the Lord's help I'd like to draw
your attention to that passage of scripture we were considering
this morning from the first chapter of the book of the Revelation
starting at the last clause or the last two clauses of verse
17 through to the end of verse 18 where the Lord Jesus says
to John, I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and
he that is dead. And behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell
and of death. This morning we started considering
this passage from the book of the Revelation and we looked
a little bit at the context and the vast majority of our time
this morning was spent on looking at the context and the revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we also noted that the Lord
Jesus Christ is God's final revelation returned to the opening verses
of Hebrews in chapter 1 where the Apostle Paul writes to the
Hebrew Christians, God who of century times and in divest manners
spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, He is the appointed heir of all
things, by whom also he made the worlds. He is the final revelation. There is no other revelation
of God. We meet with God in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ, through him who said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And you note that the Lord Jesus
Christ uses a definite article. He doesn't say, I am a way. He
doesn't say that he is one way of many. but he is the only way,
the only truth and the only life. The late politician, I think
it was in Irene Bevan, used to say to his political opponents,
you tell me your truth and I will tell you my truth. And it made
the hope that they would reach a synthesis and bring together
and then be able to walk together in agreement. But of course, when it comes to religion as
a whole there is only but one truth and that is the Lord Jesus
Christ his person, his work, his life, his death, his resurrection
the modern theologians say that all religions have truth well
what I would say to them is take me to the tomb of your founder
and if you are taken to the founder the various founders of Buddhism
you will be taken to tombs wherein lies a body if you go to Islam
and they take you to a tomb you will find the tomb of their prophet
Muhammad but if we go to the tomb of the Lord Jesus Christ
you will find an empty tomb because the Lord Jesus Christ is alive
he rose from the dead triumphant over death and hell and here
in this chapter the Lord Jesus Christ has appeared to John on
the Isle of Patmos he is there He is in the Spirit on the Lord's
Day, he is meditating and thinking, no doubt of his situation, of
his being in exile from his beloved people at Ephesus and longing
no doubt for the day that he would be able to return to Ephesus
and continue ministering the Word of God. As far as I understand
there is no record of his returning to Ephesus and he has succeeded
in the work of the ministry of Ephesus by Polycarp who became
one of the early martyrs of the early church but John, again
we know not whether he died naturally or whether he was persecuted
unto death but he was there on Patmos and there he met with
the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ revealed himself,
we have considered a little of that a vision that the Lord Jesus
showed to John that great person who was in the midst of the golden
candlesticks that he was there and John describes him and he
says after he had described the Lord Jesus Christ his countenance
was as the sun shining from his strength and he said when I saw
him I fell at his feet as dead and he laid his right hand upon
me saying fear not I am the first and the last and the instruction
that was given to him was to write about those things that
he had seen those things that he was seeing and those things
that he would see namely the vision that he had had of the
Lord Jesus Christ and in any vision that we have whether it
be in the mind's eye or from the scriptures a correct vision
of God must always begin with a view of the Lord Jesus Christ
we must always have our mind concentrated upon the Lord Jesus
Christ not on self not on what we can do but on what has been
done by the Lord Jesus Christ He is the Saviour He is the one
who gave his life a ransom for many and so John was instructed
write the things which thou hast seen and the things which are
and the things which shall be hereafter the mystery of the
seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand and the seven
golden candlesticks that is what he is instructed to do to write
about those things concentrating of course on the Lord Jesus Christ
you see if you turn to the and I was reminded of this this morning
by our friend and brother the deacon I was reminded of this
if we turn to the first verse of the book of the Revelation
it commences with the revelation of Jesus Christ this is a revealing
of the Lord Jesus Christ it is not the revealing of the Antichrist
although that comes into it it is not the revealing of Babylon
and the destruction of Babylon that comes into it but it is
the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ how he is triumphant throughout
the whole of history and that he is head of the church and
so the first instruction is write the things which thou hast seen
those things are revealed in chapter 1 and then the second
thing that is revealed the things which are and those things are
revealed in chapters 2 and 3 with the letters of the Lord Jesus
Christ to the 7 churches and these 7 churches you will know
of course that the number 7 in scripture is the number of completion
and so the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking about the complete
church from the very beginning right through to the very end
chapters 2 and 3 tell us about the complete church and the state
in which you will find the complete church in all ages and in all
generations and then the third thing that John is told to do
is to write the things which shall be hereafter and that starts
of course with chapter 4 and John is told come up hither and
I will show thee things which must be hereafter and the first
thing he sees is a throne now the throne speaks of authority
