Thank the Lord for his mercy and kindness. We often speak about the gospel and the salvation that's in the Lord is free. And it is indeed free to sinners. It's free to the needy. It's free to those that stand in need of a savior. but let us never forget that it was bought with a great price. It was not free to our Lord, for he gave everything that he had, and he held nothing back.

In the book of John, one of my favorite verses, John 13, one, it says, and having loved his own, He loved them to the end. And dear brethren, that's the one whom we come to speak about today, is the one who loved us to the end.

Loving to the end is a noble quest that a lot of people set out on. A lot of people think they're going to do that. A lot of people intend to do that. The Lord Jesus Christ intended to do it, and He did it. And He turned not to the right nor to the left, but He came to do exactly what the Lord, His Father, had sent Him to do. He accomplished that. And that's why we have a gospel. Other than that, we wouldn't have anything to tell anybody.

I mean, if I had to stand up here and tell you now, if you'll do this, then you can get salvation, or if you'll do that, or if you'll be faithful, or if you'll jump through this hoop or do that, or if you'll stay faithful. But it's not in any of those things. It's all in Christ. He that hath the Son hath eternal life.

We've been looking in the book of Revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him. to show to his servants things which must shortly come to pass. Now we must understand, as we look at this book, that when the scripture speaks about things that must shortly come to pass, it's not talking about from this moment forward, or even from John's moment forward, but it's the revelation that God gave to Jesus Christ. That's what it says. which must shortly come to pass. That is, he unfolded to him that which he would do and those things which he has accomplished.

And we must, as we look at this book, not look at it as a book that's telling us about things that's gonna happen, but the primary thing that we need to look at or think of when we look at this book is that which Christ has done. Because that's what this book is about, is what Christ has done. It's the triumphant Christ.

Now we see him as he stood before Pilate, as Brother Al made reference to. And Pilate questioned him and grew exasperated with him. Because Pilate figured he was a man of great power, and that he could, that this man Jesus was in his hands like any other condemned criminal and he could either sentence him to death or he could turn him loose. What Pilate didn't understand was that he couldn't turn him loose. What Pilate didn't understand is he did not have the power not to crucify Jesus Christ. That was totally outside of his power. And the Lord told him that, did he not? He said, you don't have any power at all.

You know, as we've seen in the last few days, a illustration of that. As I have a tin pot dictator in Venezuela, and I'm using a crude carnal illustration here, but it proves a point, who had a secure plan. He had all sorts of guards and things around him, according to some eyewitness testimony, hundreds. of guards that were stationed in this place. And they had all this radar and they had all these things that they felt secure in. But he had no security at all. Because when the Lord ordained that he should be taken out of power, he was. Now he indeed used the hands of the government of the United States to do it. And he could do the same thing to those in power in this country. I mean, if the Lord sees fit to overturn this country, he will. And it doesn't matter how much might or what kind of weapons.

You know, I was struck by the testimony of this same gentleman that survived this onslaught and was an eyewitness of the things that happened And he said that the firepower of 20 men that were the ones that went into this compound to get this guy, he said the firepower that these men possessed was completely overwhelmed. And there was over 200 men that were slain who were set to guard this fellow, Nicholas Maduro.

Now, that's a display of the might and power that the United States Armed Forces have. And it should cause fear in the earth among the kings of the earth, but it should not ever give us an idea that we're insurmountable, if God so pleases. to overturn us because all of those weapons will be of no use, just like the weapons that those Venezuelans had or Cubans or whoever they were had. They were no match.

You remember when Elisha was surrounded by the king who had come, he'd grown weary of Elisha's ability to to say what he was going to do, and so he wanted to kill Elijah, or at least take him into custody. And so Elijah's out there, and his servant sees all these armies around him, surrounding him. He says, Master, what are we going to do? And Elijah prayed, and he said, Lord, open his eyes. And he opened his eyes, and the mountains around Elisha says there were chariots of fire. They made a movie by that name, and you know, it wasn't about that, but they used that scripture in the movie. But those chariots of fire, the angels of God surrounded Elisha, and the king couldn't do anything. They couldn't do anything. One man.

And so it is, dear brethren, that we need to be ever mindful that our God, he is the God. When those priests of Baal, hundreds of them, on Mount Carmel, and Elijah put them to the test, and he said, we're gonna see who God is. And he said, you call on your God to send fire down and burn up this orphan, and then I'll call on mine. And it says that they called all day long. They prayed and they cut themselves. They did all kinds of pagan sacrifices and things they could do to get their God to answer. And of course, Elijah, he just mocked him. Scripture says, well, where is he? Is he gone maybe to the store? I mean, has he left town? Where is he?

And then, when they had finally gotten through and they were completely exasperated, he told his servants, the people that were there, to douse the altar with water. And they poured water on it, and there was a ditch around the altar, poured so much water on it, filled the ditch up around the altar there. And he prayed. And the Lord answered by fire, the scripture says. And the fire came down, and not only did it burn up the things that were on the altar, but it dried up the water in the ditch. Because you see, we're talking about the true and living God.

