That song is taken from the book
of Colossians, the second chapter, verse 10. You're complete in
Him. It's a great song. We sang that
quite a bit in the congregation up in Michigan. And I asked the
group if they would introduce us to it, introduce you to it,
and we'll Sing that as a congregation, the Lord willing, in the not
too distant future. That was a good job. Let's go
to Revelation chapter 1. I have a question for you. What
happens when men see Jesus? What happens when men see Christ
Jesus? We have an example of that here
in Revelation chapter 1. For John has seen the glorified,
exalted Savior. John had seen him throughout
his public ministry ever since our Lord Jesus passed his way
and said, follow me, I'll make you fishers of men. And he and
his brother, the sons of thunder, James and John, followed the
master. He taught them the gospel of
his saving grace. He taught them the necessity
of his death upon the cross of Calvary. He taught them that
the Son of Man must be lifted up even as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness. Christ Jesus, He must be lifted
up. He must die in order that sinners
be saved by His substitutionary sacrifice. John saw Him through
much of the Savior's public ministry. He saw Him in the days of His
lowliness. But our Savior made himself to
be the servant of Jehovah. John saw him in those times of
poverty, those days of weariness. John was often with him on the
nights upon the mountain. John and then the rest of the
disciples would fall asleep. The Savior would spend the evening
deep in prayer to the Father. John saw him when he was crucified. He was there when he heard the
words of the Savior, when he was instructed to take care of
Mary after our Lord's death. John was there to see the resurrected
Savior. He was with the other disciples
when the Master passed through the walls as they were meeting
together and he said, do you have anything to eat? And they
gave him some fish and honeycomb. And then he opened their understanding
so that there might understand that everything that had happened
fulfilled Old Testament prophecies concerning the Son of Man. He
said all the writers of the Old Testament, all the prophets,
they all spoke and wrote of what had happened in Jerusalem and
of the day of the Savior's redemption of His people. John saw Him for
those 40 days After his resurrection, he even saw him there when the
Savior ascended back to heaven. And now he sees him again, 62
or 63 years later after the Savior's ascension. But John doesn't see
him in a humbled state, he sees him in his exalted state. He sees Him as that rightful
King of kings and Lord of lords. He's already gone back to glory. He has been there for several
years, six decades. Of course, He's entered into
eternity, so there is no time there. But to John, it had been
about six decades since he had seen Him, and now he hears His
voice, on the Lord's day, and then the Spirit of God turns
Him, and He sees the majesty of the Son of Man. He even says this, look at verse
13. He says, in the midst of the
seven golden candlesticks, He saw one He doesn't say, I saw
the Son of Man, but He said, I saw one likened to the Son
of Man. Literally one who very strongly
resembled the Son of Man. And yet He was a little different. He had undergone a great change. And yet he was essentially the
same Jesus because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He still had the same love for
his people that has never wavered. In those six decades since John
had last seen Him, and our Savior had been the object of all of
Heaven's worship, and the object of the worship of all those saints
of God on the earth, in those six days, He still had love for
His people. That hadn't changed. He still
had the same attitude in His innermost being, in His heart,
for His people. His heart of love, His heart
of grace. That had not undergone any change. He still had the same will toward
His people. He willed that His people be
with Him someday in glory. He willed that His people be
saved by His grace and He carried out that which actually saved
them. He was their substitute, our
substitute, as He died upon the cross. He was the same in His purpose
of grace toward John and toward all of His people. He was still
the same in His desire toward His people. The Scripture says
that the Savior is the desire of all nations, that is, a people
of every nation. And those people, He is our desire. We want nothing more and no one
else but the Lord Jesus Christ. So John saw him, but though he
was just as he was in many ways when he left, John said he was
different. Well, in what way was he different? Well, he's been exalted. You
see, when our Savior ascended back to heaven, or excuse me,
when He resurrected, His soul had been in paradise. His soul
came back to be reunited with His body. He had a resurrected
body, but He was not yet glorified. That is, He was not yet the Exalted
One. He had not yet gone to heaven
in that body in which He suffered and bled and died. Because He
breathed out His last, He said it is finished, bowed His head,
He gave up the ghost, His soul immediately left that body just
like your soul is going to leave your body at death. His soul
left His body and went back to God. And followed right behind
Him was the believing thief, who left his body behind as well. But our Savior came back to His
body. And by His own strength, by His
own will, He made Himself to live again. And He ever lives
for His people. So his soul and his body were
joined back together. And in that resurrected body,
he dwelt upon this earth for 40 days. And then he ascended. And at
his ascension, all of heaven broke forth in singing and admiration
and in worship. That scene is set before us in
Psalm 24, the passage of Scripture that our brother read to us just
a few moments ago. The psalmist even asked the question,
who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? Who's going to abide
in the presence of God? As we look among ourselves, as
we look at all of the human population, we must all answer, well, it
can't be us. He's not talking about us because
he talks about he that has clean hands, he that's got a pure heart,
he that has not lifted up his soul to vanity. You see, as far
as all of us are concerned, it must be said, all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. All of our hands are defiled. All of us have impure hearts.
