It's good to see you this morning. How we thank the Lord for. Another time that we can be together. Let's pray together. Our father, we thank you. for the day that you've given
us, the Lord's Day, the day in which we have the
honor and privilege to be able to meet and to hear. We ask you this morning to help
us. We know that you speak. You speak through your Word.
We speak through Him who is the Word, whose voice we listen to
and hear. And we pray that this morning
that the Scripture that is considered would be to your honor and to
our good and our comfort for Christ's sake. Amen. Turn with me to Revelation 22.16. Revelation 22, 16. This is what
Revelation 22, 16 says, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify
unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring
of David and the bright and morning star." The glorious book, the revelation of Jesus Christ, is actually the disclosure or
the laying bare of Him who is God, Man, and Mediator. It's the opening up, the showing
forth, the revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, I want you to turn back
to Revelation 1.1. This is what it says. This is not the revelations. It's the revelation. It says the revelation of Jesus
Christ, which God gave unto Him to show unto His servants things
which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it
by his angel unto his servant John. This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ which God gave unto him. Almighty God, the Godhead. Father, Son and Spirit. According to God's will and God's
counsel and God's purpose, a revelation was given unto Jesus
who is the Christ. Not as He is God, for as God
Almighty, nothing is given to Him. He is God Almighty. As man, He is given the revelation of
God's will and God's counsel and God's purpose to men. No one else is found worthy to
open the book of God's purpose of redemption for His people
except the Lord Jesus Christ. This revelation was a gift given to him and needful for
his office as the prophet. He made himself of no reputation because his people are partakers
of flesh and blood. He likewise partook of flesh
and blood. He humbled himself and made himself
of no reputation." Now, this is an amazing thought. He humbled himself. He was born in a stable. as a man, conceived by the Holy
Ghost in the womb of a virgin. The blood of Adam did not flow
in him. No transmission of guilt. He submitted himself to earthly
parents, Joseph and Mary. He Himself, the Scripture says
He increased in wisdom. That's not just written just
to kind of make it sound. The Scripture says He grew, increased
in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. He Himself, He studied the Scriptures, for in them He learned. And in those Scriptures, He believed
God by faith. He labored for bread. By the
sweat of his brow, he worked. He was a man. He was made sport of by scorners
and ridiculed. And how offended we
get, you know, because somebody doesn't agree with us on everything. And we read and we believe and
we bow to the Word that is set forth concerning this obedient
servant. This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ which God gave unto him. I mean, this is the God-man mediator. As Brother Scott says, As much
God as if he were never man and as much man as if he were never
God. Not half and half. Totally God,
totally man. Deity united with humanity. God Almighty. United with him who made himself
of no reputation, God gave him this revelation. And the scripture
says, and he showed it unto his servants, the things which must shortly
come to pass, signified it. Expressed it by
signs is what that means. By his angel who gave it to John. Now back in Revelation 22, 16,
listen to the words. He says, I, Jesus. We don't We don't speak to Him. Not a believer. A believer doesn't
refer to Him as Jesus. We speak of Him with respect. We speak of Him as the Lord Jesus
Christ. Jesus who is the Christ. He Himself says of Himself, I,
Jesus, sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the
churches. He who is exalted in glory bears the name of his humiliation
right now." He speaks of himself that way.
We bow. He who is the Savior of His people,
I Jesus, that's what it means, Savior, saves them from the penalty of
their sins by His death and saves them from the power of sin in
regeneration. And by His grace and mercy will
save them from the presence of it. I Jesus. have sent mine angel."
Only God sends angel. He made Him. The angel of His
creation. I have sent mine angel. You know,
angels were present at the giving of the law. We've studied that
in the book of Acts. We're going through and studying
it in Hebrews. Now, the angels. And you know
that Acts 7.53 says that angels were present at the giving of
the law. Acts 7.53, who have received the law by the disposition
of angels and have not kept it. They delivered what God required
them to deliver. But man didn't keep it. Now here
the scripture sets forth that his angel is sent with the message
of Christ who has fulfilled the law of God. Angels. Fellow servants to God's people. Angels. Look at 22, verse 9. Then said He unto me, this is
an angel speaking to John. Verse 8, I, John, saw these things
and heard them, and when I heard and seen, I fell down to worship
before the feet of the angel which showed me these things.
Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow
servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which
keep the sayings of this book. Worship God." This is a created
being that John is talking to. The created beings who are ministering
spirits, sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of
salvation. Angels that no doubt are here
right now. Angels that no doubt desire to
look into the glory of man's redemption. Soon in the book of Hebrews I'll
show you the Scripture that bears out that learn In the church,
they learn. That's how they learn. By hearing the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They stand amazed at the mercy
and grace of Almighty God. They desire to look into these
things. They look toward God's elect
and see the mercy of God toward them as careless as we are. And behold, God's mercy to those
that He has everlastingly loved. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel
to testify unto you these things in the churches. He said, I am the root and the
offspring of David. That is impossible except He
be God Almighty and man. Without Him being God and man,
you can't be the root and the offspring of David. To be the root of David means
that He is God Almighty, that He is the source of David's existence. He's the source of David's physical
life and spiritual life. I am the root of David. And everything
about David's eternal being is owing to him. I am the root of
David. David comes from me. That's what
he's saying. And he takes my mercy and my
power and my grace and my will. for David to have any hope of
eternal life. I am the root of David. Remember, the Lord Jesus Christ is Almighty
God. In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God. Proverbs 8, 22, I was ever before
Him. I was daily His delight before
He was ever physically brought into existence, before He was
openly manifested, before He was actually physically
joined to flesh and blood, He has always existed. I was ever
His delight. And his delight was with the
sons of men. The Lord Jesus Christ, ever before
the Father, ever rejoicing in the redemption of God's people. 1 Timothy 3.16 says, and without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. Number one, God was manifest
in the flesh. Great is the mystery. God manifested. Here is the next great mystery.
He was justified in the Spirit. That means shown to be God by
the Holy Spirit. That is what it means. The Spirit
of God revealed Him. Number three, He was seen of
angels. Angels watched Him, held Him, ministered to Him. His temptation in the wilderness
after the devil left Him, ministered to by His created beings. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He sweat, as it were, great drops
of blood. His soul. He said, My soul is
exceeding sorrowful. Here He was. Not the physical. As I said last week, the physical
duration. He did physically endure. No
doubt about that. But the exceeding sorrow of His
soul. You and I don't know anything
about that. See, we now as believers, We rejoice. We have no debt,
no guilt to answer for. The presence of sin, yes, is
there. And we grieve over the presence
of it. But the debt of it, an unbeliever
doesn't even consider that. They don't care about it. It's
a frivolous thing to them. Take it or leave it. No big deal.
But for a believer, the contemplation as he as he struggles to enter
in to the depth that the Lord has put away his guilt. And we
struggle with it because we don't know the depth of it. But he
knew the depth of it. And his soul was made an offering
for sin. He struggled. He struggled. He said, my soul is exceeding
sorrowful, dying to death. And the Scripture says, "...and
an angel came and strengthened him." There's a man struggling. And hear that same truth. The ministering spirits that
are sent to minister to those that shall be heirs of salvation.
He's a man. He said, for here, I'm the root.
He was seen of angels. He's preached on. Here's a great
mystery. Preached on unto the Gentiles. Preached unto the Gentiles. The
Jews. God Almighty loved the world. The order of man that every nation
and kindred and tribe and tongue, that there's a people that God
loves, that's everlastingly loved. And his purpose that they'll
never perish. Great mystery. Here's another great mystery
out of 1 Timothy 3.16, believed on in the world. That God gives some a heart to
believe Him. Man by nature, he doesn't believe
Him, doesn't care. Here's the last great mystery
in 1 Timothy 3.16. He was received up into glory. That Almighty God accepted that which His Son, He who was
united to flesh and blood, who right now at the right hand of Almighty
God, whatever the fullness of that means, God has accepted
him and he sits as our great high priest. He does not stand.
