Okay, we'll stay right there
in Revelation 1. If you've got your bulletin,
turn to the back of the bulletin, the back page. This is something
I thought might be helpful when you look at God's Word as revealed
in the book of Revelation concerning what this book is about and how
it does give us a panoramic view of the last days Understanding
that the last days refers to the days that began with the
death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ some
2,000 years ago. Remember the book of John, 1
John, John said it's in the last days. Every generation said we're
in the last days. Well, we've been there and we're
still there. And the next generation after
us, if the Lord doesn't come back, they'll be there too. This
is the last age. It's the Gospel Age. I call it
the Gospel Millennium. That's not original with me.
I've read that from other writers who I agree with on this. The
Gospel Millennium, the New Covenant. The New Covenant Age, and it
began with the first advent of Christ. As he finished his work
for the salvation of his people on the cross, and he arose again
from the dead, he ascended to the Father. And I will say these
last days, this last age was inaugurated at Pentecost when
the Holy Spirit, according to the prophet Joel, poured out
in a special way to get the gospel out in Judea and to get it out
into the Gentile world. And then as the gospel went out
to the Gentile world and the Lord established true churches,
It was there, and even, well, even when they first went out,
that the church became persecuted sorely by the enemies of Christ,
the enemies of the church. And that continued. In fact,
that's providentially one of the ways that the Lord got the
gospel out to the Gentiles. You can read about that in Acts
chapter eight, nine, and 10, how Saul of Tarsus persecuted
the church And they were scattered out into the Gentile world and
God established churches. And isn't that something? The main man that God used to
establish Gentile churches, not the only man, but the main one
was Paul the Apostle, the one who persecuted the church. Now
that's the wisdom and power of God. Saving a man like that,
saving any of us, as we see. And then, This book of Revelation
has seven visions. Now the first eight verses that
I've already dealt with, that's pretty much the introduction,
but it's the beginning of the first vision, but there's seven
visions. You know, seven is a number that crops up all over the book
of Revelation. Seven is the number of a perfect,
completed, finished work. We speak of the finished work
of Christ, for example. He worked and then he sat down
at the right hand of God, having finished the work. Christ is
our Sabbath, for example. We rest in Him. And these seven
visions represent God's complete work that will lead up to the
second coming of Christ. So from the first coming to the
second coming, that's the gospel age. And each vision covers the
whole age. in a panoramic view from a different
point of view. And that's how you approach it.
But I thought that'd be nice for you to have, to look at it. We're gonna be dealing with this
Christ in the midst of his churches, the seven golden candlesticks
in the world, in this glorious vision of Christ. And as Brother
Mark read that, I hope you read along with him, it's what a glorious,
magnificent, beautiful, picture in metaphors and symbols and
types that we have of the Lord Jesus Christ here. Because that's
what this book is about. This is a revelation that comes
from Christ, from the Father to Christ, to the servant to
John, and it's a revelation about Christ. And the main theme of
it is His victory over all enemies. You remember he said, upon this
rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail
against it. All of his people are going to
be saved and come to glory. How many times do I quote? All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Him that cometh me
I will no wise cast out. This is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing,
but raise it up again at the last day. That's the purpose
and power of God. The church, the true church now,
and when I say church, and this is important to understand this
book, the true church is the people of God called out of the
world into the sheepfold, into the brotherhood, into the kingdom
of light. It's not buildings that are built
around the city that have crosses and people meet. This building
is not a church. You, the people of God, who have
been brought to faith in Christ, you're the church. And on this
earth, you have false churches. Christ called them Satan's tares. Satan will be built, as the church
goes out and God calls out his people, Satan will go about sowing
his tears in the world. That's false churches. Some will
be so far from the truth that it'll be so obvious to the people
of God. Some of them will be so close. So close. Christ said that. He
said that if it weren't for the grace of God, we'd all be fooled. So we gotta be on our toes. So
here's the theme of the book of Revelation, the victory of
Christ and his church over Satan and all of his allies. The seed
of woman bruising the head of the serpent. Remember back in
Genesis 3.15? It's what happens. Christ has
conquered every enemy of his people to the point, his bride,
his church, to the point that nothing can separate us from
the love of God in Christ. And we will endure to the end.
