Well this morning I'm going to
continue preaching from the book of Revelation chapter 1. I began this message last week
on this issue of a glorious vision of Christ. This book of Revelation
is the revelation that Christ gave to the Apostle John So it's
a revelation, an uncovering of truth of the glory of Christ
that was given to the Apostle John. And it's a glorious revelation
of Christ, the glory of his person, the power and glory of his finished
work as the surety, the substitute, and the redeemer of his people.
And it uses language that is symbolic. Don't take these things
literally in the sense that this is what Christ is made of in
a, what you might say, a fashion. It's language that describes
who this person is, Jesus Christ. As Brother David said, when they
asked the When the Lord asked them, who do men say that I am?
And they had all kinds of different answers, like you said. They
said, some say you're Elijah, some say you're this, you're
that prophet. And he asked his disciples, who
do you say that I am? And that's what I would ask you
today. It's what I ask myself, who do we say that he is? And
you remember Peter spoke up. He said, thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God. And Christ said to him, he said,
blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah, which was Peter's name, Simon
son of Jonah Christ gave him the name Peter which was little
rock Petras And he said blessed art thou Simon bar Jonah for
flesh and blood has not revealed that to you but my father which
is in heaven and So Peter had a revelation from God And just
like day when you prayed in your prayer you know they many of
them had physical eyes and physical ears to see Jesus of Nazareth
and And outwardly, he had nothing special about him, according
to the book of Isaiah chapter 53. A man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief. No comeliness, Isaiah said. But
if the Lord ever gives us a revelation, a vision of who this person really
is and what he accomplished on Calvary's cross for the salvation
of his sheep, that will never be the same. If we see him as
he is. John had already seen the glory
of Christ back in John chapter one, the gospel of John. He said,
we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten
of the father. And he said, the law came by
Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. But here on
the Isle of Patmos, where John was sentenced, by the Roman Emperor
Domitian to be on this island. And the reason John was on that
island exiled was because he preached the gospel. And that
was against Caesar's law. And Caesar didn't want to hear
anything more about it. And I'm sure that Caesar thought
that when he exiled John on Patmos, he said, that'd be the end of
it. But boy, that wasn't the end of it. Just look at how many. how many lives the Lord has touched
through John being on the Isle of Patmos, even through this
book of Revelation. But John said here, he's describing
Christ in these symbolic terms. Look back at verse 13. He said,
in the midst of the seven candlesticks, and that's the churches, that he's going to be talking
about. Light sticks, they were the light. And he says, one like
the son of man. That word son of man is a word
that identifies him as the Messiah. Comes from back in Daniel chapter
seven. The son of man. And it speaks
of the fact that he is God manifest in the flesh. He's the son of
God, he's the son of man. Man without sin, a man just like
us, but without sin. The Bible says it behooved him
to be made like unto his brethren. He had to be both God and man
without sin in order to save sinners. As I said last week,
God cannot die, but this person who is God did die. That's attributed
to his humanity, but an act of his entire person. And it's mind-boggling. Somebody said, well, you can't
explain that. That's right. You can't either. But it's true.
It's the word of God. Man cannot give life, create
or give life. Well, I know there's some men
who think they can, but they can't. But this person who is
man did create and does give life. That's an act that's attributed
to his deity, but it's of his entire person. He's clothed with
a garment, verse 13, down to the foot. That speaks of the
priesthood of Christ who finished the work of redemption for his
people. You remember the priest who went
into the holiest of all back in the Old Covenant, the Old
Testament. And when he went in doing the work, his robe was
pulled up and girded about him so he could walk. And when he
finished, the girdle was taken off and put up And then it dropped
to the ground. The work was done. And that's
indicative of the righteousness which Christ has accomplished
in his obedience unto death for the sins of his people. That
righteousness by which God justifies his people, his righteousness
imputed. And he says, it's gird about
the paps with a golden girdle, that's the golden girdle up here,
it speaks of his deity. His righteousness is the righteousness
of God, verse 14. This is basically where we left
off a little bit last week. His head and his hairs were white
like wool. That speaks of the fact that
he is the ancient of days. Having no beginning and no end,
it speaks of his wisdom. White as snow, speaks of his
purity, the impeccable Christ. Not only did he not sin, he could
not sin. Yes, he was made sin, 2 Corinthians
5, 21, but only by a legal act of imputation, God charging the
debt of our sins to Christ. But he was not contaminated.