the throne speaks of the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ it speaks
of the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ and throughout all history
the Lord Jesus Christ is in complete control and all things are ordered
for the benefits and the blessing of the church so when we go into
a time of a pandemic it is to be remembered that the Lord Jesus
Christ and God is in control of all things indeed he worked
of all things as Paul writes to the Ephesians he worked of
all things after the cancel of his own will and from chapter
4 verse 1 right through to the end in chapter 22 they put so much in the back of Bibles
these days but we're right through to the
end of chapter 22 where John writes he which testifieth these
things saith surely I come quickly amen even so come Lord Jesus
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all and all these
things speak about the history of the world as it is subject
to the lord jesus christ for the benefit of the believers
that are called by grace in the church it is all to do with that
and then the lord jesus says that he's to write about the
mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest and he says that
the seven the lord jesus says the seven stars are the angels
or the messengers of the church the church has a message and
it also has messengers now the message that we have for this
world today is that neither is there salvation in any other
there is no salvation in no other but in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and if man would seek a happy eternity if he would
seek a blessed eternity it must be only and solely in the Lord
Jesus Christ not in anything that we can do And the top lady
says in one of his hymns, not what these hands have done can
save a guilty soul. He goes on to say, thy work,
and thy work alone, it is what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished. And the messengers of the church
are to proclaim that message, the gospel of redeeming grace. Remember how the Apostle Paul
writes to the Romans in that very first chapter, Romans 1,
and verse 16 he says for I am not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ for it is the power of God and to salvation to everyone
that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek the apostle
Paul in this section of this epistle says three things first
of all he says I'm a debtor to the Greeks and to the barbarians
then he says he is ready to preach the gospel and the ultimate reason
is because he's not ashamed of it he's not ashamed of the gospel
how often are we ashamed of the Gospel when we can give a word
in seats and ask from the Lord to someone we're talking to somebody
at the bus stop and the conversation turns round or you are able to
turn the conversation on to the subject of the pandemic and how
people are ushered into eternity and have been ushered into eternity
but we don't go that far we hold back and we seem to be ashamed
of the Gospel of Christ Paul had lions in front of him Paul
had the arena in front of him he had the Roman Emperor in front
of him and yet in the midst of all this he says I am not ashamed
of the Gospel of Christ I am ready to preach the Gospel to
you that are at Rome or so and indeed he went to Rome and there
he was imprisoned for the sake of the gospel but then he seemed
to have been released and went on his way to Spain to preach
the gospel as tradition would have it well the Seven Stars
are the ministers of the gospel of the gospel, and the seven
golden candlesticks are the seven churches in Asia Minor. But again,
as I said, it is a picture of the church in all ages and in
all stages of their history. But it's, as I said this morning,
it is this opening clause that I want to look at. In this chapter, as we noticed
this morning, verses 17 and 18 we have the
Lord Jesus Christ as it were introducing himself to John then
we have the instruction to write in verse 19 and then it tells us what the book of
the revelation is about but it is the history of the church
but in this particular verse fear not I am the first and the
last There are three things to notice, although we will only
be noticing one of those things with the Lord's help. First of
all, there is the declaration made by the Lord Jesus Christ
to John, fear not, fear not. And then there is the description
given of the one speaking, I am the first and the last, I am
he that liveth who once was dead. And then there is the deduction
or the conclusion that is made I am a life for evermore Amen
so be it and have the keys of hell and of death in other words
the Lord Jesus Christ is in complete control the hymn writer puts
it like this from man's point of view he says plagues and deaths
around me fly till he bids I cannot die not a single shaft can hit
till the God of love sees fit Nothing can happen to me outside
the will of God, says the writer. And that is the consolation and
the blessing of the Gospel of Christ, that nothing can happen
to us outside the will of God, outside the will of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So firstly, we look at the first
part, just these two words, fear not, and the first, There was
much in those days when John was writing and he was writing
under the inspiration of the spirit roundabouts AD 90 to somewhere
between AD 90 and AD 95. He had been, he was himself in
his 90s and he had been on the pilgrim path some 60 or so years,
walking with the Lord Jesus Christ. He had been in the presence of
the Lord Jesus, one of the first disciples who was called by the
Lord Jesus, he and his brother John. James was martyred early,
but the Lord gave length of days to the apostle John. And because
of that, he says that he is our companion in tribulation. I,
John, who also your brother and companion in tribulation and
in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. He was there. and
there was much that could make him afraid he was under the Roman
authorities the Roman authorities had marched into Ephesus and
they had taken him away from his congregation he was the pastor
there he was the elder there and he had been ministering to
them for a good number of years and now he was separated and
