Thank you for that. Open your
Bibles to Revelation chapter 1. The first few words give us the
very title of the book. The revelation of Jesus Christ. This is not the revelation of
Saint John the Divine. We don't need John revealed to
us. And he's not divine. There's
nothing about a believer that is divine. We're not gods. We're new creatures in Christ
Jesus. We're believers. We're the sons
of God. We've been adopted into His family,
but we're not divine. We're not divine. And we don't
need a revelation, we don't need a manifestation of John. We need
a manifestation, we need a revelation of John's Savior. We need Him
to reveal Himself to us. Show us who He is. Really, the
first five words of this book, as I indicated this morning,
these are the words really that sum up the scriptures. Of this
book, we delightfully say this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. In every book, on every page. And I dare say that we, due to
our infirmities, due to our spiritual weaknesses, we have, there's
an inability to see the Lord Jesus everywhere in the scriptures. But He is everywhere. He is everywhere. And from time to time, I have
been asked, would you preach on such and such a passage? And usually my stock answer is
this, when I see Christ Jesus there, when the Spirit of God
reveals the Savior to me in that passage, that's when I'll preach
on. Nobody has a full grasp, a total
grasp and an understanding of the Word of God. We see bits
and pieces. But I do know this, we're always
to be looking for Christ Jesus. There's just no question about
that. Several years ago I spoke to a group of preachers and afterwards one of the men
said that he was preaching through the history of Israel. And he
said, I don't see how I could preach Jesus Christ as I go through
the history of Israel. And I said, I don't see how you
can avoid preaching Jesus Christ as you go through the history
of Israel. Listen, whatever subject you're dealing with, and I'm
speaking to Sunday school teachers, those who speak, those who get
up here and preach, As you speak to folks in your community or
in your family at your job about the things of Jesus Christ, always
center your remarks about the Savior and around the Savior.
There are people in this world, they are interested in various
religious things and they will gladly get into a discussion
with you about prophecy because people like to talk about prophecy. They like to talk about the dark
things of the scriptures. Always bring it back to Christ. That is our duty. That is our
responsibility. I will admit, Though I'm a preacher
of the gospel, there are passages of Scripture in this book that
are dark and mysterious to me. Don't you make that acknowledgement
too. Don't you confess that. There are passages of Scripture
that are just beyond my comprehension. And I just don't have a full
grasp of them. And I read them, and I study
them, and I ask the Spirit of God, give me light on these passages
of Scripture. And I get a little bit of light,
and when I get a little bit of light, I'm thankful, aren't you?
For my old darkened mind as I look in the Word of God, for my lack
of understanding, when the Spirit of God shows me Jesus Christ
in a passage where I had not previously seen Him, my heart
just rejoices. And I'm so delighted. Because
I know that this Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is the manifestation of Jesus
Christ. It is the very appearing of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He is unveiled in the Scriptures. Had we no Bible, had we no Word
of God, had the Lord not spoken through the prophets, And through
the apostles, we could have no understanding, we could have
no knowledge of the living God through Jesus Christ. A silent
God is an unknowable God. But God has not remained silent. Bless His name, He has spoken. In these last days, He has spoken
to us in, through and by His Son, Christ Jesus. And when you
open the Bible to read it, look for the Savior. We know this
is a hymn book. It's all about Him. It's all
about who He is. It's about His glorious person.
It's all about what He's done. He's redeemed unworthy sinners
unto God by His blood. It's about why He shed His blood,
that God might be just. and justifier. That filthy, unwashed sinners
might be made white, washed from our sins in the blood of Jesus
Christ. And as we look in this book,
we find out where He is now. He's exalted and we know the
reason He's been exalted because He finished the work that the
Father gave Him to do. This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. I know that in God's eternal
purpose, in all three of God's great works, He has ordained
that Jesus Christ have all the preeminence. He has all the preeminence
in creation. By Him were all things made. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. God has ordained that His Son
have all the preeminence in creation. God has ordained that His Son
would have all the preeminence in the great work of providence.
