keep your Bible open there to
the book of Revelation. I have thought about looking
at this book of Scripture with you for many, many times before,
but I have not done that. To tell you the truth, the book
of Revelation is intimidating to me because there's so much
there I just don't understand. But at the same time, even though
in ourselves, we feel inadequate, yet the Lord here has given us
this text of scripture by the Apostle John, and he has given
it to his church. And therefore, even though we
may not understand all of it, there's definitely things there
that are meant for us, the things that we do understand. And so
I want to look at this with you together. I'm not sure how far
we'll go in this book, and I haven't abandoned the Gospel of John,
but to give you a little bit of background of what happened
as this came about, I was reading in the book of Jeremiah, And
in the book of Jeremiah, if you recall that large Old Testament
prophecy, some 52 chapters, and each chapter fairly long, it's
a recorded prophecy of God's dealings with the nation of Judah
and Jerusalem through the period of time of, I think, four kings. And it was a prophecy of that
nation being taken into captivity by the Babylonian Empire, especially
the king, Nebuchadnezzar. And it's a very sad thing. In fact, the book of Lamentations,
which follows Jeremiah, are the weepings of Jeremiah over that
people that were taken captive. And if you read that book, you'll
see over and over again in that book these people who were in
that land of Judah and Jerusalem were the people outwardly called
the people of God, and yet they were idolaters. They served the
idols of the very nations who held them captive, like the Egyptians.
And they also served the idols of the other countries that were
their enemies, like the Syrians, or the Assyrians, or the Babylonians,
or the Canaanites. And so all these countries around
them had idols, and the people of Israel were worshipers, idol
worshipers. And so, because of that long
disobedience with God, the people of Judah and Jerusalem were taken
captive by their enemies, the Babylonians, who obviously were
idolaters too. And they went there and were
captive for 70 years to the king of Babylon. and to those people. And when they, when Jeremiah
brought this prophecy, and here's where it begins to, you'll see
how this work its way into our own topic of the sermon. When
Jeremiah brought this prophecy, the land of Judah and Jerusalem
was ruled by a king And the prophecy that they would be taken captive
by the Babylonians came as very unwelcome news, as you can expect,
so that the people hearing Jeremiah accused him of treason and treachery
of being a pawn, a servant of the King of Babylon, their enemies. And so he was threatened with
being put in prison. He was actually put in prison
at one point. He was let down in a dungeon that was full of
mire. There was nothing to drink. It
was a horrible place. And so they treated Jeremiah
So they would have killed him had they not feared their own
lives being killed by God for killing God's prophet. And so
he was rescued at a number of occasions. But the point is,
is that the very prophecy God gave Jeremiah over all these
kings to deliver them was so unwelcome and so unexpected that
they wanted to kill the prophet. And the prophecy was that they
who were left in Jerusalem and in Judah, that refused to go
and submit to the king of Babylon, they were actually destroyed
by the king. And that was part of the prophecy.
And yet those who were went out and submitted themselves to the
king of Babylon, were taken captive for sure, and were carried away
captive, and they died there in that land, but they had children,
they married, they had children, and God promised through all
this destruction, through all this, that came upon Judah and
Jerusalem, that though they were in Babylon for 70 years, God
would bring them out, and God would actually save a remnant
And it was during this time that God promised that a woman would
encompass a man, which is a prophecy of the birth of Christ. So we
see that even in this Old Testament prophecy in which the people
of God, called the people of God, were idolaters, and were
taken captive and destroyed. Many of them were just destroyed,
horrible deaths. Some were roasted, roasted by
the King of Babylon. Or their eyes were put out. They
were just killed with a sword, with famine, with pestilence.
And then a few of them, compared to the whole nation, maybe a
few thousand, were taken captive into Babylon. And they were there
70 years, according to Jeremiah's prophecy. And while they were
there, they were supposed to submit. to the king of Babylon. They were supposed to get married,
raise crops, and do whatever you would normally do in your
life. And God promised that he would bring them back into that
land. Now, it was because of that And coincident with that,
our own situation in history that prompted me then to think
about these things. And of course, Babylon is huge
in scripture. It's not only in the book of
Jeremiah, but it's spoken of in Genesis 10, where they raised
up this tower of Babel. That's where it all started.