he was placed in exile of course the Roman authorities could have
executed him it may be that I'm just assuming this but it may
be that John had become at one time or another a Roman citizen
and therefore the Roman soldiers had no power over him without
a trial but he was taken possibly without trial and placed on the
Isle of Patmos a few miles off the coast of modern day Turkey
and there were those things that could make him afraid and yet
he was constant in his witness for the Lord Jesus Christ but
it was other things that made him afraid it was that other
thing that made him afraid the visitation of the Lord Jesus
Christ and when he saw the Lord Jesus and when he saw that glorious
vision of the one in the midst of the 7 golden candlesticks
clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps
with a golden girdle and the other things that he says of
the Lord Jesus Christ he is fearful why should a holy God appear
to me? I'm a sinner I deserve more wrath than such glorious
visions as if he would say and so he is fearful and he falls
on his feet and he hides his head from this glorious vision
I suppose in the same way that Isaiah did there recorded for
us in the 6th chapter of Isaiah where he identifies the
time, the date when this action occurred in the year that King
Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and
lifted up and his train filled the temple he had this glorious
vision of the holiness of God he had this glorious vision of
the sovereignty of God he was sitting on a throne and he saw
the almightyness if I can put it like that of God high and
lifted up and his train filled the temple and then he saw the
cherubim and seraphim flying around the temple above the altar
and they were crying Holy! Holy! Holy is the Lord! of hosts
the whole earth is full of his glory and he felt the whole place
shake what was his reaction? his reaction was that of fear
woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes
have seen the king the lord of hosts he was struck down he was
struck down because he saw one of the problems of today's
religion is that we know nothing or very little of the burden
of sin we know nothing or very little of the holiness of God
we know nothing or very little of the sovereignty of God if
we had a true vision a real vision of Almighty God we would be struck
down and we would be silent in his presence. We wouldn't be
so presumptuous as we are. And I speak to myself as I speak
to yourselves. We need to have a glimpse of
the holiness of God and then we would cry out, holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of hosts. Woe is me, for I'm undone, a
man of unclean lips dwelling and clean lips but these days
we don't believe some years ago I listened to a tape by a preacher
of the Charismatic Movement my brother who was involved with
the Charismatic Movement put this tape on and said you must
listen to this and whilst I didn't go along with much of what he
said but there was one thing this man said he said we used
to believe in God Almighty but now we've come to a place where
we believe in God Almighty and he said this should not be so
we should revere Almighty God we should be fearful of him not
... afraid in the sense of being
fearful but in awe of God because he is the sovereign our Queen
has no power she is a constitutional monarch and therefore we need
not be really afraid of her she can't point a finger at any one
of us and say take that man away, take that woman away and execute
them she has no power but this man, sorry this God this almighty
God he has almighty power and with a word he can destroy the
worlds that he created but we need to stand in awe of almighty
God and John was in awe of this vision of God and he was afraid
and he bowed himself down he fell at his feet as dead he had
no power to stand in his presence and almighty God the Lord Jesus
Christ touched him and lifted him up he laid his right hand
upon me and said fear not why should we be afraid these days? well we are a people and Christian
people are a people that are given to fear we fear the future
we fear some of us more than others but we fear the pandemic
we fear the state of the nation some of us perhaps it won't go
out of an evening when it's in the dark nights because we're
afraid of who's walking the streets all these things bring fear upon
people but we need not fear because we're in the hands of Almighty
God now I'm not saying we should be careless but we needn't be
afraid of the things round about us because beyond those things
that are round about us is Almighty God do you remember the occasion
in Elisha's life he was in the city of Samaria and his servants
saw the armies of Syria besieging the city and he was afraid he
was fearful for his life he thought that the city would go into siege
and he would either starve to death or when the city collapsed
the Syrians would take him away but Elisha prayed to the Lord the perimeter of the soldiers
he saw the company of the angels defending the city he saw those
things and God granted we might see that controlling our lives
controlling our lives there is the Lord Jesus Christ guiding
us, guiding our steps I know I referred to it this morning
but it's worth referring to again at 73 it's a favourite verse
with me or two verses the psalmist says and it's Asaph that says
this nevertheless I am continually with thee thou hast holden me
by my right hand thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward
receive me to glory so then why do we need not to be afraid of
prayer? because of the mercy of God I read that passage from
the book of Lamentations it is of the Lord's mercies that we
are now consumed my friends here that were at Hedgend this afternoon
will forgive me for repeating something that I said this afternoon
at Hedgend it is of the Lord's mercies that we are now consumed
because his compassions fail not there new every morning great
is thy faithfulness the first thing we see about the mercies
of God and the compassions of God is that they flow from the
faithfulness of God you see our God is not fickle the Gods of
the Roman Empire the Gods of the Grecian Empire the Gods of
