Revelation chapter 19 and we
want to say a few words about verse 13 But I want to begin reading with
verse 11 Revelation 19 11 I saw heaven
opened and behold a white horse and he that sat upon him was
called faithful and true and And in righteousness he doth
judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that
no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood. His name is called the Word of
God. The armies which were in heaven
followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white
and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a
sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and
he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the
winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. And
he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King
of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let's look at this verse 13 for
a few minutes tonight. And I wish I could grasp everything
that's in that verse. But let's look at a few things.
He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood. His name is
called the Word of God. Now, this vesture, this clothing
that he is clothed in, I need to remember that this is sometime,
John recorded this sometime after the crucifixion. And when John
got to see, when John was privileged to see the Lord these many years
after the crucifixion, he still wore the garment of redemption. He still displayed it. Spiritually,
he's displaying the garment of redemption. It is blood-splattered
garment of redemption. And we can go to the Old Testament
and see the type of the priests in the Old Testament. They were
to wear white linen. when they prepared those sacrifices. But sometimes I fail to remember
that when they were preparing those sacrifices, they could
not help but be tremendously splattered with blood. And they
were symbols of this high priest, the Lord Jesus, and him having
this garment of redemption. Now, it's not that he was splattered
with blood per se in this garment, but it is typical, it's pictorial
of what he did to redeem his people. And we go to the Old
Testament, we find it is there. We see the day of his crucifixion,
it is there. And we see these many years after
the crucifixion, as he appears to John, that he continues to
wear this garment of salvation and this garment of redemption.
And it is so pictorial and so typical that there is an eternal
redemption, an eternal salvation that he procured for his people.
It was purposed before the world began. It's typified throughout
the Old Testament. And even there's a picture, we're
going to the book of Isaiah chapter 63, but there We find in his
pre-ministry, he is typified as having garments splattered
with blood. Then we find here, so it's an
ongoing. He didn't put that garment away.
In other words, he didn't put his garment of redemption away.
He does not put his garment of redemption away. It will not
be put away until we're with him. It's an ongoing. He continuously
is sharing with the church, I have redeemed you with blood. And
we were redeemed. We are being redeemed, and we
shall be redeemed with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
is a statement that I will pay for all your sins, past, present,
and future. Turn with me, if you would, over
to a very interesting passage. And again, I wish I could see
this clearly. I look at so much of the word
of God through a glass darkly. I wish I could grasp some more.
I know that that's the revelation of the Spirit of God, but there
are times I just wish he'd open up that glass a little bit. I'd
like to see a little bit more of what we read here, but here
in Isaiah chapter 63, we have a statement made about the Lord
that is a statement similar to what we find in Revelation, and
yet there is several hundred years between Isaiah's writing
and John's writing, and we're still looking at the same Savior
wearing the same redemptive garments and demonstrating to the church,
the Old Testament people, the middle people when he was here,
the New Testament people, He's representing to the church that
redemption is an ongoing statement. And I redeem my people by my
shed blood and through nothing else. And so there is no redemption
in our hands. The redemption is in his hands.
We don't have the blood that holds the quality. that is necessary
to redeem us from our sins. In the Old Testament, there was
thousands, probably even millions of sacrifices made and their
blood did not hold the quality that was necessary. Our blood
does not hold the quality that is necessary. There's no record
from God Now we find people in the Old Testament did this, but
there's no record from God that he ever asked for human sacrifices. He did request of Abraham, but
we know completely and full well when we see the whole story that
he never intended for Abraham to slay his son. He tested him,
yes. Abraham proved to us, to God,
what God had worked in his heart, but he never was requested to
put the knife in. God never requested human blood
to be sacrificed. Animal blood, yes, but it did
not have the qualities that was necessary. That's what the scriptures
tell us. It's not by the blood of bulls
and goats. That doesn't have the quality.
There's only one that had the quality to redeem his people,
and that is, he is Jesus Christ the righteous, the son of God,
Isaiah 53, or 63. The question is asked. It was
interesting to see some of the commentary say, well, this is
just a record of the victory that Israel had over some people.
