I'm speaking to you this morning
from the book of Revelation, the Revelation chapter 1. The Revelation chapter 1. You'll notice I did not say revelations
plural, because the name of this book is The Revelation. The Revelation. Because it is
a revelation of one thing. theme, one thing needful. There's one theme in this book,
as with all the rest of God's Word, tells of one theme, one
story. The very first verse in the Revelation
reads this way, the revelation of Jesus Christ. This book is a revelation of
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Now, the word revelation
comes from the root word reveal. Reveal. When you have something
revealed to you, it is a revelation. I hope this message will be a
revelation to you. And when something needs to be
revealed to you, that means it is hidden and someone must open
it, the understanding of it to your understanding. So it has
to be revealed. So it is with this book. Not
just the revelation, but all of God's Word. The Scripture
says in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, the natural man receiveth
not the things of God, the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually But he said up in verse 10, in writing to
the believers at Corinth, he said, But God hath revealed them
unto us by his Spirit. So the things of God, the truth,
the gospel, the understanding of God's Word must be revealed
to us by God's Spirit himself. one time, said, I thank thee,
Father, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and the
prudent, but revealed them unto babes. And except you and I become
as little children, we will not enter the kingdom. will not understand
the things of God, for if any man thinketh he knoweth anything,
he knoweth nothing, yet as he ought to know. That which is
flesh is flesh, that which is spirit is spirit, and the carnal
mind, the natural man, cannot understand the things of God,
because man is a flesh and blood creature. He can only understand
what he sees, but God is spirit. and understood spiritually, and
he must reveal himself to us. So this book, as with all of
God's word, is a revelation and a revelation from God himself. And it's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. This book, the revelation, is
the last installment, as it were, or the last chapter of all of
God's book. God's book or Bible, which is
the Greek word for book, Biblia. All of God's book is comprised
of 66 chapters or 66 books. Now, God Almighty. From the beginning
in the book of Genesis in the first two chapters is a story
of the creation, creation of all things, heaven and earth
and man. and everything in this earth.
And then in chapter 3 is the story of the fall of man. The
ruin of man. How that man died in sin. Man
lost spiritual life. And then from chapter 3 on is
the story, one story, of redemption. The story of the redemption of
some of these lost creatures. out of the race of mankind. The
story of redemption is the story of all of God's Word. And the
Redeemer, there is but one Redeemer, always has been one Redeemer,
never will be but one Redeemer, is Jesus Christ. All the Old
Testament saints were saved by Jesus Christ's redemption. And so the story is of Jesus
Christ. This book is not a story of Jewish
history. No, no, no. Christ said, you
search the scriptures and in them you think you have life,
but they are they which testify of me. One time he was walking
along with two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus. who did
not know him at the time. It was right after his resurrection. And they were discussing many
things about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel and
many things of prophecy and this and that and the other. And it
says, Christ began in the books of Moses, that's the first five
books, in the law and the prophets. Now that's the whole Old Testament.
and expounded unto them the things concerning himself." In Christ
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all the
mystery. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body, in a person, Jesus Christ. He is
the revelation of God. No man knows the God of the universe,
the true and living God, except God was made flesh. It says that
in the scriptures, that no man knoweth the Father save the Son,
and he to whom the Son will reveal Him. Jesus Christ is the revelation
of the true God. You want to know what God is
like? Study Jesus Christ. You want to know what God has
to say to man? Listen to the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ is the revelation of the
way to God, or that is, salvation. How we may know God, get to God,
how we may be accepted by God, what God requires of us, is all
found in Jesus Christ. Yes, as Colossians 3.11 says,
Jesus Christ is all and in all. He is the revelation. The revelation. And he, by the Spirit of God,
must be revealed to you." Alright? In verse 1 it goes on to say,
"...the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him." Now
God Almighty, in a covenant before the world began, and I'm Just
in short, summing up, something that is of great import and happened
in eternity past. God Almighty, consisting of three
persons of the Godhead, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in a covenant,
purposed this thing of man's redemption for the glory of the
triune God. God the Father chose whom he
would save. He elected those people. and
purpose to save them. And in that covenant, that purpose,
he gave them to his Son who agreed to come to this earth and assume
flesh and blood, to assume humanity and do what man could not do
for himself, do for those elect whom God had chosen and purpose
to save, do for them what they could not do for themselves.
