And 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. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed
is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
And I, John, saw these things and heard them, When I had 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 These sayings it speaks of these
sayings. He said to me these sayings are
faithful and true The word sayings is logos. It means the word these
words It's the same word that's used in John 1 1 speaking of
Christ himself Which is very appropriate in the in the beginning
was the word and the word was with God and the word was God
that word word is logos and Translated sayings here John in here in
our text is referring to the scriptures of course, but Also
the Lord Jesus Christ is called the word Because the scriptures
are him in every way they tell of him. They're told by him They
come from him. They are the power of God to
draw sinners to him the point of them is him The goal the source, the subject, all of it's Christ. Even the word these is significant
in this text. These words, these sayings are
faithful and true. No others are, not in this sense. We live in a culture of lies
and liars. There's one anchor in a sea of
sinners whose first instinct is to tell a lie. First thing
they think of is how can I make this sound good for me? How can I say this in such a
way that I look good or that I benefit? Their first instinct
is not ever to tell the truth. And I say they, that's we, that's
all of us by nature. Let God be true that every man
a liar. But we have this one anchor. And that's just the truth in
the surface sense of the word. The truth being factual. That's
true too, there's nothing else entirely factual except the scriptures. But there's more to it than that.
These words are not only true in contrast to just about everything
else you hear or read, but they are the truth. Facts won't set you free, but
the truth will. That's the difference. People say, I hear them say that,
the truth will set you free. They're saying that regarding
something that's true, But when they do that, they've taken that
scripture out of its context. That's not what it's saying.
It's not saying true things will set you free. The truth shall
set you free. Christ is that truth, and his
gospel is that truth. It's these words, these sayings,
these words that are the words of eternal life. Simon said Lord to whom shall
we go thou hast the words of eternal life That's these sayings
It's these words that God has magnified above all of his name
It's these words that God has sent us to preach It's these
words that are the power of God and the salvation Paul said I'm
not ashamed of the gospel It's the power of God and the salvation
these words The son of God himself are synonymous in the language
of these words logos They refer to him that that word refers
to him and it also refers to the scriptures Same word He is
the logos. He is the truth as Are these
words? The ones that are able to make
you wise and the salvation I Listen to revelation 1911 if you want
to flip over just a page or two there revelation 1911 John said I saw heaven opened
and Behold a white horse and he that sat upon him was called
faithful and true interesting the same words not only the same
word refers to Christ in the beginning was the logos and But
also here, these logos are faithful and true. And those words, faithful
and true, are used concerning the Son of God. And in righteousness he doth
judge. He makes decisions. That's what
that word means. The judge, that word judging
means to decide. Everything that false religion
is about is anti-Christ. It's the opposite of the truth.
God has left salvation up to you. No, salvation's up to God,
not you. You need to do something for
God. No, God needs to do something for you. What are you gonna do with Jesus?
The question is, what's he gonna do with you? It's the opposite.