He was not corrupted with our sin when he hung upon that cross,
having our sins charged to his account. He was the spotless
Lamb of God. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
His omniscience, He knows it. He sees into the very hearts
of people. Nothing's hidden from Him. My
thoughts, your thoughts, my motives, your motives, He knows it. He
knows our frame. That's why we're so thankful
for His mercy. God be merciful to me, the sinner. At our best moments, think about
this, at our best moments, We cannot say that we deserve or
have earned any of God's blessings. All of God's blessings, all of
God's benefits towards a sinner like me are because of the merit,
the earning power, the glory of Christ. And he sees me, he
knows me. You know what? He knows me better
than I know myself. He knows you better than you
know yourself. Because you know, a lot of times we try to lie
to ourselves, thinking we're better than what we really are.
But he knows better. You can't fool him. His eyes
are a flame of fire and cuts to the quick, Hebrews 4 tells
us. Look at verse, and this is the
way he judges too. You know, he is the judge. And
he is the standard of judgment. How many times you hear me quote
Acts chapter 17 verse 31 that God has appointed a day in the
which he will judge the world in righteousness. He's going
to judge you in righteousness. He's going to judge people in
righteousness. But what's the standard of righteousness? How
righteous do I have to be? Well, it says he's going to judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
appointed, in that he hath given assurance unto all men that he
had raised him from the dead. I've got to be as righteous as
Christ. And who would claim to be as
righteous as Christ based upon their character and conduct?
Nobody but a fool. So how can I stand before God
as righteous as Christ? That's to have His righteousness
charged to me, imputed to me. Didn't David say in Romans, as
Paul quoted in Romans 4, 6, blessed is the, he described the blessedness
of the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works.
You know, this world today, even a lot of so-called Christians,
they don't know anything about the doctrine of imputation. But
you know what? It's part of the heart of the
gospel. My sins charged to him, his righteousness charged to
me. And out of that comes blessedness of eternal life, spiritual life. Verse 15, it says, his feet are
like undefined brass. That describes his power to save,
his power to preserve, his power to support, and to defend and
intercede for His people. We cannot, if we're saved by
God's grace in Christ, we can never be lost again. You know
there are people who call themselves Christians, say you can be saved
one day and lost the next. They don't know nothing of this
Christ. Fine brass also speaks of the suffering that He went
through in the fire of the wrath of God for the sins of His people.
He went through it. Do you know this? If you're a
believer, saved by grace, not only are you a miracle of grace,
but you've already been judged for all your sins. When did that
happen, preacher? At the cross. At the cross. because your sins were charged
to him. And he went through that suffering, and because of that,
he's able to save to the uttermost them that come unto the Father
by him. He's able to preserve us unto
glory. He said, no one shall pluck them
out of my Father's hands. I and my Father are one. He said,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. This is the will of
him that sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should
lose what? Nothing. No one. But raise him
up again at the last day. He's able to support and defend.
He right now lives to intercede for his people. So much so that
our sins, even our present sins, even the sins that I commit tomorrow,
cannot be charged to my account. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. This is
the glory that John is seeing here in this vision, this great
glorious vision. And it says here this fine brass,
look at it, like fine brass as if they burned in a furnace. So you see how this is connected
to his sufferings. You see everything in this vision
is connected to the Christ of the cross. His glory as God manifest in
the flesh who died on the cross. Let me show you that. Go back
to that passage that Brother David read in Luke chapter nine.
This was a vision of the glory of Christ that he gave to certain
of his disciples. It says Peter and John and James,
he took them on this mount and he showed them in a vision. It
says here, look at this, verse 29, as Christ prayed, Luke 9,
29, the fashion of his countenance was altered. That was his appearance.
As they saw him praying, God gave this vision and his appearance
changed. How did it change? His raiment
was white and glistering. You know what glistering means?
It means bright. You'd have to put on sunglasses or something.
And what is that indicative of? It's indicative of his deity.
It's indicative of his righteousness. The gospel is the revelation
of the righteousness, not of man, but of God, the God-man. And it says in verse 30, and
behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and
Elias. They saw a vision of Moses and
the prophet Elijah. Moses represented the law. Elijah
represented the prophets. And they spoke with Christ, and
it says in verse 31, who appeared in glory, and they spoke. Now, wouldn't you wanna know
what they're talking about? Wouldn't that be an interesting conversation?