Babylon was that place raised up when these men got together
to create a way to God, and this tower to take over, to rule,
and prevent themselves from being destroyed again by a flood. Of
course, that was foolish, but this tower of Babylon, this place
called Babylon, began even in Genesis, and it was carried through
by God, and we find it in the book of Revelation, which is
why I then began to read the book of Revelation, because I
wanted to understand, what is Babylon, and how does this relate
to us? And because of our current history,
it does, it overlaps significantly. And this is, this is really,
the book of Revelation is an unfolding, God unfolding to his
church the view of heaven. And this is very important for
us. There's four things that we need to keep in mind as believers. Number one, God has given his
saints his word, the gospel. Number two, God has given them
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ through that gospel. And number
three, God has given them, out of that faith, to cry unto God
in prayer. And number four, that same gospel
has given them a view of Christ's work. and his present rule in
heaven over all things in the universe, especially things on
earth, but things in heaven too, in order to accomplish his eternal
purpose to save his people and to utterly destroy his enemies. Now, this is a theme of all of
Scripture, really, but the book of Revelation lays it out in
this symbolic language in such a way that it is designed to
give God's church, from the cross to the end of time, this great
comfort by God to see what God is doing in the world today.
And one of the things that you see in the book of Revelation
and throughout Scripture is that God's people are tempted They
are persecuted. They experience trials and afflictions. And all of this, in all of their
trials and all of their afflictions, God's church, like those people
back in Judah and Jerusalem, in the book of Jeremiah, and
throughout the Old Testament, and in the book of Revelation,
God's church experience the same kinds of trouble that the world
experiences while they're in this world. And yet, In all of
this, they emerge as more than conquerors through Christ who
loved us. And so this is really the summary
of the book of Revelation. In everything that we live upon
as believers in Christ, through the gospel, looking to Christ
only, having his word, holding the testimony of Christ, and
having only faith, to depend on these things, God-given faith
that God's Word is true, and experiencing all these troubles,
and yet, in all of this, God promises his people, though it
appears as if you are losing, know this, that Christ is triumphant,
and you shall emerge utterly triumphant and victorious in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I say all that by way of
introduction here. This is really the summary of
the book of Revelation. But then I also wanted to say
this by a way of introduction here. And this is not meant to
be any kind of promoting of myself in any way.
But by God's grace, by God's grace, my family, we lived in
a church that was not teaching the truth. during our childhood. We heard about Jesus. We heard
about Jesus Christ. We heard about that Christ came
into the world and was born by a virgin. We heard that he grew
up and that he lived a life and that he did miracles. We heard
about that. We heard, we read the New Testament. We read the Old Testament as
a family we did. We even read the book of Revelation.