Everything's the opposite And this is no exception But listen to the rest of the
scripture here His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his
head were many crowns and he had a name written that no man
knew That he himself and he was clothed with a vesture dipped
in blood and his name is called the Word of God Now, these words are faithful
according to our text, and true. I have to read you, the word
true, listen to this, I want to read you the definition of
this word according to Strong's. When I say according to Strong,
Strong's Concordance, some of you will know that. It's the
Greek and Hebrew dictionary that gives us the original definition
of the Greek word, in this case, in the New Testament. But this
is the meaning of that word that's translated true here. It means
that which has not only the name and resemblance but the real
nature corresponding to the name. In other words, it's not just
saying something, it's being something. It's a big difference. These words are true. It's the actual nature of the
reality is revealed by these words. Now that's more than what happens
in casual conversation. Religion, for example, just one
example, they use the name grace all the time. It's grace this
and grace that and grace something else. But real grace, if you
want to know what grace is, don't listen to them talking. This is the real nature. of grace,
because it reveals the nature of the God of all grace. There's just saying the word
is one thing. Oh, we believe in grace, do you
now? Let's find out what the real nature of that is. Oh, wait
a minute, you don't believe in grace. You don't either, you're
wrong, you're lying about it, is what you're doing. And that's
just one, that's one word that's used in the gospel. But you see
the difference. This is the nature of what's
true, of what's true. It's God now, true grace is God
freely loving. He said, I will love them without
a cause. I will love them freely. It's not God giving sinners another
chance to do the right thing. God freely loving and saving
whom he will by his sovereign mercy in the blood of his son
Genuine real the opposite of uncertain That's that's part
of the definition the opposite of uncertain The word faithful These are faithful
and true. That word means trustee. That which you can, that which
can be relied upon. These are deep words. It's hard
to even express the meaning of. Do you need some, let me just,
let's just think as simply though, as a child about this. That's
real easy for me to do. Do you need something in this
world to rely on? That's stable, that's firm, that's
unmovable, that's dependable, that's trusty. Do you need something
like that in this world? Oh man. We don't like to think
about the fact that the things that we normally just are everyday
things that we trust in are not trusty. Human nature is not trusty. You
can't trust yourself. And we do, I know what you're
thinking. Well, you have to trust. Yeah,
I agree with that. You do, you have to trust, but
it's not the same thing. It's not the same thing. I wish
it was. I wish you could absolutely,
that we could absolutely just trust one another. It's hard to say a whole lot
about that because it's not what we want to think about. But I'll tell you one thing,
you can trust the Lord. I've told you this many times
over the years, but one thing that my dad told me one time,
a long time ago, it's always stuck with me. He said, Chris,
your mama and I, we may let you down, but the Lord will never
let you down. And that's something I've never
forgotten and I found to be true. Trustee, an anchor in the storm, a refuge
in the storm. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering. Think about that. That's exhortation. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering. For he is faithful. Let's be faithful because he is faithful. Let us
not waver in our profession of him, our confession of him, our
Testimony of Him, our trust of Him, our belief of Him. Let us
hold fast and not waver. Why? Not because we're trustee,
but because He is. For He is faithful, that promised. Isn't that beautiful? 1 John 1.9, if we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Well,
I don't even know what to make of that. If the Lord could be
perfectly faithful and just and put every one of us in hell right
now. But because of what Christ did on Calvary, He is faithful
and just to forgive, to forgive us our sins. and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. To be able to count on Him is
everything. Lamentations 3.22, it is of the
Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because His compassions
fail not. They are new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto
them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. Do you
hear that? Are you in the storm? Are you? Are you feeling the weight of
your own sin and cruelty and betrayal of this world somehow
or another? Whatever the burden, He's good
to those that wait on Him. Wait on Him. Wait on the Lord.
Seek Him. To the soul that seeketh Him,
come before Him and bear your heart. Seek unto Him. Make your
requests known unto the Lord and wait Say, I've given it to
you, Lord. I'm waiting on you. I depend
on you. Waiting is not just buying time.
It's depending on it. I'm waiting on you. I have no
other help. I have no other help. Nobody
else can do for me what I need but you. It is good that a man should
both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Quietly
wait. Why is it good to do that? Because he can be trusted. Trusting him is salvation. Salvation,
that's what it is. You can't rely upon your own
feelings. You cannot trust your feelings.
I know we do, but you can't. This is how I feel about it.
Well, that's hunky-dory, but you better trust the Lord. Can't rely upon what seems true
or fair to you, or right. You cannot rely upon just any
preacher that talks loud and has charisma. Especially that,
you better not trust them. If they speak not according to
the words of this prophecy, it's because there's no light from
God in them. You can't rely upon your works
or your decisions to satisfy God. You can't rely on anything
or anybody for what you truly need, but Him. Seek Him, wait on Him, call upon
Him, trust Him. I love this word faithful, because
think about this. Not only can I know that something
is true, one way and know something is true because it's the word
of God. But not only that, I can rest
my soul on it. Not only is the Lord Jesus Christ
who he said he is, the truth is true. in what he said about himself. But by his grace, I'm persuaded
that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. You see, I trust the truth of what he says, and I
trust him who said it. Faithful and true. Listen to what he said in John
13 37 turn over there with me. I don't think I've had you turn
once but look at John 13 37 John 13 37 Peter said unto him
Lord Why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy
sake. Peter's laying it on the line
here, isn't he? Joachim, I follow you. I want
to come with you. I'll lay down my life for you. Jesus answered him, wilt thou
lay down thy life for my sake? Now you put yourself here. Put
yourself here. You trust in yourself tonight?
