this letter at the very beginning
of it. I, John. And then he describes himself
in interesting terms. John said, I'm your brother.
I'm your brother. And that's, that's a blessing
to me. We're all brothers in Adam. But
the context shows that he's saying here, I'm your brother in Christ.
And this reminds me of several scriptures, Proverbs 4.20, where
Solomon said, my son, attend unto my words. John's fixing
to tell us about things that nobody else has ever seen at
that time on this earth, from this earth, and giving us a revelation
of the Lord Jesus. And it's always important when
you're studying the scripture to see who it is that's speaking,
and who they're speaking to, what they're talking about, and
the context of what they're saying. And this is John your brother.
Solomon said, my son, attend unto my words, incline thine
ear unto my saying. Paul wrote to Timothy in first
Timothy one, two, unto Timothy, my own son in the faith. He wasn't his biological son,
but really a son in a greater sense than that. My own son in the faith, grace,
mercy, peace from God, our Father, and Jesus Christ, our Lord. You
see, when you're speaking, when somebody's speaking to their
son, that's believable, isn't it? They want God's grace on
them. He said to Titus in Titus 1-4, he wrote this, to Titus,
my own son, after the common faith, grace and mercy and peace
from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. This is why the Lord has arranged
his church the way that he has in this world. You ever think
about that? You know, there are people I know that think that,
you know, pastors in church congregations and things like that are not
necessary anymore. The local church, it doesn't
mean, you know, we got the internet now and that type of thing. Our
Lord promised his people in Jeremiah 315 a long time ago, he said,
I'll give you pastors after my own heart. You're not gonna get
that on the internet. which shall feed you with knowledge
and understanding. The Lord said, feed my sheep,
and we do by his grace. What do you think he meant after
mine heart? I'm going to give you pastors
after my heart to do for you and to you, among you, what's
in my heart. That's pretty clear, isn't it?
And listen to this in connection with that. All right, your pastor,
a true pastor is gonna be one after God's heart to you. But
also, remember this, when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon
Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? And
he saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
And the Lord said to him, feed my lambs. feed my lamb. That's what happened. That's
what's going on when the gospel's preached. But the prerequisite
was what? And I hate to use that word,
but you know, you understand the context in which I'm saying
that. First, this has to be established.
Do you love me? So it's two things, isn't it?
Pretty clearly. Do you love the folks you're preaching to? And
do you love the Lord? There's nothing wrong with what
we call evangelism. You know, an evangelist, You
know, all preachers have done some of that. You travel to places
and you preach sometimes to complete strangers. I've preached to people
I've never met before. And sometimes the people you
just really barely know. And there's nothing wrong with
that at times. And the internet has its uses. I use it all the
time, every day. I use it for the gospel, every
day. But listen to me, God has and
always will give his sheep pastors. That's not going out of style.
And here's, here's who you want to listen to. Here's who you
always want to listen to. And everybody's listening to
somebody. Nobody's just shut up to themselves. And you know,
I know we all think we know everything, but we give ourselves away, don't
we? Because everybody's listening
to somebody. Here's who you want to listen to. Somebody that loves
God and somebody that loves you. That may be apparent. Maybe a
brother in Christ, maybe your pastor. But if that's not true of your
pastor, you don't have a pastor. They don't have to be great speakers,
I'm glad. They don't have to have winning
personalities, I'm glad. But they got to love God. If
you love me, feed my lambs. It's kind of hard to forget that
as a pastor. And they have to love you. They're
going to be somebody after his heart. You see how they said,
my brother, my son, I'm your brother. You're my son in the
faith. John said also this, I'm your
companion. I'm your fellow worshiper, I'm
your fellow laborer. Paul used that word quite a bit,
your fellow laborers with us in the gospel. We have this in
common. And there's several things he
mentions here. I'm your companion in these things,
trials. The trials that accompany faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't suffer in the same ways
that some suffered back in this day. John, for example, was exiled
from society. on the Isle of Patmos. That'd
be a horrible thing. Can you imagine that? When Elijah thought he was the
only believer left, he said, Lord, take me now. When he didn't
have anybody to fellowship with, nobody to worship with, let's
get this done. I totally understand that. We're companions also in the
kingdom. What does he mean by that? Well,
we're all bowing to the Lord, aren't we? We're all bowing to
the king. We all acknowledge the king.
