Revelation 1 for John To the
seven churches which are in Asia Grace Be unto you and peace from
him Which is and which was and which is to come and from the
seven spirits which are before His throne Now John in this fourth
verse signs this book. He's the author of it, John the
Apostle. And we see, we saw and see now in verses one and two
how it is that John has authority to sign this book. Why would
we read anything John wrote? Well, as we saw in verse one,
this is the, revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, which God
gave unto him. God gave it to his son, to the
Lord, to give. You understand that as a man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, he's God. He was, is, and always will be
God. But as a man, he was given a work to do, a message to preach,
revelation to proclaim, and he did. And this is part of that. And these are the things that
God has determined to reveal to sinners. Everything God has
for you is in Christ. It's of Christ, it's by Christ,
it's through Christ. And what I mean, those are not
just words. It's of him in the sense that he speaks to us Through
by Christ of he hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
son But it's also concerns Christ Christ is telling us about himself
and I say it's through him because Without him we don't get anything
from God We there's no access to God at all except by me he
said no man cometh to the father And it's because of Christ God
wouldn't have any desire to speak to us, unless he loved us, and
his love is in Christ. So it's just when we say of,
by, through, those aren't just words. And he committed these
things to his son, and it says that the angel, his angel, delivered
them to his servant, which is John, and the messenger delivered
them John and we see that angel speaking to John throughout this
book, but we know that all of it came from Through that means
an angel angel just means messenger as we said in our first study, but listen,
now he's committed unto the son the things that he has seen fit
to reveal to sinners, and we know that they concern him. Listen
to what the Lord said in Luke 10, 22 about that. All things
are deliberate to me of my father. He said that the works that I
do, my father sent me to do them, the things that I say, what I've
seen with my father, that I declare unto you, all things are delivered
to me of my father, and no man knoweth who the son is but the
father, and who the father is but the son. And, I'm thankful
for this part, and he to whom the son will reveal him, Nobody
knows who the father is, nobody knows who the son is unless the
son reveals God to you. And that's what we're talking
about, he's doing it through John. In this case, he did so
through Paul and others in the scripture. When we know, and
listen, if you think about that verse, Luke 10, 22, when we know
what they know, he started out by saying nobody knows us but
us. Nobody knows the father but the son and nobody knows the
son but the father. But when he reveals them to us and we
know what they know, what do we know? Who they are. That's
what we know. That's what he reveals. Who Christ
is, what he did, which we saw is the same thing. What he does
is what it is because of who he is. And because of who he
is, he does what he does. People say, well, the Lord didn't
have to show mercy. He did on somebody because he
is mercy. He didn't have to show you mercy
until he said, I will. Now he's got to. I'll have mercy
on whom I will. Are you one of them? Then he's
got to have mercy on you. But not until he didn't have
to pick you. Then messengers are sent, preachers,
prophets in the past and teachers to declare that same message. He said in the great commission,
the things I've committed to you, even so you preach to them
and whoever believes you, I'll save them. And everybody that
God desires to reveal it to, there's a messenger sent. Now,
if God sends a messenger somewhere, I just suspect he's got a sheep
there somewhere. And I tell you this, if he don't,
then there ain't no sheep there. He sends a messenger every time
he speaks. Faith comes by hearing, it always
has. Now John is one of those servants, and so he writes this
book with the authority of God. under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit of God. Listen to 2 Timothy 3.14. I'm
gonna have you turn to some scripture, and you can certainly, if you
turn fast, as soon as I announce these, go ahead, but I wanna
kinda read this to you. But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing
of whom thou hast learned them. And he ain't talking about Paul.
This is Paul writing to Timothy. Remember who taught you. And
that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures. which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. Remember, why are these written?