Trust in your faithfulness to him? Trust in your faith? You
trust in your anything? Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice. Let not your heart be troubled.
You've never seen that verse until you've seen those two together,
have you? You just haven't. You just haven't. Everybody knows that verse. Everybody
knows about Simon denying the Lord three times and the Lord
telling the rooster's not gonna crow till you deny me three times,
but you've never read that verse until you read it with the next
one. Don't be scared, Simon. Don't
be troubled. Don't be disheartened. You won't do what you said you
will, but I will do what I say I will. So don't be troubled. Don't be troubled. You believe
in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will." Simon said, I will, I will lay down
my life. No, you won't Simon, but I will. I will come for you. I will save
you. I will prepare a place for you
in glory. I'll come again and receive you
unto myself that where I am there you may be also. That's glory.
That's glory. Consider the description given
in the last part of verse six. We may not get very far tonight.
I pray the Lord will speak to us. Look at the description given
in the last part of verse six. Lord God, 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, the first part of verse
six describes God's word. It's genuine. It's the real nature
of the truth. It's not just words like what
people say. This is the real nature. This
is the image that casts the shadow, not the shadow. This is the source
of all truth. It's faithful, it's trustee. You can rest your soul on what
God said. So that's talking, that's describing
the word itself. The last part describes what
God has accomplished by his word, what he did with it and his doing
with it. God sent somebody to tell his
servants what he said about what must be done. Think about this with me. How
shall anybody believe on him of whom they've not heard? And
how shall they hear without a messenger? That's what that word angel is.
Without a messenger. And how shall they preach? How
shall they deliver the message unless God sends them? This is
what God does with his word. He sends a preacher with him.
And notice that God, nor the preacher, not the preacher that
God sent now, Now false preachers deal in contingencies, don't
they? If you will, God will. God's preachers don't. They tell
you about what must take place, what must happen. There ain't
no contingencies. There ain't any, there's no wavering, there's
no, What's the word I'm looking for? There's nothing depending
on anything else. It's God doing what he wants
to do, which is save sinners the way he wants to do it, the
only way it could be done, by the blood of his son. And that's
what must happen. That's why there's a universe.
That's why there's churches. That's why there's us. That's
why this book. These are written that you might
believe and believing you might have life through his name. It's not contingencies, it's
not what if, it's not waiting on you, it's not dependent. I
think that's the word I'm looking, it's not dependent on anything.
It must, what must be done because God said he would. What will you do if you will
God? Well, that's not the message.
The gospel has nothing to do with what you do, or should do,
or might do, or wanna do, or will do. It's what God must do. Because he said it, he spoke. He said, I've spoken it, shall
I not do it? That's why it must be done. Because God promised
it. What must come to pass, is according
to what has already come to pass. Think about this, and everything
points to the cross. Everything that must happen,
that did happen, because it must happen in the Old Testament,
was because Christ was gonna die on the cross. And everything
that must happen now is because he did die on the cross. Everything
in this book of Revelation, what's it all about? Why is it happening? Because of Christ and what he
did on Calvary. Every bit of it. Every bit of
it. The condemnation of the wicked,
the salvation of the just in Christ. Everything we've seen, every
lesson, is because of what happened on Calvary. What must be done
is because of what was done. And always has been that way. Salvation is what God did and
is doing and will do. And it's a must, it's not an
if. It's never an if. Even in the
details of every single sinner that's saved, you think about
it. He said, I must needs go through
Samaria. He said to Nicodemus, you must
be born again. Every little detail of salvation
is a must. And religion still saying, God's
waiting on you to do something. Come on now. And notice that God's messengers
are sent to do what? To show. To show, not debate,
not put out some points that we can discuss, not argue with
anybody, not contend, not beat people over the head with the
law, Just show. God uses his Holy Spirit to take
the things of Christ and show them. That's what we do in an
earthly sense. We take the things of Christ
from his word and just show them. It said that Paul went into the
temples, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered.