We all serve the king. Nobody, it's not about us, is
it? That's important now. We're companions
in the kingdom. It's not a competition. It's
a kingdom. In a competition, you're trying
to find out, you know, who's the greatest. We already know
who the greatest is. And it ain't you. It ain't me.
We're companions in the kingdom. That's beautiful now. And in
the patience or the steadfastness of Christ. What does that mean?
Well, are you going anywhere? I'm not either. I'm not going
anywhere. Are you? Steadfast. To whom would we go? He has the words of eternal life. I can't listen to a false gospel.
Can you? It makes me sick. And that's
grace now. That's grace. If it wasn't for
his grace, I'd be eating it up just like everybody else. But
by his grace, it makes me sick at my stomach. And we're together
in that. Where are we gonna go? He said
this next, I was in the isle that is called Patmos for the
word of God. The reason I'm exiled is because
of the message that I preach. That's a true innocence, isn't
it, of God's preachers. They're not welcome in this world.
You know, every once in a while, one of God's preachers will have
an opportunity to preach to some folks that don't know the gospel. And sometimes it's a one and
only, a one and done. This world doesn't have any tolerance
for the truth. And that's what he's saying here
for the word of God. There wasn't any other reason, they didn't
have anything against John personally, they had something against his
Lord. Remember the Lord said, it's
for my sake, they're gonna hate you for my sake. The other apostles
and many had been killed for preaching the gospel, but John
was banished from society on this island called Patmos. I
looked it up, I think it's in the Aegean Sea, wherever that
is. People hate the truth. That island
is way out there if you look at it on a map. They didn't want
nothing to do. They didn't ever want to hear
from him again. People hate all truth. Have you
noticed that? Anything that's true is usually
hated by most people. It doesn't even matter if it's
important or not. This world's gone crazy, hasn't it? It's crazy.
But especially the truth. But he was there for another
reason also. Look what he said. I was there
for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Now he may be saying that this
is the reason too that people banished him. He may be sort
of repeating it in a little different way. Because I testified of Jesus
Christ, I'm banished to this island. But really he already
said that. He said for the word of God,
for preaching the word of God. And if you consider verse two,
look at verse two. who bear record of the word of
God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that
he saw. So he's talking about what he did on this island. It
was given to John, signified it by his angel, verse one, at
the end of verse one, unto his servant John. And John bear record
of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and
of all things that he saw. So it kinda, it looks a whole
lot like what he's saying is this. This world exiled me because
they hate God's word, but God brought me here as a witness
to see some things and to tell you about them. Wow. Think about this now. First of
all, what better place to hear from God and get a revelation
from God than away from people that hate him? They said, we're going to punish
you, John. But now John's like, well, the Lord's with me. Do you want to be with people
that hate God anyway? You know, that's kind of what
we do here. We get away from this God-hating, blasphemous,
and evil world, not because we're better than them, but because
of God's grace, that causes us to want to hear
from God. You're not going to hear about
Him in this world. You're not going to hear from God. We don't have any fellowship
with this world. Two can't walk together until they be agreed.
What fellowship hath Christ with Bilal? What concord hath light
and dark? We want to hear from God. We
want to worship Him. They don't. They don't. Anybody's welcome
here that'll sit down and listen and not be a disruption of some
kind. But this world, you know, Paul
said, because of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, he said,
God forbid that I should glory, saving Christ and what he did
on Calvary. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And then he added this, by whom this world is dead to me and
I to the world. Because of Christ and what he
did, this world is dead to me. I came here, part of the reason
was to get out of this world for a little while. It's a refuge,
isn't it? And even from our own sin, we forget about our selfish
pursuits in this world for a little while. It's even a refuge from
ourselves to think on things above and not on things on the
earth. It's good to get away in it for
a little while not just physically but spiritually mentally and
spiritually and Then John said this in verse 10. I was in the
spirit on the Lord's day And heard behind me a great voice
As of a trumpet Well, there's a lot in that verse right there.
