That's all right. Let's take
our Bibles and turn to Revelation 22. Revelation chapter 22. I'd like to look at verse 6 this
morning. I've entitled this, First Message,
The Faithful and True Sayings. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we thank You for
another morning that You've given us to be together, to look into
Your Word and to consider these things that are set forth that
gloriously display the wonder of who You are. We ask You to
bless the preaching and the hearing. these that have been mentioned
for Mike, for Bob, for my dad. Ask your blessing and mercy upon
them. And these things we ask in the
name of our precious Savior. Amen. Revelation 22. You know, the
foundation of God's people rests in his word. That which God Almighty
has said settles it. John had been shown in the last
few verses before the holy city, the New Jerusalem. And he had
heard these things from the mouth of God's spokesman, God's angel. And an angel was talking with
him. And we're going to find out the
surety of that in the next verse or two in the next service. But
this angel said to him concerning the New Jerusalem, in verse 6,
he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true. And the
Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his
servants the things which must shortly be done." Now, these
sayings that this angel related to John, not just the sayings
of the first few verses of chapter 22, not even just the sayings
of the whole book of Revelation that John had been given, but
the sayings of the entire Bible, these sayings, the thoughts,
the topics, the reasonings of the Word of God. The whole volume
has one saying. The whole book has one report. This is the report, ìWho hath
believed?î Thatís what Isaiah said, ìWho hath believed our
report?î The entire message of this book is concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the message. And the angel
said to John, these sayings, this report, this message, these
sayings are faithful and true. They are faithful. That is, they
are trustworthy. This angel was saying to John,
you can write this one down. You can believe this. They are trustworthy. They are
faithful. Why? Because He is faithful.
These are the reliable words of Almighty God because God is
reliable. His Word is reliable. His purpose
is reliable. His covenant is reliable. God
is reliable. Whatever God has said, It is! 1 Corinthians 1, 9 says,
God is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of
His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. God's Word is trustworthy. God's people, they find their
confidence in God's Word. This is what our Lord, our God,
has said, the final perseverance, the final steadfastness of God's
people is not founded on our strength to believe it, but is
founded that God Almighty has given His people a new heart,
a new creature. They are born again in that new
birth. possesses faith to believe. God has granted them. It's given
unto you to believe. Now, if God has promised to give
a people to His Son, and God's Word sets forth that God has
chosen a people before the foundation of the world. Now, that's what the Word of
God says. I've chosen, I've chosen you
unto salvation." That settles it. That settles it. Men say,
well, I don't see how that could... That settles it. God said, I
have chosen before the foundation of the world. When the Lord Jesus
Christ said, I lay down my life for the sheep, that settled it.
That settles it. He said, well, I thought he laid
down his life for everybody. He didn't say that. He said,
his word is faithful, is trustworthy. If God Almighty has given His
people, given His Son a people, and He has, to deliver them from
the bondage of sin and the certainty of condemnation, it's so, it's
so, it's so, it's just that ends it. It's over. God has said He's
done that. These sayings, this angel said,
they are faithful and they are true. That is, they're genuine. These are genuine. Write these
down. Faithful and true. The Lord Jesus
said in John 7, 28, Then cried Jesus in the temple as He taught,
saying, Ye both know Me, and ye know whence I am. And I am
not come of Myself, but He that sent Me is true, genuine, real. That's what it means. Ideal.
When the Lord said that He that sent Me is true, it means this. He's true to His promise. He's
true. When the Lord said, I will redeem
you, I will bring you to My Son, I will, it's genuine. He will. Almighty God is faithful
in truth. In the garden, when the Lord
God told the serpent, when God cursed him, and when God said
to that serpent, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, the
bride, and between thy seed and her seed, and it shall bruise
thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel, that's just exactly
what happened. God told the serpent, he says,
He's going to defeat you. You're going to bruise His heel,
but in the bruising of His heel, I'm going to redeem my people.
That was so faithful. Jesus said in John 6, verse 32,
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses
gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth
you the true bread. Faithful to His promise. Faithful. The real. The genuine. So the Lord Jesus Christ He is
the fulfillment and He is the fulfiller of all of God's promises. God's sayings are faithful and
true. So when John hears in Revelation
22, verse 6, these sayings are faithful and true, we are told,
all the Scriptures set forth Him who is reliable and genuine
in the fulfillment of all that He has purpose to do in the glorifying
of His Son and Himself in His Son and the redemption of His
people. It's so. Does God have a people? Yes, He does. How long has He
known them in mercy and grace? Eternally. How long has Almighty
God loved them? Everlastingly. What's He going
to do in time? He's going to call them out of
darkness. He's going to give them a new heart. And He's going
to teach them and tell them what He's done for them apart from
them adding anything to it. And they're going to believe
Him. This is what I did. I purposed
this. I shall accomplish it. Faithful
and true. These sayings are faithful and
true, number one, because they are God's breathed word. 2 Peter, just turn back a few
pages to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 19 to
21. 2 Peter 1 verse 19. We have also
a more sure word of prophecy. whereunto ye do well, that ye
take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place unto
the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts, knowing
this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private
interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost." We have a better foundation than
a man that was an eyewitness Peter, John, if these men would
have passed down just by word and conversation, said they was
there, and then somebody said, well, my dad was there, or my
granddad was there. We have a more sure word of prophecy. We have God's Word. We've got
the Word of Almighty God. You're sitting here and you're
looking at black ink on white paper. That's a printed page. I understand that. But that is
the inspired Word of God. That is God's Word, and it is
so. No Scripture is merely a man's
opinion. It is the revelation of the Lord
God Himself. And we search the Scriptures
not to attempt to prove God wrong. I tell you this, I did that.