This is not that. This is a record of the victory
Christ has over our sin. And he symbolizes in here, there's
some that will be trampled, and there will be some that he will
trample for. They're not going to feel his
feet on their back. He felt the foot of God on his
neck on the cross, if you please, but he will not, we will not
feel his feet on our back. That's why he is our substitute. Who is this that cometh from
Edom with dyed garments from Basra? this that is glorious
in his apparel." Now that's a wonderful statement. We could just go right
over to the book of Revelation chapter 19 and say he's glorious
in this apparel. The church says he's glorious
in this apparel. We appreciate, we just delight,
we relish in the fact that he wears the garments of redemption.
They are blood splattered, yes, but it's his blood that is pictured
there as the redemption of his people. He is the Redeemer, but
there's only one way he could redeem, and that is with his
redemptive blood. And here, who is this? Glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength.
What a statement he makes. We're impoverished. We're without
strength. But in due time, he died for
us. He has glorious in his apparel,
traveling in the greatness of his strength, in that I that
speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red
in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the
wine vat? I've never seen this happen except
in pictures. But the old way of making wine,
There were feet in there. And they stepped on those grapes
and they broke under the pressure and splattered all over. And
you could tell people who were pressing out grape juice by the
color of their feet. It stained them. And can you
imagine someone wearing clothes while they did that? They were
marked. And this one, the Lord Jesus
Christ, from a spiritual standpoint, his clothes are marked by redemption,
the blood of redemption. That's what he is carrying over
there. As we read there, he's clothed with his vesture dipped
in blood. He has the blood of himself. The picture of it, the type of
it, the statement, the spiritual statement about what it cost
to redeem us. Wherefore art thou red in thine
apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine
vat? I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there
was none with me. Now there's two groups of people
here. There's a group of people that weren't with me. He says,
I did it alone. I did it alone. Now those are
the people that he is squashing grapes for. I did, I, I did this
for them. I did it alone. Now he makes
reference to this, or it's made reference in the new Testament
when all the disciples left him, not just Peter, but all the disciples
left him. Every one of them. Why? Because
that's what the Bible said they would do. Jesus Christ could
not have help here. Now, it's not that he needed
it. He did not need help, but there are people that want to
help him. People want to make him successful. It's been ongoing throughout
the centuries. People want to make God successful. And he goes in his own power
and in his own strength. So it wasn't that he was without
strength at that time. It's simply a statement. I went
there alone. Nobody can claim that they helped
me. And that one, when it comes to
our redemption, we have to claim he helped us. He took care of
us. We were not there, he would not
let us be there. And everyone that claims to have
been there to help him does not know what redemption is. He prevented
people from being there and participating in it. He tread the winepress
alone. Now there's a group of people
that he did it for, but there's also a group of people that he's
going to do it to. We read about them in the book
of Matthew, those on the left-hand side. He will do this to them. But the other group, he did it
for them. Those that belong to him, those
he was given before the world began, he will do it for them. Those on the left hand, those
without Christ, he will do it to them. Now that's a big margin. Christ doing it for us or Christ
doing it to us. I have trodden the winepress
alone, and of the people there was none with me. For I will
tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and
their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will
stain all my raiment." Now this is his garment of redemption.
