God is great. God is good. Holy
is the Lord. All is well. Let every creature
have his way. The Lord is good. Nature of heaven. God is good. Stand up. You're going to have
to rise and salute your King on this last part. All right?
Last verse. The Lord is King throughout His vast domain. He is all, all in all. The Lord Jehovah evermore shall
reign. Through earth and heaven one
song shall ring From grateful hearts this anthem spring Arise
ye states, silent thy king All thy nations, sing his praise
Alright. I love that. That hymn. That's one captain that the saints
have loved to salute. Revelation 1 now. I'm so thankful for these ladies
that teach our classes downstairs, but I'm so sad for them. that you're going to miss out
on these studies in Revelation. Perhaps ought to take them. It's
just not saying that. But Sunday morning we began studying
through the Revelation and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I anticipate even greater blessings than we
had. I don't see how that can be. I thoroughly enjoyed that
study Sunday morning. And tonight's message, we'll
just take up two verses here. But let's go back, for your sake,
for you three ladies, all right? I didn't plan this, but let's
go back to the very first, verse 1, and I'll just review just
a little bit of what we've studied. So you three better pay attention. This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. Not a revelation, not revelations. It's the revelation. We saw how
that this book is just another among all the gospel books in
God's Word. Just another gospel book. The revelation of the person
and work of Christ. which God gave unto him to show
unto his servants. We saw in John, in the Gospel
of John, how that he said that he's hid these things from the
wise and prudent and revealed it unto Baal, that he reveals
these things unto whom he will. Not everyone has this revelation.
But he reveals it to whom he will. Christ does. Things which
must shortly come to pass. Now, John wrote this nearly 2,000
years ago. And he said they must shortly
come to pass. Now, you were here on Wednesday
night when we considered how that most of the revelation has
already taken place and is now taking place. And he, John said,
must shortly come to pass. That was 2000 years ago. So now
you know that these things have been and are now taking place,
must shortly. All right. And he sent, he signified
these by his angel unto his servant John. You remember how John bowed
down before the angel over in chapter 19, I believe it is.
And the angel said, no, I'm just a prophet like you. Don't bow
before me. And we saw how that God revealed
these things unto men who in turn commit them to other faithful
men. But John received it as it were
from Christ. It's interchangeable all the
way through here, the angel and Christ, the angel and Christ,
because whoever hears Christ will hear him from a man. You
get that? All right, verse 2 says, Who
bear record? John, that is. Boar record of
the work. Here's the two things that John,
well, three things. John Boar record of the word
of God, testimony of Jesus Christ and all things that he saw. And
we saw how that John's record is the same record. It's a broken
record. You ever had an old LP, a 33?
Or for some of you real old folks. 33 and a third, I guess it was,
wasn't it? I grew up with 45s, you know, and all those things
get scratched, you know, just in a heartbeat. And then it's,
you know, and it's, and it keeps repeating the same thing. Broken
record, that's what. John held the same record. John
said, this is the record. And 1 John, this is the record.
He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son hath
not life. 1 John 1, he said, these things
have I written that you might believe on the name of the Son
of God. And believe him, you might have life in his name.
This is the record. Same record. John said, I'm going
to bear record of the same thing again. It's no new testimony. These aren't new things in the
revelation. It's the same revelation. The
testimony of Jesus Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ. And of all things that he saw.
What did he see? First thing we see that John
saw was him. Heard a voice, turned around and saw a face. It's the
revelation of Jesus Christ. And in verse 3, he says three
things here. Blessed is he that readeth. You
have a copy of something in your lap which is the dearest gift
to mankind, the greatest gift to mankind, the Word of God. It really is. But an even greater
gift than that, a greater blessing than that, not only is blessed
is he that read it, but they that hear it. People read, but they don't believe
because they don't call on Him, because how are they going to
call on Him who they do not believe? How are they going to believe
in Him who is not heard? How are they going to hear without
a preacher? Now the woods are full of them,
but not true preachers. So blessed are you if you hear
the words of this prophecy. What words and what prophecy? The testimony of Jesus Christ.