I did it. I heard the first time, I told
you this last week, the first time I ever heard the gospel
of God's grace, the gospel of Christ. I took this Bible, brother
Scott, and I made up my mind. That is not so. That is not so. I went to Ephesians, and I went
to 2 Thessalonians, and I went here, and I went there, and the
more I looked, the more I saw. You know what? That's everywhere. That is so. How did I miss that?
How did I miss that? You show me in Scripture where
these things are not so. This went against everything
that I was ever taught. This went against everything
that was ingrained in me. And I realize, son, men are liars. And God's true. God's Word is
trustworthy. All Scripture, though written
by men's hands, They are totally inspired by Almighty God's Spirit,
God-breathed. These words are faithful and
true because these are the God-breathed words. Secondly, these sayings
are faithful and true because they speak totally of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Luke 24, 27, ìAnd beginning at
Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the
Scriptures the things concerning himself, when the Lord said,
I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life, since all
scriptures speak of him who is the truth, then these scriptures
are faithful and true. Oh, the respect that is due these
sayings, for Almighty God has set them forth. concerning his
Son. David said, I will worship in
Psalm 138 too, toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for
thy lovingkindness and for thy truth, for thou hast magnified
thy word above all thy name. Now you think about what he said. You have magnified your word
above all your name. What was he saying? We worship
God in God's way. That's the first thing we know.
We worship God, God's way. We worship in Christ. By Christ,
the living temple of the Godhead. We come to the Father, how? By
Him. No man comes to the Father but
by Me. We think that we can even pray.
You can't approach the Father Saved by the Son, the intercessor,
the umpire, the mediator. The umpire is what that word
actually comes down to. The umpire. He who places his
hands on both parties. Thou hast magnified, David said. You have made large, you have
honored, you have lifted up thy Word, you have magnified thy
Word above all your name." This means this, concerning all that
God has done in creation, all that God has done in providence,
David says, all that you've done, there is no revelation of Yourself
that is more clear, more esteemed, more honorable than Your Word. God created this world and He
sets forth Himself in power, in glory, that tree right there. But there is no setting forth
of Himself above His Word. He said, You've magnified Your
Word above all Your name. Everything You've done, And thirdly,
these sayings are faithful and true because nothing else that
you and I know anything about is going to endure. Matthew 24,
35 says, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall
not pass away. God's Word is faithful and true. Everything else that we know
anything about is going to be gone. Everything else is going
to pass away but the Word of God. God's Word. God's utterance. The earth and
the heavens that we've looked at, been painted with sin, is
going to be purged. And the Scripture says there
will be a new heaven and a new earth. But His Word will never
change. His Word endures. God's Word
shall not pass away. They will not be found to be
empty. They won't be found to be vain.
They won't be found to be unaccomplished. They're not going to pass away.
Oh, the grace and mercy of God that God brings a man or woman
down and grants them a heart to say, Lord, as You say, that's
the way it is. Lord, I'm a liar and You're the
truth. God, as You say it, I find all
my comfort, all my hope, all my peace in that. If God has
purposed to show mercy, He'll do it in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Word Himself, the Word that was made flesh. If He has declared judgment on
the wicked, He's going to judge that man by the rejected Savior. God leaves a man to Himself.
And that man stands up and says, ìI will not have that God that
youíre setting forth reign over me.î If you die with that attitude,
God will put you in hell, I promise you, based on His Word. Faithful
and true. ìAnd the Lord God of the holy
prophets sent His angel to show unto His servants the things
which must shortly be done.î Weíre in the last book. of this
book of Revelation, kind of about halfway down, kind of approaching
that. And here in this last book, we are told the very same thing
that the first verse said. The first verse of Revelation.
We started off, well, coming up here in February of Lord Terry's,
we will be in almost two years in this book. This is where we
started, Revelation 1.1. It is 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." Everything that we've
seen, everything we've read, everything we've considered has
said the same thing. Christ Himself, God's angel,
the angel of the covenant, God's messenger. God's messenger. God's angel. The One of whom
all the prophets of God spoke was sent to show unto His servants,
all of His people, the things which must surely be done. God has set forth the obedience
of His Son. God has set forth in the death
of His Son. God has set forth in the resurrection
of His Son, in the ascension of His Son, His purpose to redeem
his people. God Almighty has said that these
things must shortly come to pass. This life is but a vapor. David says, teach us to number
our days. I wonder why he didn't say our
years. Teach us to number our years.
No, he said teach us to number our days. for dying creatures. This life is passing away, and
these things must shortly come to pass, and they are going to
come to pass in their entirety. Be watchful, the Lord said, for
in such an hour, I didn't even say a day, in such a year, such
a month, in such an hour, when you think not, the Son of Man
cometh. These sayings are faithful and
true. And in the next few verses, we're
going to start looking at some of these sayings that God sets
forth that are faithful and true. The first one we'll look at in
the next few verses, Behold, I come quickly. He said that's
a faithful and true saying. All right. Well, we'll take just
a short break and then we'll have our second service.