And that's what happened as the people, they fell down and worshiped the Lord. And they said, the Lord, he is the God. He is the God. So we're not talking about somebody who is a God. We're not talking about somebody who you can choose or you can decide to follow or not follow. We're talking about the true and living God. Before whom men have no power. That whose mercy all men are. Oh, that the Lord might teach us who He is. Because you see, as the Lord pleases to teach men who he is, it's when he shows them his mercy. Oh, that he might teach us such a thing as that.

And so, John has been, this revelation has been given to Jesus Christ that he might show these things to John, and then John, is making a salutation to these churches whom he is going to speak to. And he said, John, to the seven churches which are in Asia, and he greets them, grace be unto you, peace from him which is, which was, and which is to come.

That's a mouthful. You know anything that which was and is and is to come? You know, a lot of people think that people are like that. A lot of people think, well, everybody goes to heaven when they die. Because everybody has, I mean, you can't be ultimately killed. You're going to live on somewhere. You can't find that in the scripture. Oh, it's a thought that most people have. You know, when somebody dies, people say, well, he's better off than he was. Well, is he? I don't know. Not everybody's better off. I mean, Judas, the scripture, the Lord said he'd been better for Judas if he'd never been born. He certainly wasn't better off, was he? Only as the Lord gives a man eternal life will he be better off. And the glorious thing is, he does. What a wonderful thing.

But he is that one who's eternal. From Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and first begotten of the dead, the prince of the kings of the earth. unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. That's what we come to remember today, that he has washed us in his own blood. He cleansed us. There's no other way that a man's sin can be taken away except in the blood of Christ. No other manner or fashion

Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him. There's coming a day when he shall come again. He said he would. He said, if I go, I will come again. And then he went on to say, if it were not so, I would have told you.

Now Jesus Christ is the prophet of God. He's not a prophet of God. He's the prophet of God that sent, and he's come into the world to tell to men that revelation which was given to him, and he's revealed it to John. And John has been given the task of revealing these things to us. He goes on to say, I'm Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Now can you overemphasize that? John did. He says it over and over. I mean, you read through this book, over and over the Lord says, I'm the first and the last. I'm the alpha and the omega. I'm he which was and is and is to come. Can't be overemphasized. I've had people tell me, well, you emphasize the sovereignty of God too much. How foolish is that? Can the sovereignty of God be overemphasized? Could a person possibly speak of the glory and majesty of a sovereign God in some fashion which would exceed that glory? Oh, the folly of men.

And so John begins, his testimony. All of this has been leading up to his testimony. All of this has been leading up to what he saw. This has just been the laying the groundwork. He says, I, John, who also am 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. So he's telling these churches and ultimately to all the people of God how this came to be, how he came to be in the Isle of Patmos. Now, just like the Roman authorities thought they could get rid of the testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ that John was faithfully preaching in Ephesus, they thought that they could get rid of him by exiling him to the Isle of Patmos. We'll put him off over there, because nobody was on the Isle of Patmos. So they just put him over there. And they said, well, that'll be all we have to do with it. Little did they know that this was the very reason that the Lord put John in the Isle of Patmos, was so that he might give him this revelation. And so that's where he was. And he says here some interesting things.

He says, I am your brother and companion in tribulation. Now this is a world of tribulation. Tribulation's trouble. If you live long in this world, you will be faced with trouble, tribulation. That's not an uncommon thing. Now, there's certain schools of thought and prophetic theories that speak about the great tribulation. Well, there is great tribulation that's coming and has come on the earth. But there is this tribulation speaking about general tribulation. It's not a time It's not a season, it's not a number of years, but it is that which is common to God's people, to be troubled.

We don't need to think that somehow or other we're going to go through life and everything's going to be great. You know, if you pray for the Lord to bless you, he's probably gonna give you reason to cry out for blessing. Because he's gonna take things from you. The Lord never takes things from his children in order to weaken them. He never takes things from his children in order to specifically cause them pain, because he likes to see them struggle. but he causes all things to work together for good to them that love God who are called according to his purpose. But it's necessary. He said so. It's necessary that we be tried, proved in the furnace of affliction. And the Lord does bring these things on men. And of course, you know, when a person is a young person, They don't know much about that, and that's for good reason. The Lord generally doesn't bring great tribulation on young men, but there comes times in every man's life when the Lord does bring setbacks and troubles.

John knew about those. He knew about suffering for the cause of Christ. He said, I'm your companion and brother in this. And the scripture tells us to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. So we're put together as brethren that we might bear one another's troubles, that we might help one another. and strengthen one another, encourage one another. That's why the Lord brings men together in churches, so that we might help one another, bear one another's burden. Now how do we bear one another's burdens? Well, the primary way is in prayer. When we pray together, when we come together, when we express our needs one to the other, that we might bear one another's burdens. So he says, I'm your companion, I'm your brother in tribulation.