That you might believe through faith and that believing you
might have life. Salvation through faith which
is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness. You remember in Jeremiah, when
he said, I don't sin, my word doesn't return to me void. It's
like the rain that falls from heaven. It accomplishes its purpose
and then it goes back up, but not until it accomplishes its
purpose. It gives life. So is my word, which comes down
from heaven. It is profitable. And here's
how he qualified that. Will prosper in the thing whereto
I sent it He sent it to save some and to
condemn others and it'll do it every time in every case exactly
what he sent it to do So the one saying these things
ultimately is God Through John But who is he saying him to that's
in our text here to the churches under the churches the seven
churches now. I There are specific churches
named later, the church at Thyatira and so on, the church at Philadelphia. There are specific, but these
are representative of all of the churches of God throughout
the world. They all, we all make up one
church. You know, there's one family,
there's one body. Christ is the head and his church is the body. And the word church means a gathering
of citizens called from their homes into some public place
and assembly. You've been called from your
home tonight to a public place to assemble. And so the word
church doesn't, it doesn't define us any more than that, but the
word is used in this sense. He said where two or three are
assembled in my name, there I am. Now it's church in the sense
the scripture uses it. All who gather in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ wherever they are throughout all ages
is his church and these seven churches of course are chosen
and spoken to, messages are given to John for them and I guarantee
you every thing that God had to say to all seven of those
churches, and he said quite a bit to every one of them. Every bit
of it applies to this church right here. Every bit of it.
Now the first word that God gave his son, you see how all of this
before has been an introduction. But now, John said, the Lord
sent me to say something to you. It's gonna be a revelation of
his son. I've got a message for you that's gonna be a revelation
of his son, and here's the word. He sent me to say to you, grace. That's a good start, isn't it?
Oh, that's a good start. There is only church because
of grace. By grace are you saved through
faith. And importantly here now, grace
is not a one-time thing. You see that here? Well, don't
we have the grace? Aren't we saved by his grace
already? Yeah, and John said, I've got a message from God for
you tonight. You know what it is? Grace to you, grace be to
you. You need it tonight just as bad
as you did the first night you saw him. Turn with me to James chapter
four. Let's talk about that for a minute. We need grace all the time, don't
we? James chapter four, verse one.
Listen to the dark language in the beginning of this chapter
now. James four, verse one. He's speaking to a specific church
here and he said, from whence come wars and fighting among
you? Why is it that way? Why, where
did that come from? Came they not hence even of your
lusts that war in your memory? Isn't it because of your sin?
Isn't that the problem? It's not so and so, it's not
this, oh boy, if they hadn't done that. It's you, it's you,
it's me, it's us, it's our sin. You lust and have not, you kill
and desire to have and cannot obtain, you fight and war, yet
you have not because you just don't bow to God and just say,
God, I need this from you. We just struggle, don't we? We
struggle and we fight and we... We try to work it out ourselves,
don't we? He said, ask anything in my name
and my father will give it to you. And you say, well, wait
a minute, Chris, we don't just get everything we ask and I always
say what? No, it's better than that. It's
better than you getting everything you ask for. He gives you everything
you ask for that's good for you. And if it's not, He don't. You
see how that's better, right? That's way better than just everything
we ask for. You know, the Lord just does
it. It's way better than that. It's way better than having three
wishes. Rubbing the lamp and a genie comes out. This is a
whole lot better than that. You can't mess this up. And boy, we would, wouldn't we?
We'd mess it, we'd ruin ourselves. You ask, verse three, you do
ask, but you receive not because you ask amiss, that you may consume
it upon your lust. That's why he doesn't give us
everything we ask for. It's way better, isn't it? You
adulterers and adulteresses. Boy, he's really railing on them
here, isn't he? Well, you know what? When he's speaking, when
John is speaking to these churches, a message from God, Some of it's
tough. We're gonna see some tough language
in the book of Revelation. But listen, look at this. You
adulterers, don't you know that the friendship of the world is
enmity with God? Don't you understand that? Whosoever
therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
And that just means don't be caught up in the things that
this world is caught up in and don't act like them. You're acting
like them. You remember in, I believe it's
in Corinthians where Paul said, are you not carnal? You're behaving
as though you didn't even know the Lord Jesus. That's what he's
talking about here. Do you think that the scripture
saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? You see how he's, what a scolding
he's given him. Don't you hear the scriptures?
That's the way the Lord scolded, wasn't it? Don't you understand
that the scripture doesn't say that in vain? So James describes some terrible
problems in this church he's writing to, in the words, as
I said, to the seven churches. There's some terrible, in times
you're gonna say, I wonder why this is even called a church
at all. Here's why. The next verse, but
he giveth more grace. That's why. You see the language
of those first five verses? But he giveth more grace. You're a bunch of adulterers,
you worthless wretches, don't you even know what God said?
