Chapter 22, the end of the Bible, the revelation here, it says,
the revelation of the Lord Jesus. As revealed to John, the Beloved,
banished on the Isle of Patmos, there he remained the rest of
his life. God told him to write this book. Difficult to understand. I certainly
am not an authority on it. But here is something that I
do kind of understand. In this sixteenth verse, it says,
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, the bright and the morning star. I am the root and the offspring
of David. He is a root which neither men
nor devils can touch. They cannot destroy Him. They
cannot dig Him up, for He's God. I am the root and the offspring
of David. He's saying, I'm the same yesterday,
today, and forever. I've changed not. I'm the root. He's the root of the believers.
both before and after His Incarnation. From Him, that is, from the Lord
Jesus Christ, the root of David. He says, I
am the root and offspring of David. And from Him, the root
of David, all believers come. All believers proceed from this
root. Over here in John chapter 15, he says this, I am the true vine. Remember
now, he said he is the root. I am the true vine, and my Father
is the Husband. ever branch in me that beareth
not fruit, he taketh away. And ever branch that beareth
fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more
fruit. Now you are clean through the
Word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me. Live in me, and I in you, as
the branch," remember now, he's the root and we're the branches,
"...abide in me, I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself." You can do nothing apart from Christ. You can't
even pray to the Father apart from Christ. You can do nothing
without me. Abide in me, and I in you, as
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in
the vine. No more can ye, except ye abide
in me. See, I am the vine, and ye are the branches. He that
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit. you can do nothing. If a man
abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered.
Men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done
unto you. A root. I am the root. A root is that
which the tree and the branches come from, is the root. A root
is a thing that is in the ground and cannot be seen or visible
to the mortal eye. Now, the divine nature of the
Lord Jesus Christ, which we Talk about a good bit. Saying that he is as much God
as if he was never man, and as much man as if he was never God. He is God and man in one person. He has a divine nature. He took upon himself our nature,
but yet he is deity. He has a divine nature. And the
divine nature is a hidden thing. It cannot be seen by mortal eyes. The only way it can be seen and
believed in is by revelation. Whom do men say that I am? Yes,
Peter. Men say this and men say that,
but he said, Peter, whom do you say that I am? He said, Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. That didn't come from Peter.
He said, Flesh and blood have not revealed this unto thee,
Peter, but my Father which is in heaven. So to be able to see
who the Lord Jesus Christ really is, the root of David, The root
is hidden to the visible eye. It only can be seen clearly and
it only can be understood as it's revealed to us that Christ
is God. I'm the vine and you're the branches. The branches draw their sustenance
from the vine. The vine gets its sustenance
from the root. And the root cannot be destroyed.
You can't dig it up, and you can't kill it. And the root is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Abide in Him. That's good advice,
isn't it? Abide in Him, and I'll abide
in you. Turn with me for a while here
this evening to the first book of Peter, and we'll talk about him who is worth talking about. Nothing
else in light of him is worth talking about. No name can be mentioned apart
from Him that has any value whatsoever. We cannot in our unworthy selves give Him the honor and the glory
that rightly belongs to Him. And here in this second chapter
of the book of 1 Peter, in this sixth verse, the writer,
which is Peter, upon this rock I will build my church, our Lord
said in regard to Peter. Upon this rock, upon the statement that Peter
made, He said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. He
said, Upon this rock. Not upon Peter. Peter was a mere
pebble, a rolling stone. But upon this rock, this immutable
rock that cannot be moved, upon this rock I will build my church. Peter says, Wherefore also it
is contained in the Scripture. It's in the Scripture. It's in
the written Word. It's that Word that become flesh. We who with our own hands handle
it in the Lord Jesus, the written Word. It is also contained in
the Scriptures, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
the main cornerstone, that stone which brings all the
other stones together, brings them intact. A chief cornerstone,
elect and precious. And he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded, not be confused. He that believeth
on him, the Christ of God, the second person of the Trinity,
the man called Jesus, the healer of the sick, the raiser of the
dead. the one and only, the bright
morning star, the fairest of ten thousand, the lily of the
valley, the bright morning star, the
apple of his eye, he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. And unto you, Peter said, unto you and I, therefore which
believe." We believe, don't we? We believe. The Bible says that
he that believeth not is condemned already, but he that believeth
is not condemned. It says there is no condemnation
to him that believeth. I believe. And that poor fellow
said, Lord, I believe. My unbelief. I believe. And I know you say the same thing.
