Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy 6. We were just here for our Bible
study. And we are going to continue on with the next couple of verses
for our message. Let's start reading in verse
13, and we'll read to verse 16. 1 Timothy 6, verse 13. I give thee charge in the sight
of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who
before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, that thou
keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable until the appearing
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times he shall show who
is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of
lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no
man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to
whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. I love declarations like
that concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Verses of scripture like
this, Well, I can't really say these are my favorite places
to be because I have a whole bunch of those. But this is concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. I want us to understand that.
That's who this is talking about, the Lord Jesus Christ. The end
of verse 14 says, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a man in glory right
now. I just love the thought of that. There is a man, the God man. He is in glory right now. God is a man. Is that not amazing? God is a man. And in his times, in his perfect
time, he will appear again to this earth. We always think of us going to
be with him where he is. Well, he is coming again to this
earth where we are. And in his times, he will appear
again to this earth. Our Lord appeared before this
earth ever was as the lamb slain from before the foundation of
the world. Jesus Christ did. And then he
appeared as the creator and the owner of all things when he laid
the foundation of this world. Our brother just read Colossians
1, speaking of Jesus Christ, who created all things, everything,
dominions, principalities, everything. Everything that's visible, everything
that's invisible, Jesus Christ created it. John 1 says, by him
all things were created and without him was not anything made that
was made. The creator, the owner. Throughout
history and time, he appeared to men and women, his creatures
in this world. He appeared to Adam and Eve. That was Jesus Christ walking
in the garden in the cool of the day. That was Jesus Christ. He appeared to Abraham and Sarah. That was Jesus Christ that Sarah
was laughing at. She was laughing at Jesus Christ. He appeared to Jacob. That was
Jesus Christ who Jacob was wrestling with. Or Jacob thought he was
wrestling with. He appeared to Moses. That was
Jesus Christ who spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaketh
with his friend. Jesus Christ. He appeared to Gideon. That was
Jesus Christ wearing that sword. Gideon saw the Lord standing,
he saw a man standing there with a sword on and he didn't know
if he ought to grab his sword or not. He said, are you with
the enemy or are you with us? He said, I'm captain of the host.
The Lord is a man of war. Jesus Christ is a man of war. He appeared to Manoah and his
wife. He appeared to Solomon. He appeared
to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and Nebuchadnezzar. That's one
of my favorite. I got a lot of them. Nebuchadnezzar
looked into that furnace and said, didn't we throw three men
in there? Yes, O King Nebuchadnezzar, we
did. He said, I see four men, and one of them looks like the
Son of God. Now, how did he know that? How did he know that? If a man
ever sees Jesus Christ, he will know it. He'll know it. The Lord appeared to Elijah.
The Lord appeared to Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and
the wise men at His birth. The Lord appeared to Simeon.
For thirty-three and a half years, He appeared to all the land of
Judea and round about. The Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene
after his resurrection. She thought he was the gardener. God thought he was the gardener. He appeared to all of his disciples.
They were all afraid. They were all going back to their
old businesses. Peter was trying to find his, you know, his fishing
license. Where did I put that thing? They
were all in the upper room afraid. The Lord, the doors being shut,
locked for fear. If they did that to our Lord,
they'll do that to us. And he just appeared in the room.
He appeared. At one point, he appeared to
above 500 brethren at one time. He definitely appeared to Saul
of Tarsus, didn't he? On the way to Damascus. He is going to appear, I know
this sounds strange, and as we say, I know that sounds hard
to believe. He is going to appear to this
earth one more time. He is going to appear one more
time to this world, and every eye shall see Him. Does that
make you excited, just a little bit excited? Every eye shall
see him. Turn with me to Acts chapter
1. Acts chapter 1. Our Lord is standing on the Mount
of Olives in Bethany with His disciples, and He said some final
words to them. And verse 9 says, When He had
spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up, and
a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked
steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood
by them in white apparel, which also said, you men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you
have seen him go into heaven. As you have seen Him ascend up
in power and authority and victory to His throne in glory, that's
how He will come again from His throne in glory. This same man is coming back in power and authority
and victory. That's how He's coming back.
There is a man seated on a throne in heaven right now, the God-man,
and he is going to appear to us again, and we need to be warned
of his appearing. We need to be ready for his appearing. It could happen at any moment.
It could happen at any moment. Turn over to 2 Thessalonians
chapter 1. Second Thessalonians chapter
one, verse six. Seeing it is a righteous thing
with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, trouble
his people. And to you who are troubled rest
with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with
His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power,
when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired
in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed
in that day. He is going to appear to us again,
and this time it will not be in humility and meekness. It will be in glory and power. It's across the page in my Bible,
but look at 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 16. The Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and
with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. He is about to appear to us again,
and for every soul that is found in him, it is going to be an
appearing unto glory. but to every soul that is not
found in him, not found under the covering of his blood. Every
soul that was not chosen in Him and given to Him and redeemed
in Him and called in Him and kept in Him, every soul that
is outside of Christ, His appearing is going to be an appearing to
absolute destruction and condemnation and damnation. It's going to
be a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It's going to be one of those
two when He comes back. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 4.