Here's Christ in the midst, in that glistering white robe, in
his glory. And there's Moses, the law. And
there's Elijah, the prophet. What's the subject? Well, they're
gonna talk about politics. Who's gonna be the next president?
Who's gonna be the next king of Israel? Or they spoke about
health. What vitamins are you taking?
Didn't speak about any of those important things. Look at what
it says in verse 31. They spoke of his decease. His death. That word decease
there is the Greek word for exodus. You remember the exodus when
Moses led the children of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt?
In the death of Christ, he's going to lead his people out
of the bondage of sin, out of the bondage of Satan, out of
the bondage of the law. But notice this too, it says,
his deceased, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. His
death was described as an accomplishment. Why? That's because in his death
was success, not failure. He didn't fail to save his people.
His name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. He said, I give my life for the
sheep. And he said, the sheep hear my
voice, and I know them. And they follow me. And I give
unto them eternal life. And no one's going to take them
away. his death at Jerusalem. And then
verse 32 says, Peter and they which were with him, heavy with
sleep, and when they were awake, listen to this, they saw his
glory. That's what worship is. That's
why we're met here today. To see his glory, not your glory,
not my glory, his glory. You know, the Bible in 2 Corinthians
4-6 describes salvation as seeing the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That is, in His person and His
work. What is the glory of God? The glory of God is that which
identifies and distinguishes Him as the one, only, true, and
living God. Both a just God and a Savior. How can He be both? How can God
be just, deal with my sins in a just way, and still be a loving,
merciful, gracious Father? How can He be both? Well, it's
the glory of God in Christ that answers that question. The Gospel.
On the basis of Christ. Our surety. What does that mean?
It means my debt was charged to Him. He said, I'll repay it. And he
said that before the world began. He's the surety of the covenant.
He's my substitute. He came to this earth, united
with human flesh, human body and soul, without sin, and obeyed
the law unto death, took my place under the wrath of God, and died
the death that I deserved and earned. And he drank damnation
dry. He redeemed His people by His
blood. That's His glory. That's what
John is seeing over here in Revelation. Look back at verse 15. His feet
like fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and His voice as
the sound of many waters. That describes the preaching
of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit. What is it to
preach the gospel? the good news of Christ crucified
and raised from the dead, but not just the facts. Somebody
asked me one time, said, isn't the gospel the death, burial,
and resurrection? And I told him, I said, well,
the gospel includes the historical facts that he died, he was buried,
he arose again the third day, but that in and of itself historically
is not the gospel. The gospel is what he accomplished. in his death, burial, and resurrection.
What did they speak of on the Mount of Transfiguration? Moses
and Elijah and our Lord? They spoke of his deceit which
he should what? Accomplish. Why did he die? He died for the
sins of his people. Somebody had to die. You couldn't
have done it though. I couldn't have done it. Mere
men could not do it. Somebody who was qualified. And
what qualified him? His person. God and man in one
person. That's the one who died in the
place of his people. And in his death, what did he
accomplish? He put away their sins. That's why I tell people
all the time, if he died for your sins, you cannot be lost.
You must be saved. That's why in John 10 when he
said, other sheep I have which are not of this foe. In other
words, he was saying I've got some people not only among the
Jews, but among the Gentiles. He said, them also I must bring. He was obligated to himself. He came to save them. What did
he accomplish? Righteousness. Romans 1, 16 and
17. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and the Greek or
the Gentile also, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. From faith, knowledge revealed.
To faith, knowledge received and believed. For it's written,
the just shall live by faith, looking to Christ. What is it
to live by faith? Somebody said, well, that means
you live by believing. No, not necessarily. You may believe
a lie. It's to live, as Hebrews 12 and
verse two puts it, looking unto Jesus, the author, the beginner,
and the finisher, the completer of our faith. See, Christ didn't
start something that we complete. You understand that? That's what
I used to believe when I was raised in religion. I believed
he started something, but I had to do my part to complete it.
