Well, it is a joy to be here
with you. It's been a while since I've been here. We're thankful
that we're back. Turn back with me to the book
of Revelation where our brother read to you. We're going to start
and look at a few verses here. Men have often said that this
is a book that cannot be understood. Men talk about, oh, it's too
deep. He's talking about things that
are going to happen in the future and this and that, and we don't
understand it. If you read the first verse, it tells you about what this
book is about, from Genesis through Revelation. This is the revelation
of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to show unto his servant
things that must shortly come to pass. This whole book from
Genesis through Revelation is telling us what's going to happen. What has happened? And what's
going to happen? Who Christ is, what he did, why
he did it, and where he's at right now. That's what this revelation
tells us. And it's one single revelation,
viewed in many concepts, from the creation of the world to
the finishing of the world, to return us unto glory. the revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave unto him to show his servant things that must
shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it
by his angel unto his servant John. And he told John, write
this in a book. You write this down. What you
see and what you hear, you write it down and you send it unto
the seven churches of Asia. Now does that mean seven churches? No. That means the number seven
is used as a completion. You send it to every church.
You send it and you read it and you preach it in every congregation. And John to the seven churches
of Asia. And he said, blessed. is he that
heareth, and he that understandeth, and he that readeth these words. This is a blessed time that we
have come to read God's Word. John, you write these things
down, and you send them to my people throughout all ages, throughout
all the world. And blessed are they. Oh, blessed
are they. that read and understand these
things, that hear and comprehend by the grace of God. And he says,
Grace be unto you. Grace be unto you. Oh, what more
could be said? When we stand before a congregation,
We pray that God's grace would be with us and be with you as
we speak that you may hear. We don't come to these places
to be seen. I could easily tell you what
I'm going to tell you sitting right standing up there or sitting
right over here. But we're here by the grace of
God. to tell his people, to comfort
his people, to lift up his people, and to point all men to Christ.
This is the sole duty of a preacher, is to point men to Christ. Tell
them who he is and what he has done and where he's at right
now. This is a common salutation or
greeting unto those whom one is writing unto. Grace and peace. Oh, these two things fulfill
every need that we have. Every need that we have to stand
before God and for God to be satisfied with us, we find it
in these two words, grace and peace. You're saved by grace
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our peacemaker. He has
established peace for us, and we rest in Him. Grace is God's
free, loving favor bestowed upon those who deserve His wrath.
Grace is God not giving us what we deserve. We deserve the wrath
of God because of the things of this flesh, because of the
sins of this flesh. But, oh, by His grace, He gives
us that which we do not deserve. And He includes, oh, the bounties
of heaven, all that He has reserved for us in time to come. We find it by His grace. We receive
it by His grace. We receive this thing of pardon
for sin. Sin has been put away by the
grace of God through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have justification before Him. We stand before Him justified. Right now. Right now. We stand before God justified. Who can condemn us? We have everything that we need
in this life and in the life to come in Jesus Christ our Lord. And oh, we have eternal life.