I remember sitting around and reading it out of the translation
called The Living translation, and we would read that, and we
did all these things, but we were in a church that did not
teach, did not know the truth of the gospel that we professed
to believe. We didn't know what the gospel
was, and I say that personally because at the age of about 17,
by God's grace, I came under the hearing through a sermon
preached by a man on a tape. I wasn't present when it was
preached, but I heard in this sermon that all the things I
was told to do in order to be a Christian and to know that
I was saved. All those things were so misdirected
that they left me from childhood under the fear of suffering eternal
damnation and the only way out of that was by what I could do
in order to be saved. to be a Christian. And yet the
gospel I heard on this tape was that it's not what God thinks
of me that is my salvation, but what he did and thinks of Christ. And that was it. Period. It's
what God thinks of Christ that is my salvation. Now that, that
came to me at that age some, gotta calculate, some 50 years
ago. Amazing grace. And you know what? That truth has stuck with me
by God's grace even till today. It is the most precious thing
in all of Scripture that God considers and looks to His Son
for me, who was ruined in my sin, rebellious in my life. Just as much a sinner, if not
more than, everyone around me. So that as I grew older, I realized
that the very problem, the problem in my life was me. And I could
do nothing about it. And my only hope is if God saved
me by Christ and for the glory of His name, entirely by His
work alone. Now, I say all that because some
50 years ago, if the Lord had decided to come to this earth
and to end history and time and bring his people to himself at
that time, I would not have been saved. But the Lord's mercy is
here today with us. Here we are, living, hearing
the gospel week by week. Consider this to be God's great
mercy. Those people in Judah and Jerusalem
who were idolaters, you know what happened to them? They were
destroyed. Destroyed. Men, women, and children
were destroyed by the king of Babylon. They were idolaters
and they died in their idolatry. And the book of Revelation talks
about most of humanity perishing because they will not repent. And yet, God's people are given
this grace, that even though they are just like others, by
His grace, God, through His Son, has redeemed them from all their
sins, and given them His Spirit, called them by His grace, and
given them faith in Christ, in His Word, and now they live continuously
feeding upon that word concerning Christ, just as I have experienced
in these some fifty years, having come out of the bondage of my
own sinfulness and the deception of false religion in this world,
and all of the lusts of the flesh, enticements of this world, and
And all those things piled up together with the kingdom of
Satan out to destroy God's people and my own soul, and yet God
has saved us by his grace. That's what the book of Revelation
is teaching us. It's given to the people of God.
The church is given to us by Christ himself, and the message
of the book of Revelation is given to us in the first verses. Notice here, the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Is that simple? It's the revelation
of Jesus Christ. Notice it says in the title of
your Bible, the revelation of Saint John the Divine. It is
not the revelation of Saint John the Divine. Yes, it was given
to him in order to write it down, but it was not the revelation
of him. It didn't come from Him. It was
not a revelation about Him. It came from Christ. It was given
by God to Christ to be a revelation of Jesus Christ Himself. And
that's why it's so emphatic here. It says, I am the Alpha, the
first letter, and the Omega, the last letter of the Greek
alphabet. The end, the beginning and the end, the first and preeminent
one, and the one who fills all things, the one for whom all
things are done. And so this is the revelation
of Jesus Christ. Now, is that good news? It's bad news to the world. It's
very, very bad news to the world. Because in this book it says
that the men of this world, under the outpouring of God's judgment
upon it, will cry out to the mountains and to the hills and
say, Fall on us and hide us from the wrath of the Lamb. The wrath
of the Lamb. And yet, what we read in chapter
5 of Revelation is that we were redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. The one against whom we've sinned,
whose wrath is justly against us, has redeemed us by his own
blood." Now that's grace, isn't it? We just sang it. Redeemed. Redeemed. Redeemed by the blood
of the Lamb. You see, God's people have been
given this view of God's salvation in Jesus Christ. And it is so
all-captivating to them that it guides their entire thinking
throughout all of their life. And we learn this in this book,
this book of Revelation, that even though we see it in those
seven churches that are listed there, At the beginning of the
book, we see them going through all these things where the Lord
Jesus Christ, he warns them and he tells them of the things that
he's concerned about with them. And yet through all of that,
Christ is among them. He's in the midst of the seven
candlesticks. So we want to look at this book.
We want to look at this book in an overview sort of way. I'm
not going to be able to give you, as I said, I am not an expert
in this book. But I will say this. As a child,
as a young person, and as an adult, I have heard what men
say as the interpretation of the Book of Revelation. And unfortunately,
almost all of them are completely wrong. And that's a sad thing. You'll be driving by, and you'll
see a sign. We're studying the Book of Revelation.