It's a sign to us, just like those priests when they sacrificed
those animals, when Aaron caught the blood, put it in a basin,
carried it in there, sprinkled it upon the altar, upon the steps,
and upon the mercy seat. He got drenched with that. He's
spattered. He is covered with this. He's
a symbol of His ministry. When He went in there and came
back out, blood splattered. It's a symbol of His ministry,
what He did. And this is a symbol of His ministry. He is the Redeemer. He has redeemed
His people. He will show them on a continuous
basis. Here, years after redemption
was done at the cross, he's still displaying for John and for the
church and for us today. He still carries this mark. He is our Redeemer, garment of
redemption, designed most gracious. He purchased his kingdom with
the blood that was splattered upon him. In the book of John,
would you turn there with me? There's another garment that
the Lord wore, a literal garment, that the Lord wore, John 19, that I want to look at for just
a moment. We're gonna look at the garments of the Lord. Let's
look at this one. This had, it was also mentioned
in the Old Testament. There's something not gonna happen
to this garment. It also pictures something. This
garment, John 19 verse 19, this picture's something else about
the Lord. It shares here that he had several garments. They
piled them in four piles. I don't know, I don't understand
all the clothes that they wore in that time. But four soldiers
got to have a piece of the garments of the Lord. Look here with me,
John 19, and I backed up enough to see here Pilate was involved,
and Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the
writing was Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And this
title then read many of Jews for the place where Jesus was
crucified was night of the city. It was without the gate though. And it was written in Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin. Then said the chief priests of the Jews to
Pilate, write not king of the Jews, but that he said, I am
king of the Jews. And Pilate answered, what I've
written, I've written. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified
Jesus, took his garments and made four parts to every soldier
a part. Now I'm not sure, I don't understand
all the garments that the Lord wore. But each of these four
soldiers got a portion except for one garment. One piece of his garment. And
they gambled over that. They cast lots over that. Why? Let's look at this. And also
his coat. Now the coat was without seam. Woven from top through out. Now
that's an interesting garment. The rest of them, it didn't seem
to make any difference. But this one, now this garment, as well
as the garments that the Lord wears over here in the Revelation
or over in the book of Isaiah, those garments are representing
something. What did this garment represent? It's without seam.
Somehow, someone wove this garment without putting any They didn't
sew any part of it. It's woven that way. I don't
know how you do that. Some people do. But it was pictorial
of his absolute righteousness. It's pictorial of his absolute
deity. It's pictorial of his absolute
holiness. It's pictorial of him as absolute
God. And they're not going to take
a knife and cut it up. They gamble over it. This is
such a statement about the Lord. And it says there, then said
they among themselves, let us not rend it, but cast lots for
it, whose it shall be that the scripture might be fulfilled,
which saith, they parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture
they did cast lots. These things, therefore, the
soldiers did. My vesture, they cast lots. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ's
redemption is not tore up and broken down. Even here, with
this single garment that the Lord wore, this vesture is not
going to be cut up. Now, whatever else he wore, I
don't know. But those soldiers, this one
got a portion of it, this one got a portion of them, this one
got a portion of them, and this one got a portion of them. And
somebody felt really lucky that day because he got a coat without,
or a vesture without seam. And it doesn't tell us which
one, but one of them did. Why? Because it was prophesied. You'll not play with my righteousness. You'll not play with my holiness.
You'll not play with my redemption. Even the picture of it will not
be destroyed. And they fell into that as God
purposed in their mind. They're just wanting the booty.
God's protecting the picture of his righteousness and He wore those clothes during
several parts of that interrogation and beating. Whether they had
blood on them or not, I don't know. But this garment that he
wore in this day in Revelation chapter 19, we see him wear these
priestly garments. We see his vesture still fresh
with blood. which he offered on the day of
his sacrifice on the cross for my redemption. This is what it
shares with us, whom I still appears in his bloody robe as
proof of his everlasting efficacy. It's still effectual. It's still
doing what I said it would do, and here in that day. And hell
will be through all the age. When this age is over, we'll
still see him with his marked hands. We'll still see him with
the mark of his redemption. It speaks of the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, as we notice it here, splattered on him, speaks
of much better things than Abel's blood. Turn with me over to the
book of Hebrews, chapter 12. The writer of the Hebrews wanted
us to know a lot about blood. He shares with us that the Lord's
blood was much better than any other blood, and it speaks of
better things. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 24. To Jesus, the mediator of the
new covenant, and to the blood sprinkling that speaketh better
things than that of Abel. Now Abel's blood spoke vengeance.
What do we find Christ's blood speaks? Mercy. Mercy. Mercy. By the shedding of his
blood, he can give mercy to his people. He bore in his own body
the sins of his people. He shed his own blood for his
people, and therefore he can give mercy to them. Still, Abel's
blood cries for vengeance. In the book of Acts, would you
turn there with me for just a moment? In Acts, this blood is, as I
remember Brother Mahan saying, it's not how much blood was shed,
it's whose blood was shed. That's the key to this. Whose
blood was shed? It's the Lord's blood. And it
means more than just shedding red material out of his veins. It means he gave his life. That's what this blood means.