You go in any other place and hear some man get hung up on
666, because that's what he's doing. That's what he's preaching. But
here's the third greatest blessing, it says, look at it, verse 3. Blessed is he that readeth, blessed
are they that hear, but most of all, blessed are they that
keep those things that are written and lay hold on the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, and then verse 4,
John says to the seven churches, this is written to the churches,
written to believers, not written to everybody. And He says, Grace
be unto you and peace from Him. Grace and peace. Does that sound
familiar? You ever heard that before? Why, you hear it in every epistle.
Every single epistle begins this way, with the exception of Mark
10. Grace and peace. Why are you hearing the same
thing? Because this is the same testimony. From Him which is,
which was, and which is to come. That's God the Father. God the
Father, in whom we live, move, and have our being. God the Father,
which is, was, and is to come. And from the seven spirits, and
I'll not attempt to explain that too much, because I didn't have
much of an explanation for it, but this is the Holy Spirit.
This is symbolic, seven meaning perfection. And, verse five,
and from Jesus Christ. So this revelation The gospel
is from God, the Father, God, the Son, God and the Holy Spirit.
All right. And so there you have Sunday
morning. Now, tonight, we'll deal with
these two verses, verses four and five, and this is, we looked
at this in December of 1994. And this is marvelous. It was, this is, it's like it's
brand new to me. In these two verses, you're going
to find three descriptions of the person of Christ and three
descriptions of the work of Christ. You've got the person and the
work of Christ, and three of each. in these two verses and that's
the gospel is it not the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the gospel. Are you with
me? This is why we're here. All right. Verse four. He says
grace unto you from him which is and was and is to come from
the seven spirits which are before his throne and from Jesus Christ
from Jesus Christ, and then he gives these three things concerning
Christ and three works of Christ. Now, why? On Sunday morning,
we observed that more emphasis is given to the person and work
of Christ than the other two persons of the Godhead. Why is
that? You notice that? A very brief
description of God the Father, a very even briefer description
of the Holy Spirit, and then this great detail of Christ,
of Christ, Jesus Christ. Why is that? Because it's not
that He's greater or separate from, but because
to us Christ is all. He's all the God we'll ever see,
ever hear, ever touch. God's Spirit, we're always going
to dwell in the flesh. Yes, ma'am. And Christ said this,
and Paul said this to Timothy, No man hath seen God, nor can
see God at any time. Won't do it. God the Father or
God the Spirit won't do it. The only begotten Son, he hath
declared him. And John said, we handled him. We saw him. Job said, I'm going
to see God. Who's Job going to see? Jesus
Christ. See that? Christ to us is all.
He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, all
these things. He's the Father to us. Philip
said, show us the Father. We want to see God the Father.
He said, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. You see
that? Christ is the only manifestation
of God that we'll ever know and hear and see and feel. God manifests
in the flesh and to the flesh. You got that? That which is spirit
is spirit. We're flesh. He knoweth our frame.
That's the reason he robed himself in flesh, the likeness of sinful
flesh. All right? All right? And so, here they are, these
three things. It says, from Jesus Christ, who
is, number one, the faithful witness. Now, turn to John chapter
one. The faithful witness. And again, we saw Sunday morning
how that a witness in a court of law. A witness is someone
who is. To stand and tell what they've
seen and what they've heard. That's what a witness is for. Either witness for the prosecution
or witness for the defense. A witness is to stand up and
in a court of law, if you ever go, have been in one or will
be called upon to do so, what they will have you do is put
your hand on a Bible. The bailiff will hold forth a
Bible and you put your right hand or left, put your right
hand on the Bible. That's good because the son is
the son of the right hand. He's the word. And you raise
your left hand and the bailiff says to you, swear to tell the
truth, the whole truth. There's no other kind. The whole
truth, the truth. No additions, no subtractions,
no conjectures, no opinions. The whole truth. I mean, everything
there is to tell about the truth. And nothing but the truth. So
help you, God. Now, who can say that? What man,
a woman on earth, can possibly say that with the word of God
as a witness, the word which is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart? That's the reason David said
all men are liars. Christ can and did. Do you swear to tell the truth?