But he giveth more grace. We need it tonight as bad as
we ever have in our lives. Wherefore he saith God resisteth
the proud, but he giveth grace to the humble. Let's take our
place before him and just ask. You know, you've got to humiliate
yourself to ask, don't you? You've got to admit there is
absolutely nothing that I can do to get what I need. God, help
me. Help me. We're not to sin. The scriptures
are clear that we're not to sin so that grace may abound, but
you know what happens when we sin? Grace abounds. That's what
happens. Grace cannot be motivation for
our sin, but his grace once bestowed is boundless And knowing that what do we have
what's the next word peace I Guarantee you if you if you ever realize
that you cannot mess this up That he giveth more grace He
gives you the grace that you need when you need it, and he
gives you more and more he never runs out of And you never quit
needing it. You never need less. You always
need more. He don't give less grace, he
gives more grace. Why? Because you need more grace.
That's how much you need, more. Me too. Me too. But then, if we ever
understand that, what peace that gives. These two are inseparable,
aren't they? Without grace, there can't be
any peace. But I'll tell you this, By His
grace, there has to be peace. You can't have grace without
peace. You can't have peace without grace. But you can't possibly
have grace without it giving you peace. And if there is peace, I guarantee
you there's grace. That's the only way it's gonna
happen. There's no peace anywhere else except in Him. There only is peace because of
grace. He made peace by the blood of his cross, a quiet conscience. Peace, there's different types
of peace. There's outward turmoil and fighting and wars and just
feuds and things like that. But there's also the kind of
peace that I find myself more often than anything else needing
and longing for and crying out for is peace down in here. peace
in my heart, peace in my conscience. And I'll tell you this, a quiet
conscience is not one that doesn't find any guilt in us. It just
ain't. A quiet conscience is one that
doesn't find any guilt in him and sees me in him. Even my own conscience cannot
lay anything to my charge. Because it is God that justifies,
and it is Christ that died. He made peace by the blood of
his cross. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. And it doesn't say there that,
it doesn't say it the other way around because God's always been
at peace with us. Why? That same blood, the eternal
blood of God's son. But we were born enmity, hating
God, spitting in his face. We nailed him to the cross. That's
how we feel about God. But boy, that blood that was
shed there, he made peace by that. We throw down when he reveals
Christ crucified to us and in us, we throw down arms. We bow before Him. We pledge
our allegiance to Him. Commit ourselves to Him. We swear fealty to Him. We're His from that time on because of the peace that He
made in here by the blood of that cross. Peace with God. You're
not going to have peace with anybody or anything else until
you have peace with God. But that blood and that peace
is yours by grace. So you see how inseparable they
are. He didn't make peace for everybody. Do you have peace? That's grace. Because not everybody
has peace with God, nor ever will. Not everybody ever will. Grace and peace. What a beautiful
word from God. And I believe that we are to
take that as a word from God tonight. This isn't a word that
John gave, I don't know how many thousand years ago. This is the
word of God to us tonight. Grace be to you and peace from
him. From him. Now next here we're given a thorough
and a comforting reminder of who this message is from. God
the Father is described as him which is and which was and which
is to come. The Holy Spirit of God is described
as the seven spirits which are before the throne. You see how
spirits is capitalized? because that signifies the Holy
Spirit, and we'll talk about that. And then this is from Jesus
Christ also, the Son of God. And so the way the three persons
of the God here are described here, all three are involved
in sending this message to us. And how they're described here
is significant to the message and how we are to receive it.
God the Father, first of all, is described in his eternality. He is the eternal I am. Is, was,
is to come, I am. There is no tense in our language. There's past, present, and future.
There is no tense that includes and encompasses all of those,
but if there was, that would be the word I would use here,
because he is the I am. He is. And we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ uses that same title it was Christ that spoke to Moses
from the burning bush, but of course he's He's also called
the everlasting father, so don't don't misunderstand that we're
talking about one God one essential God is one God one in essence
he's co-essential co-eternal and co-equal with the father
the son is and But at different times, they're described in a
way that emphasizes one attribute or another or one office or another
of that person of the Godhead for a specific reason in the
context of the passage. But here, the father, the eternality,
God is. You must believe that God is
and that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And
eternality always includes immutability. Who he is is who he was, and
who he will be is who he is. And who he was is who he will
be. He is, always, he doesn't change. Immutability, he does
not change. He said, I'm the Lord, I change
not. People have written hundreds of books on that. I am the Lord,
I change not. I like that version. That's not hard to understand,
is it? It's hard to grasp because we don't know anything or anybody
that doesn't change except him. Who are you gonna compare him
to? What does it have to do with
me, though? Why do I need to know that this message of grace
and peace tonight and the revelation of Jesus Christ by those things,
why do I need to know that that's from the eternal, immutable God?