I It's amazing how much is in that word. Look at this. Hated,
banished, alone. There wasn't any pretty music
playing. I like pretty music. I enjoy pretty music. There wasn't
none of that. There wasn't no beautiful building
that he could come into. And I enjoy our beautiful building. I really do. Thank God for it.
But what is necessary for worship? Here he is in the middle of nowhere
on an island by himself, and he was in the spirit on the Lord's
day, and he heard from God. You know what's necessary for
worship? God has to show up. And I know that sounds like a
flippant way to say it. I don't mean that in a disrespectful
way. You understand, I'm just trying to be plain about it,
just plain about it. God's got to show up, and that's
about it. I guarantee you, if he comes here tonight, you'll
worship him. If you hear his voice tonight, you'll worship
him. I guarantee you that. Whatever else happens now, God
has to show up. And it was the Lord's day. The Sabbath day now is already
fulfilled at this time. Most people say this was Sunday.
That was the day that the first day of the week we see in the
New Testament that the disciples and the apostles met together
to worship the Lord after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But listen, the Sabbath is already
fulfilled, and they all know that. Paul talked that clearly,
didn't he? Don't let anybody put a yoke
of bondage on you with regard to Sabbaths and holy days and
things like that. Christ has fulfilled all of that.
The Sabbath day, the Sabbath has to do with rest, and Christ
is our rest. He's our Sabbath. We rest completely
in him now. But God still has a day. Isn't
that interesting? Sabbath already been fulfilled,
but John said, it was the Lord's day. There's always been a day
where God's people, it's scheduled. Everybody knows in advance, we're
gonna meet together on this day, at this time, in this place,
and we're gonna worship God. It's always been like that. You
go way back to when God delivered the Israelites from Egypt. There was a holy convocation,
that means a gathering. And they worshiped God. We still
do, by his grace. By his grace now. Now we know
that every day is the Lord's day. This is the day David said,
this is a day the Lord's made. Let's rejoice and be glad. Is
there any day you couldn't say that? This is the day that the
Lord has made. Let's rejoice and be glad in
it. The Lord made the day, he made
everything in it. He made everybody that participates
in it. He made every purpose that's
gonna be fulfilled in it. He made everything about it. And so we can rejoice because
he does all things well and be glad in it. I've had some bad
days, but for a believer, our worst day is a good day. Your
worst day in Christ is still a pretty good day. John couldn't be with the ones
that he normally worshipped with anymore, and I'm sure that was
a sorrow to him. I'm sure he would rather have
gathered as in days past in his life with those that he loved
and that he called his brothers and sisters and whatever local church that he worshipped
in. But I tell you this, he was in the spirit and wherever God's
people worship. You ever heard the phrase, I
was with you in spirit? You know, that's in the scriptures and
not just here. He was with them in spirit. And listen, this is what happens
when the Lord meets with his people. And it's interesting,
this is not in my notes, but I thought about this, you know,
John said, I turned. You know, he was in the spirit
on the Lord's day, and so God had already blessed him just
to be where he was, and all of this is ordained, and the Lord's
gonna speak to John and show him some unbelievable things. But you know, John had to turn
around. God had to speak to him, and
he had to turn around. John was looking the wrong direction.
He was looking at the whatever he was looking at was not right,
was not where he needed to be looking. And there's something
to that. Even when we prepare And even
when we come in a worshipful way, we should come hungry, shouldn't
we? I've heard people say this, and
I believe it's important. You should be preparing for worship
the day before, the night before. Don't drag in here with half
a brain and try to worship God. There's something to that now.
But listen, it doesn't matter what we do. If God don't speak,
we're not gonna see anything. You see that? He had to turn
around and look and see what God's saying. And we're gonna
have to too. He's gonna have to speak to us
now. We're not gonna see anything. John would have been looking
at, who knows, the sunrise or something, unless God spoke. Now he's looking at what God
wants him to see. And this is what happens now
when the Lord meets with his people, I heard a great voice.