You know what? I am not at all enticed to go
listen to that. Because I grew up under the false
notion that there's all these things. In fact, there were movies
made. Literally, movies made. And things in Revelation were
interpreted in the most flamboyant ways, like helicopters. In terms
of the scorpions, it says, these were helicopters. Or Armageddon,
that's the battle where all the nations of the world are gathered
together against the nation of Israel, and the blood's going
to flow to the horse's bridle for salt. Now, all these things
are hooey. They have nothing to do with
the true meaning of the book of Revelation. And that we will
hopefully see when we get into this book. But today, what I
want to do here is just give you just an introduction to this
book. And I've entitled today's message,
the message is in the verse 7, where it says, behold, he cometh. Behold, he cometh. Now, let me
just focus on that title for just a minute here from verse
seven. He cometh, meaning the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice
in that same verse, behold, he cometh with clouds and every
eye shall see him. The coming, the Lord Jesus Christ
is coming again. He came the first time to salvation,
and he bore the sins of his people. But it says in Hebrews chapter
9, at the end of the chapter, in chapter 9 of Hebrews, that
he will come the second time without sin unto salvation, the
salvation of his people. But at the same time, he comes
also in judgment. He came the first time, he was
judged. and the wrath of God that was
justly against us, he bore for his people. He didn't raise a
hand to judge the people at that time. I did not come to condemn
the world, but to save the world. That's what he says in John 3,
verse 17. But here, he's coming, it says,
he cometh with clouds, and that's a symbol to signify the glory
of his coming. the majesty of his coming. He
comes with clouds, and every eye shall see him. How will Jesus
Christ come? He will come visibly. He won't
come in a mysterious, symbolic way. He will literally come. Jesus Christ, who was born into
this world, shall come again, and he will come as the God-man,
as he is in heaven. Not as a baby, not as in his
humiliation, but in all the majesty of his glory and power, and all
of the authority of judgment. And he will come to save his
people, and they will be caught up in the air. Those who are
alive, it says in 1 Corinthians 15, they will be caught up together
with the Lord in the air in 1 Thessalonians 4. And those who are dead will
be raised. And they will together be with
the Lord in the air when he comes again to judge the ungodly in
the world. And so he cometh. And notice
here when it says, behold, he cometh, it's a present tense. Now this is significant because,
and it's not the only place he says he's coming in the book
of Revelation. It says it throughout and we'll
go to some of those places. But he cometh with clouds. In
other words, when we as believers have the word of God in our hand
and we live in our lives, we sometimes forget this is the
way things really are. This is it. And we live our lives,
we experience things. I turn on the water faucet, the
water doesn't come out. I go to the car and start it,
it doesn't start. Oh man. And we feel like I'm under a
trouble, I'm under a trial. That's hardly even worthy to
be compared a trouble or a trial. No, you see, all of our life
there are these spiritual enemies. spiritual enemies. And they're
against us because of our sin. But because Christ has delivered
us from our sin, and yet we still have this flesh, these enemies
come against us in order to refine that faith God has once given
us. In order that that faith might be so refined that we find
Christ to be our all. And it is when we know Christ
to be our all, our strength, our righteousness, everything
to us that God has for us, that that faith then is perfected
so that the will of God that has been declared to us is done
and we're on board, we're completely in agreement with it, depending
upon Christ, giving him honor and glory, supplicating to him,
making our prayers to him, looking forward to his coming in expectation. And this is because we have the
word of God. Now, I was telling Denise as
I was reading this, I noticed that when God describes angels,
he describes their strength. He describes their ability to
serve God so faithfully. He describes their wisdom and
their swiftness to do God's will. But when he describes the saints,
do you know what he says about them? They're given the gospel. They're given faith in Christ. And that's all they have. They
have the spirit, I say all, but they don't have strength in themselves. They don't have wisdom. They
don't have this swiftness to do God's will. And they find
themselves wrestling, like Paul said in the book of Romans, chapter
seven, the things that I would do, I don't do, and the things
that I don't want to do, I do. And who's going to deliver me
from the body of this flesh? They're weak and helpless, but
they've been given the word of God, which is almighty. The sword
of Christ's mouth, his word, is the truth. It's what's happening. It's what controls everything.
Just as God, by his word, created the world, Christ, by his word,
now rules the universe. And whatever he says is what
is done. Now, I want to overlay this with
what's going on in our world. Because in the world, we have
all this stuff. And what's going on, there's
all sorts of things. We've got people wanting to go
to Mars, and we've got people who are elected, and people who
trust that now things are going to be so much better in the world.