I am the truth. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one word of mine shall
pass away. I am the truth. The whole truth? I am the truth. And nothing but
the truth? I am the truth. So help me God. He's the faithful witness. You
see? We need someone, and there's
so much speculation and conjecture, and the reason there's hundreds,
even thousands of denominations all over the planet, and religions,
is because everybody's got different opinions about God. There's as
many different ideas about God, what He's like, what he looks
like, how he acts, how you get to him, how you please him, what
displeases him, right? As there are people. Well, who can say? Christ said,
look here in John 1, verse 18. I've already quoted it. No man
hath seen God at any time. Somebody tell me about God. Let
a witness stand forth and tell me about God. Let some, anybody
on this planet. Where is the scribe? Where is
the wise disputer of this world? Let him tell me about God. What
he says is just, just, just conjecture in the bargain. Just his opinion.
Right? No man hath seen God at any time.
But I tell you, who will and who can tell us about God? The
only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, came
from the bosom of the Father, is in God, is God. He hath declared
it. He hath. He's the faithful witness.
Tell us about God. He did, didn't He? What's God
like? You want to know God? Study Jesus
Christ. What's God like? Study Jesus
Christ. What's God have to say? Christ
said, The words that I speak, I speak not of myself, but of
him that sent me. He that is of God, heareth God's
word. Well, what does God say about
this? What does God say about this? Well, what does Christ
say about it? What's God's purpose? What's
God's will? What's God doing? What's it all
about? What's the purpose of all things?
Well, Christ said it. He said, I came down from heaven
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will which has sent me. And He declares
it, that of all which He hath given me. Well, how do we get
to God? How do we get to God? John 14,
6, signed the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. That's right. That's what Christ
said. Well, all right, that's the first
thing. He's a faithful witness. How do we know he's a faithful
witness? How do we know he's a faithful
witness? David said, all men are liars. Well, how do we know
that he's not, you know, just another man? Just giving us his
opinion, huh? Because of the second description
of him here. Look at it. How do we know he's
the faithful witness? Because he's the first forgotten
of the dead. How can he tell us what God's like? Because he
died, was buried, stayed in the grave three days, and rose again
to tell us all about God, all about life
after death, and so forth. The first begotten. Look at Romans
chapter 1. Romans chapter 1, with me. You know, Christ kept saying,
Christ kept saying, no man taketh my life from me, didn't he? No man taketh my life from me,
I lay it down on myself. And he said, the Son of Man hath
power to take it again too. How do you know that all that
he's saying? Now this is important. You know
that every time Paul the Apostle went preaching somewhere, he
talked about the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Look it up in
the book of Acts. Every time he stood up to preach,
he talked about this risen Lord. Why? Because it proves everything
he said is true. This is what convicted people
at Pentecost. He said, no man taketh my life
from me. And he said several times, he
said, destroy this temple, in three days I'll raise it again. Those ignorant Jews thought he
meant that physical temple there, that stone temple, you know.
He said, the Son of Man, he looked at his disciples point blank
and said, now we're going to Jerusalem and evil, wicked men
are going to take, the Son of Man is going to be delivered
in the Wicked men's hands. They're going to take him and
crucify him. But on the third day, he's going to rise again.
How many of you looked at him in the eye and told him that? Well, buddy, they all saw him killed. I mean,
they saw every drop of his blood pour out on the ground. They
saw his hands and his feet and his wrists, really. They saw
his wrists slashed. You won't live long, cut your
wrist. His feet, blood just drains out. Saw his side slashed open with
a sword, every drop will hit blood. The life of the flesh
is in the blood. They saw him dead. They took
his white body, pale body down off that cross, wrapped it up
tight, his face up shut. closed, mouth and nose wrapped
tight, stuck him in a cave with no oxygen, with a stone over
the door, and three days he laid in that tomb. Dead. His disciples saw it. Everybody
saw it. He's dead. Is there any doubt?
No, he's dead. But three days later, stone rolled
away from the door. And out he walked. That's proof
that everything he said is true. This is no mere ordinary man.
No mere ordinary man. Romans 1, 4 says he's declared
to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness,
or that is, according to a perfect life, no man ever. One time he
stood before all of his accusers and said, which? Here's another
proof that he is who he says he was. And boy, there's not a man on
earth that can stand up today and do this. Somebody convince
me of sin. There's not a man on earth that
can stand up and say, look into my past, all the closets, find
something on me. Certainly no politicians Not
a man or a woman on earth could stand up and do that. Why? Because
we're all a bunch of sinners. We're all the same. Sinful flesh. The Son of God did that in front
of all His enemies who wanted to find something. Pilate tried
to dig up stuff. They had to hire false witnesses,
and they knew they were lying. They all knew they were lying.