At the beginning of this age, Satan has been bound and cast
into the bottomless pit. The gospel has gone out into
the world. God's saving his elect. But at some point in time, and
people argue over this, and that's okay. At some point in time,
Satan's released to deceive the nations once again, just like
he did in the Old Testament. The Gentile world. And his deception
in the gospel age would be a great number of people believing a
false gospel. Think about this. If I were to
ask you this question, what does Satan hate more than anything
else? What would you think? I can tell
you exactly what it is. What does Satan, Satan doesn't
hate when people go through moral reformations. He didn't hate
that. You can look at, there's a passage
over in Matthew chapter 12 when it talks about a man's household
filled with evil spirits and then it gets cleaned out. That's
a picture of moral reformation. And then the unclean spirit comes
back and makes it worse than it was before. And you remember
what Christ told the Pharisees? You go out into the Gentile world
to make converts to your religion and you make them two-fold more
the child of hell than you are. They get them to reform, but
there's no truth, there's no gospel. What does Satan hate
more than anything else? He hates the preaching of the
gospel. He hates the preaching of the
truth. The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them
that believe not, lest the glory of God shine unto them. God who created this world, he
does shine in the hearts of his people to give unto them the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's what Satan hates. He doesn't hate moral reformation.
He loves it. Because without the truth, that
is. Because that seals sinners into his kingdom. Now we don't
know how long this church age will last, this gospel age. We
don't know how long it's going to last. No one does. Someone
asked, are we in the last days? And as I said, well, the Apostle
John said we were back then. And that was probably about 40
years after the death of Christ. And you read church history,
the true church where the gospel is preached now, I'm not talking
about churches where a false gospel is preached. But the true
church where the gospel is preached in church history has always
gone through hard times. And they'd say, the Lord's coming
back soon. Remember in Thessalonica, they
were quitting their jobs and going off and living in caves.
They got hungry and came back to the church and wanted to be
fed. That's when Paul said, if you don't work, you don't eat.
They thought the Lord was coming back in their day because they
were going through hard times. We say, well, the Lord, you look
at the world, this has been every generation. You look at the world
and say, somebody says, well, the Lord can't put up with much
more of this. Others, because the Lord has
not come back, say, well, he's not coming back at all. Remember
2 Peter 3? That's unbelievers. He's coming
back. Some may say, well, our country
is in such bad shape. I believe the Lord is coming
soon. Down through history, great nations, I mentioned this in
our Bible study earlier, great nations have arisen to great
heights, saints of God in those nations, some more than some
few. When things began to fall apart, as the case is with all
nations, things disintegrated because of corruption within,
and they're gone. Well, the Lord's coming back
soon. I don't know what's going to
happen with our nation. I really don't. Doesn't look good, does
it? I do know this, that all things
do work together for good to them that love God, who are called
according to his purpose. We've never been a Christian
nation. Do you know that? Now, but as Christians in this
nation, we have been blessed to live in a nation where our
freedom is protected. And I thank God for that. I love
this nation. I love my country. I thank God that I was raised
in this nation. But we've never been Christian.
And we can say that the true gospel has gone out over the
world from believers in this nation. And I thank God for this. But I know this. He's in control.
He's already charted the course. Do you know that? What's going
to happen when the next election comes up? God knows. Because
he ordained it. God ordained it. You believe
that? I believe it. And I tell you, go vote. And
vote for those who, as far as men and women are concerned,
are just in the affairs of people. Try to go by God's mandate in
civil matters anyway. but God's in control. And I like
that. Don't you? I'm glad he's in control. Well, this is what we see in
the book of Revelation. Things are happening here that
are terrible. They're not easy. They hurt. But the gospel keeps going. Sinners,
God's elect, His sheep, are saved and brought into the kingdom.