We have eternal life. You and I shall live forever
in the very presence of God. Those outside of Christ, their
bodies and their souls want to live forever. When God breathed
into Adam, the breath of life. The scripture says, He became
a living soul. That soul that God breathed into,
it shall live forever, some words. It will never die because it
has the breath of God. Because it has God-given breath,
that soul shall never die. We shall spend eternity, some
words. By grace, We shall spend eternity
in glory. Without grace, we shall spend
eternity in torment. See how this thing of grace is
so needed? It's not what we deserve. We
deserve His wrath. But in His love, He shows us
grace. He gives us perseverance. By grace, we persevere. The Scripture
says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
We persevere. We continue from day to day only
by His grace. And we're sanctified. Oh, we
are declared in the very eyes of God to be holy. Well, you
can't be talking about me. I am, if you're in Christ, you're
sanctified, you're set apart for the glory of God. God calls
his people and he says, come unto me and I'll give you rest. Look unto me, all ye ends of
the earth, for life and immortality. And oh, we have this thing of
glorification. Are we glorified right now in
this flesh? No. When this flesh is put off, we
enter into the very presence of God. We enter into glory itself,
and we sit down and worship our great God and Savior. William Hendricks described this
thing of peace as a reflection of the smile of God and the hearts
of the believer who have been reconciled to God through Jesus
Christ. Let me read you that again. The
reflection of the smile of God in the hearts of the believer
who have been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. We have
peace. We have the smile of God. We
have the favor of God. We have the understanding of
God, but we only have it in and through grace and peace, which
is found only in Christ and Christ alone. One writer said, peace is always
the result of revealed grace. Without revealed grace, there
is no peace. Without you knowing grace, without
God teaching you what grace is, putting into your heart this
new creation that He created within you, this thing of grace,
we will never understand peace. But, oh, when He causes us to
see, causes us to understand, and causes us to know that I
am His and He is mine, I have peace. We hear him say, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love. You're mine. You're mine. Because you're precious
in my sight. Because you're precious in my
sight, I've called you to myself. You remember the story in Ezekiel
of the babe that was cast out into the field. We have a picture
of human nature right there. This babe that was born, no one
pitted it. The mother, and whether this
is a true story or just an allegory, I don't know. But this picture
that we have is this young babe that had just been born. It would
cast out into the burning sand. into a deserter's place. It has
not been swallowed at all, neither washed at all. It was just thrown
out there. And that's a picture of you and
I by nature. We have no hope. None I pitied
thee. You were cast out into the loathing
of thyself. And what happens? without grace,
without God passing by. He said, when I passed by, thy
time was a time of love. And I spread my skirt over you,
which is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I swallowed
you. I cleaned you. I put a gold necklace
upon your neck. And I done all these things for
you. Although you didn't know me. Although you didn't know
me. That's a picture in you and I,
left to ourselves. Those who know the grace of God
enjoys the peace of God. We enjoy it. Or we can go home,
lay down on the couch, and just rest. All is well with my soul. but only in Christ. This is why
it's so important for men who teach and preach the gospel to
appoint men to Christ. Every service. Every service.
We have but one message. We have but one message. We have
66 books here in this Bible. And they all tell of one message.
That's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's all we've got. Let other
men, if they will, dig and find new revelations, they call them.
But we have one story. Brother Henry told a story years
ago, years ago. He said it was an old man playing
a guitar, and he hit one chord, one chord. That's all he hit.
And someone asked him, he said, well, why do you hit just one
chord? He said, all these other people are going up and down
the neck, you know, hitting this and that. He said, I found it.
They're still searching for it, but I found it. That one chord. That one chord. One message. One message. And that is the
grace of God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you and peace.
From Him which is, which was, and which is to come. Some may
differ. Some may believe one thing or
another on this. But these phrases that is put
here, from Him which is, which was, and which is to come, is
the Trinity of God. The Trinity of God. As we spoke
a while ago, verse 3 and 1, and 1 and 3. Others think that it's Christ
alone. You can't worship one without the other. He said, I
am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, said the Lord,
which is, which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. This
is God in three persons. This is Him with whom we have
to do. This is the God that is going
to judge the world, the quick and the dead. This is Him that
must be answered to. This is Him that we must give
an account for all of our sins. We either give an account in
Jesus Christ or we stand before Him to hear His account. Depart
unto Me, depart unto Me, ye that work iniquity, I never knew you.
Go into everlasting torment, I never knew you. I never confessed
you before my Father. He says, John, to the seven churches
which are in Asia, grace and peace be unto you, from him which
is and which was, which is to come, and from the seven spirits
which are before his throne. Again, the number seven is used
for fulfillment. We know that this number seven,
on the seventh day, God rested from all his labor. And throughout
this book, he uses this number 7 as a complete number. One that cannot be added to and
one that cannot be taken away from. It's 7. And as we study this book, oh,
that God would give us an understanding that who Christ is. Now look
at verse 5. from him which is, which was,
and which is to come, and from Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? You ask this, and men say, well,
that's a silly question. You shouldn't ask that. Everybody
knows who he is, but not so. We know that he was born of Mary,
according to Scripture. We know that his name was called
Jesus, according to Scripture. This Jesus is the Christ. This one, who is called Jesus,
if you read through the first chapter of Revelation, I think
it's 17 different names that He has given here in this one
chapter. 17 different names. He's the King
of Kings. He's the Lord of Lords. He's
not the old man upstairs that's wondering if anybody's going
to serve Him. That's not Him. That's not our Lord. That's not
our Jesus. That's not our Christ. He is the Promised One, the Anointed
One, the Messiah, the One set forth in types and prophecies
and pictures in the Old Testament, the long-awaited Redeemer, the
King of His people. He is the Son of God and He is
the Son of Man, Emmanuel of God, the Emmanuel of God, God being
with us. and as He is also a man. I don't
know who first said this. I believe it was Brother Henry
that I heard say it first. He said, He is as much God as
though He were not man, and as much man as if He were not God.