They didn't care. But he stood up one time and
said, Which of you convinced me of this thing? Somebody, anybody. holy son of God, only one. He is who the scripture says
he is. He's this God manifest in the
flesh. Spirit of holiness and by the
resurrection of the day. You see that? He declared to
be who He is by the resurrection of the day. Proof of all that
He said. All right? Now back to Revelation. Here's the third description
of Christ. Back there. Revelation 1, verse
5. So He's the faithful witness
He's the first begotten of the dead, and he's the prince, it
says, verse 5, prince of the kings of the earth. Why does
it call him prince? Why does it say king? Well, he
is king of kings. But David, and you know, he's
called David's son too, isn't he? But he's not David's son. And he confused the Jews one
time with that question, didn't he? Who is Christ? They said David's son of David.
He said, well then, if he'd be David's son, why does
David call him Lord? And boy, that set them scratching
their heads for days. And he wouldn't tell him the
answer. Well, David was the first king of Israel, right? He was
God's king. He was the greatest king on the
earth. King David. He was the first king of Israel.
It wasn't Saul. No, no. God's king was David. God's reigning king. David, King
David. All right, but David's son, or
the prince, the one born prince, the son of David, was Solomon,
right? And you know, God made him an
even greater king than David. Why is this one? Why, he was
wisdom personified. And he was made king in David's
stead, and that means he was the prince, son of the king,
to whom all the kings of the earth came. All of them came
to Solomon, and so this is a great picture of Christ, the Son of
God. He was God, yet he's God the Son. He's a prince. He's
king, yet he's a prince. He's the crown prince. He's a
valiant prince, with all power, all authority, all judgment,
and all government. And, all right, now, here's three works
of our witness, faithful witness, in our First Forgotten and the
Prince of the King. And I want you to notice, this
is marvelous. God's Word. We're bearing record
of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, the Gospel.
You bear witness with me of how marvelous this is. All three
of the works of Christ go perfectly together with each three description
of His person in the very order in which they're given. All right? I want you to notice how each
description of Him goes with each work of His. All right?
It says He's the faithful witness, didn't it? Say He's the faithful
witness? All right, look at the first
work of His in verse 5. He's the faithful witness unto
Him that loved us. He's the faithful witness that
loved us. All right? Now, Christ's faithful
witness began long before this world
was ever put into space. All right? It was a covenant
made between God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
A covenant, an eternal covenant. ordered in all things and sure. And Christ was the faithful witness
and became the surety of the head of that covenant before
the world ever began. And Christ made some promises.
Christ testified before the Father and before the Spirit and before
there were any angels. They don't need any other witnesses.
What need have they of other witnesses than themselves? And
Christ, so Christ made, and it was like a marriage covenant. Before the world began, this
covenant was like a marriage covenant, all right? I've stood
up here and married people before. But I stand up here and marry
people, and they come up before me, and what they're doing is
they're both testifying. before all these witnesses. They're
making avowals before God and men of their love for each other. And the preacher asks these questions,
Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife to
have and to hold? I do. Will you promise to be
and so on and so forth? Oh, how men are unfaithful and
women, right? But Christ, now you see, before
the world began, there was a betrothal. There was a marriage. And we
weren't there. We weren't there. Didn't need
us. He finds us later on as a harlot,
like old Gomer. But Christ is the one that made
all the vows. He said, he's the one that stood before the Father
who gave him, who asked him the questions concerning this bride
to be, this wife that he was going to take. And the Father
said, will you love them? I've chosen a people in order
for me to save them. You're going to have to become
one of them and do everything necessary and so on and so forth. Will you love them? And our faithful
witness says, yes, to the end. Having loved his own, he loved
them to the end. Will he ever quit? Well, your
mother, somebody else might give you a writ of divorcement, Christ
said, but not me. Not me. freely. I love them freely, unconditionally. While they're yet sinners, I
love them freely, unconditionally. How will you love them? Greater
love hath no man than this. So you see, Christ was the faithful
witness as a faithful husband, a faithful surety and head of
the covenant who stood before God and said, I do, and I will. And God doesn't even ask us.