Well, I got one simple reason for you, Malachi 3.6. I am the
Lord, I change not. Let me read the rest of that
verse. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. You're
not gonna go to hell tonight if you know Christ, because God
is immutable. You ever think about that? If
I was God, sometimes we speculate about that, not for very long,
because it's depressing, isn't it? For you, especially. Most
of y'all would be okay tonight, if I was God. Most of y'all would
be fine. Maybe not everybody. but it wouldn't be long till
every one of you'd be in hell sooner or later. You understand
that? And if you were God, it would
be the same. Thankfully, God's not like me.
God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. He knew everything about us,
past, present, and future, when he gave himself for us. He loved
us that much, knowing everything about us. And even if he didn't,
he don't change. It's attribute upon attribute
is in our favor in the person of God. Christ died much more
than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from
wrath through him. For if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more
being reconciled now, we shall be saved by his life. That's encouraging. Oh, he'll
never let me go now. If he was going to put me in
hell, he would have done it now, wouldn't he? Or he would have
left me alone. He never would have... Was it Manoah's wife
that said he wouldn't have blessed us like this if he intended to
kill us? Was that who it was? Isn't that beautiful? That's
pretty sound reasoning, isn't it? That's pretty sound reasoning. He wouldn't have revealed his
son to me and in me if he intended to let me go. And listen carefully now, this
is key. If God reveals his son to you,
and I always add an in you because that's what Paul said. He said,
would it please God he revealed his son in me. And I want to
speak in the language of scripture as much as I can. If God has
revealed, if he reveals his son to you and his message to you
right now, this is a revelation of Jesus Christ. If you've received
that revelation and you know who he is and what he did and
why he did it and where he is now, and you hear this message
of grace right now, grace and peace from him, then tomorrow,
do you know what his message to you will be tomorrow too?
Grace. He don't change. The message
don't change. He don't give up. He don't quit.
He don't take back what he gives. He giveth more grace. He giveth
more and more and more. Peace. It'll be grace and peace,
which are only in Christ. It'll be Christ, won't it? It'll
always be Christ. When God gave hope to Adam and
Eve in the garden, you remember, pronounced judgment on them,
but then gave them hope. You know how he did it? The woman's
seed will crush the serpent's head. He did it by Christ, didn't he?
And he slew innocent animals and put the coats of skins upon
them, signifying that our guilt and shame and sin before God
can only be covered through the shedding of innocent blood. So
he comforted them that way. And in this last book of the
Bible, He's still comforting his church
with grace and peace by a revelation of Jesus Christ. Nothing and
no one can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus, our Lord, because his love is who he is now. He is love. And that's why his
love is immutable, just like his person. It's who he is. Immutable eternal and so when
he When he says great when John tells us this is from him And we see that it's the eternal
father that he's talking about Then we can rest assured that
grace and peace are forever ours in Christ If you're saved by grace through
faith in Christ and and you know that tonight, then don't try
to earn His favor tomorrow. Why would you do that? You already
have it in His Son. But we do, don't we? We forget.
Don't be discouraged when you fail. You've always failed. That's
why He sent His Son down here to save you, to do what you couldn't
do. Look to Him whom God is looking
to. The Father looks to Him and not
you. So you look to him and not you. By God's grace, may we do
that. God doesn't look to you and neither
should you. He never has and he never will. Now, if this is
a revelation of Jesus Christ, then of course, it's also from
the Holy Spirit because we know from the Lord himself, that's
what the Spirit does. Remember that? We'll read it
in a minute. But let me say this, these are not seven different
spirits with seven different messages going out in different
directions. The word seven, we'll see a lot
in the book of Revelation, signifies completion or perfection. And
it's clear that it does, and so these are not seven different
spirits, but it shows that the Holy Spirit, every believer is perfectly,
Saved by the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit himself is perfect.
