened. That's what a good witness does.
He just gives a record, an accurate record of what has happened.
Draw your own conclusions. And when it comes to the Word
of God, all of God's preachers, God's preachers now, We give
an accurate record and accurate report of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our job. We don't doctor
it up. We don't add anything to it.
We don't take anything away from it. Our message, our ministry,
our responsibility, my duty this evening and my duty and the duty
of every preacher of the gospel every time we stand before people
is this, to accurately give forth the report of Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. Not to put our slant on it. Not to add something to it, not
to take anything away from it. That will surely get you in trouble
with God. Just give it out as it is. And
John is the one who bore record of the Word of God. I said to
you this morning, that's an expression unique to John. He bare record. He bare record of the Word of
God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ. He not only mentions
this testimony of Jesus Christ here in the second verse, but
also down in the ninth verse. Notice this in verse 9. He says,
I, John, who am also your brother and companion in tribulation
and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle
that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony
of Jesus Christ. He said, the reason I'm here
is because of the record, is because of the report, is because
of the testimony that I gave forth of Jesus Christ and Him
crucified." He said, that's the reason I'm here, that's the reason
I was arrested, that's the reason I've been put in isolation, in
order to keep my mouth shut, so that people would not hear
the gospel of God's grace from my lips. He gave forth the testimony
of Jesus Christ. Here's another time this is found
in Revelation. Look over at chapter 12. Look at chapter 12. Here in this chapter, you've
got Satan being cast out by the substitutionary death of our
Lord Jesus Christ. This fulfills John chapter 12,
verses 31 and 32, by the way. Look at verse 9 of Revelation
chapter 12. the great dragon, Satan. An old serpent who is called
the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast
out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. And I
heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is salvation, now
has come salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and
the power of His Christ. For the accuser of our brethren
is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night."
Now when did that happen? If you listen to those who say
that they are experts on prophecy, they say, this is going to happen
often in the future. I beg their pardon, this has
already happened. It happened at the cross. That's
where our Savior dethroned Satan. That's where He absolutely crushed
His head. That's where our Savior, the
God-Man, the God-Man, defeated our great enemy and His enemy. even Satan, and He cast him out. That's the reason the saying
is the loud voice, now has come salvation. And I asked you, when
was it that salvation came? But when Christ died. It's when
the Lord Jesus gave His life a ransom for many. Now has come
salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God. Yes, it came
when our Lord Jesus bowed His head having said, it is finished.
And He gave up the ghost and the veil of the temple was rent
from top to bottom. And that's when the accuser of
the brethren received the fatal blow from our Savior. When He
died, when He died. His resurrection, it just attested
to the fact that the work that He did satisfied God. We weren't justified by His resurrection. We're justified by His death.
We're justified by His blood. And I know all over the United
States and some other nations as well, today people are recognizing
the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. But I would like
to say to all of them, the reason God raised Him from the dead
was because He finished the work of redemption that the Father
gave Him to do. He put away all of the sins of
God's elect, He brought in everlasting righteousness, and He crushed
the head of the accuser of the brethren and He cast him out. Read on. It says in verse 11, they overcame
him by the blood of the land, by the word of their testimony,
and they loved not their lives unto death. Therefore rejoice,
ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them, and woe to the inhabitants
of the earth and the sea, for the devil is come down unto you
having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short
time. Oh yes, he is a defeated enemy, but woe to the earth.
Woe to those who have no protector. Woe to those who have no Savior,
because Satan is on the prowl. Notice verse 13, when the dragon
saw that he was cast upon the earth, and he couldn't get to
Jesus Christ, he couldn't do it, he couldn't defeat him, he
goes after the woman which brought forth the man-child. Who is the
woman that brought forth the man-child? His church. He goes
after his people. to the woman were given two wings
of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness, into
her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half
a time from the face of the serpent. And the serpent he cast out of
his mouth water as a flood after the woman that he might cause
her to be carried away of the flood. Remember our Lord Jesus
Christ said, I will build my church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. But she sure tries. That's what's
set forth here. Satan is trying to defeat God's
kingdom. Trying to defeat God's church.
Trying to interrupt God's purpose of grace. That can't ever happen. God said, I will do all my pleasure. And Satan and all of his forces
cannot hinder the fulfillment of what God is purposed to do.
It says in the earth, help the woman. The earth opened her mouth
and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
God uses people throughout this world to protect his kingdom,
to protect his church. Even those who are unbelievers,
He will use them to provide for His church, to look after His
church and protect His church. Watch this, verse 17 now. The
dragon was wroth with the woman, with the church, and went to
make war with a remnant of her seed. That is those which keep
the commandments of God. What is the commandment of God?
And I talked about this in my Bible class this morning. This
is His commandment that we believe on Him whom He has sent and that
we love one another. He goes after those who keep
the commandments of God and watch it and have the testimony of
Jesus Christ. Who is it that Satan goes after?