Oh, He makes us willing in the day of His power, doesn't He?
He said, Will you go with this man to Mary? the sign of the
promise, I will, I'll go. But we're unfaithful at times. We play the hard way at times.
We run off with other lovers at times. But not our faithful
witness. Not our faithful witness. He's
there providing for us the whole time. All right, so he's the faithful
witness who had loved us unto him that loved us. You see that?
Second thing, it says he's called the first begotten of the dead.
And look at the next work of his, who washed us from our sins
in his own blood. He's the first begotten from
the dead who washed us from our sins in his own blood. The wages
of sin is death. The soul that sins must surely
die. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission of sin. So Christ died in the stead of
those he loved. His blood cleanses us from all
sin. His blood was payment for our
sin. Well, how do we know? How do we know He actually washed
us from our sin? How do we know He actually paid
it off? How do we know that what Christ did was actually accepted
by God? How do we know? Because He's
the first forgotten from the dead. We know He put away our sins
because He rose from the dead. And I love the picture of the
Old Testament priest, you know, going in within the veil. John
and I were talking about this. You remember what he had around
his robe? Bells. Anybody else? What's the
other thing? Pomegranates. Good, ladies. Veils and pomegranates. And the Old Testament priest
would go in within that veil with the blood. Not without blood.
He'd go in within the veil with that blood and offer up a sacrifice
for the sins of all the people. And how do the people know? They're
standing out on the outer court. They can't see on the inside.
How do they know that God is not angry, that God is not just
going to destroy the whole bunch? Jingling, jingling, jingling,
jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling,
jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling,
jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling,
jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling,
jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling,
jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling,
jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling,
jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling, jingling,
jingling, jingling, jingling, j with a smile on his face, accepted,
accepted, accepted. And so how do we know that our
sins are gone? Christ came out of the grave. See that? First forgotten of
the dead, unto him that washed us from our sins in his own blood.
The pit man came back from the wilderness and said, the scapegoat
won't return. All right, look at the last sign.
We saw how he's the prince of the kings of the earth, and it
says in verse 6, "...he hath made us kings and priests unto
God and his Father." He's the prince, he's the king,
and he's made us kings and priests. Only a king can declare somebody
else to be royalty, right? or appointed it by the king himself. See, when David was made king,
and Solomon, both of them, when David was made king, he chose
whom he would to be his servants, to be his priests, didn't he?
The king has that prerogative. He chooses whom he will. It's
not elected office, uh-uh. Servants and priests of the king
are not elected office. If people don't apply for the
job, they're appointed, they're chosen. David up in one day said,
so and so, you're going to be my servant. Interesting, Solomon chose twelve.
Do you remember that? He had twelve servants who were
over the victuals in charge of feeding. But David appointed
all that he would and made them his priest and his servants,
and around the king's table they'd all gather. And he chose whom he would. And
nobody could say anything about it, that's right. And sometimes
he'd chose some unlikely characters to sit at his table. One old
fellow named Phibosheth was sitting at the king's table as one of
the king's sons. Seated with David. Seated with
David. He thought in the heavenlies.
One of the king's sons. And it says, he hath made us
kings and priests. Christ, the good crowned prince,
hath made us kings, sons of the king, and priests to minister
about the tabernacle. And Peter said it, said, we're
a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, peculiar
people. That's peculiar, the ones he
chose, aren't they? The king and his motley crew, what a peculiar,
what did you choose him for? My glory. What did you choose
her for? She can't do anything to you
or add anything to you. There's not many wise men, not
many mighty, and not many noble accomplices. This is the Lord's
doing, isn't it? It's marvelous in our eyes. And what more can be said than
what John gives in exclamation to all this? Verse 6, To him
be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Amen. that the army of our family. And now we ask that the faith
be laid over us. And I feel it's time for the
beginning of our conflict. Step back from Jesus. I need
you to love Jesus. I need you to lay the hands on
all of us. He was all proud and all shy-shy,
faithful with us, first to come to bed, and the rest of us came
to bed. And it was loveliest, up to the
point I can't even tell you. Thank you, Lord, for working
with me. You've done for us. It was crazy
to be all impressionable, but it was worth it. Thank you. you