And they begin to get this hope that because of a man, or because
of a governance, a political institution, or organizations,
that things are going to somehow get better in the world, and
we're going to have peace in the world and stuff. But the
problem is, is that there's something wrong inside of us. And there's
a warfare, it's a spiritual warfare. And the things of this world
that entice us and make us feel complacent and have no need of
Christ, those are the very enemies of our soul. And it's wrong for
us, it's so deadly wrong for us to take hold of political
things and things in this world or religious things and find
comfort in that. It's so wrong. We have to be
separated from this world. And love not the world, neither
the things in the world. The things of this world are
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life. And whoever loves the world has not the love of God in them,
1 John chapter 2. So these incredibly powerful
enemies that are portrayed in the book of Revelation symbolically
as this beast coming out of the ocean or the seas and having
ten heads and ten crowns and horns and then another beast
out of the land and giving, making everyone worship that first beast
and then this This harlot who sits on this beast and all of
the kingdoms of the world are lusting after her and have given
themselves over to her. And there's this dragon giving
power to the beast and to the woman and all these things. What
they have to do with are these spiritual entities. these things
of the world, and the religions of this world, and the temptations
that these things are designed by Satan to do in order to destroy
the Church of God. And yet through all this, God,
the Lord Jesus Christ, He is with His people. He says in the
first chapter here, He is with them. He is among them. John heard a voice behind him
and when he turned to see the one who was speaking, he saw
this one described here in chapter 1. He says, He says, I was in
the spirit, and he says, look at this in verse 12, I turned
to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw,
what? Seven golden candlesticks. That's
in verse 12. Then in verse 13, And this describes
a high priest, doesn't it? Our priest, our high priest,
and his head and his hairs were white like wool. He's the Lamb
of God. White as snow, and his eyes were
as a flame of fire, seething with his all-seeing eye. His
purpose, God's purpose, the wisdom of God, penetrating, dividing
between the joints and the marrow and the soul and the spirit.
knowing the hearts of men and the people who are his, and his
feet like to find brass as if they burned in a furnace, because
he did undergo the flames of God's wrath for us, and his voice
as the sound of many waters, and he had in his right hand
the seven stars, seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp
two-edged sword, and his countenance, what he looked like was as the
sun shining in its strength. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And He's where? He's in the candlesticks. He's
with them. He's with His people. You see
how significant it is that the Lord Jesus Christ said, I am
with you always, even unto the end of the earth. He says, everything
will pass away, but my word shall not pass away. You're going to
be tried, but I'll be with you in the trial. Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, thrown by the king of Babylon into the fiery furnace,
and guess who was there? A son of God. The son of God
was with them. You see, all the Old Testament
and the New Testament is this message that Christ is with His
people. They are with Him. They're living
upon Him as we live upon bread and water and wine. They eat
of His flesh and blood by faith. We're always taking of His life,
trusting the merits of His blood and righteousness to purge us
from our sins and to make us holy in the sight of God. in
order to save us from our sins in this world, and Satan and
all of his power, and to bring us into the presence of the one
whose feet were like they are fine brass here, and his robe,
and everything about him is so glorious for his people. So you
see that even in this first chapter, it opens up this way. Where is
Christ? With his people. Where are his
people? They're in these churches. They're with the Lord Jesus Christ.
He walks among them. Remember in the garden? Adam
had sinned against God and the voice of the Lord was heard walking
in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam hid himself.
Here the Lord Jesus Christ is walking amongst his people. And
they're not hiding. All of this glorious person and
they're not hiding. because they are his bride. And they are the people of his
love, the people of his purchase by his blood. And he's teaching
them, he's leading them, and he's showing them things. He's
unfolding things to them. And so this is the beginning
of the revelation of Jesus Christ. First we see him in his person
and in his work, and now we see him with his church. And that's
what we want to go through here. Let me just read this with you
as we walk through it. It says, in verse one, As I said,
this is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him.