And in the end, we'll see that He's already won the victory. He said to His disciples, in
the world you'll have tribulation. That's trouble. But be of good
cheer. I've overcome the world. He's
already overcome it. He's already defeated Satan.
Do you know that? He's already defeated the world.
And think about this, he's already defeated our flesh. That's what
Paul wrote in Romans 7. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ my Lord. So, even though I'm not optimistic
about our nation, I am sure optimistic about our Lord. I have a lot
to be thankful for. You do too. Well, he begins this
vision, he's already started it, revealing himself in the
Trinity of his person for the comfort of his people, talking
about the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the first begotten
from the dead, him who loved us, washed us from our sins in
his own blood, made us kings and priests, meaning we are more
than conquerors through him, we have free access to God Almighty. through the blood of Jesus Christ.
And so it comes down in verse nine and he says, I, John, who
also am your brother. Do you know that the apostle
John, if you're a believer, he's your brother? He's my brother. The brotherhood of God. Your
companion in tribulation. Think about that. We don't need,
somebody said, we don't need companions in trouble. Well,
we have them. We have them. Here John was on
the isle of Patmos. Look at it. He says, And in the
kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was in the isle that is
called Patmos, that was a prison colony in the Roman Empire, for
the word of God. Why are you in prison, John?
What did you do? I preached the gospel. I preached
Christ. And the emperor Domitian and
his cronies didn't like it. They wanted him to bow down to
Caesar. John said no. But the Lord preserved
him. The apostle Paul got his head
cut off. The other apostles were martyred. But God in his sovereign
providence sent John in his old age, this is about A.D. 90, sent John out on this island
for preaching the word. and for the testimony of Jesus
Christ, preaching the glory of His person, the power of His
finished work, the kingdom of God. That's why he was exiled. And he says in verse 10, I was
in the Spirit on the Lord's day. John's vision was revealed to
him by God the Holy Spirit. This was a direct revelation
to this man, from the Father, the Son, and from the messenger
that Christ had appointed to reveal it to John, called the
angel. It's a vision of the glorified
Christ. And it tells us of His glory
in pictures and types and symbols. This is not to be taken literal.
You're not to draw this up in a picture and put it in a book
like that. These are symbols that lead us
to truth. And I hope you recognize that
many of these symbols are direct references to Old Testament truth.
The golden candlesticks, for example. You remember the golden
candlestick in the temple, in the tabernacle, in the holy place? And it gives us this panoramic
view of the New Age. It doesn't give us every last
detail. And he says, I was in the Spirit
on the Lord's day. It could have been the first
day of the week, Sunday, we call that the Lord's day. Could have
been any day. All days are the Lord's days,
but it was the day that God determined to give him this revelation.
And he says he heard behind him a great voice as of a trumpet. Heard a voice. And this describes
the majesty and the glory and the power and the authority of
Christ. This great announcement of glorious
things, no secret. This is not Christ sneaking up
behind people. It's no secret, it's open for
all who'll see it. Verse 11, we talked about this
last week. He said, I'm the Alpha and the
Omega, the beginning, the end, and everything in between. The
revelation of the Word of God, the whole alphabet of God, you
might say. Everything that God has to say
to us comes through Christ. He reveals His glory in Christ.
He reveals His salvation in Christ. He reveals His person in Christ.
God manifests in the flesh, the glorious person and the finished
work of Christ. He's God in human flesh. He's
the first and the last. Christ is our all and in all. And without Him, we're nothing. Without Him, there's no access
to God. Without Him, there's no salvation. Without Him, there's
no forgiveness. Without Him, there's no righteousness.
And that's what we need. Oh, to stand before God, washed
in the blood of Christ and clothed in His righteousness. Nothing
to fear. He's our Redeemer. And he tells
John, this is verse 11, he says, What thou seest, write in a book
and send it to the seven churches. The book of the Revelation. This
is to be revealed. This is to be recorded. This
is the record that John says. And it's to be given to the seven
churches. Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira,
Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. These were seven gospel churches. Well, let's put it this way.