You know, you may just hear a great voice tonight and I'm not talking
about mine. I'm not talking about mine. You
know what I'm saying? I heard a great voice. I'm a voice now.
I'm a voice. Like John Baptist said, I'm a
voice crying in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths. God uses the voice of men, but
this great voice is not my voice. It's not the voice of any man.
And as I speak and preach, what you need to hear is a great voice.
That's the way the Lord speaks now. He does speak through men,
but he's got to speak. He doesn't speak audibly. You're
not gonna hear it with these ears now. You're gonna hear it
by faith, with the ear of faith. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. That's not talking about these
ears. He said, my sheep hear my voice.
If you are one of Christ's sheep, then you have heard his voice,
though he's been gone from this earth for 2,000 years physically. Are you one of his sheep? You've
heard his voice. When was that? Was it in a dream?
Was it at the grocery store? No, it's when his gospel's preached
in the worship of God, like with John, like with John. And we hear from God in the gospel,
we're spoken to by Christ spiritually when his gospel is preached.
And you know, the Lord speaks in different ways to different
people at different times. Sometimes it's a word of rebuke,
isn't it? The scriptures are profitable for doctrine, for
reproof. for instruction in righteousness.
Sometimes it's a patient teaching, you know, something that I should
have learned 30 years ago and I'm still too stupid to know
it. And the Lord's patient in me and kind to teach. Sometimes you need to be knocked
upside your head and the Lord knows how to do that too. And
Nebuchadnezzar said, he knows how to bring you down when he
gets good and ready. He spoke to Elijah with a still,
small voice. That's a beautiful passage of
scripture. You remember that? There was an earthquake, and
it says the Lord was not in that earthquake. What's that talking
about? That's interesting, isn't it?
And then there was like a hurricane, a tornado, I believe, a great
wind, so that the rocks themselves were shaken, but the Lord wasn't
in the wind. And then there was a fire, I
guess a forest fire had started and raged through that area where
Elijah was at, or maybe it was a supernatural fire from heaven,
like God sent down to consume the sacrifice that Elijah offered
by God's design and will. But I know this, the Lord wasn't
in the fire either, but after the fire, a still small voice,
and then Elijah knew something then, he knew something. And
here it's a trumpet. It's a great voice as of a trumpet. You know, I don't know how the
Lord will speak to any one of us or if he will at any given
time, but here's what I know. He can speak any way he wants
to. He'll do it any way he wants to, and I'll tell you this, you
want to hear it when he does, however he does, whether it's
rebuke or whether it's gentle, comforting. And I'll tell you this about
it too. He speaks how he wants to. He speaks how you need him
to. And here's the second thing about that. If he speaks to you, you fix him to hear from God.
He don't try. You know, people, I've heard
people say, well, you know, I just think God is trying to tell me
something. No, he's not. If you're ever thinking that,
I think God might be trying to tell me something. Forget it.
He don't try. He just don't, does he? God's
ever spoken to you, you know that, don't you? You know, when I know God has
spoken here, this is a blessing to me. One of you, after the
message is preached, one of you will say to me, that was such
a blessing, and I can tell you mean it. Sometimes you can tell
somebody just saying it, you know, or you can't tell for sure,
but you know what I'm saying. Sometimes I can tell you mean
it, and I say, that's the Lord. I can't bless you. I can't bless
your heart. You know, if somebody sneezes
and somebody says, bless you, what does that mean? Oh, I'm
blessed now, thank you. Thank you for blessing me, for
sneezing. I needed, you know, I don't know, I guess they thought
the sneeze was gonna kill me or something and they needed
to bless me real quick to, you know, and I know people mean
well, but that's kind of stupid, isn't it? Bless you. Somebody will say, when the gospel's
preached, that was such a comfort. to my heart. That's the Lord. I know you've heard that great
voice. You've heard that still, small voice. You've heard from
God. Somebody will say this, Chris,
that was so clear. I've never seen that was so clear.