The number of perfection. Listen to John 16, 12. I have
yet many things to say unto you. This is the Lord speaking to
his disciples just before he left this earth, just before
he went to Calvary. I have yet many things to say
unto you, but you cannot bear them now. How be it when he,
the Spirit of truth, has come? He will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself. Preachers are always talking
about the Holy Spirit, that's not from God. Now we preach the
Holy Spirit in that he's revealed in the book, but the message
is not come to the Holy Spirit, come get the Holy Spirit, come,
you know, let's, you know, Invoke the Holy Spirit to come and do
this, that. The Spirit speaks of Christ. So if that Spirit
is in you and you're preaching by that Spirit, what are you
gonna talk about? Listen, he shall not speak of himself, but
whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. And he will show
you things to come. And in this book of Revelation,
some of those things. He shall glorify me. This is
the Son of God speaking. He's gonna glorify me. For he
shall receive of mine and shall show it. Revelation, the revelation
of Jesus Christ. He's gonna show it to you. All things that the Father hath
are mine, therefore I said that he shall take of mine. and shall
show it unto you." So he's not excluding the father there. All
things that the father hath are mine. It's the same. If you've
seen me, you've seen the father. And so I just said, mine. He'll
take the things of mine, which is also the father's. You see
why he said that? And shall show it unto you, unto
you. So the spirit, of course, This
message is from him, isn't it, too? It's from all the persons.
The seven spirits are said to be before the throne also for
a reason. The spirit is sovereign in his
workings. Remember the Lord's message to
John, to Nicodemus, I'm sorry, in John 3a, the wind bloweth
where it listeth, where it wills, where it desires, where it purposes. And thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth.
So is every one that's born of the Spirit. If you're born of
the Spirit, it's because the Spirit went where he wanted to
go and gave life. He went to that valley full of
exceeding dry, dead bones one time, and he gave life to those
bones. Can these bones live if the Spirit
comes where they can? And the message of Christ is
also from Christ himself, of course. Remember what we read
a minute ago, Luke 10, 22, all things are delivered to me of
my father, and no man knoweth who the son is but the father,
and who the father is but the son, and he to whom the son. You don't know the son or the
father unless the son reveals. And of course, as we've already
quoted, God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son,
Hebrews 1, 2. And this description of the Lord
Jesus identifies him as prophet, priest, and king. So we see all
three persons of the Godhead. And when it gets to the son,
it describes him and his three offices as prophet, priest, and
king. Look at that with me. And it's
just a detailed way of saying that Christ is all in the saving
of a sinner. He's all. If a sinner is to be
saved, he's got to hear from God. Who's gonna do that? Well,
the prophet. prophet, preacher, same thing,
a spokesman of God. Although a prophet was different
in a sense, but in this sense, we're talking about someone to
speak for God, someone to tell what God said. And so he is the
great prophet. The Lord said, Moses wrote of
me. Moses was a prophet and God said
to Moses, I'm gonna raise up a prophet like you. And in many
ways, Moses is a type of Christ. Abraham, the Lord said, saw my
day and was glad Isaiah identified him, didn't he? All through the
book of Isaiah. He's the man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. He's the one that Brother Jimmy
read about a minute ago. He's the son, he's the child
born, but the son given. His name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince
of peace. All of the prophets gave witness
of him, but Christ is the faithful witness, the prophet that God
told Moses, I'm gonna raise up a prophet like you, and my people
are gonna hear him, sure enough. Everybody he delivers the message
to, effectually, will hear. He's the faithful, he's the perfect,
that word faithful means perfect, steadfast, reliable. It means
trustee, trustee witness. So who better to tell you who
Christ is than Christ? Christ preached Christ, he proclaimed
who he is, didn't he? I and my father are one, if you've
seen me, You've seen the father. He declared plainly who he is.
He said, I'm the door. I'm access to God. I'm the bread.
I'm the bread of life. Except you eat the flesh and
drink the blood of the son of man, you have no life in you.
I'm the vine and you're the branches. He declared who he is. He's the
one thing needful. He declared that. He also proclaimed
what he did. He said, I'm come to seek and
to save. He didn't come to be an example
just by virtue of who he is. He's an example, of course. But
he didn't just come just to give people an example, to show people
how to live. He came to give life to those
who are dead in trespasses and sins. He said, of all that the
Father gave me, I'm not going to lose any of them. That's what
he came to do. He came to give himself a ransom
for many. This is the will of him that
sent me, John 6, 38 through 40, that of all that he's given me,
I should lose nothing but raise him up again at the last day.