Those who have the gospel. Those who have the message of
grace. You see, here's the temptation
that we have to beware of. Those of us who believe the message
of grace. The temptation that Satan, these
fiery darts that he sends toward us is this. You can get more
people. into your church services if
you just tone down the message a little bit. That's all you've
got to do. Maybe bring in a little contemporary
music. Maybe have a few more activities.
Not much, just a little. And then he gets his foothold
in the door. That's what he wants to do. He's
going after those who have the testimony of Jesus Christ. You
see, he's already got false religion. Oh yeah, he's got false religion.
He'd love to get in here. Everywhere the gospel of God,
throughout this world, and we know a few of the churches that
preach the gospel, but there are a lot of churches that preach
the gospel we don't know anything about. They don't know anything
about us. But what Satan wants to do, is
get in and introduce, like he introduced in the church at Galatia,
introduce some works. Oh yes, we believe in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in salvation by grace,
but I'll tell you, you've got to live it. Add a few more works to it. How
much works do you have to add to grace to make it a false gospel? Just a thimble full. Right? Just a thimble. Add anything
to the gospel and you've perverted it. You've perverted it. He's after those who have the
testimony of Jesus Christ. Thankfully, we're protected by
our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Here's another time this expression
is used. Brother Ron read it to us this
morning. Go over to chapter 19. Look at chapter 19. John hears this angel speak. This angel says to him in verse
9, chapter 19, verse 9, He said unto me, Blessed are they that
are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He said
unto me, These are the true sayings of God. And I fell at His feet
to worship Him. And He said unto me, See, thou
do it not. Don't do that. He said, I'm thy
fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God for the testimony
of Jesus. That's the spirit of prophecy. What does that mean? Well, maybe
we ought to define the word spirit. It means life, breath. We know what the testimony of
Jesus is. That's the record that God has
given us concerning His Son. Who He is. What He did. Why He did it. Where He is now. That's the record. That's the
report. That's the testimony of Jesus Christ. And this testimony
of Jesus Christ, it's the spirit of all prophecy. It's the life
of prophecy, you see. That's what it means. It's the
breath of prophecy. You're breathing tonight. Take air in. That's your life.
That's your life. That's your breath. The very
breath of the Word of God, the life of the Word of God, is the
record God has given us of His Son. That's what He's saying.
So when you open up the Word of God, look for the life of
the Word of God. And the life of the Word of God
is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The life of the Word of God is
reconciliation. It's redemption by the blood.
It's righteousness, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the life of the Book. And if you take that out of your
message, your message is dead. There's no breath there. There's
no breath. And you know, I'm sure from the
Old Testament, the word breath, and also in the New Testament,
is spirit. As in the Holy Spirit. You take
Jesus Christ out of your message, out of your gospel, you got no
gospel. You got no message. You got no
life. You only got death. Death. I wonder how many places in this
United States of America today, this morning especially, people
gather together, and lots of them open up the Bible, but if
their message wasn't God's record concerning His Son, it wasn't
a message of life. And if it's not a message of
life, if we're not giving forth a message of life, what message
are we giving forth? Somebody want to dare to answer?
It's a message of death. Isn't that right? If it's not
life, it's death. It's death. If it's not the breath
of God, it's an absence of breath. And that's death. If you don't
have any breath, you're going to die. You're going to die. In my, through my lifetime, I've
seen churches die. Got no more breath. Oh, they
haven't closed the doors. In fact, some of them are thriving. Getting lots of people. But there's no life. There's no truth. There's no
Christ. So you go back over here to Revelation
chapter 1. This is what John did, he bare
record of the Word of God, of the testimony of Jesus Christ,
and of all things that he saw. And then he said this, look in
verse 3, he said, Blessed is he that readeth. Blessed. And
I could camp out here for a while. What does the word blessed mean?
It means to be happy, to be well off, Someone who is blessed is
one to be envied. It's to be happy, to be envied,
to be well off. And this is the first of seven
beatitudes in the book of the Revelation. In the book of the
Revelation, there are seven blessings pronounced. Seven is the number
of perfection of completion, as in seven days in the week. And here's the first blessing.