He gave his life. He gave his life for his people. Now, it was through the shedding
of blood, but he didn't die as a result of the loss of blood.
He didn't even get weak as a result of the loss of blood. That's
not the point. The point is, God gave his son,
and his son gave his life for his people. This is so required
under the law. The soul that sinneth must die. The person who sins must die. If you commit a murder, you must
die. It was just required. If you
gather sticks on the Sabbath day, you must die. It's breaking
the law of God. Well, in order for God to redeem
his people and set them free, someone has to die. And we find
it pictured in the Old Testament as the lamb. The lamb was the
picture. The sin was placed on them. I
can just hear those priests as they confessed the sins of the
people. Now, how'd they know that? The people said it. Now,
the priest could have said it enough, and that's what it turned
into, but the priest heard the people. They brought the lamb. The priest heard the people and
confessed it over the head of that animal and shed the blood,
and the lamb's life, the animal's life was gone. Well, the Lord
Jesus, in reality, in realness, When he shed his blood, he's
saying, I lay down my life, a ransom for many. It was his life that
he gave, and it's pictured by the shedding of blood. Well,
here in the book of Acts chapter 20, we read about this, and his
vesture dipped in blood symbolizes that life that was given to redeem
his people. Acts chapter 20 and verse 28. Acts chapter 20 and verse 28. Take heed, therefore. The Apostle
Paul is sharing some wonderful information here. He's led by
the Holy Spirit to share some wonderful information. to some
elders, Ephesian elders. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over the which the Holy Spirit hath made
you overseers to feed the church of God. Now notice this, which
he hath purchased with his own blood. Now he's saying I purchased
it with my life. The shedding of blood is declaring
he gave his life. A lot of people have lost blood
and never died. Jesus Christ shed blood and died,
not as a result of losing blood, but he laid down his life. I give my life. No man takes
it from me. That's what we have here when
he shed his blood. He gave his life, and he says
there in Acts chapter 20 and verse 28, and we find that vesture
dipped in blood symbolizing to the church, this is what I gave
for you, my life. Take heed, what? Which he hath
purchased with his own blood. He bought the church out of sin,
death, hell, and the grave by his own blood. He redeemed his
people from sin by his life. He paid the law price. That's
why the law has no hold on the church any longer. He paid the
law price. Sin must be paid for by death. He died and put away the charge. Now in God's wonderful way of
grace and mercy, all the sins of all His people could be placed
on Him and He could be the substitute for all of them. And when He
died, He took care of all their account. Law no longer has an
account. They cannot, the law cannot find
a charge against God's people because he died for them in their
place. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
nine. Once again in the book of Hebrews, couple verses here.
Hebrews chapter nine, about his blood. He's clear. God wanted us to be clear. Old
Testament's clear too, but Hebrews helps clear it up completely.
The Old Testament intimates over and over, animals can't substitute
for human beings. They're lower class. God created them, yes. They live
on this earth, yes. We have to coexist, yes. But
they cannot substitute for man. He is a higher creation. Now
here in the book of Hebrews chapter nine and verse 12, when you look
at that blood, his vesture dipped in blood, verse 12, neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. For us is added, he's obtained
eternal redemption, but the blood of bulls and calves cannot do
the job. Lower class blood. some of the first blood transfusions
that were ever done. They're not in our century, not
this century, and not last century, but several centuries. The first
blood that was ever attempted to be put into a human being
came from a dog. What happened to those people?
They died. There's no compatibility. There's
one blood of birds. There's one blood of animals.
And there's one blood, that's what he says, and there's one
blood of man. Now, it doesn't matter which
race you are of human beings across the whole world, the man
who developed blood transfusions died because he couldn't get
a blood transfusion at the hospital because of the color of his skin. But he proved that humans of
any race can supply blood for humans of any race. Now Jesus Christ must become
man. to give his life a ransom for
men. That's why it's essential, the
incarnation. And he shed blood and he pictures
it by, my vesture is dipped in blood. These are my redemptive
garments. See what I paid. In the book
of Hebrews chapter 13, Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 12, we find
this again, the value of his blood, it's his life. He gave
his life a ransom. Shed his blood, yes, but shedding
blood didn't kill him. He gave up his life. for his
people. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse
12, wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people
with his own blood, suffered without the gate, just like it
was prophesied. Those Old Testament sacrifices,
most of them that were when the animal's blood was taken into
the Holy of Holies, suffered without the camp. And Jesus Christ
suffered without the camp. Nobody was there to help him. Why? Because he barred it from
us. Oh. Just think, if there'd have
been one there to help him. Oh my. He'd have started a religion.