God the Father gave this to his son to show unto his servants,
that would be his apostles and his people, through them, which
things must shortly come to pass. Now, as I said in verse 7, he
says, behold, he cometh. The Book of Revelation is describing
things that come to pass shortly, that come to pass throughout
the unfolding of the entire New Testament period. What happens
in the Book of Revelation is not just, well, there was the
city of Rome, there was the governor of Rome, the Caesar, and then,
of course, there was the Catholic Church that came out of that
horrible city of lust and all this stuff. homosexuality, and
sacrifices to idols, and they even made Caesar their god, and
they burned Christians, they put tar on them, and they hung
them on crosses, and burned them, and lit the fire, lit the cities
with their burning bodies, and a horrible, horrible place. But
it's not just about that. It's about that, and everything
throughout history like that. Whether it be the United States,
or Rome, or Argentina, or Belgium, or China, or Israel. It's all
part of the same system. And the same problems are there.
It's that kingdom of this world, which is under the dominion of
Satan, the prince of the power of the air, who now works in
the children of disobedience. It's that kingdom, which is in
opposition to the church and particularly Satan opposed to
Christ. And we see the battle unfolding
with his attack on the church, but really it's an attack on
Christ himself by Satan. And he just works through these
governments and through these false religions. And he does
all of this, of course, according to God's will, in order to bring
his people to a closer relationship and dependence upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. So he says, the revelation of
Jesus Christ God gave to him to show his servants things which
must shortly come to pass, throughout the whole New Testament era,
and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant
John, and John bare record of the word of God." Now, here again,
what has God given us? His word, faith in Christ, And
by that faith, he's given us this patience, this waiting,
this ability by grace to depend on his word as the way things
are. So that in every suffering, in
every effort, and all the work we pursue, we're always looking
to Christ in our prayers, in our praise, our thanksgiving,
our meeting together, everything. We depend on Christ to make what
we do effective, to bring about his will, and also to give us
the victory in it, to make it acceptable to God. So John bear
record of the word, that's all we have is the word of God, but
that's enough. And the testimony of Jesus Christ,
that's what the word is about. His testimony of himself and
of all things that he saw. John saw these things given to
him by Christ. And here is the blessing. Now,
blessed is he that readeth the word. And they that hear the
words of this prophecy. Not just revelation, because
revelation is just more of the same revelation that came before
concerning Christ. But when we hear the Word of
God, we hear it with God-given faith. By the Spirit of God,
we hear it. And keep those things which are
written therein. That's faith. for the time is
at hand. You see, it's immediately now.
It's not like something that's going to happen in a future 25-25. And, or even 1995. But it happens throughout time,
from the cross to the end of time. And then in verse 4, John
to the seven churches which are in Asia. Now these churches,
there were seven physical churches there, but they're used representatively
to signify all of God's people throughout the New Testament
era. All of the churches. And so he says, because Christ
is with his people. John to the seven churches which
are in Asia, grace be to you and peace from him, Christ. Actually, this is the Father.
From him which is, and which was, and which is to come, grace
from God our Father, and from the seven spirits which are before
his throne, meaning the Spirit of God, and from Jesus Christ. You see the Trinity here. And
the Lord Jesus, as our mediator, who is the faithful witness,
and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings
of the earth, unto him that loved us, washed us from our sins in
his own blood, and made us kings and priests to God, and to his
father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Now,
if you just take those first six verses there, from verse
four to verse six. This is really a summary. This
is a proclamation of what this book is about. The message of
this book is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to the
church, to those God the Father has chosen in Christ. That's
in verse... Verse 1, He is, He was, and He is to come because
He's unchanging. God the Father is from everlasting
to everlasting. And His will is from everlasting
to everlasting. His knowledge, His wisdom, everything
about God is unchanging, eternal, and it most definitely comes
about. And He upholds all things. And
yet, there's also in the Trinity God the Spirit and God the Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 5, it says Jesus Christ
is the faithful witness. And the word witness here means
martyr. It's the word in the Greek, if
you look at it, it's the same word that's used when they martyred
Stephen or when other people were martyred in Scripture. Antipas,
in fact, in this, later on in this chapter 2, it talks about
Antipas who was martyred. The same word is used here as
witness. Christ was slaughtered. He was martyred. He was put to
death according to the will of God by vicious, God-hating people. That's what we are. And he did
it willingly in order to save his people. He's faithful. It
was faithful unto death. And the first begotten of the
dead, Christ is the first one who rose from the dead. That
means he died. That means he died and paid for
our sins. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. The reason Christ lives is because
he's justified. And we are justified and therefore
we live in him. But always remember that every
time it speaks in scripture of Christ being delivered unto death,
put to death, and raised again from the dead, this is speaking
of all of his people. We're all with Christ in this.