That is, fulfill God's law perfectly, which a holy God requires of
man. And so Christ came to this earth
to fulfill that law, to fulfill righteousness for his people
and impute it or charge it to their account. It's not by works
of righteousness which they have done, but works of righteousness
which Jesus Christ performed on their account on their behalf. But the justice of God must be
served. The holiness of God requires
that man be punished for his sin, that he will by no means
clear the guilty, Exodus 34 said. And so the punishment, the wages
of sin is death, God said. Jesus Christ was made sin for
his people. actually bore all the sins of
all of God's people in himself, in his body, on the tree, on
Calvary's tree. The scripture says, Cursed is
everyone that hangs on the tree. Christ was made a curse for his
people, was made sin for them, and bore their sins in his body
on that tree, and God Almighty in holiness, in wrath, in justice,
against the broken law, against the sins of his people, punished
his son in their place, in their stead. He poured out his wrath
on the Son of God and on behalf of his people. And all the sins
of all of God's people from the beginning to the end were put
away by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ Himself. Every one of
their sins were paid for. Not a down payment, but a complete
final payment. Not an attemptment, but an atonement. And nothing else atones for their
soul but the blood of Jesus Christ, not even our faith. Faith doesn't
make the blood effectual. No, the blood of Jesus Christ
is the means by which faith comes. Because Jesus Christ shed his
blood for the elect of God, the Holy Spirit in time comes and
binds those people with the blood of Christ upon them and convicts
them of their sin, convicts them of their need for righteousness,
points them to Jesus Christ, and regenerates them by the preaching
of the gospel. And they repent of their sin,
believe Christ to the salvation of their soul. All glory belongs
to God. All salvation is of the Lord.
And faith is a result of that death of Christ. Not the means,
or not the effectual means, which makes the blood effectual. No,
faith is a result of that. So, God gave this revelation
to his Son. Christ said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. All the sheep whom God gave to
Christ in that covenant of redemption before the world began will come
to him in time in faith, believing him, calling upon him for mercy,
and he will grant it for those whom he died. All right, God
gave this revelation to Christ, and it goes on to say, to show
unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass, to
show unto his servants. God Almighty reveals the truth
to all of his people. Yes, John 6.45, our Lord said,
They shall all be taught of God, and every man that hath heard
and learned of the Father cometh unto me. And our Lord was quoting
from Isaiah 54, verse 13, when he said that. which reads, All thy children,
all God's children, shall be taught of the Lord, and great
shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be
established. Now, every one of God's people
are taught. He shows them the Holy Spirit
of Christ, shows unto His servants all these things. Who Christ
is, who God is, what salvation is. And he says, these things
are written in the Revelation, things which must shortly come
to pass. Now let me give you a little
key to understanding this book, the Revelation. I already gave
you one. The key is understanding that
this book is about Christ and redemption. It's not purely a
book of prophecy of future events, but the testimony, the scripture
says, of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. What is the testimony
of Jesus? Well, that's the gospel of Christ,
which is the spirit, the essence, the theme, the sum, the substance
of prophecy, the scripture says. Let me show you another key.
In verse 19 it says, the Lord tells John, write the things
which thou hast seen, the things which are, and the things which
shall be hereafter. Did you read that with me? Write
the things which thou hast seen. Now when John was taking this
down, when John was writing what the Lord told him to write down,
that was 2,000 years ago. And the Lord said, Write the
things which thou hast seen. That's past things, things before
John and up to John. And read on. It says, And write
the things which are. That means the things which were
taking place in John's day. And that was 2,000 years ago,
people. Remember? And then the next thing
it says, Write the things which shall be hereafter. And verse
1 says, Shortly come to pass. So here's a key. Most of the
revelation has already taken place. It may shock you. It may surprise you. But learn
this. There's not going to be any cataclysmic
event to make people wake up and see the light, so to speak.
No, no, no. Our Lord said in Matthew 24,
as in the day of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of Man
be. They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage
until the day that Noah entered into the ark. and the rains descended
and the flood came. They didn't have a clue. There
was no great sign in the heavens to make them stop and think.
But Noah by faith went into that ark before a drop of rain fell.
And so it is with all of God's people. They'll come to Christ
before the wrath falls. And by then it will be too late.
This book is the revelation of Jesus Christ. I hope he will
reveal himself to you and open your understanding of not only
this last chapter, but all of God's Word to see that Jesus
Christ is God and is salvation. Until next Sunday, good day.