All of us have lifted up our souls to vanity. We've set our
hearts upon the things of this world that are really just vanity. That's all they are. Well, who
can abide the presence of God? Christ Jesus only. The Savior
only. He's the only one who's got clean
hands. Ours are soiled with sin. Ours
are stained with iniquity. But not the Savior's. He's got
clean hands. All through His life on this
earth, He's the man who had clean hands. He's the man who had a
pure heart. Oh, our hearts have to be made
pure, but they've got to be washed. But not His. His is free from
any defilement. He had no sin. He did no sin. He had no inner sin. He committed
no outer sin. And he never lifted up his soul
to vanity. He never set himself upon the
empty things of this world like us foolish people do. He set
his soul, he set his heart upon the things of God, upon the fact
of glorifying the Father and doing the Father's will. And
therefore the blessing of salvation is given to the Savior. Scripture
says he shall receive the blessing. Because this one who is the perfect
man, he gave his life to ransom his people. He died to save us
from our sins. And in that death he received
the blessing. What is the blessing? The blessing
of salvation. The blessing of righteousness.
the blessedness of the freedom, the purity, and the forgiveness
of all of our sins, He received the blessing for us. And He gives
it to us. And upon the basis of what He
did for this chosen generation, God has exalted Him. I don't know... much about what happened when
the Savior ascended back to heaven from the presence of His disciples. But I do know this, all of heaven
erupted in praise and in worship. There in that Psalm 24, the question
is raised, the statement is made, lift up the gates, Lift up the
gates. Why? The King of glory is coming
back. Coming back in triumph. Coming back in victory. Lift
up the gates. I wonder who sang those words.
I wonder who shouted that message out. As you read that, it could
have been the angels, but I rather think It was the souls, the spirits
of those who had been made perfect, who had died in the Lord Jesus.
They had worshipped Him, many of them, certainly able for hundreds
and hundreds of years. And He saw them leave Heaven's
glory and Heaven's splendor and go down to the earth. And now
He comes back. And I think Abel, and Seth, and
Adam, and Eve, and Enoch, and Noah, and all the departed saints
of God, all the way up until the time that our Lord Himself
would ascend back to glory. I think they all began to sing
in heaven, and they said, lift up the gates! Our King is coming
back. He comes back in victory. He comes back having conquered
all of our enemies. Lift up the gates! And the angels
say, who is this? Well, He's the Lord of glory.
That's who He is. And I'll tell you this, since
the gates of heaven have been lifted up for this magnificent
Savior, And since he finished the work that God gave him to
do, Since He has redeemed His people, since He paid our ransom
price, since He reconciled us to God by His death, since He
brought in for us everlasting righteousness, those gates are
still raised for folks like the thief on the cross. The Savior
said, first of all, the redeemed of the Lord said, lift up the
gates! And now I think it's the Lord
who says, lift up the gates! Here comes the thief. Lift up
the gates! Here comes another believing
sinner. Lift up the gates! It isn't Saint Peter who's in
charge of the gates of heaven. It's our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And He opens up the gates for
folks like you and me. He commands, He issues forth
His edict, His word of command, His word of authority. Lift up
the gates! Here comes another redeemed sinner
home. And that's going to be the shout
throughout heaven when you and I who die in Jesus, when we leave
this world, the Savior is going to say, lift up the gates. Because they were first lifted
up for Him. Jesus, our forerunner, has entered
into glory! And therefore, everybody who
dies in Jesus will enter into glory too. He said, I'll come
again for you. and receive you unto Myself,
that where I am, there ye may be also. And I know that can
pertain to His second coming, but it also pertains to our death. When believers fall asleep in
Jesus, it's the Lord coming back for us. He takes us home to heaven. The angels of God escort us. And the word goes, lift up the
gates! Here comes another one of my
elect. Lift up the gates! Here comes another ransomed sinner. Lift up the gates! Here comes
another regenerated, therefore believing, child of God. John sees the exalted Christ. He's the same and yet John says,
A little different. A little different. Notice what
he says here in verse 13. Again, and in the midst of the
seven candlesticks, one lichen of the Son of Man, very much
alike, But yet there's a difference this time. He's clothed with
a garment down to the floor and gird about the paps with a golden
girdle. He has a golden sash around his
chest. I told you before prophets, priests,
and kings wore long robes. When they were laboring, they
wore the sash around their waist. But when they had finished their
labor, when they were at rest, when they were enjoying the victory
that they had just earned. They wore the sash up across
the pats or underneath the armpits, manifesting the fact to everybody
who came to see them, I just got a victory. I just won a warfare! That's our Savior. John sees
Him in victory, not in defeat. Isaiah said, He shall not fail. Whatever the Savior has set out
to do, He's always been successful. He set out to create the world
and He spake and it was done. In old eternity, He set forth
His eternal purpose. He purposed Everything that's
under the sun, everything happened just exactly according to His
will. Then He purposed to give Himself
a sacrifice for many. He's done that. He has redeemed
His people. He's gone home to glory. In Hebrews
chapter 10, the writer says He sat down. He sat down. With a golden sash up under His
armpits, He sits in regal splendor. He sits in the satisfaction of
His own work. He sits having done the Father's
will of redemption and reconciliation. He sits there in a glorious repose. Our conquering King. John says,
that's how I saw Him. I saw Him that way before John
saw Him on earth laboring. He saw Him in the garden sweating,
as it were, great drops of blood. He saw Him during His days of
His earthly ministry, working and praying and preaching and
teaching and becoming weary. But all that is in the past.