Seven churches that had been founded upon the gospel. Now,
when we talk about churches, we have to be clear on this matter. The old writers used to use terms,
some people don't like these terms, I don't see anything wrong
with them, but they would talk about the visible church. And
that would be like us. What I'm seeing, what you're
seeing here in this building today. People met together under
the preaching of the truth that we can see. But the Bible also
tells us that the visible church will be a mixture of believers
and unbelievers. And that's what we can't see.
I tell you, I'm a believer and I preach the gospel. That gives
pretty good evidence, but you can't see my heart. And in the
early church that John wrote to in 1 John, there were people
who claimed to be Christian and gave a good testimony, but then
turned against it and people were amazed. Could you imagine one of our
elders, for example, turning against us and you'd be amazed. I don't believe that'll happen.
But I don't know, I'm just a human being like you. So that's why we preach the gospel
and I tell myself and tell you, examine yourself whether you
be in the faith. Don't sit there like a lump.
and just let it go in one ear and out the other. Listen to
the Word of God. I tell people this all the time.
You know, if I claim to be a believer, a Christian, the two main things
that I want to know is number one, is the Christ I'm resting
in and believing in, is He the true Christ of this book? Because
there are many false Christs. Is He the God of all glory? Is
He the God-man? in the glory of His person, and
the power of His finished work. Is He the one who saves His people
from their sins, or is He this false Jesus that's trying to
save everybody, but He can't? Because they won't let Him. Did
He redeem me from my sins, or did He just try to do it? Is
He a propitiation? Is he the righteousness that
brings the sure and assurance of salvation to the people of
God? Whereby God says, who shall lay anything to their charge?
God justified him. Or is he some other Jesus? And
then the second thing I wanna know is, do I really believe
in him? Do I really trust him? I'm plagued with sin, you are
too. Sinful thoughts, even sinful doubts. That's the sin in Hebrews
12.1 that so easily besets us. And we're commanded to run the
race of grace, what? Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. And here's what I do know, that
without this Christ, according to this book, in the glory of
his person and the power of his finished work, apart from him,
I have no hope. No salvation. I'm gone without
him. I'm like Peter. I've got no place
else to go. And that's how I know. That's
the assurance of this book. And then there are false churches
where a false gospel is preached. And you're going to find when
we look at the seven churches that five of them had some problems. Because they were visible churches
here on earth. One of them had gone so far astray
that it's almost like they left the gospel totally. And these
are things that are going to happen all throughout the gospel
age. It happened in John's day. It
happened during the Reformation days. It's happening today. And
that's what these seven visions will tell us. How they'll go
about it. But that's the visible church.
But you know, there is the true church. What some writers call
the universal church. And what that is, that's made
up of the perfection of God's people brought into the kingdom
All true believers in every generation make up the true church. When
Christ comes again, He's going to gather His church unto Himself. Every one of the elect of God,
every one of the sheep, everyone who has been justified and redeemed
and regenerated are going to meet together with Him. and the world will be left behind.
They'll be brought to judgment. You see, the judgment of the
true church has already taken place. Did you know that? Well,
when did that happen, preach? At the cross. If you're a true believer, a
member of the true church, Your judgment took place on that cross
2,000 years ago when Christ, having your sins imputed to him,
went and bled and suffered and died under the judgment of God
for your sins, for my sins. And they're put away. And his
righteousness has been imputed to you. Think about it. He says in verse 12, and I turned
to see the voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw seven
golden candlesticks. That's the true church. It goes
back to the candlestick in the holy place in the tabernacle,
which was a type of Christ, the light of the world. Remember,
Christ said in Matthew 5, 16, you are the light of the world.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good
works and do what? Glorify your Father which is
in heaven. And you know about that candlestick, that candlestick
did not light itself. The priest had to light it. Well,
Christ lit us. He gave us the light. A true
church witnesses the light of the gospel of God's grace in
Christ Jesus. We don't hide our light under
a bushel, but we let it shine. And where the light of Christ
is missing, where the gospel is missing, there's no true church
but only a false religious gathering of people lost in darkness. I tell people all the time, they
ask, what should I look for in a church? The truth. The truth. You may be sitting in a gathering
of people and you may like every one of them. But if the truth
is not preached from that pulpit, what good is it gonna do you? The gospel is the revelation
of Christ and the righteousness he established to enable God
to be both just and justifier of his people. That's what I'm
looking for. Look at verse 13, he says, and
in the midst of the seven candlestick, one likened to the Son of Man.