This God-man is the Savior of the world. You say, what? That's
what John said, 1 John chapter 4 verse 14. And we have seen
Him and do testify of Him, do testify that the Father sent
Him to be the Savior of the world. Does that mean everybody in the
world? No. Men get these things all turned
around. Well, you say, well, He's come
to save the whole world. He's pleading for the whole world.
No, He's not. He said, Father, I pray for them.
I pray for them that thou gavest me. I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou gavest me. They were thine, and thou
givest them to me. And I have glorified thy name. And I have given my glory unto
them. And they do testify of me. They
tell of me. They tell who I am and what I
did. And salvation is to be held only
Only by trusting in Christ. Any other Christ is a false Christ. We have churches all over our
region, all over our country, in every small town and every
wide spot on the road that is preaching a Christ that wants
to do something but can't. That's wanting to save everybody,
but everybody won't let him. That's not the Christ of this
Bible. That's not the Christ that we proclaim. And we're thankful
that that's not the Christ that comes into the world to save
a people. For everyone that he came and
shed his blood for, they shall be saved. They shall be called
and they shall come unto him and they shall inherit eternal
life because of what he did for them. John Legge said this. The one who is to be enshrined
in our minds and hearts must be the true Christ of the Bible,
otherwise we have an idol at the center of our faith. The
one that is enshrined within our hearts must be the one that
is declared in this book how who he is and what he's done,
or else we have an idol. at the very center of our faith.
We must know Jesus Christ, and we must know what He has
done if we are to trust Him and be saved by Him. Faith in a false Christ is false
faith, and there is no hope. There is no hope. and from Jesus
Christ, who is a faithful witness. He is the faithful witness of
God. I have come to declare my Father. I came down from heaven, not
to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this
is the will of Him that sent me. Of all which He has given
me, I should lose nothing, but should raise Him up again to
the last day. Every one that God has put within my hands and
charged me to redeem them and save them and perfect them, I
finished the work. It's finished when He hung there
on the cross. I finished the work the Father
has given me to do. Now, O Father, glorify Thou me
with the glory that I had with Thee before the world was. Oh,
that we may understand this. That we may have faith in Him
to know that He and He alone is able to save. Men all around
us preaches a Jesus of this and a Jesus of that, but they do
not know the true Christ. They have a false understanding,
and God has allowed them to be blinded by their own pride and
arrogance and led men and women astray time after time after
time. The blind leadeth the blind,
and they shall both fall into the ditch. But God, oh, here
it is. But God loved us even when we
were just like them. We were dead in trespasses and
sin. We had no hope. We had no interest
in Him. We had no love for Him. We had no joy in Him until He
came and put joy within our hearts. Until He came and revealed His
grace and His peace to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Then our
eyes were opened to a point that we saw Him, and we fell before
Him and cried out, My Lord and my God. You read on through the
book of Revelation. John gives an account. He said,
I heard a great voice. I heard a great voice behind
me. And I turned to see Him, and when I saw Him, I fell at
His feet as dead. That's what sinners do when God
reveals unto them who they are and who Christ is. We fall before
Him as dead sinners. We fall before Him having no
hope, no strength, and no love for Him until He works within
our hearts. gives us a new nature and puts
the love of God within us. This is something God must do
for us, not something we do for God. Men talk about, oh, what
I've done for Jesus. The only thing I've done for
Jesus is sin against Him. Not believing Him, not trusting
Him, not having faith in Him as I ought to until He comes
unto me. Lying there in the ditch of corruption,
and the scripture says, He raises me up and sets me upon high. He sets me among the princes
of this world. Oh, He is the faithful witness.