Providence is God directing all things to the end that He has
predestinated. We believe in everlasting predestination. Predestination is carried out
by providence. Who directs providence? Who is
executing the sovereign will and purpose of God? The Lord
Jesus Christ. He's seated upon His throne doing
the Father's will as Jehovah's faithful servant. Our Lord Jesus
in His work of providence, He has the preeminence. We read
that by Him all things consist. He sits upon the throne of universal
sovereignty. He said to His disciples after
His resurrection, having redeemed His people, having reconciled
His people, having put away our sins by His blood, having brought
in everlasting righteousness, He said to His disciples, He
said, All power, all authority is given unto Me in heaven and
in earth. Now go ye therefore in all the
world and preach the gospel. And I tell you, we preach the
gospel, or every preacher of the gospel this day, men who
lifted up the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, we
did so with this understanding and with this knowledge and with
this firm belief that our Lord Jesus Christ has all power and
all authority. to take that Word of the Gospel
that we preach, the Word about Himself, and drive it into the
hearts of sinners and make men to live again by His will and
by His grace. We have no impotent Savior. We have an Almighty Savior. He
is mighty to save. He is the mighty God. That's
what Isaiah says of Him over in Isaiah chapter 9. He's executing
the Father's will. In the book of Revelation chapter
5, John sees a book sealed with seven seals and he sees then
the Lamb of God take it out of the hand of the Father. And then
he begins to break open the seals. What is that? What is the book?
The book is the book of predestination. It's the book of all of God's
decrees. Everything that shall ever happen
to God's people and throughout the world is written in that
book, sealed with seven seals, and there's one that's worthy,
just one who is worthy to take that book out of the hand of
God and open that book and bring all of God's will to pass. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's well qualified to do
it because He's God. And He executes the Father's
will with great regard to His people. For He's man. He's the God-man. He is everything
in the work of providence. The Father has given Him the
preeminence in creation, He's given Him the preeminence in
divine providence, and He's given Him the preeminence in His great
work of redemption. The Father gave Him a work to
do. And we read that by one offering,
one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. He made His people perfect. My
friends, the book of God is indeed the revelation of Jesus Christ. The revelation of Jesus Christ. All of the promises of this book,
all of the blessings of God that are given to sinful men and women
are given in through and by Jesus Christ only. In fact, apart from
Christ, God promises nothing but wrath. In fact, apart from Jesus Christ,
every blessing or everything that seems to be a blessing will
prove to be a curse, apart from Jesus Christ. All of the love
of God, all of the mercy of God, all of the grace of God is in
Jesus Christ. All of the revelation of God,
all of the knowledge of the triune God is in Jesus Christ. You see,
He's not only the central message or the main message of Holy Scripture,
He is the message of Holy Scripture. He is the message. To understand
that is to have the key that opens the Word of God and reveals
its deep treasures. The only way to study and profit
from every book of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is
to remember that every book is about Jesus Christ. Every book
is the revelation of Jesus Christ. That which is true of all of
the volume of inspiration is especially and gloriously true
in these last closing chapters of the volume, the book of the
revelation of Jesus Christ. This last book of the Bible is
our Lord's revelation of Himself to His servants. This book is
the revelation of Jesus Christ. And you see, the only way we
can know Him is if He reveals Himself to us. And He doesn't
have to do that. He's not obligated to do that
for us, not on account of anything we've done. The only thing He's
obligated to do is fulfill the Father's will. And in that sense, He does have
an obligation to reveal Himself to God's elect, to those for
whom He died. The only way we'll know Him is
if He reveals Himself to us. I want you to look over Genesis
45. Here's a beautiful picture of
what it means for our Lord Jesus to reveal Himself to His brethren. And He is not ashamed to call
us brethren. That's what it says in Hebrews,
the second chapter. You know the story of Joseph
and I'm not going to go into all of this. At this point, of
course, he's been exalted. In Egypt, he's at the right hand
of Pharaoh. All of the granaries of Egypt,
all the grain, all the supplies of Egypt, they're under the authority
of Joseph. Joseph is, he's second to Pharaoh. And you remember how his family
was hungry and they came, the father Jacob sent some of his
boys into Egypt to buy grain and you remember all of that
part of the story and I don't have time to develop that, but
here are some of his brethren before Joseph. Genesis chapter
45. And there they stand in need of that which only Joseph
could get them. It's up to Joseph. They will
live or they will die according to the will of Joseph. They will
have something to eat and feed their families or they will absolutely
starve to death. It's up to Joseph. He has all
authority. He has all power over all the
food that Egypt had accumulated in the last seven years. And there they stand before Him.