If you look those words up, it means to set the table That's
all we're doing. We're just setting the food on
the table. We don't manipulate it. We didn't
fix it. We didn't provide it. We're just
setting it on the table. You see that word show there?
That's it. That's it. Look at verse seven. Maybe we
can look at verse seven for a little while. Behold, what a beautiful,
It's a beautiful promise. Behold, I come quickly. Have you ever been waiting and
waiting for something to happen? And you're thinking, man, it's
just not gonna happen. Of course, kids are like that.
There is no tomorrow for kids. Have you ever noticed that? Don't
tell them something's gonna happen. They don't wanna hear that. It's
gotta be right now or forget it. There is no tomorrow. And
we don't change a whole lot when we grow up. But you ever just been waiting
and waiting and waiting? It seems like never, it's never gonna
happen. And then it does, and you look back on it and you're
like, well, that wasn't really that long. I was just, what was I
thinking? That's what we're gonna think when the Lord comes back.
It really didn't take that, but there really wasn't. It was right
on time. He came right in the nick of
time. He always comes on time and does
everything he does right on time. Now consider this whole verse
though. He's not changing the subject here. You see what he's
been, what we've been talking about. He's still talking about
the prophecy of this book, the words, the sayings. That's the focus of everything. You go into places called churches
these days and it's music and programs and begging and entertaining
stories. Everything is all about this. We need to hear from God. We
need to know what God said. But look at what he's not changing.
He's going from talking about his word to talking about his
work. He refers now to his return to
this earth. Behold, I come quickly. He refers
to that, but in the same context of his word, the vital nature
of his word. The sayings of the prophecy of
this book, it's what he said there, concern the Lord Jesus
Christ and salvation in him. This book of Revelation and this
book of Holy Scripture all concern Christ and salvation in him.
What must shortly come to pass is ultimately the final result
of Calvary, which is the separation of the sheep from the goats.
And we've seen several descriptions of that in this book of Revelation.
The lake of fire and the entering in of God's loved ones into the
presence and favor of God. The song of the redeemed, worthy
is the lamb. And also the damnation of God's
enemies. We've seen all of that. That's
it, that's what happened at Calvary. One on his left hand and one
on his right hand. One died cursing his name and
one, by his grace, saw who he was and said, Lord, remember
me. Can you imagine looking at a bloody, broken, naked, shamed,
and disgraced man and saying, Lord, when you come into your
kingdom, remember me? The Lord showed him, didn't he?
He showed him who he is. Seeing that these things must
shortly come to pass, how vital, how appropriate this exhortation
to keep the sayings of this book, all of which are together, the
general message of all the sayings of the book are come to Christ,
look to Him, believe on Christ, Christ is salvation. You search
the scriptures, they testify of me. You won't come to me that
you might have life. These are written that you might
believe. And believing you might have
life through his name. But notice this, notice that
it doesn't say cursed are the ones who keep not the sayings
of this book. That's a blessing, isn't it?
Because this is not a threat. This is a comfort to God's sheep.
He's comforting his sheep, not threatening unbelievers. That's the nature of this whole
book. There are threats. There are warnings. There are
exhortations. But this whole book is written
to comfort those who are in Christ Jesus. You see how he says it? Blessed are you who believe.
Blessed are you. Blessed are they that mourn,
that are poor in their spirit. You remember what, I think it's
in the book of Luke, where all the things that shall come to
pass, and we studied that, and I forget which chapter it is
now, but we went through that, and all the terrible things that
are gonna happen. It's talking about blood everywhere,
and everything falling apart. But then it says, when this happens,
lift up your heads because your redemption draws nigh. Don't
look at what's going on in this world. Don't be threatened. Just look to your savior, your
redemption. This is your redemption happening.
It's part of it. It's all part of it. That's what
God's doing. All of it has to do with the
redemption of his sheep. Every bit of it. When you see what God has done
and what he is doing and what he must shortly do, there's only
one response. When false preachers talk about
what man needs to do to be saved, then man will be worshipped.