By Him and through Him, we have this peace and grace from God
our Father. Our Lord prayed in John chapter
17 and verse 6. He says, I have manifested, or
I have made known, thy name unto the men which thou gavest me.
I have made it known unto them. I have manifested thy name to
them. I have taught them and I have
revealed it unto them. And they know it because I did
it for them and in them. that thou gavest me out of the
world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have
kept thy word. Are we faithful? Oh, no. Oh,
no. We're not faithful for anything. But we desire to be. We want
to be. We love to be faithful, but we're
so unfaithful. Our best works Our best faithfulness
is filthy rags. Filthy rags. Our Lord went on to pray in John
17. He says, And the glory which
thou gavest Me, I have given them. What is this? The glory
that He had. Faith to look to Christ. We see
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. that they may
be one, even as we are one. One. One with God in Christ. I in them, and thou in me. That they may be made perfect
in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me,
and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. with the same love. God don't have different loves
as you and I do. We love our wives, we love our
children, we love friends and neighbors in a different way.
But not so with God. The same love that He shed abroad
upon His Son, He sheds abroad upon me. How is that possible? Because I'm one in Christ. There's
no separation here. There's no big I's and little
u's. We're one in Christ. We're made
perfect in Him. And God loves us as He loves
His own begotten Son, that we may know. He said, Father,
I will. It is my desire that they also,
whom Thou hast given Me, Be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the
world hath not known thee. What's he talking about? All
these other people outside of the grace of God, they don't
know him. They have no idea who he is.
They use His name, but they do not know Him as you and I are
blessed to know Him. We know Him by grace and peace
and truth. They know Him by letter and law,
but we know Him by the righteousness of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. O righteous Father, the world
hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee, and These have known
that Thou hast sent Me. I have declared unto them thy
name, and will declare it, that the love with which thou hast
loved me may be in them, and I in them. This is our Lord's
prayer. You reckon the Father heareth
him? You reckon the Father answereth his prayers? The scripture says
he does. He said, Father, I know that
thou always heareth me. When he stood there at the tomb
of Lazarus and he prayed, he said, Father, I know that thou
always hearest me, but because of these around me, I say these
words, I pray this prayer. And then he cried, Lazarus, come
forth. What happened? Lazarus came forth. That's what happens when the
Word of God goes out to his people. They hear by the Spirit of God
and they come unto him. They believe on Him and they
rest in Him. They find comfort and peace and
joy in Him. Not only the love and the mercy
and grace and goodness of God revealed by Him, the faithful
witness, but the truth and justice of God are revealed in His sin-atoning
death. The Scripture says He is a just
God and a Savior. Now those two seem to be different.
A just God, how can a just God forgive sin? How can a Savior
save a people? In one person. In one person. Mercy or grace and truth are
met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other in the person of Jesus Christ the Lord. Being
justified freely by His grace. through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation,
a perfect pitch, as John said. He's a perfect pitchiation for
our sin. He took my place. He redeemed
me from the curse of the law, and he sat down at the right
hand of God, his work finished. whom God has set forth to be
of perpetuation through faith in His blood, to declare His
righteousness, to declare the righteousness of God and the
forgiveness of sin, the remission of sin, that are passed through
the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness,
that He might be a just God, that He might be a just and a
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. It is Christ who was
revealed the sure and certain hope of eternal glory. Without
Him, without Him, there is no peace. Without Him, there is
no sanctification. Without Him, there is no glorification. Everything... I seen a sign sometime
back, out in front of a church. It said, God put all of His eggs
in one basket. It was around Easter, and you
know how these things go, Easter egg hunting, this and that. But
they had it posted out on the front of the church. Well, that's
true. Everything that God has for His
people is found in Christ. He is the basket that holds all
the mercy, the love, the truth, the salvation of God, and He
gives it unto His people in Christ. It is Christ who must be revealed. Oh, He must be revealed. In order for us to see Him, God
must do something here, and He must do something here. He must
give us a new heart, and He must give us a new understanding. And from Jesus Christ, who is
a faithful witness, the first begotten from the dead. This
is speaking of his priestly office. He who died for our sins rose
again as our great high priest and opened up the way. That veil
between God and man was fixed. When Christ died on the cross,
the scripture says that veil was rent in twain. He opened
up the way that we may have acceptance before God. We do not go to the
priest. We do not go to the sacrifice.