No, sir. He did it all. He did it all. Even the faith which God gives
us to believe it's a gift of God, for by grace are you saved
through faith. That not of yourselves is the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, for we
are his workmanship, created with your cooperation, no, created
in Christ Jesus, unto, not because of, but unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. The good
works of a believer are the foreordination of God. And they're accepted
of the Father on one ground, the blood of Jesus Christ, accepted
in the beloved. The voice of many, the sound
of many waters. Are you hungry and thirsty for
righteousness? the voice of many waters, the
voice of the bread of life, that's Christ. And look at verse 16,
and he had in his right hand seven stars, and these seven
stars, they're described in verse 20, the mystery of the seven
stars, but we'll look at that in a minute. And out of his mouth
went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the
sun shineth in his strength. The seven stars are the ministers
of Christ who preach the gospel, who point sinners away from themselves
to Christ. Don't look to me, look to Christ. Just like John the Baptist, behold
the Lamb of God which beareth away the sins of the world. He
said, I'm not the Christ. I can't save you. I can't even
save myself. I'm just a signpost showing you
the way. That's the seven stars. Seven,
you remember, is the number of completeness, the complete, the
finished work, the finished revelation of God. And these seven stars,
later on we'll say they're the ministers of the seven churches.
But they preach by his power, for he's the one who holds them
in his right hand, it says. Had in his right hand. the right
hand of acceptance in Him, the right hand of judgment, the right
hand of power. I can preach till I'm blue in
the face and I can't save one person. Can't even save myself. But if God in power by His Spirit
through Christ ever visits you in power, that's salvation. It says here that out of his
mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. That's his word. Remember
how it's described in Hebrews 4, the word of God is sharper
than any two-edged sword, cutting asunder to the very thoughts,
motives, to the heart. This gospel and the power of
the spirit through Christ cuts to the heart of his people in
conviction, drives them to Christ for all salvation. It cuts in
judgment for all who oppose him. exposes their sin. But let me
tell you something, if the Holy Spirit, if the Holy Spirit does
His great and power, His irresistible and invincible work in the new
birth, in regeneration and conversion, you hear that truth that Christ
said, the truth will set you free. I always tell people there's three
things you think about. You cannot do. You cannot ignore
it. You cannot deny it and you cannot
leave it. That's the irresistible grace
of God. It says, His countenance was as the sun shineth in His
strength, like His countenance on the Mount of Transfiguration.
This describes the glory of His person as He shines forth in
the salvation of His people and in the condemnation of the wicked.
God is just. His greatest glory is in his
power to save his people from sins as he conquered death and
hell. Conquered sin, conquered death, conquered hell. Look at
verse 17. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. What
can you do? John was so overwhelmed, he fell
at his feet as dead, beholding the glory of God. But look what
happens. Look at this. And behold, I am alive forevermore,
Amen, and have the keys. Or verse 17, he says, first,
I felt his feet as dead, and he laid his right hand upon me,
saying unto me, fear not, for I am the first and the last. That's his eternality. That's
his power to begin it and to bring it to its fruition. Paul
said, he's able to save to the uttermost them that come unto
him by God. Verse 18, I am he that liveth and was dead, Do
you think death is the end? Well, Christ said, I'm the one
who died and I live. He arose again. He's seated at
the right hand of the Father. And he said, behold, I'm alive
forevermore, ever and ever, eternal life. And he says, amen, and
have the keys of hell and of death. He is the key. He gave his disciples the keys
to hell and death. That doesn't mean that St. Peter's
at the pearly gates waiting to let you in. That doesn't mean
that at all. The keys to death and hell is the gospel that he
gives his people. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. He alone has
power over hell and death. Nobody else does. And then verse
19 and 20, write the things which thou hast seen, and the things
which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. This is what
the book of Revelation is going to do. Show us those things that
span the new covenant age, the gospel millennium, which began
at Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, and goes up until
his second coming. And he commands John to write
these things revealed to him of the past, the present, the
future, And then he says, the mystery, verse 20, of the
seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, the seven golden
candlesticks, the seven stars are the angels. Now the word
angel in the New Testament is sometimes translated servant
or minister. It's not referring to an angelic
being here. It's referring to a messenger
of the gospel, a messenger of Christ. And that's who he's talking
about. The messengers in the seven churches.
And he says, the seven churches, local assemblies where the gospel
is preached, at least they were founded on the gospel. We'll
be dealing with that in future messages, Lord willing. And the
seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. Next week, before I get into
the seven churches, I'm going to deal with this subject. It's
kind of an overview of Revelation 2 and 3. But what is a true church? What is a church? It's not just
a religious assembly. The word church means called
out. Called out by God under the preaching
of the truth. And the church is the pillar
and ground of truth. So if you enter into an assembly
of people, like this, and the truth of God's gospel is not
preached, where are you? You're not in a true church.
You understand what I'm saying? As I said, the church is the
pillar and ground of truth. And I want to deal with that
before we jump into the seven churches of Revelation. So we'll
deal with that next week. All right.