2 Timothy 4. Verse 1, it says, I charge thee
therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall
judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom. There is going to be a judgment. There is going to be a right
hand and a left hand. The living and the dead. And
Jesus Christ is going to be the judge. We must all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. And the judgment is not going
to go how people naturally think it's going to go. Everybody has
a way envisioned in their mind, and it's not going to go that
way. Our Lord did not come to call the righteous, the self-righteous,
fake, you know, false religion, goody two-shoe. People, they're not going to end up on
his right hand. Every soul on his right hand
will be a wretched, miserable, unworthy sinner. Every soul on his right hand
will have earned nothing. It will be by grace alone. It
will be amazing grace, how sweet, every one of them will cry, amazing
grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Our Lord came to save sinners.
He said, I came to save sinners. I didn't come to call the righteous,
I came to call sinners. Men and women are gonna find
that out the moment he appears. Turn with me to Revelation 1. Revelation chapter 1. Verse 1 says, this is the revelation
of Jesus Christ. That's what this whole book is.
The revelation of Jesus Christ. Now verse 7 says, Behold, he
cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him. And they also
which pierced him. Who pierced him? When he was
on the cross, who pierced him? Religion did. Religion did. Church did. The Romans carried it out at
the Jews' demand. Give us Barabbas, crucify him,
crucify him. When Pilate saw that he could
not, he said, why? I can't find any fault with him.
Let me scourge him and then I'll let him go. No! We want him dead. Who was saying that? The Pharisees,
the religious leaders. Verse seven, he cometh with clouds,
every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him,
and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, amen. Now I want us to understand something
that's very important. Our Lord said in John 17, this
is life eternal. This is eternal life. that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou
hast sent." Eternal life is in knowing the true God. We are not born into this world
knowing that. Eternal life is in knowing the
true God, this true and living God. Jesus Christ. Knowing Him, knowing who He is,
knowing what He is in reality and truth. In Matthew 11, our
Lord said the only way that can happen, the only way that we
can know who Jesus Christ truly is, is if He reveals Himself.
He must be revealed. It is in His power to reveal
Himself to whoever He's pleased to reveal Himself to. And when
you find men and women who speak of Him in a flippant way, no reverence, no fear. When we learn who Jesus Christ
is, fear will come. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. And when you find men and women
who do not fear Jesus Christ, Gentle Jesus, meek and mild.
You know, the one about doing good. He wants everybody to be
saved. He's pleading with you and He's
begging with you. Won't you please? When you find men and women who
do not fear and reverence Jesus Christ, you have found men and
women who do not know Him. When you find a man or a woman
who speaks of Him as being needy, or frustrated, or discouraged,
or asking for someone's cooperation or permission. Won't you let
him? He's begging. Won't you pull
the trigger and let him do his thing? When you find that, you
found a man or a woman who has no idea who Jesus Christ is.
No idea at all. To not know Jesus Christ is to
not know eternal life. So my prayer, this is my prayer
today. It's my prayer every day. It's
my prayer every time we meet. I pray that the spirit of God
will take the word of God and through this word, I pray he
will reveal Jesus Christ to us. I pray that we might know who
Jesus Christ is. That's what Paul said. Oh, that
I might know him. You're with me back to first
Timothy six. Verse 13 says, I give thee charge
in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ
Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession,
that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable until
the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times he
shall show Who is the blessed and only potentate, the King
of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling
in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath
seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting.
Amen. Who is Jesus Christ? He is the
blessed only potentate. That's who he is. Potentate means
power. It means authority. It means sovereign. You know why we titled our congregation
here Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church? Because that's what it
is. That's who it's coming from.
Sovereignty. Sovereign. Jesus Christ is the
blessed. He is the anointed. He is the
acknowledged only power that there is. He is the only authority
that there is. He is the only sovereign that
there is. Now, let me tell you what that
means. That means when men and women
separate God and Jesus Christ in their minds. as though God stayed in heaven
and sent, as we have read in the wording of the scripture
a few times now, sent Jesus Christ to earth to accomplish his mission. When men and women separate God
and Jesus Christ, that evidences the fact that that man or woman
does not know God or Jesus Christ. You cannot know one apart from
the other. You cannot separate them. They
are not separate. God did not just send Jesus Christ
to this earth. Did Jesus Christ come to this
earth? Yes, he did. But God did not just send Jesus
Christ to this earth. God Almighty came down. The God Almighty came down. Emmanuel, God, the potentate,
the only blessed sovereign that there is, came down. He veiled Himself in the likeness
of human flesh. He veiled His glory to the point
that when men saw Him, they saw nothing in Him that they should
desire Him. Why did He do that? Why did He
do that? It's because He came here to
be the substitute for me. And there is nothing in me when
men see me that they should desire me." The amazing mystery of the gospel
is God Almighty came in a way that allowed men to despise Him
and reject Him. He humbled Himself down so that
He could be a man of sorrows, our sorrows, acquainted with
our grief. In order to save His people from
their sin, He allowed Himself to be handled by man, manhandled. He allowed Himself to be manhandled.