We go to the throne of God. And we plead the shed blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That veil has been taken away.
That which separated the holy place from the holiest of places
has been taken away. We have free access to the throne
of God, to the grace of God, but it's only in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. The title of first begotten of
the dead implies three things. First, Christ was the first to
be raised from death to immortality. He was the first one to be raised
from death to immortality. Christ was the first one and
the only one that was raised from the dead by His own power.
Other men were raised from the dead by the power of God. But
He, He said, I have power to lay my life down and I have power
to take it up again. This commandment This law, this
commandment have I received from my Father. And that's what he
did. He laid his life down. But because of who he is and
what he did, he had the power to take it up again. He had the
power to raise himself from the dead. And Christ was raised from
the dead as the first fruits of the resurrection. He was raised
as a representative of God's elect. And His resurrection is
a plea, a pledge of our resurrection. Because I live, you shall live
also. I died, I rose again, and you
shall die, but you shall rise again, looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. Look at the next phrase here.
It says, of the kings of the earth. As a result of his death and
his resurrection, our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, has been
exalted and given dominion over all flesh. Come and sit down
on the right hand of the majesty of God. I am satisfied with your
acceptance. You have glorified me on the
earth, and now sit down, O come, and take thy high priestly position,
and sit on the right hand of the majesty of God. For God hath
highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, things
of heaven and things of the earth, and things under the earth, and
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. He is King of kings and Lord
of lords. All men are under his subjection,
whether they understand it or not. Oftentimes, men of the flesh, they wonder,
what's going to happen today? What's going to happen tomorrow?
What's going to happen when this world does this and this world
does that? Everything that God expected, or everything that
God appointed it to do. There's not one tilter. There's
not one hair that has fell off the head of his elect that he
does not know of. Every hair of your head is numbered,
and he knoweth them. There's not a sparrow that falls
from the nest that he does not see. And you have much more glory
than many sparrows. He knoweth you, He knoweth that
you are dust, but He has sent forth His Son into your hearts,
that we may cry unto Him, My Father, My Father. Who is He that condemneth? Who
is He? It's Christ that died. Christ
died to redeem His elect. Now He rules the universe to
save them. Everything that happens in this
world. Everything. Now what about this? Everything. You read Romans 8.28. Put a marker out there on that
book. And every time that something comes your way that you don't
understand, you turn back and read that. All things work together
for the good to them that love God, to them that are called
according to His purpose. Well, I don't understand it.
I don't understand it either. But that's the gospel. That's
the truth. God said it and it's sure. Let us rest in it. Let us not worry about what's
going to happen tomorrow. We know who holds tomorrow. We
know who has the power to bring these things to pass. He now
rules the universe that he might save his elect from their sins. And he's working all things.
All people are ruled by him, absolutely. All are accountable
to him. And sooner or later, all must
acknowledge his right and claim as Lord over them, either in
this life or in the life to come. They shall bow their knees And
they shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Oh, let us do it here. Let us
do it now. Unto Him that loved us. Oh, what
has the Lord Jesus Christ done for you? What has He done for
me? The Scripture says, Unto Him
that loved us. Now, there's a Theme throughout
the nation, smile, God loves you. That's not so. God's love is only found in one
person, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Outside of Christ,
God has no love for anyone. Unto him that loved us, and washed
us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests
unto God and His Father." Word could not tell all that
Christ has done. You know, the Scripture tells,
or the book of Acts, Paul said, I see through a glass dimly or
darkly. We have a glimpse. of who Christ
is. We don't see His full glory.
We have a glimpse of what He's doing right now. We don't see
His full work, His full glory. We know that He's finished the
work God gave Him to do. But we see only bits and pieces. Oh, but one day, one day the
Scripture tells us, I shall see Him as He is and be made just
like Him. But while we're in this world,
while we're in this flesh, we do see. We do see by the grace
of God. We do understand some things.