There's not a thing they can do. It's up to Him. Well, there's a beautiful picture
already, isn't it? Our Lord Jesus, He has the keys
of death and hell. And all the riches of God's grace
are in Him. Mercy is in Him. Grace is in
Him. Salvation is in Him. Righteousness
is in Him. Hope is in Him. Life is in Him. He's got it all and we got nothing. And we stand before Him. Look at chapter 45 verse 1, Then
Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by
him. And Joseph, he cried, cause every
man to go out from me, all of his servants, leave, leave, clear
the hall. And there stood no man with him
while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. I'll tell
you when our great Joseph is going to reveal himself to us,
he gets us off by ourselves. Everybody else get out. He's
going to deal with his people in a gracious way in the heart. Look at verse 2, and he wept
aloud. He wept aloud. Oh, what love! I read this and I thought about
that passage in John chapter 11 verse 35. Jesus wept. You know what the Jews said?
Behold, how he loved him. Behold, how he loved him. Joseph wept. And the Egyptians
in the house of Pharaoh, they heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph. Doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer
him, for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
Come near to me, I pray you. There's the effectual call. There
it is. There's the effectual call. Come
near to me. He speaks with a voice of authority. He speaks with a voice of love.
He speaks with a voice of compassion. Come near to me, I pray you. Oh, blessed day when God, the
Spirit, the Spirit of Christ Jesus says to the sinner, come
near to me. Come near to me. We've heard
the words of His lips, haven't we? Come near to me. And when He speaks in power,
and grace, when he effectually calls his people to come to him,
here's what happened. And they came near. They came
near. I know there's such a thing as
a general call of the gospel that goes out to everybody. Come
to Jesus Christ. And I compel you to come. I say, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's a wonderful Savior. He's
just the Savior you need. In Him is life and hope and salvation. In Him is the forgiveness of
sins. In Him is the perfect righteousness
that you've got to have. Oh, sinner, come to Jesus Christ. And I cry that again tonight.
Come to Christ, poor sinner. Come to the Savior. Flee to the
Savior for refuge for your poor soul. But my cries to you, my calls
to you won't cause you to come. But His will. His will. And here is our prayer. I pray this before I preach.
Oh Sovereign Lord, would you speak to sinners, even through
these feeble lips, As I set forth the gospel of your free grace,
would you speak in life-giving power? That's what we need. That's when sinners will come
to Jesus Christ. That's when they'll quit their
false religion. That's when they'll turn from
this helpless Jesus who's knocking on their heart's door. That's
when they'll flee away from this God who can't do anything unless
they let Him. And that's when they'll bow down
before the God of the Bible and they'll flee to Jesus Christ
and say, Lord, if you will, If you will, it's up to you.
Like that old poor leper. That leper. Our Lord Jesus is
up on the mountain and here he comes down. Here's a great physician
in all of his glory, in his strength, in his might. And here's a leper
covered with leprosy. He's got no help. He's got no
help, no hope from anybody else. And he falls down and says, Lord,
if you will. Isn't that what you say? Lord,
if you will. If you will, oh if you will,
you can show mercy even to me, even to me. And I'll tell you, when He draws
you, He puts that cry in your heart, that's when you'll come
near, that's when you'll come near. And then he said again in verse
4, I'm Joseph your brother, whom you sold in Egypt. You know who
did all this to Christ Jesus? We did. We did. Joseph says to them now, therefore
be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither.
For God did send me before you to preserve life. This is all of God. Those of you who are believers,
God the Spirit, He just rings your heart over sin. And you realize, my sins did
that to the Savior. He had to die to satisfy justice
for me. The Savior reassures us. He says, now this is all of God.
This is all of God. In Acts chapter 4, Her Pontius Pilate and Herod,
the Jews and the Gentiles, they all gathered together to do what?
That which God had ordained. And Joseph says here, he said,
this is the Lord's doing. The Lord sent me before you to
preserve life. Look at verse 6, for these two
years hath the famine been in the land, and yet there are five
years, there are five years left because it's going to be seven
years of plenty and then seven years of lean, in the which there
shall be neither earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to
preserve you, to deliver you, of austerity in the earth and
to save your lives by great deliverance. And over in the margin of my
Bible it says there beside of verse 7, to put you for a remnant. For a remnant. Bless the name
of God, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. The people to whom God has already
been merciful. He was merciful to us in the
election, wasn't He? When He chose us in Christ Jesus?