And he told us why he did it too, didn't he? How precious. John 14, let not your heart be
troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Trust me. Trust me, believe what
I say to you. 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. I'm not going to make
a bunch of places available to whoever is good enough, makes
good enough decisions to get. He told, he speaks to his disciples,
his people. The one that he said, these are
my mother and my brethren and my sister. The ones that sit
at his feet and hear his word. His disciples, his sheep, his
elect. I go to prepare a place for you. This is my body which is broken
for you. Not everybody. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I'll come again and receive you. If he sheds his
precious blood for you, He's gonna have you. It don't just
give you a shot if Christ dies for you. It gives you everything. It gives you, if he went and
if he did what he did on Calvary for you, then he said, I'm coming
back for you. Of course he is, he bought you. Lock, stock and
barrel. He's gonna have you. And receive you unto myself that
where I am. This is where I'm going, and
this is why I'm coming back, so that where I am, there you
may be also. Isn't that what he prayed to
his father? Father, I will that those that you've given me be
with me where I am. He prayed that to the father
in his great high priestly prayer, and he told those that he wanted
with him, I want you with me, and I'm gonna have you. Don't
be troubled. Don't worry. Isn't that beautiful? He told us why. Why he did what
he did, and boy, if that didn't bless your heart, I just don't
know. I mean, what will? What would? He's told us where he is now,
too, hasn't he? The high priest stood up in the
midst and asked Jesus, saying, answerest thou nothing? What
is it which these witness against thee? But he held his peace and
answered nothing. When he was commanded, you could
say, or coerced to defend himself, to answer for these false crimes
that he was, he didn't say a word to that. He had nothing to say
to that. You know, when he did open his mouth, are you the Christ,
the son of the blessed? And Jesus said, I am. He answered that one. And you
shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power. And
by God's grace, by faith, we do. John said, I looked, and
lo, there was a throne in heaven, and somebody sat on that throne. Coming in the clouds of heaven
well Christ declared himself to be what John also declares
here the first begotten of the dead That's the next thing that
speaks of his office as priest if he is born again from the
dead then that means he died and And what's the office of
the priest? Priest is mediator who offers
an offering that God will accept for the sins of the people that
that high priest represents. And our Lord Jesus Christ, our
great high priest, died and rose again. As our sacrifice, he died. As our substitute, he died and
rose. For our justification, he is
our great high priest. Listen to the beautiful language
of Hebrews 8.1. Now of the things which we have
spoken this is the son Paul said this is this wraps up everything
I've said to you so far we have such an high priest who is set
on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens,
a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which
the Lord pitched, and not man. For every high priest is ordained
to offer gifts and sacrifices. You see why him being the first
begotten of the dead establishes him as high priest? He died and
rose because he offered himself a sacrifice. He gave his own
soul an offering for our sin. Every high priest does that.
Wherefore it is of necessity that this man, Christ, have somewhat
also to offer. And we know what it is. Listen
to Hebrews 10, nine. Then said Christ, lo, I come
to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. The first was, you do this and
don't do that. The second is, I'm coming to
do it all. And the first is taken away.
It's not by the law anymore. It's not up to me to keep God's
law anymore. He took away the first and established
the second, which is this. Here I come and I'm gonna do
everything necessary to please God and satisfy him for his people. By the witch will, we are sanctified. By Christ accomplishing, doing
the will of God perfectly, We're made holy by that, by Him doing
it. That's the second covenant. I'm glad the first one's taken
away, aren't you? It's up to you in that one. And
that's what most preachers are still preaching. It's up to you.
That's the old covenant. It's not up to me now because
Christ came. And by His will and by Him accomplishing
the will of the Father for me in His life and in His sin atoning
death, I'm sanctified. through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. You see that? But this man, let's
see, and every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering
oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down on the right hand of God. From henceforth expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. You see
that's in context of him talking about the priest, the high priest.
Every priest has to offer a sacrifice that God will accept. And so
this, if Christ is our high priest, then that's what he did. He offered
the sacrifice for sin that's acceptable unto God and satisfied
his justice. Now he's called the first begotten,
the first begotten of the dead, in reference to how that all
of those for whom he died and who died in him to sin and were
made alive unto God must also rise unto newness of life because
death having no more dominion over him, it doesn't have any
over me either. Where's your sting, death? God gave me the
victory through Christ, that's where it is. It has no dominion
over us for whom he died. Let's read that verse of scripture,
because it's so beautiful. 1 Corinthians 15, 52. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed. If you're just getting over there,
I'm at verse 53 now. 1 Corinthians 15, 53, for this
corruptible must put on incorruption. Why? Because Christ. It behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God. And he was, and he rose
again incorruptible. He rose again. And so do we in
him, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this
corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Because
he's the first begotten of the dead, and we're following him.