We do know and we do rest from these things because God has
told us these things are true and put it within our hearts
to understand them and to believe them. Time would not permit us to go
through all that Christ has done for His people. But the first
thing is, the Lord Jesus Christ loved us. I hope you're one of
us. I hope you're one of us. Let
men talk all they will about God's universal love. Universal
love is no love at all. No love at all. If He loved one
the same way that He loved Jacob, If he loved Esau in the same
way, and Esau departed and went to hell, then his love is not
worth mentioning. But he said, I have loved Jacob
with an everlasting love. Esau I had no love for. There's
no a little bit of love and a little bit of hate here. There is a
division that God has set. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. How did he love Jacob? He viewed
him in Christ before the foundation of the world. And he saw Esau
outside of Christ. He had no favor to Esau. He had
nothing to give Esau. He had no love for Esau. He said, well, that's not right.
You take that up with God. God said it. I didn't. I simply
read His Word. Jacob have I loved. Esau have
I hated. And He makes the division between
sheep and goats, between elect and those who perish. It's God
that does this. When we read in Holy Scripture
that Christ loved us, it means that He loved us particularly.
Particularly. Come out from among them, and
be ye a separated people, and I will be your God, and you shall
be my people." And what do we do? We come out from among this
world of religion, this world of hypocrisy and sin and destivation. We come out, but only because
Christ draws us out. Listen to what He said to Isaiah.
Isaiah 43 and verse 4. Since thou wast precious in my
sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. This is
what God says to His people. And we cry out, How am I precious
in your sight? It's because I see you as you
are in Christ. I see things as they are. And
I declare things as they are, not as men want them to be, not
as men think they are. He declares things as they are.
And he says, You are precious in my sight. Thou hast been honorable,
and I have loved thee. Oh, my. Let us enjoy the things that
Christ has so freely bestowed upon us. And not only did He
love us, He washed us from our sins in His own blood. Whom He loveth, He washed. All who are loved of God with
an everlasting love have been washed from all sin in the fountain
of His own blood. The word washed here in the Hebrew
language means loosed. We've been loosed from our sins. We go to the shower of the evening.
We loose the dirt from the body. So it is with Christ. He washed
away the filth of the flesh. Oh, although we remain in this
flesh, sinful as we are, God looks upon us, and He sees the
precious blood of Christ. He sees the atoning sacrifice
of Christ, and He says, You're precious in My sight. You're
precious. I have loved Thee with an everlasting
love. So thoroughly, and so completely,
so effectually, is the atoning sacrifice For all whom he had
bled and died are accounted before the throne of God, that he might
present in himself, or present it to himself, a glorious church,
a glorious group of people, not having spot or wrinkle or any
such thing, but it should be holy and without blemish. That's you and I. Well, I don't
see myself that way. God sees you that way. Because
that's how you are. We see ourselves as sinful, wretched,
vile, dead, miserable creatures. But God sees us washed in the
blood of Christ. And He says, you're precious.
Oh, you're precious. Christ has loosed us from the
guilt and the dominion of sin by the spirit of application
and the blood of his heart. Paul said it this way in Hebrews
9, verse 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God,
Purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. That's what He does for His people.
He loved us and He washed us from our sin. And He has made
us kings and priests under our God. Saints are made kings. Christ has made our friendship,
our ruler and our reigner over us. We have received the kingdom
of grace. If we're kings, we've got a kingdom. A king cannot be a king unless
he has a kingdom. And we have received the kingdom
of his grace, which cannot be taken away. Other kingdoms can
be overthrown, but this one cannot be. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. And we are made unto our gods,
kings and priests, and we shall reign upon the earth. I don't
understand that. I don't understand it. But I
know it's so, because the scripture tells us it's so. All glory,
all praise, and all honor is given unto him. who has shed
his blood for a people out of every kindred, tribe, tongue,
and nation, and he has made them kings and priests, and they shall
rule upon the earth. That's who you and I are, and
that's what you and I are going to do. One day, one day, it won't
be long for some of us, one day, we shall see him as he is, and
we shall be made just like him. And we shall be with him through
eternity, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. Thank you for your attention.