He allowed Himself to be judged before men. Men thought they were doing the
judging. But He allowed Himself to be judged before men. He allowed himself to be condemned
before men. He allowed himself to be nailed
to a cross by men. He allowed himself to be laid
in a grave by men. He willingly took the weakness
of his people. When he bore our infirmities,
he bore our frailties. For us, he died. in our weakness. But when He arose, He was raised
in His power. And that's where He abides right
now. He abides in His power. And in His time, He shall show
to every man and woman on this earth who is the blessed and
only potentate, the only sovereign that there is, the sovereign
in creation, the sovereign in salvation, the sovereign in every
eternal thing that there is. Verse 15 says, He is the King
of kings. He is not waiting for His subjects
to give Him permission to do anything. He is the Sovereign
seated on the throne and He does what He wants with whom He wants.
They said, where is your God, David? They asked, you know,
King David, where's your God? And this is what King David said.
He said, my God is seated in the heavens doing whatever he
wants to do. He's seated on his throne in
glory. That's what we have to realize. That's what you and I must realize.
Jesus Christ does whatever he wants to do. If I could go into false religion
and say one thing, that's one thing I would want to tell people.
Jesus Christ does whatever he wants to do. He's the potentate. He is the king. After the Lord
appeared to King Nebuchadnezzar, he said, the Lord is God on the
throne. He's the king. His dominion is
an everlasting dominion. He does what he wants to do with
the armies of heaven, the inhabitants of the earth. Nobody can stop
him or question him. Nobody. Jesus Christ. The only sovereign King of Kings
and Lord of Lords that there is. Potentate means he is the
sovereign authority. King means he is the sovereign
authority. Lord means he is the sovereign
authority. Who is Jesus Christ? Who are
we dealing with here? The sovereign authority. We cannot make him Lord. In order
to do that, we would have to be God. And there's only one
God. King Jesus Christ is his name,
the only Lord and potentate that there is. While this world of
false religion lies to men and women, telling them that the
authority is in their hands. They get up there and they say,
now the ball's in your court. What are you going to do? While this world of false religion
lies to men and women, telling them that the authority is in
their hands, in His time, He shall show who is the blessed
and only potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who
only hath immortality. All the fullness of the Godhead
dwells in Jesus Christ bodily. Christ is the express image of
God. Every time God has an image,
that's Jesus Christ. He is the only begotten body
of God. There are three. But these three
are one. In Christ is God. In Him we have
God. And therefore, Jesus Christ is
the only one who has immortality. If we end up with immortality,
it'll only be in Him. It will only be with Him. It
will only be by Him. He said, because I live, you
live. Without Him, there is no life.
There is no immortality. There's a man, there's a very
rich man, I saw this on the news. He's a billionaire and he's trying
to spend his money replacing all of his parts, trying to achieve
immortality. He said he wants to make it so
that death is optional. There's only one with immortality. Outside of Jesus Christ, there's
no immortality, no eternal life. Verse 16 says, who only hath
immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto,
whom no man hath seen nor can see. God is light. The holy,
just God is light. His holy glory is light. The holiness of His glory is
so great, it's so bright. One man said, if Jesus Christ
came at high noon, you would never see the rays of the sun.
it would go dark. His brightness would shut everything
else out. His holiness, His righteousness,
His justice, it's an exposing light that no man or woman can
approach unto in his or her sin. That light is a consuming fire
to men and women in their sin. When Jesus Christ appeared on
Mount Sinai. He came down. The whole thing
exploded with fire. And Jesus Christ, who said, Moses
wrote of me, God. He wrote of me. God said, Moses,
you tell the people they better not come near to me or they will
die in their sin. My holiness will consume them. They cannot come to me in their
sin. And we can't. We can't. In another place he said, no
man can even look on me and live. If a sinful man just looks at
me, he will die in his sin. Thank God for the cross. Thank
God for the cross by the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he as us appeared before
God. God dealt with him as he would
have had to deal with us. And he slayed his lamb in our
place. And in the appearing of Jesus
Christ into the Holy of Holies with his own blood, when he appeared
with His own blood, bringing in His own blood to make an atonement
for the sin of His people. He put that sin away, that sin
that kept us from God. And with that sin being put away
forever, 2 Corinthians 4 says we can now look right into the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. He is not just the potentate
and King and Lord, he is the blessed potentate and King and
Lord. He is the author, he is the finisher
of our salvation and our faith. He is our maker, our defender,
our redeemer, our friend. And the end of verse 16 says,
to whom be honor and power everlasting, amen. Amen means we believe it, we
agree with it, we desire it, we cry it, we want it. Amen. I pray God will reveal that to
us. I pray the spirit will reveal Christ to us. That we may know
him when he returns. I want to know him when he returns. I want you to know him when he
returns. I want us to bow to Him and worship
Him when He returns. That is life eternal. Amen.