We died when he died. We were raised when he was raised.
We overcame death in his death. We live because he lives. He's
the first begotten from the dead. And He's the Prince of the Kings
of the Earth. He's the Lord of Lords and the
King of Kings. Notice, here's the praise the
God's people give. Here is the faith of God's elect
unto Him, Christ, that loved us. And when he loves us, notice
what he did. And he washed us from our sins
in his own blood. That's satisfaction. That's the
work of our high priest. That's the work of the one who
overcame death as our king. The one who fulfilled God's word
and gave it to us as our prophet. This is Christ the Lord. And
he has made us kings and priests to God. and his father, kings,
rule. And as those who are given grace,
we rule in life because of righteousness. Isn't that what Romans 5.21 says?
He says, where sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. We're given this. We're made
kings and priests. because we offer to God. We offer
our thanksgiving, our praise, our prayers, and it's all made
acceptable through Jesus Christ, who was offered for us. And this
is to God and to his father. He made us this to our God and
to his God and his father, who is now our God and our father,
speaks of the covenant. To him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. The church resoundingly
says to this, amen. Truth, so be it. Let God say
so too. I agree. I want this. This is
the way things are. Amen. That's what he's saying
here. And that's when it says, behold, he cometh. He's coming
now. This is not some kind of a, you
know, well, I'm not quite sure if this is going to happen. Well,
it might happen someday. No, he's coming. Whenever God
speaks, it's done. Christ said he's coming. He said,
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. That where
I am, there you may be also. And the coming of Christ is going
to be unfolded in this book. And I'm going to stop there with
this brief introduction of this book. There's very plain truths
in this book. And I want you to see them. The
first thing we see here is that the Lord Jesus Christ rules.
He rules because He died for His people, and we rule because
He died for us. Isn't that amazing? We who were
sinners as others, and subject to the same wrath of God as others,
the Lord Jesus Christ shed His blood, bearing our sins, and
that wrath in order to make us kings and priests to God His
Father. You didn't contribute. I didn't
contribute. We're given this. And we're given
this grace to lay hold of it by faith and to hold on clinging
to this and to continue holding on until the end. This is the
grace we pray for, isn't it? This is the grace we give thanks
for. This is the God we worship, because
He saved us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us
kings and priests to God. What a Savior! He has power over
all of our enemies, especially Satan, and death, and the grave,
and our sin. Amazing grace. Let's pray. Father, We pray, according to
the work, your will and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
has made us your children by his own blood and given us his
spirit to know our sonship according to your eternal will and predestinating
grace, we pray, Lord, that we would be given this grace to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and so believing him, see the
things that are true and eternal, things that must and shall surely
come to pass, and we know, Lord, from his word, the Lord Jesus
Christ is coming. He cometh, and let us not doubt,
let us not see the troubles and even sufferings and death in
his life to be any impediment to the fulfillment of His will,
because they're all together, working together for our good
and His glory, to bring us to Himself, to save us to the uttermost,
and to cause us in our hearts now to worship and trust Christ,
and give Him this thanksgiving from our heart, because of His
grace, saved purely by His grace. What a magnificent all majestic
Savior, who humbled Himself and loved us and gave Himself for
us. May He receive all power and honor and glory forever and
ever. Amen. In His name we pray.