Buddhism the Gods of this, that and every other religion are
fickle but what does it say the Lord in Malachi? I am the Lord,
I change not therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed and
so we read this evening the seven particulars of the mercy of God
first of all the Lord is my portion is the Lord our portion? do we
consider that we are his people and that he is our portion, that
he is all I need there's an old hymn in the redemption songs
and each verse, if I remember rightly it was a solo in the
19th century revival crusades and the chorus, they would end
with the line give me Christ or I die, give me Christ or I
die is that our experience that we want nothing but Christ oh
God grant that that is our portion that we want Christ and Christ
alone and thou Christ are all I need all I want more than all
in all I find writes Charles Wesley in one of his hymns the
Lord is my portion and then the Lord is good we have the Lord's
goodness day by day we've been preserved until this day I remember
going on Thursday evening going home when my wife was driving
the car and we were driving up the M27 from Portsmouth last
Thursday we were travelling quite well within the speed limits
but further on the motorway it was cut off we were all directed
and we were in that single lane and missed us by just a few inches
and screeched almost to a halt in front of us when he realised
that he couldn't get any further on the motorway had we been going
perhaps 55 miles an hour there would have been an awful collision
and I probably wouldn't be here to recount what happened you
see the Lord is good the Lord is good unto them that wait for
him and then says Jeremiah it is good that a man should both
hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord wait for
him, wait for him to work wait for him to give you that assurance
for they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they
shall mount up with wings as eagles they shall run and not
be weary they shall walk and not faint and then he says it
is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth that is
to be instructed are we being instructed in the
things of God? and then he putteth his mouth
in the dust to humble us the Lord Jesus and he speaks in the
Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5 he speaks about about those
that are humbled blessed are the meek for they shall inherit
the earth those who are meekened instead of lifting up our hands
to God like the Pharisee did as recorded in Luke 18 and boasting
of our own works being brought by the Spirit of God into a place
of meekness and humility never confuse the word meek with weak
that is one of the problems today people think that when a person
is meek he is weak no not meek made me and then it says the
Lord will not cast off forever that's the assurance in the mercy
of God and so we we fear not because of God's mercy we fear
not because of God's providential mercies to us we're guided by
the hand of Almighty God throughout this life we're guided by by
Him and I think his heart says in one of his hymns, gold in
the furnace tried, ne'er loses all that drops, so is the Christian
purified and bettered by the cross. We have all things worked for our comfort and our
blessing. We fear not because we have the
exhortations of scripture. throughout the scriptures and
the deacon at Croydon at one of the Croydon chapels he produced
a little booklet some few years ago on the word fear not and
he said that he had discovered that in the Bible the words fear
not or do not be afraid or words similar there are 365 of occasions
where that phrase is used in the scripture
one phrase for every day of the year what a mercy it is that
the Lord looks after his people in such a manner we have the
exhortations of scripture and we do not fear because we see
the power and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ fear not and
as if the Lord Jesus preempts the words of John why should
I not fear? he preempts those words so that
they're not written I don't know whether those words were said
or not but the Lord Jesus gives an answer to that question why
not? because he goes on to say I am the first and the last we
don't fear because the Lord Jesus was there in the beginning and
he's there in the end and he's there all the way in between
holding us holding us tight no man he says can pluck you out
of my hands I remember speaking to a late friend years and years
ago I could have only been in my late teens he was an open
air preacher in Sheffield where I come from originally and I
mentioned that verse that no man can pluck them out of my
hand and he said no, no man can pluck them out but you can get
out yourself what kind of God he had I don't know but it certainly
wasn't the God of the Bible he professed to be a Christian he
professed to preach the Gospel but there was something sadly
lacking in his preaching rules and ranks in the hearts
of his own people. So the Lord Jesus gives that
qualification, that reason why we do not fear, because the Lord
Jesus is first and last. Remember those words that the
Lord Jesus opens with, I am, I am. Moses said to the one who
appeared to him in the bush, who shall I say has sent me?
said I am sent me the self-existent God I am that I am and the Lord
Jesus Christ says exactly the same I am he that liveth I am
he that I am I am the first and the last well God grant that
we might be brought to see that this one our Lord Jesus Christ
is the first and the last and he will be there on the day of
judgement the last day oh we will fear no doubt on that last
day. Oh, what will the Lord say to
me? Will he say, depart from me for
I never knew you? Will he say, go and stand among
the goats and the goats will be cast into hell fire? Or will
he say, come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world? Will he say before
his Father, I and the children that thou hast given me, and
will we stand amongst them? God grant that each one of us
will be amongst that number of whom he says, I and the children
which thou hast given me, given in covenant bond, and can never,
ever, under any circumstances, be lost. What a mercy. Well God
grant that we might be amongst that number.