I believe. I believe in Him whom God has
sent. I believe that He is all that God said He was. All that
the Scriptures reveal Him to be. I believe that He will do
everything He said He would do. I believe He cannot lie. I believe
he's faithful. I believe he'll never forsake
us. I believe. I believe that he's provided for the sinner who believes all
that the sinner needs. I believe that he's made the
sinner who believes acceptable in himself. before the throne
of God. I believe that the sinner who
believes in the Lord Jesus Christ shall never die, but shall fall asleep in Jesus,
I believe. I believe He is precious. And in my Bible there is a little
4 there beside the word precious. And in the reference column it
says, or an honor. Unto you therefore which believe
he is honorable, he is precious, he is honorable. Unto you who believe Christ is
precious, or rather, an honor. Christ is precious and honorable
in himself, in himself, by himself, alone. Christ is precious and
honorable in himself. And to them he saith, he saith
to them who honor me, I will honor. To those that believe,
he said, who honor Me, I will honor them. How will He honor us? Well, one way He'll honor us
that I know of and am sure of is by His spatial presence. He honors us. He honors every
believer with His presence, by His Spirit. the Holy Spirit,
Christ in you, the hope of glory, honorable. It is a special honor. Only those who believe have this
honor. Unto you who believe, he is precious
for his honor. He is honorable in himself. Now,
at the beginning, let's understand that we who believe have nothing
but Jesus Christ to make us honorable in His sight. Nothing else will make us honorable
in His sight. We might discover a cure for
cancer, but that will never make us honorable before God in Christ. They might be someone that will
come along, which nowadays the emphasis on the need of the world's
population is to find a cure for this awful disease of AIDS. They're talking about it and
all the commentators and newscasters, If you'll listen a little to
the newscast, sooner or later you'll hear them talking about
Africa. You'll hear them talking about
wanting to raise money and send various doctors and
nurses and scientists to Africa and to find a cure for this disease
of AIDS. I don't know why age is any more
important than any other disease that kills you, do you? I don't think that it ought to
have such great emphasis for, at least in my thinking, for
the way that this age is received. People are dying every day. It's a deadlocked cinch, that
it's appointed unto man once to die, and then to judgment. I don't hear anybody talking
about, well, let's get a contingence of sinus men to do away with
death. Futile attempt and effort. So
it is with AIDS. as far as I'm concerned, but
if you could find a cure for AIDS, this awful disease that
they say millions and millions of people in Africa have already
died from this disease and millions and millions and millions more
will die. And if you find a cure for that, would you be precious in the
eyes of God? No. Christ is precious in Himself and our preciousness is in Him. Understand here this evening
that we who believe have nothing, absolutely nothing but Christ
to make us precious in God's sight or honorable in God's sight. Did I say sometime previous to
this that the Lord Jesus Christ is the most important person
in heaven and in earth? Because He's precious, He's honorable,
He's God's beloved Son. Everything He ever said and everything
that He ever done or will do, God said, This is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. He's precious and honorable in
my sight. If he's all that great, it looks
like everyone wants to be connected with him, doesn't it? It looks
like every human soul, every human being that has a soul and
has ever heard the remotest language that describes him would would
cry and beg day and night to be somehow connected with him. Let's understand here in the
beginning that we who believe have nothing but Christ, nothing
but Christ to make us honorable in his sight. Well, now, in light
of that, as a sinner, And I speak of myself. I'm a sinner, a saved
sinner by the grace of God. But I'm a sinner. As I oftentimes
say by nature and by practice, I'm a sinner. By design I'm a
sinner. A sinner you are and I am in
the utmost disgrace in the court of heaven. A sinner is of the
utmost disgrace in the court of heaven unless he is wrapped
in the righteousness of the Lamb of God. Why are we such a disgrace? Because we rebelled against God. From the very outset at our birth,
we went astray from our mother's womb, speaking lies and hypocrisy,
indirect rebellion against heaven, a disgrace. That's a heavy word to lay upon
anybody. To say, your son or my son, your
wife or my wife, is a disgrace. You can't say anything lower
than that about another person. You're a disgrace. What other
word could you use to describe his demeanor as to say he's a
disgrace? I say you're bad. You say, well,
everybody's bad. I say, well, you're a sinner.
I say, well, everybody's a sinner. Well, if I say you're a disgrace,
you say, now, hold on. Hold on. Well, let's understand
that we who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ have nothing but
Christ to make us honorable in His sight. And as a sinner, you
and I are in the utmost disgrace in the court of heaven because
we are rebels against God. And we have no proper clothes.