I can't reveal anything to you. And so that's a blessing to my
heart because I know the Lord. The Lord did that. Now, if he
hadn't shown it to me, I couldn't say it to you. And if he hadn't
shown it to you, you wouldn't have been blessed by the preaching,
even if I knew what I was talking about. He had to show it to both
of us, didn't he? He had to bless us both. And
I'm thankful that he does. We hear from him, and that's
a blessing. A trumpet has a piercing and unmistakable sound. It's a piercing sound. The Word
of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword. And when God speaks, again, you don't have to wonder if He's
trying to tell you, even if it's a still, small voice. He'll say it how He wants to.
He'll say it when He wants to to you. He knows when to speak
to you. He knows what to say to you.
He knows what part of the message you need, and maybe all of it,
maybe part of it, especially. He knows everything about us.
He knows how you need to hear it, whether you need rebuke or
whether you need comfort or both, sometimes both, in the same hour,
both. He knows, doesn't he? He knows. And I'll tell you this now, He'll
say it how you need it. However you, whatever you need
to hear, when you need to hear it, how you need to hear it,
that's what'll happen. You know why? Because he loves
you. Remember that. He loves you. He loves you. If he's talking to you like this
now, he loves you. If he's speaking to you now,
before that last day, he loves you. And look at what he said. He said, I am Alpha and Omega. The first and the last. You remember when John said that
in verse eight? Look at verse eight. I am Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord. That's
John saying, here's what God said. I'm Alpha and Omega. John said, this is what the Lord
said. You know how John knew what to
say? And you know why he said the Lord said that? Because the
Lord said that. He said, well, that's kind of
obvious, that's kind of elementary, you know, why even mention that?
Preachers say a whole lot of things God didn't say, that's
why. But if God, here's a man saying, I'm your brother, I've
got something you need to hear. And it ain't my opinion. It ain't
my deductions. It ain't what I figured out.
It ain't look how smart I am. It's not my education. It's what
God said, plain and simple. You don't need a college degree
to hear from God and tell somebody what God said. You don't need
a blackboard. You just need to hear from God.
And you need a for, you need the Lord to speak through you.
And that's exactly what happened. And listen, we talked about this,
he's the beginning of everything. What does that mean, I'm alpha,
the first letter of the Greek alphabet, which is what this
is written in, and the last letter of the Greek alphabet, alpha
and omega. In other words, I'm the first
and the last, that's what he said after that, I'm the first
and the last, the beginning and the ending. The beginning of
what? Tell me what he's not the beginning
of. He's the beginning of everything. And he's the end. He's the goal,
he's the purpose, and he's where we're all gonna wind up. He has
the keys even of hell. If you're in hell, it's because
he put you there. He's the end. He's the author of faith, he's
the finisher of faith. Salvation began when he promised
to be our surety in the eternal covenant of grace, and salvation
will end if it can even be said to have an end when we're just
like him and with him. Alpha and omega. Boy, that's it, isn't it? That's
what this is all about. That's what I want. the ultimate
goal. Like him, with him. He's the end. And he was the
beginning of that. You know what else this is saying
though? When he says, I'm the beginning and the end, not only
is he the source and the purpose of everything, but all in between,
everything in between, the beginning and the end, is all Him too.
It's all Him too. The reason the sun came up this
morning, this morning, is Him. Because He did it and because
He wanted to do it. Because it was His power that
accomplished it and it was His purpose that desired it. Everything God requires of a
sinner is Him. In other words, everything that's
relevant What you need to know is who God is, what you are,
and how God can be just and justify a sinner. You know the answer?
Christ. He's everything in between. Everything
God requires of a sinner is Christ. Everything else is done, Paul
said, it is. Everything you need is Him. And understand now, it's not
just that he gives you everything you need, he is everything you
need. Of God are you in Christ who has made unto us everything
we need. All right, well God said to him,
listen, what you see, write in a book. We're in what, verse
11 now. What you see, write it in a book. I'm about to show you some things. And he said, what I show you,
write it down in a book and send it to the churches. Isn't that
amazing? Write it down, and we have that
book in front of us tonight. Is that amazing to you? Written sometime around the end
of the first century, some say 92 to 96, AD, something around there. They say that John was in his
90s when he wrote this. But sometime around the end of
the, how many books do we have that were written in? And what do we need? If there
was one, would you want to read it? It wouldn't be worth reading,
would it? God spoke to the apostle John.