Or someone would have started a religion in his name. I was
there. I held up his hands when he was
suffering. My goodness. Even the soldiers
got back and just watched. All right. And then Revelation
chapter one, if you turn with me there, Revelation chapter
one, this, this is so good. This just shares the, the, the
greatness of his redemptive work. Revelation chapter one, verse
five. This, uh, this whole letters
from Jesus Christ. who is the faithful witness,
Revelation 1.5, from Jesus Christ, 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 and washed us or loosed us
from our sins in his own blood. Now, it was necessary, if we're
gonna have our sins taken away, forgiven, no charge held against
us, Something has to pay. Someone has to pay. And man can't
even pay for his own sin, and the animals couldn't for sure.
Man couldn't pay for his own sin. We're sinners. We're in
Adam's fallen race. Even Abel didn't try to go get
Cain and put him on a He got an animal to picture what was
necessary, a lamb. And Jesus Christ, the Lamb of
God, is the fulfillment of that. And his redemptive work is still
seen on his splattered garment, vesture dipped in blood. And his name is called the Word
of God. And we run into that in John
1.1. We run to that in 1 John 1, the word, the logos. There's a whole lot about that
name I wished I understood. You find it in places that, how
does this fit? And then you find it with God.
In the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the
word was God. I heard a preacher one time explain
that in the days of kings, King was out there taking care of
business, doing his reign, answering questions, making judgments and
so forth, that when he got tired of it or needed to go somewhere
else, he'd pull a curtain, someone else of his designation with
his signet ring sat down in that chair, the curtain was moved
back, and this person was called the Logos. And he spoke for the
king. He wore the king's signet ring. Any judgments he made were for
the king. Logos. We're familiar with the
logo of different companies. This is the logos. This is God,
the very God, speaking for God. The word became flesh and dwelt
among us. He's God, the very God. In the
beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. All religions have been based
upon a mistranslation of that one verse of scripture. And they're
not the first, though. Groups of people from the beginning
of time have declared that Jesus, the Messiah, is not God. He's man. Others have said he's
only God, he couldn't be man. Both are wrong. The Bible says
he is the God-man, Emmanuel, God with us. There's one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Look up his name,
Christ. He's God. Come in the flesh. First John. Let's just back up
a short ways there from the book of Revelation. First John, chapter
1, verse 1. This is the word. There are several
words used in the Bible, particularly in the New Testament. They're
interesting that we have the same word in English, W-O-R-D,
but translated from two or three different words in the original
language. And one of them is logos, which
We look at the Lord Jesus Christ, the representative of God on
the earth, the word became flesh. There's a word that's used many
times with regard to salvation, and the word that's spoken in
the gospel, it is a word that had to travel over someone's
vocal cords. Someday I wanna bring a lesson
on that, about the necessity of hearing the gospel. because
it's the word, the spoken word that God uses for us to hear
the gospel. And the spoken word is about
the word. The spoken word is about Christ.
That's the gospel. All right. First John chapter
one, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, in
our hands have handled, of the word of life." That's again that
same word found in John 1.1. Same author, same Holy Spirit
leading him, and it's that word. The word became flesh, the logos. He's the representation and representative
of God. He represents God at the great
bar of justice, and he represents his people at the great bar of
justice. As one preacher said, if you're
gonna have to go to court, have the son of the judge as your
lawyer. The Lord Jesus, the Son of God,
is our lawyer before the bar of justice, and the Father is
the judge. So we're in good hands. We're
in good hands. Vesture dipped in blood, and
his name is the Word of God. And out of his mouth goes a sharp
sword. The Word of God. That's what
he, the word speaks the word.