Grace coming to us, that's something that started in old eternity,
in the covenant of grace. And we realize the presence of
grace, the power of grace, the effectual cup of grace, due to
eternal grace given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. He says in verse 7, God sent
me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and
to save your lives by great deliverance. Oh, what a great deliverance.
What a great deliverance our Lord Jesus accomplished by His
death upon the cross. So he says in verse 8, so nigh
it was not you that sent me, Heather, but God. And he hath
made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and
a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Haste ye, go up to
my father and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath
made me lord of all Egypt. Come down unto me, tarry not. Thou shalt dwell in the land
of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children,
thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and
all that thou hast, and there I will nourish thee." And oh,
how Christ Jesus nourishes us. Does He not nourish you every
day? He's more tender to you than
a nurse. He meets our every need. He comforts
us. I will nourish you. He feeds
us with manna from heaven. He brings us together and He
sits before us as spiritual buffet in the gospel. In the gospel. Some of us went down last night
and had buffets. Seafood buffet last night. All
you can eat. Let me tell you, there's a gospel
buffet. It's here every time the doors
are open. Just come and eat to your heart's
content. A gospel buffet. The Lord says,
Joseph says, I'll nourish you! I'll nourish you! And that's
what the Lord does. Have you been nourished today?
And even in your devotions at home when you read the Word of
God and you seek God's face in fellowship and in communion with
Him, does He not nourish you? Indeed He does. And He says to
us, My grace is sufficient for all of your needs. He says, For
yet there are five years of famine, lest thou and thy household and
all that thou hast come to poverty. And behold, your eyes see in
the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh
unto you. Watch verse 13. And ye shall tell my Father of
all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen. And ye
shall hasten, bring down my Father hither. Go speak of my glory. That's my job. What a delightful
job the preacher of the gospel has. Go speak of my glory. The glory that we've seen. And
the only ones who can speak of His glory are the ones who've
seen it. Sometimes you hear some preacher
preach, not anybody we know, but I'm talking about like on
the television or the radio, you try to find some preaching
on the radio or whatever. And they say good things. They
say some good things. But they don't say THE good thing,
and if they don't say THE good thing, then they've really said
nothing at all. But you listen to them and then
you think, why doesn't He preach Christ and His glory? Why doesn't
He preach the glory of the blood? The glory of the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. Why doesn't He manifest through
His preaching a knowledge of Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Why doesn't He give the Savior
the glory? I can tell you, He hasn't seen
the glory of Christ. That's the reason. I heard Henry
Mahan say years ago, man can't tell what he doesn't know. Just
as you can't come back from somewhere that you ain't already been.
The reason they don't preach the gospel, they don't know the
gospel. The reason they don't exalt Jesus Christ, they've never
seen His glory. Once we are dazzled by His glory,
once we have seen a glimpse of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ, every message will be saturated with the Savior. Everything we've got to say will
be about Him. Look at verse 14. He fell upon
his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon
his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brethren
and wept upon them. After that, his brethren had
talked with him. What has Joseph done? He has
revealed himself to his brethren. This Bible is the revelation
of Jesus Christ. And God makes a revelation of
His Son to our hearts. And this revelation of Jesus
Christ, it's not a one-time thing. He's continually revealing Him
to us. It's not a one and done. It's over and over and over again. He shows us His glory. And we don't get weary of hearing
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Because we understand. I know
there's a lot we don't understand. I realize I've already said that.
I'm not contradicting what I've already said. But we do understand
this. The Bible is the revelation of
Jesus Christ and He's been revealed in us. That's what Paul said. There's been a revelation of
Jesus Christ within us. And once you see Him, once you
have tasted of the sweetness of His gospel, once you have
viewed His magnificence and His glory, You don't want to ever
see anything else again, and you don't want to ever taste
any other message except this message that's sweeter than honey
to your soul. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is good. I didn't really get to the heart
of my message tonight, at least the heart that I was aiming for.
So you'll have to change the title. Sorry. But I'm done. I'll just quit right there. Well,
let's sing.