I don't really know how to even put perspective on this. God
spoke to John 1920 some odd years ago on an island in the Aegean
Sea. And God told him to write down
everything I show you. And we're reading what he wrote
tonight. That's a miracle. It's just a
miracle. Think about this. Who is it that
gets to read what God has to say to sinners? The churches. Send it to the churches. He didn't
say declare it to the world, although we're to go into all
the world and preach the gospel, but give it to the churches.
That's significant. Here's the thing, the whole world
has Bibles. Just about everybody in the world
has seen a Bible and read it and have it in their own language
now. But God said, send it to the churches because he wanted
the churches, his true people, his sheep to know it. And they're
gonna tell it to everybody that'll listen. But if somebody listens
to what's spoken in his church and they hear it and they hear
the gospel, they come to Christ, then they're the church. So it's
his churches. He wants his sheep to know these
things. So he said, write them down and
send it to them. Who is it that knows it? His
people. Remember what he said to the
disciples in Matthew 13, 11. He answered and said unto them,
it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of heaven, but to them it's not given. John, write it down and
send it to the churches. And what I say, he didn't say,
tell it to the world. I'm not saying that this is done
in a corner. You know that that's not right. Everybody knows, like
we said Sunday, everybody's looked at the cross, everybody. But
what did they see? Who did they see? Somebody to
feel sorry for, somebody to make fun of, or somebody to hate.
or the king. That old thief that had wasted
and been a wretch his whole life saw the king. It wasn't done in a corner, but
if you're a stranger to God's church now, if you are a stranger
to God's church, you're a stranger to God. Think about that for
a minute. Somebody listen to this on the
internet. God speaks in his churches now. Always has. Always has. God does it this way for a reason.
Pastors. And bless God for what John saw. Look what John saw in verse 12.
He said, I turned to see the voice. Does that sound strange
to you? I turned to see the voice. How do you see a voice? I turned
to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned, I saw seven
golden candlesticks. What does a voice look like?
Well, when God is speaking, it looks like a candlestick. Now listen, we don't have to
speculate about what these candlesticks are. Look at verse 20. the mystery
of the seven stars, and we're gonna see the stars a little
later, but which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven
golden candlesticks, the seven stars are the angels or the messengers
of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou
sawest are the seven churches. What does God's voice look like?
It looks like a church. It just does, y'all, it just
does. I wouldn't say that if God didn't say that. He said, I saw the churches,
they were candlesticks. Why does a church look like a
candlestick? Remember what the Lord said in Matthew 5, 14. You're
the light of the world. You're the light of the world.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. You see what I'm
saying? There's this thing isn't done
in a corner. It's a candlestick. Everybody in the house is gonna
have light. and yet it's to the churches.
That's the way God speaks to sinners. And neither do men light a candle
and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick. And it giveth light unto all
that are in the house. Are you in the house? You are not in physical form,
but are you in? And there may be some that hear
this that aren't even physically in the house, much less spiritually. We are the light of the world
in that sense that we are the candlestick. What does a candlestick
do? A candlestick don't have any
light, but it can sure hold it up. By God's grace now, there's
no candlestick without God. He says in this book, I'll take
it away if I want to. But he's given a candlestick
now, and the candlestick holds up the light. Who's the candle?
The actual source of the light. A candlestick holds up the light,
it sets forth the light, it acts in such a way that the light
is not hidden, as we just read. And in that sense, you can call
it a light. But look at the next verse in
our text, verse 13. And in the midst of the seven
candlesticks, one like unto the son of man, there's the light.
That's what the candlesticks are holding up. That's what's
being declared. That's what the voice is all
about. Right there. Think with me for
a minute. Think about this scene. Picture
John and what he heard and what he saw, what he did, he turned.