All the high priests in this world stood. They never sat down. They were never done. Our high
priest right now sits and ever liveth to make the intercession.
He was received up. He said, I'm the root. I'm the
root of David, I'm the source of David, God. But he also says,
I'm the offspring of David, born in the lineage of David. Listen to what Matthew 1.17 says,
So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations,
and from David until the carrying away in Babylon are 14 generations,
and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen
generations. So there was a lineage. He had
the right, he had the right by lineage to sit on the throne
in Israel. He had the right, the lineage
of David. God and man forever united in
the glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him, we have one that intercedes
for us right now. He who is touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, who is in all points tempted like as we
are, yet without sin. I dare say that there is one
here that would dare raise a thought if you know Him that would dare
to even insinuate that you have the ability to be tempted. Temptation
is not sin. He was tempted. But oh, how quickly
we yield. The man who obeyed God's law
and suffered its penalty for every one that the Father had
given him, he said, I'm the root and I'm the offspring of David.
And he said, and I'm the bright and morning star. The Lord Jesus Christ, it was
prophesied. Let me just read out of Numbers
24, 17. There shall come a star out of
Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite
the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheth. God's
Word is set forth that the star shall come. Israel looked for
Him. Light is His attribute. Light is His character. He said
in John 8, 12, it said, Then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth Me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Almighty
God is revealed in Him who is the light. Man by nature is in
darkness. Man thinks he sees. He thinks
he understands. He thinks he knows God. And the
Lord said in John 1.18, no man has seen God at any time save for what the Lord Jesus
Christ has set forth in these Scriptures. What can we know? How can we? Set forth, tell me
how, how would you know that before the foundation of the
world that Almighty God had everlastingly loved a people, that He chose
a people out of all the inhabitants of
the earth that would ever be in this earth, that God would
choose a people and set His affection on them because it pleased Him.
Not because of what he saw they would do. And I know how men
explain predestination away. They saw what God would do. No,
no, no, no, no. I mean, he saw what they would
do. And so therefore, he chose them. Well, that makes God's
choice based on man's works. And therefore, man will have
something to glory in. No, no. As I've said before,
the Scriptures does set forth. He did look. And he saw that
every imagination of the thought of man's heart was evil continually.
Every one of them. That there was none that did
good. Not one. None of them did good. So to say that God looked and
saw and chose because He saw is... That's made up. Somebody made
that up. It's not true. No. No, the Scripture sets forth
Almighty God chose according to His will. And He chose a people. And before
the foundation of the earth, eternally, everlastingly, He
everlastingly loved a people. Never been a time that He didn't
love His people in His Son. Not His elect. He loved them,
always loved them. I've always loved you. Why? Because He always saw the Lord
Jesus Christ as their surety. He always saw Him as their righteousness. He who was slain from the foundation
of the world, God's always been appeased for them. How would you know that? How would you know that salvation
is by grace and that you know it by faith?
How would you know that? He said, I'm the bright and morning
star. I'm the illumination. Bright, I'm the clarity. I'm
the clarity of God's purpose and God's pleasure and God's
will and God's love for His people and His Son. I'm the clarity
of that. I'm the morning star. The scripture
sets forth it was God that commanded light to shine out of darkness,
out of the darkness of unbelief. God commanded the light and to
shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He's the day star that
rises in your heart in regeneration. He's it. I know in this world we see through
a glass darkly, but in that glorious day, the glory of seeing Him in that day, whether that day
be by us passing through the valley of the shadow of death or whether that day be in His
glorious second coming. He is the bright and morning
star. shall be our eternal clarity. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know,
John says, that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we
shall see Him as He is. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel
to testify unto you these things in the churches. And by the grace
of God, that's what we do. That's what we do. We testify
of these things. I am the root and the offspring
of David, the bright and the morning star. May the Lord be
pleased to bless this Word to our heart and our understanding
and our comfort for His honor and for our good. and peace and
joy. Amen. Let's just take a break.