The Son of Man from the Old Testament, you go back to Daniel and Ezekiel,
is a term for the Messiah. It identifies, who is John hearing
from here? He's hearing from the Savior.
the builder of the church. You can go back and read it in
Daniel chapter seven where Daniel was given a vision of the glorified
Christ. Christ appears as the one who
fulfills all righteousness for his people. And look at it, it
said, he was clothed with a garment down to the foot. and gird about
the paps with a golden girdle. Now you know what that means?
You remember the priest that went into the tabernacle and to the
Holy of Holies? While he was doing his work,
he had to pull his robe up and wrap it around so that he could
walk. And then when he finished his work, he ungirded himself,
pulled it up to his chest, and the robe went down to his foot,
because the work was done. And that's who this is. This
is Christ, the One who finished the work. Remember what He said
on the cross? It is finished. He finished the transgression.
He made an end of sin. He brought in everlasting righteousness. You see, He's all the righteousness
we need in order to be accepted and have a right relationship
with God. Yes, we want to be righteous
within ourselves. We're not. We will be. when we go to be with Him. But
in order for me to be saved, in order for me to be preserved,
in order for me to be justified, in order for me to get into heaven
as they say, to occupy the new earth, Christ is all the righteousness
that I need. And that golden girdle that's
around His chest tells us that this is the righteousness of
God Almighty. in the person and work of Christ.
That's what that's about. What a savior we have, the robe
of the priest king that has been imputed to us. All of that for his people. Verse
14, his head and his hairs were white like wool. What does that
mean? Kristen put a picture on Facebook
of her and Jim's marriage 20 years ago. And right in the middle
of that great group, there was a big group, there stood a man
with black hair. And you know who it was? It was
me. I think Randy told me that the
girl said, is that Pastor Bill? Yeah, it is. Look what time has
done to me. I got white hair now, gray hair. You hope with, as the Bible calls
it, the hoary hairs. Mike, you used to have dark hair
too. I don't think I ever met Mark
when he had white hair. I mean, when he had dark hair.
But I see a lot of white hair around here. You hope wisdom
comes along with it. What does this mean with Christ?
It means He's the Ancient of Days. That's what it means. He's older than all of us. Because
He's eternal. And it means His wisdom, He is
wisdom itself. The wisdom of God in Christ.
It means He's pure, pure white. No sin in Him. He's the impeccable
Christ. Yes, He was made sin. Only by
imputation. But he never did become a sinner. He was never contaminated. Think
about that. He walked among sinners, but
he wasn't contaminated. You know, you say, well, I walk
among sinners, and I'm contaminated by them. No, you're the contamination.
So am I. That's what we are. We're in league with them. But He's eternal, the Ancient
of Days, He's wisdom, He's pure. And it says here His eyes, look
there in verse 14, His eyes were as a flame of fire. That describes
how He knows it all. He's omniscient, that means He
knows everything. Not because He looked down at
the crystal ball or through the eternal telescope, it's because
He is all knowledge and He determined it all. But it also refers to His judgment. He knows all and He judges all
according to truth. One writer stated it this way,
His eyes burn with love for His sheep to melt their hearts and
His eyes burn with wrath and vengeance against His enemies
and the enemies of His church. Think about it. He is the judge,
and He's the standard of judgment. God has commanded all men everywhere
to repent because He has appointed a day in which He will judge
the world in righteousness by that man, this man that John
has seen in all of this glory, and that He hath given assurance
unto all men that He hath raised Him from the dead. Here's the
glorified Christ. And we'll pick up there next
week, Lord willing. Alright.