When God spoke, he turned, may we do that when God speaks? I
wanna look, don't you only hear? That ought to get our attention.
It got John's attention now. He said, I've turned to see the
voice. That don't even make sense, does
it? If you think in just physical
terms. Well, what did he see? He saw
candlesticks. He turned to see a voice and
he saw candlesticks. That's the voice. But what sound
does a candlestick make? He heard something. What did
he hear? He heard a candlestick. But there
was somebody in the middle of that candlestick. That's who
he heard from. But he turned and saw that candlestick.
It sounds like mixed metaphors, doesn't it? Unless the Lord gives
us some spiritual understanding here. Consider a few wonderful
truths here in closing in this verse. When John turned to see
the voice, he saw a light source. He saw an instrument of light.
And this is what David said. I ought to have you turn, but
listen to this carefully. Psalm 119, 103. I want to read
some of the context of the verse that came to my mind when I was
looking at this. Listen to what David said now
in Psalm 119, 103. How sweet are your words to my
taste? How sweet are they? Yea, sweeter
than honey to my mouth. Through thy precepts, I get understanding. That's how I know anything, is
through what God said. Isn't that beautiful? That's
just the truth, isn't it? Therefore, because you told me some things,
because you've taught me, because you spoke to me, because of your
word, I hate every false way. That's what we just talked about.
We can't even hear a false gospel, can we? I turn it on, and sometimes
I say, I'm gonna listen to this message just to see what people
are saying. I listen to it for two minutes and I can't stand
it anymore. I can't listen to it. And I'm not bragging, that's
the grace of God now. That's God's grace. I hate every
false way. Christ is the way. The way. And then look at the next verse,
105. Thy word is a lamp. I heard a voice, I turned, and
there was a lamp. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet
and a light unto my path. That's how I know everything.
That's how I've rejected everything I was, Paul, Philippians chapter
three, and everything I knew, everything I've ever done. I
hate every false way, and that's what I am by nature. I've seen
you with my eye, now I abhor myself. In every false way. That's how though, because the
light came on. I'm telling you now, he emphasizes
in this verse, in our text now in Revelation 1, he emphasizes,
you know, the scripture says, does he need to emphasize it
any more than this? He loved the church and gave himself for
it. He emphasizes the church. The
first thing John saw, you might think the first thing he'd see
is the Son of Man. Well, he did, but he saw the candlestick with
the Son of Man in the middle of it. That's how he saw Christ,
was in the church. Don't miss that. And he said,
here's what I'm saying to you. I'm gonna show you some things.
And you tell the church, you write it down. For what? For
the church. You see why John said, I heard
a voice and then turned to see the voice and saw a light. The
light was a person and he spoke and the candlestick is what holds
up the light. The light was a voice, not just physical light, but
it does everything in a spiritual sense that physical light does
in a physical sense. I can see. I can see. And that voice, the one that
spoke, looked like the son of man. Oh my. He looked like the son,
thank God. He's the son of God, but he looks
like the son of man. He looks like me. It behooved him that he may liken
to his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest for them in things pertaining to God, that he might have somewhat
to offer that God would accept, so that he might accept my soul. What good is a fig tree without
any figs on it? The Lord cursed it, didn't he?
And what good is a candlestick without any light? What good
is a candlestick? It's the most worthless thing
in the world, isn't it, without a candle on it? It's by the candlestick that
the voice is heard, that the voice goes forth, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save. them that believe and
we preach Christ that's who we preach that's what we preach
that's how we preach Christ and let me say that another way to
try to make it as clear as I possibly can John heard a voice before
he was even looking the right way he heard a voice he turned
to see the voice and he saw the candlestick but whose voice was
it it wasn't the preacher's voice It was the Son of God. And thank God for this. Where
is Christ? He's in the middle of his church,
right in the middle. I like that. I don't even know
what it means, but I like it. Do you know what that means?