But then he says, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. Now we have some understanding of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. When Pilate asked him, he says, these people say you're a king. He said, what do you say? He said, well you say that I'm a king. See, the Lord never said I'm a king to Pilate. He said, you said I was a king. He said, this is the reason that I came into the world, to do the will of my father. Jesus Christ didn't come into the world to become a king, because he came into the world as the king. He was already the king. Just because he didn't tell Pilate, I'm the king, he was the king. Because Pilate couldn't do anything. Pilate couldn't even turn him loose. He said, man, you know, this guy hasn't done anything. I need to turn him loose. He couldn't turn him loose. Because you see, God had ordained that by wicked hands Jesus Christ would be crucified according to the foreordained purpose of Almighty God. And there was nothing anybody was going to do that was going to stop that because he was determined to do it. That's why he came into the world. He came into the world as a savior. He was as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, scripture says. It says, in the kingdom and the patience of Jesus Christ.

Now that word patience is not exactly what we usually think of as patience. My mother used to have a saying, I've shared it with you before. Patience is a virtue. Possess it if you can. It is seldom in a woman, and it's never in a man. Now, that was the way she said it. I usually turn it around and say it the other way. But, and it is a needful thing. Patience in that respect. To be patient and kind to one another. That is definitely something we need. And that's a blessing when the Lord gives a man that sort of patience.

But what he's talking about here is endurance. Because you see, actually patience is endurance. To be patient you have to endure. You know, you can't be ready to speak and ready to act, but you have to endure. That's one of the things the Lord told us as brethren that we are to do to one another. He said, forbearing one another. He said, esteeming one another above ourselves. That's to be patient, is it not? but it's to endure because sometimes we want to lash out at somebody, we want to say something, but as Jesus Christ, he opened not his mouth, the scripture says, like a lamb before its ears was dumb. He endured for our sake. You don't think that he had the opportunity to just melt Pilate down to nothing? I mean, he could have spoken one word and could have laid Pilate out on the ground, but he didn't. He endured. The scripture says he endured as seeing him who is eternal. That is, he looked beyond the present moment.

The Lord Jesus Christ learned, the scripture says, obedience by the things which he suffered. Now every time I read that, I just shake my head. I can't really grasp it. That he who knows all things, the scripture says he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. It means that he went through it. Just like you. You have to learn obedience. Children have to learn obedience. No child comes into the world with a desire or the ability to be obedient. Child can't be obedient. You can't be obedient until you're taught obedience. And sometimes that's kind of a painful situation. Depends on the makeup of the child. as to whether he quickly learns obedience or it takes him a long time. Solomon, writing in Proverbs, said, that foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him. And that's part of that, and that's part of that, that is as we look at the patience of Jesus Christ. He suffered many lashes, not just from the whips that were put upon his back at the time of his crucifixion, but he suffered many things. He suffered the unbelief of his disciples. He said, Y'all are weak, you're unbelievers. What's wrong with you? I'm thinking that in my mind as he dealt with them and he kept telling them, the Lord, I'm going to die. And Peter, Usually, was one said, wait a minute, Lord, no, that can't happen. Peter, get behind me. Get behind me, Satan. You don't savor the things of God.

Now you don't think that was a pain in the heart of Jesus Christ, who loved Peter. But he knew what Peter was. But the pain of it was nonetheless real.

See the Lord, sometimes we think we don't give consideration to the humanity of Christ as he walked among men and he suffered everything. The scripture says he was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin. Now what that means is that he was tried, he was tested, he was troubled, just like every man. There's no temptation taking you but such as is common to man. And those temptations the Lord Jesus Christ has borne, he's known them, he's been confronted with them, he's felt them. And yet he endured for our sake. Not for his own. He didn't have anything to prove, did he? Did he have anything to prove to himself? I mean, did the Lord have to come into the world and die for sinners? Only because he designed it that way. Certainly was no cosmic power that said this is the way it's gotta be. The Lord designed it.

Do you realize that the Lord designed the redemption of his people from the beginning when he created the world before the foundation of the world he chose a people in Christ whom he would redeem. Now that's a glorious thing and for their sake He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God. Oh, what a glorious Savior He is.

The patience of Jesus Christ. May the Lord teach us what that is, and may He give us the patience of Christ that we might endure. He that endureth to the end shall be saved.

See, you know, we speak a lot about the preservation of the Lord, of his people, and that's a true thing. And the only reason anybody ever perseveres is because the Lord preserves them. But nonetheless, just as the Lord Jesus Christ suffered for our sake, enduring those things, the Lord has called his people to endure. He called us to persevere. He's called us to set not our affection on the things of the world, but on the things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.

Brother, as I believe it was Isaac Watts wrote, that him must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas. We're called, we're called to be soldiers of the cross. We're called to be those that endure, not that we might earn his favor, but to endure because he has endured for us. Oh, that we might have a heart and mind to walk with him. He alone can give it to us. But he said he would, because he said, my sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. Oh, that we might be the sheep of the Lord's pasture today.