whatsoever to appear in before him. Now, we put on our best
when we go to a wedding. Most put on the best they have
when they come to church. But you cannot put on your best
before God because your best is as filthy rag. your very best,
the apex of the height of your adorning clothes and that which
you add to your body. A rebel against God, no proper
clothing to appear in before him, you have nothing of your
own but filthy rags. I'm talking about myself. I don't
have anyone else in mind, not this person or that person. I
have this person in mind when I'm talking about appearing in
myself before God having filthy garments on, filthy rags which cannot hide
my nakedness from God, a sinner. I have nothing but fear and shame. That's all I've got. I've got
nothing that will stay me in good stead with God as a sinner,
unregenerate, far off from God, lost and without hope. have nothing of my own but filthy
rags which cannot hide my nakedness, nothing but fear and shame in
myself. Oh, but when a man has Christ,
when a man has the Lord Jesus Christ, he has everything. Nothing wanting. It's all there
in him. When you have Christ, Who is
our honor? Unto you, therefore, which believe. He's precious. He's honor. If
you've got Christ, you're honorable. You've got his honor. I'll tell you why. Because he
has dignified our nature. We fell in Adam. We lost ourselves
in Adam. But our Lord Jesus Christ came
and took upon himself our nature and dignified our nature. Never
sinned. Lived those thirty-some years
among men in this world, on this earth. Walked with them, talked
with them, sang with them, ate with them, drank with them. Never
sinned. Nature of the Lord Jesus Christ,
he took upon himself our nature apart from sin and dignified
that nature, pounded it down in the dirt, raised it up and
made it honorable. Dignified our nature by taking
it on himself, our nature. Christ in our flesh hath taken
from us the curse of our rebellion. The curse rested upon us because
we were lawbreakers and rebellious children. The curse of God was
upon us, but our Lord Jesus Christ came and took this curse of our
rebellion and brought for us a glorious righteousness for
us to appear before his Father's throne in. That's what he's done for us,
made us honor, made us accepted in himself, in his own honor. Well, what's he doing now for
us? Why, he ever lives on God's right
hand and he pleads our case! every hour of every day, every
time the soul of a believer cries out, whether it is audibly or
cries out in secret, it can be heard by man. It is heard by
God, our Lord Jesus Christ, though there be an innumerable company
of sheep in his vineyard, he is able to intercede for each
one as he pleads his case. Our Lord Jesus Christ takes up
our cause and pleads our case. He is our advocate. He is our pleader. He is our
reconciliation as well as our reconciler. He pleads our case
before us. He brings us to an honorable
relation to him by making us the children of God. God's children. Who are you? I'm a child of God. He makes us heirs and co-heirs
with himself. He brings us into a state of
adoption whereby we are made to cry out, Abba, Father. Honorable? He's our honor. Christ is everything. I can't
think of anything that He not is. He's all we know. So what honor? can be compared
to this. Such honor as he has, so do all
of his people, young or old. The honor that awaits you and
I when this honor is actually in reality and realized when
we're when we pass beyond this veil of time and tears and enter
into the real world, enter into eternity. This honor and this
glory, which is ours because of Him, will cause us to look
down with holy contempt upon all objects that are beneath. our beloved Savior, the Lord's
Christ. The Lord God assures us that
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Oh, the riches of the Lord Jesus
Christ. its riches, all it is we share
with it, unsearchable riches, inexhaustible treasures, is the
Lord Jesus Christ. When a soul puts on the righteousness
of Christ by faith, He lays aside his filthy rags. When the sinner who is laboring
under a smitten conscience, when his conscience is wounded and
cut, smitten by the Spirit of God, he lays aside his filthy rags
and he has no confidence in his filthy flesh, when he is stripped of all of
his hopes and all of his trust and all in respect of his own
righteousness, he will not seek another but
will be satisfied with the righteousness that God gives him in Christ. The righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ is a spiritual garment, and it fits every part of that
naked sinner. That naked sinner has nothing
whereby to commend himself to God, he's been stripped of that. He's made to know who he is.
All of his filthy garments have been pulled off of him and laid
at his feet. So this spiritual garment, it
fits every part of the believer. This garment is like, it's the
diadem and the crown that's on the head of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's a crown that's on our head. It's shoes for the feet, shoes
to cover our naked feet. It's a complete apparel. from
the bottom of our feet to the top of our head. And the soul
who has this garment on is the soul who comes naked to the Lord
Jesus Christ, giving up any trust and any hope that he had in himself,
lays himself bare before God. He's clothed from head to foot. with this wedding garment, he's
clothed and perfectly and completely clothed, has need of nothing, does not need even a band-aid
or a safety pin. This perfect and complete righteousness
or wedding garment, it's a complete apparel that
covers him all over, and it's proper for all seasons. It suits all occasions. There'll
never be a time, weather-wise or occasion-wise, that this apparel,
this garment, this righteousness that is freely charged to our
account because of Christ. It's proper for all seasons.
The soul that has this wedding garment suits all occasions. It's very light and it's very
pleasant to walk in. It's even good to fight in. because it's the soldier's gun
and every believer is a good soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ. It fits all sinners who believe. What a relief it is to my poor
soul that this business of, I must
do this and I must do that, I must attain to this realm. I must have this, I must do that,
I must think this, I must do that. To work up, to work up
something in me and for me that will take care of my soul when
I get to that. What good news it is to me that
all that come to the Lord Jesus Christ, He'll dress them with
an apparel that's fit for all seasons and occasions. It's light and easy to walk in,
and even good to fight in, for it's the soldier's gun. And it
fits the worst sinner out of hell, all who believe. It fits the beggar, as well as
the rich man. They all have the same garment,
but one garment doesn't cover them all. They each have a garment
and they're all alike. The beggar has one, the rich
man has one, the Jew has one, the Gentile has one, the male
has one, the female has one. This righteousness is a fit garment. for the souls of men. There is
no soul too big, there is no soul too little, none too small,
none too great, for His garment covers all. That's our honor
and that's our glory. It's all in Him. Worthy is the
land that Let's dance.