It's pronounced upon those who read, who hear this Word of Prophecy
and keep the things that are written. God's blessing is upon
them. Blessed is he that readeth it
diligently and honestly and prayerfully and purposefully reads the Word
of God. Always looking for Christ. Always
looking for the grace of God. Seeking to know Him. Blessed
is he that readeth. To be envied and happy is he
that readeth. And they that hear the words
of this prophecy. Romans chapter 10, it says in
verse 17, Paul says, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God. Blessed are those that hear the
words of this prophecy. We're not just talking about
this. It's a blessing to hear with these ears. It's a blessing,
and I'm sure we don't know the fullness of this blessing, but
God has granted us such a blessing to be able to hear the record
that He's given concerning His Son. You think of all the people
who've heard error today. That's sad. That's sad. And here and there, different
locations, people have heard the truth. And I ask you what
Paul asked the Corinthians. He said, now who maketh thee
to differ from another? How come you're in a place where
you can hear the truth? And others just ride up the road. All around us, they're hearing
the message of death. A dry, dry message. No Christ. No Christ. They that hear the
words of this prophet, those that keep it. I tell you, God
pronounces a blessing upon those who hear, those who read, and
those who hear, and those who keep those things. They hold
on to them. This is the first beatitude. Could I give you the
other ones? Look at chapter 14 and verse
13. Let me give you these seven beatitudes. Chapter 14, verse 13. Here's
the second beatitude in the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ. Chapter 14, verse 13. And I heard
a voice from heaven saying unto me, Blessed are the dead which dine
the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they
may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. Their
works don't lead the way. Their works don't pave the way.
But their works do follow them as evidences of the fact that
God did something for them in their hearts. Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord. You can't write blessed upon
the death of everybody. But you can write blessed are
those who die in the Lord. You can write blessed upon their
death. I have been and you have been
also I'm sure with people looking into a casket someone who's recently
departed and you pretty much have an idea that they didn't
know anything about the gospel, about the grace of God. Maybe
they were a fine person as we call fine people, good people
as we call good people, a good person. But you know that they
didn't love Jesus Christ. And you're up there with a family
member and they'll say something like this, I'm thankful their
suffering days are over. And in your heart, your heart
just sinks. Just sinks. They're not blessed. They're cursed. They're cursed. You die without Jesus Christ,
you're cursed. You're cursed. You die not believing
the Savior, not believing the Lord Jesus, not being washed
in His sin, atoning blood, you're cursed forever. You die dead
in your trespasses and sins, the Spirit of God hadn't quickened
you, hadn't renewed you, hadn't given you life in Jesus Christ,
you're not blessed, you're cursed! You're cursed forever! But those who die in the Lord, They're blessed. And when somebody
dies in the Lord, you can't write cursed where God writes blessed. Oh, what a blessing to be absent
from the body and present with the Lord! That's a glorious time! That's a glorious day when that
happens! Bunyan had said when his family
was gathered, he had what, eight children or something like that?
And they were all gathered around his bed weeping and crying. He
said, don't weep for me. Weep for yourselves. I go yonder
to the land of holiness. I go yonder to see my friend,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who redeemed me by His blood. Don't weep for
me. Blessed, blessed are the dead
which die in the Lord from henceforth. They are resting from their labors
now. What do we labor from? Labor
from sin. Don't you labor under sin? I find my biggest enemy just
goes right along with me all the time. It's me. I'm my biggest
problem. I cause me more trouble than
anybody else. It's that sinful nature. I'm
thankful for the new man. I'm thankful for the presence
of the life of God in the soul. But my own nature gets so aggravated
with it, and I know what the Apostle Paul meant in Romans
chapter 7 about the war within. And the flesh ambushes, ambushes
the Spirit. Sneaks up on you and He pounces
on you before you even know it. Do you know anything about that?
If you're a child of God, you do. You know exactly what I'm
talking about. Well, one of these days we're
going to rest from our labors. We're not going to be on that
labor of sin anymore. We'll be done with it. I'll tell
you when we'll be done with that old nature. That Adamic nature
will be done with sin when we die. And to be absent from this
body is to be present with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle
Paul said that's far better. Far better. Blessed. Blessed are the dead
which die in the Lord. And you know how long they've
been in the Lord? Forever. Because there is an eternal union
that God's elect have with the Lord Jesus Christ. Because in
old eternity in covenant mercy, God the Father put us in His
Son. He is our covenant head and we
are His body. He bore responsibility for our
salvation. God held Him accountable for
our sinfulness. for our indebtedness. And the
Scripture says that God made Him to be sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He bore that full responsibility. We die in the Lord. We die in
the Lord. We might die broke. We might
die with no possessions. We might die all alone. We might
die a very painful death. But brother and sister, when
we die, God says, that's a blessing for you. There's your blessing
right there. Because you died in the Lord. Shall I give you another? Look at Revelation chapter 16
and verse 15. The Lord says, Behold, I come
as a thief. Blessed to be envied and happy and highly
favored is he that watcheth. He's always on the lookout. He's
looking. Who's he looking to? Jesus Christ. To whom? Looking. The Lord said,
look unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for
I am God, there is none else. We started this walk as a believer
with a look, we continue it by looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. He said, just keep on looking
now, just keep on watching. Blessed is he that keeps on watching,
keeps on looking at the Savior, and keepeth his garments. That
word keepeth means to observe. He looks to his garments to make sure he's got the right
one on. What does your garment look like?