And what about everybody that died before him? He's still the
first begotten of the dead, because they're not gonna rise unless
he does. And it was an eternal work, wasn't it? It was an eternal
work. O death, verse 55, where is thy
sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. So I like that word first begotten.
He rose, and because he did, this mortal must put on immortality,
and we shall be changed. Oh, I'm so glad. Christ also
is king, the prince or ruler of the kings of the earth, John
said there in Revelation. The prince or the ruler, that
word prince means the ruler of the kings of the earth. King
of kings and Lord of lords. He rules because he alone is
worthy Who are you gonna put on the throne if you had such
power which you don't Who would you crown? Nobody it can't be
anybody but him He rules because he's worth he's
ruled because the father gave him all power in Matthew 28 18
Jesus came and spake unto them saying all think about this now
all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth and And I'll tell you, it's probably
a little selfish of me, but here's how I like to think about this.
The sovereignty of God's son. He reigns to ensure that every
blessing for which he died in order for me to possess, I shall
possess. He reigns forever to see to it. He makes intercession for us
to see to it. that every blessing that he purchased
for us is ours. We shall possess it. We shall
experience it. We shall enjoy it. Every one
of them. If I die and I leave a will,
you know, I may intend for things to be bestowed on certain people
in various ways. And I've written that and I signed
off on it. And let's just pretend I had
something to leave somebody. Well, Things may well not happen
the way I wanted them to. I've experienced this in my very
limited life experience. Christ died so that I would have
every blessing there is. And he lives to see to it that
I get them. Nobody else. He reigns now and
he decides who gets those blessings. And you know who it is? It's
the ones for whom he purchased. Them with his precious blood
Isaiah 52 7 Thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ now as the
the prince of the kings of the earth How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings and John is bringing
them to us in the form of this book. They were brought to him.
Somebody may be preaching this somewhere else tonight. The men
that we listened to have preached this, many of them at different
times. So whoever that is, whoever brings these good tidings that
publishes peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publishes
salvation. You know how we do that? You
know how you can have peace tonight? If you're his now, and you know
him, you know what you need to hear? Your God reigns. He's on
the throne. That saith unto Zion, thy God
reigneth. He's the ruler of the kings of
the earth. Isn't that comforting to know?
You say, boy, look at this world. What a disaster. Well, that may
be. But I'll tell you this, it's
his disaster. He's running every aspect of
it. And he's doing it for the good of his sheep. We wouldn't
run things like this, would we? You know why? Because we're not
God. We don't know what he knows.
We're not good like he is. We're not merciful. We're not
wise. But he is, and he reigns, and
I'm glad. Those who know him are glad he's
on the throne. Turn with me to Romans 8, 28, and let's just
close with this. Lord willing, next time we'll
look at the last part of verse five, because I want to take
my time with that. I want to give it the time that it deserves.
And we won't give it anything it deserves, but what we need
to give it. And so pray for me about that.
One of my favorite, very, very favorite passages next time. But look
at Romans 8, 28, thinking about him. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Four, how can you possibly know
that everything that happens to you is for your eternal good? Here's how. Look at what he did. For whom he did foreknow, those
whom he loved from eternity. Also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son We're talking about God now, aren't
we? He loved you from eternity and predestinated Determined
before anything ever happened determined what would happen
and that what would happen to you Would culminate and result
in you being just like Christ That's what heaven that's what
glory is and He did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son, that he, that Christ, might be the
firstborn, first begotten from the dead, and the firstborn that
is preeminent. The birthright is his among many
brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. And whom he called, them he also
justified. And these words are so So incredible
and so, we don't, we just pass over this.
We could spend the rest of our life just looking at this one
passage. Look what he did for us, for us. He justified in whom
he justified them, he also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? And I've never looked at this this way. What we're
talking about now is he's the ruler of the kings of the earth. And as the king of kings, he
sees to it that everything that happens in this world is a blessing
for his sheep. So what are we gonna say to all
this that he's done for us? If God be for us. Whoever did
all that is God. You see that? I've never looked
at that that way. If God be for us, who can be
against us? He can't fail. He can't be thwarted. He can't even be questioned.
And He's the one that makes sure that everything works for our
good. I think I'm going to sleep pretty
good tonight. If God be for us, who can be
against us? And He's not done yet. He that
spared not His own Son And when I think of God, His
Son, not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can
take it in, that on the cross, my burden, my sin, my evil, gladly
bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? God says you get everything,
and everything is in his son. Let's pray.