And they are. When true preachers preach that
salvation is of the Lord, the Lord is worshipped. John he got carried away in the
revelation of God's glory And saving sinners, and he fell down
before the angel If you think about The glory
of these revelations that are given to John he saw the lamb
Sitting on the throne He heard all of heaven singing worthy
is the lamb He saw everything worth seeing
by God's revealing grace. And he fell right there and started
worshiping, started worshiping that angel. I tell you what, I don't know if
I've been tempted to worship God's preachers before, but I
sure have been tempted to run up and just hug them and just, How beautiful are the feet? But
they're not that beautiful. You see what I'm saying? Yes,
we hear the gospel from somebody and we look up and we thank God
for them. My pastor in Texas was a great
blessing to me in every way. And I looked up to him, I respected
him, I thanked God for him. Not near as much as I should
have, but I did, by God's grace, love that man. And how beautiful
are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things.
But they're not that beautiful. Worship God. You see what he's
saying? Worship God. This is not the
only time that this happened in scripture. Listen to Acts
10.25, as Simon Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him. You remember when Cornelius asked
the Lord to send him a preacher? And the Lord gave those visions
to Simon. And anyway, Simon ended up going
there to his house. And there was a whole crowd there.
There was Cornelius' family and all of their neighbors and friends.
There was a great crowd there. And listen, Cornelius met him
and fell down at his feet and worshiped Simon. But Peter took
him up saying, stand up. I myself also am a man. And as
he talked with him, he went in and found many that were come
together and he preached the gospel to them. And the Lord
saved a whole bunch of them that day. Two things about this. How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings.
of good things. That's why Cornelius worshiped
Simon. Not in the sense, he knew Simon
wasn't the Messiah. He knew that Simon wasn't God.
It wasn't anything like that. He was just so thankful and delighted
that God had sent him a preacher, that he was overwhelmed. But
Simon said, no, get on up. Let's get up, you get up and
let's both go in and worship the one that's worthy to be worshiped.
And that's what every preacher will say. Now, here's the second
thing. No man that knows God will ever
allow anyone to think too highly of them. You're just not going
to do it. Nobody that knows God will ever
allow anyone to think too highly of them. They're just not going
to do it. But what will they do? What are you gonna do if you
know the Lord? Then saith he unto me, verse nine, 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. Everything we say, no matter what the title of the
message is, no matter what text it comes from, Everything we say in this place
should have this one goal and effect. Worship God. Christ is all. Worship God. God is holy. Worship God. Man is depraved and evil. Worship
God. God sent his son to be the propitiation
for the sins of his people. Worship God. You come here to
learn of Christ, you come here because the gospel is comforting
and reassuring to God's sheep. Never forget that coming here
is attributing worthiness to God. It's not us doing something
for God. It's Him doing something for
us. What a privilege. It's a public, formal acknowledging
that God is God, that everything you have came from Him and is
a gift of His grace. I say this to you all the time.
I know folks that I love some of my own family and Old
friends that I really care about still. And they're at a complete
loss as to why their lives are a disaster. And yet they have
no desire to worship God. Going to church now and worshiping
God are two different things. I'll tell you when you'll worship
though. to tell you when you'll worship. When God reveals something
to you of his sovereignty, you're not gonna worship at a throne,
a so-called throne of somebody that wants to do things but can't
or tries to or leaves his eternal purposes up to man. You're not
gonna be able to worship it. I'm sorry, you can call it that,
but you're not worshiping. He's gonna have to reveal who
he is now, he's God. He's God, be still and know that
I'm God. And when he reveals something
to you of his love for sinners in Christ, you're gonna worship
him. You're gonna worship him then.
In Christ crucified, here's why I say that, because in Christ
crucified, you will see all of the attributes of God Almighty
right there at the cross. and you will worship if God shows
you who he is and what he did for sinners. May God give us
all the blessed privilege to worship him all of our lives.
I hope we all sitting around here with our canes on the pew
beside us, you know, about to fall over. Even if half of you
fall asleep, let's just keep worshiping him together. Can
we do that? I would love to do that. I'd love to die right here
worshiping him. if he would permit it. I love
worshiping with you. Thank God for you. And pray that
he'll give us this privilege from now on. From now on, amen.