I tell you what, it better be as white as snow. It better be
spotless, without blemish, without fault or any such thing. You
live it looking to Jesus, watching Him, looking to Him, and considering
your garment, observing your garment. I'm not looking to my
own righteousness, am I? What are you looking to, to be
accepted by God? To what do you depend for God
to receive you into glory when you die? I tell you, I'm looking to the
garments of God's salvation. Looking to the garment of His
righteousness. Lest ye walk naked. Oh, I tell you, it sure would
be mighty sad to be religious all your life and naked all your
life. Spiritually naked I'm talking
about. and then they'll see his shame. Blessed is he that watches, that
keeps on looking to Christ, and he keeps on checking his garment.
I've got the right garment on, don't I? And if you ever perceive that
this preacher has has seemed to take off that garment and
put on a garment of good works, then I hope you'll tell me, hey,
wait a minute, preacher, I believe you've got the wrong garment
on. Most people are wearing the wrong
garment today. It's the garment of their old, tattered, self-righteous
rags, like Adam and Eve. And if there's
anybody here got on those self-righteous garments, I hope that the Lord
will do to you what He did to Adam and Eve and strip those
garments off of you right now! And robe you with the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Which in Luke chapter 15 is called
the best robe. The best robe. Shall I give you another? Chapter
19 in verse Verses 8 and 9. Chapter 19, verse 8. To her,
to God's people, who gathered for the marriage of the Lamb,
his wife, verse 8, to her was granted that she should be arrayed
in fine linen. There's the righteousness of
Christ. How is it set forth? Oh, it's clean and white. As
the fellow said, nary a spot, nary a spot. For the fine linen
is the righteousness of the saints. Not that we've worked out, but
that He worked out, that He established by His death. And He saith unto me, write,
blessed are they, blessed, happy to be envied, and highly favored
are they who are effectually called unto the marriage supper
of the Lamb. Oh, that's to be blessed. God
calls you to the marriage supper of the Lamb. That's a time of
celebration. That's a time of joy. That's
a time of rejoicing. And you know how long that's
going to last? Forever. Forever. Oh, how blessed that
is. It's like Mephibosheth. He is
lame on both feet, but David brought him in and said, set
him at my table. I am a fibbership, I bet he is thinking he is my
man if my friends could see me now sitting at the king's table.
And my crippled legs are underneath the table and nobody can see
them. Even now we dine on spiritual
dainties at the king's table. But someday we are going to be
with him in glory. And there will be forever a glorious
celebration of the grace of God to us unworthy sinners through
the blood of Jesus Christ the Savior. Chapter 20 and verse 6. Chapter 20 and verse 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath
no power. They shall be priests of God
and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years. And
don't let that thousand years throw you. There's sign language
for you. Because to the Jew, whenever
they wanted to express a very lengthy period of time, they
said, oh, it would be a thousand years. It was sign language. Sign language. What is this first
resurrection? It's the new birth. Blessed are
those who are born of the Spirit. Did not the Savior say to Nicodemus
back there in John chapter 3, you must be born again? You must
be born again? Blessed, blessed, happy to be
envied and well off are those who have a part in that first
resurrection. That's the first resurrection. The reason we believe is because
we've been resurrected from the spiritual grave. We've been born
again. And another, chapter 22. Chapter 22 and verse 7. The Lord Jesus said, Behold,
I come quickly. Blessed, well off, To be envied
and happy is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of
this book. Those who observe and watch and
look to the Word of God. I tell you, my hope of salvation,
my hope of everlasting life is founded on the Word of God, the
Word of the God who cannot lie. And blessed are those who observe
this book. Those people to whom this book
is to them the very message of God. I had a man sit in my office
one time. I was trying to talk to him about
the seriousness of the book of God. The seriousness of the word
of God. And I showed him a verse of scripture. He said, just words
on a page. It's all just words on a page.
Well, I'll tell you what, in the hands of the Spirit of God,
they're living words in your heart. Blessed is he that keepeth the
sayings of the prophecy of this book. One more, verse 14. Blessed are they, blessed, happy
to be envied, are they that do His commandments, that they may
have a right to the tree of life and may enter in through the
gates into the city. Because without are dogs and
sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters. So I
am not any of those and whosoever that loveth and believeth a lie. Whoever loveth and believeth
the false gospel, they are outside and they are not coming in either.
They are never going to get in. But blessed are those who do
His commandments, who believe on Jesus Christ the Lord. They
have a right to the tree of life. And I tell you, He is the tree
of life. He is the tree of life. And we have a right because of
His merits. Because of His substitutionary
death, we have a right to enter into Heaven's glories and enjoy
those glories forever and ever because of who He is and what
He has done for us. He has made us meet for the inheritance
of the saints in life. Well, may the Lord bless those
words to our spiritual prophet. a go home song. Number 105. Number 105.