The middle? Why in the middle? I don't know. But I'll tell you
this. It says the lamb is in the midst of his throne. Whatever
sense he's in the middle of his throne. In that sense, he's in
the middle of us. I like that. The King of kings and Lord of
lords is in the midst of his throne, but also where two or
three are gathered together in my name, there am I, where? In the midst of them. That's
what John saw. He saw the promise of Christ
fulfilled. And it always is where his people
are gathered. There wouldn't be much to this
without that truth, would there? Just a candlestick at a garage
sale somewhere. Broken candlestick. But I'll
tell you this, I'll say this though, they're golden candlesticks. Gold comes from the earth. And
the church is made up of people. But beautiful, So beautiful y'all
are beautiful to me And here's the thing it's not actual gold
That makes them beautiful. This is a spiritual picture The
church is not beautiful because we have golden candlesticks,
you know and golden and everything We could gold plate this table
down there. Let's take up an offering And put some fancy gold stuff,
you know, right no we are to Christ and Gold. More precious than gold, he said.
He'll try your faith, which is much more precious to him than
gold. But what else are we gonna use?
We have to have earthly pictures, don't we, to see things, spiritual
things. But it's not actual gold. Religion
thinks that actual gold will make a church beautiful. That's
the most ugly thing. False religion is the ugliest
thing in this world. Oh, it's nasty, isn't it? It's
so nasty. You see that Pope on there blessing
people and saying things like it's the word of God. That is
the most disgusting thing on this earth, period. I don't even
have to think about it. That is the nastiest thing on
this earth. Antichrist. But through his comeliness, his
church is beautiful. He gave himself for it now. Not
because we're worth anything by nature, but because we're
worth something to him. Why would somebody completely
worthless be worth something valuable, priceless even, to
you? Because you love him, that's
why. You ever had a worthless dog
that you wouldn't take anything for? Ezekiel 16, 8. Turn over there with me. Well,
I've gone too long. Write it down and read this tonight.
This is the golden candlestick now. He said, I passed by you. I looked on you. Your time was
the time of love. And I spread my skirt over you.
I covered your nakedness. I entered into a covenant with
you. I swore unto you. You became mine. That's what
I sang last Sunday, wasn't it? The Lord became mine. I became
his. The Lord is mine and I'm his.
And then I washed you, I washed away your blood from you, I anointed
you, I clothed you, I shod you, I girded you, I covered you,
I decked you, I put bracelets on you, a chain on your neck,
I put a jewel, earrings, I'm skipping a lot. But he said,
I put a beautiful crown on my head and you were decked with
gold and silver. Now raiment was a fine linen
and silk embroidered work. And listen, in verse 14 of that
chapter, Ezekiel 16, it says this, thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness,
which I had put upon you, not my comeliness which you had attained
unto, but I put it on you. That's the gospel. It's salvation
of the Lord now. He put it on you. We made fig
leaves, you know, but never, how long is that gonna, it never
covered us to God, but even we wouldn't have been happy with
that long. But God put something on him
now that pictured his only begotten
son giving himself for sinners. Think about this now. Salvation
is for a sinner to be beautiful, sinless, holy, well-pleasing,
successful, effectual through his glory. And that word, my
comeliness, I looked that up and this is interesting. I just
wanna close with a few thoughts on that real quick. That word comeliness
means glory, splendor, and majesty. His glory is the cross. When he was betrayed, he said,
now is the son of man glorified. When he prayed his high priestly
prayer in John 17, he said, glorify father, glorify me that I might
glorify you. That's the cross now. That's
his comeliness, isn't it? And then so glory, splendor.
His splendor is his gorgeous appearance. He's altogether lovely. Solomon sang that, didn't he?
He's altogether lovely. And his majesty, we know what
that is, don't we? That's his sovereignty. And so
if you consider those in reverse order, because he purposed it,
because of who he is, and because of what he did, I'm beautiful
to God. Through his comeliness. I'm saved. I'm ransomed. Because of those
three things, because of his comeliness, his majesty, and
his splendor, and his glory, the Lord says to me, well done
thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over
a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter
thou into the joy of thy Lord. And we will because of him. Let's
pray.