And John sees Him now in His regal glory. He says, His head and His hairs
were white as wool, white as snow. He is the Ancient of Days. And I can hardly read that without
thinking about the fact that His blood has washed us and made
us whiter than the snow. Whiter than the snow. We were in the office this week
and getting some notebooks together, some three-ring binders together
to put the Sunday School lessons in. And Ron and I were there,
and most of them were white, but there was a black one. And
I said, you know, I think about the wordless book, and I'm sure
you Sunday School teachers have used this before, the wordless
book. And you hold up a sheet of black paper. That's us in
our defilement, in our guilt, in our wickedness. Oh, what a
simple illustration. But oh, how powerful. That's
us. Black. Black as the midnight. In the darkness of ignorance
and error and unbelief. The blackness of the whole human
race. But then there's the red. of the blood of the Son of God.
Oh, what a crimson flow. And that crimson flow washes
blackened centers and it makes us whiter than the snow. Whiter
than the snow. Think of it. Those of us who
are black by nature, defiled by sin, through and through every
fiber of our being, from the top of our heads, Isaiah says,
to the bottom of your feet. There's no soundness in you. There's only wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores. Oh, the blackness of the human
heart! But here comes the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. and washes us, bathes us. Oh God, I need a bath. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And that red blood, that crimson
flow, washes us whiter than the snow. That's us. Purity. Even us. Even us. John sees his head, his hairs,
white like wool, whiter than the snow, his feet like fine
brass as if they burned in a furnace, strong enough, powerful enough
to hold us up, powerful enough to tread all of his enemies,
his enemies underfoot. And John said his voice was as
the noise of many waters. John had heard his voice many
a time. Boy, this time it was as the sound of many waters. He said He had in His right hand,
verse 16, seven stars. And out of His mouth went a sharp
two-edged sword, the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. And He said His countenance was
as the sun shineth in its strength. The Lord's disciples, Peter,
James, and John, those three favored disciples, they saw a
little bit of His glory. on the Mount of Transfiguration when His countenance was brighter
than the sun, shining in its strength. I know that you've been out on
a bright, sunny day. It's not one of those days today,
but you go out on a bright, sunny day and you just look at the
sun You can't look very long, but when you look away, you still
see the sun. You know what I mean? Somebody
said you've got sunburnt eyes. And I'll tell you, if you ever
see Christ Jesus in His glory like John did, You'll have S-O-N,
burnt eyes. Oh, to have sun burnt eyes. And then everywhere you look,
you see the Son of God. You see His magnificence. You
see how He arrived at this state of exaltation. Let's go down
to verse 17. And here's the effect. What happens
when a man sees Christ? I've read about people who said
that they saw Christ Jesus, that they had an out-of-body experience
and they went up to see Him. Don't pay any attention to those.
Those guys either ate too much pizza or maybe a demonic vision
they received. I don't know what it was, but
they didn't see Christ Jesus. Here's a man who saw Christ in
His glory. And here's the effect. Verse
17, first sentence. When I saw Him this way, I fell
at His feet as dead. Scared Him to death. Absolutely
frightened. It's what happened to Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 6, first part
of chapter 6, and that's the basis of that great hymn, Holy,
Holy, Holy. In the year the king Uzziah died,
Isaiah said, I saw, so the Lord high, sitting upon His throne. He said His train filled the
temple. His robe filled the temple. I
heard the seraphim crying one to another, holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is filled with
His glory. And Isaiah upon seeing this glorious
sight and seeing the posts of the doors of the temple shake
and the house filled with smoke, Isaiah said, woe is me! I'm undone. I'm cut off. Ezekiel, he saw
the brightness of the glory of the Lord. In Ezekiel 1.28, he
said, when I saw, I fell on my face. That's what men do in the presence
of the majesty of Christ Jesus. Job said in Job 42, He said,
I heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye
seeth thee, wherefore I hate myself. I abhor myself, and I
repent in dust and ashes. Daniel saw the Son of Man. He saw the glory of the Lord.
He fell upon His face. He said, He came near to where
I stood and when He came, I was afraid and I fell on my face
before Him. You remember back in the book
of Judges when the birth of Samson predicted and
spoken of by the angel of the Lord that I believe is Christ
Jesus in pre-incarnate angelic form. He came as the angel of
the Lord first to Manoah's wife. He said, are you going to have
a son? Manoah was out in the fields.
He came in, then she told him what had happened, and then the
angel of the Lord appeared to both of them. Manoah said, We'll have a worship
service. He and his wife offered up a
sacrifice. The angel of the Lord got up
on top of the altar and walked around in the fire. That's got
to be Christ Jesus. A regular angel wouldn't do that.
A regular angel has nothing to do with redemption and substitution
and the satisfaction of God's law by the death of a substitute. That's Christ Jesus Himself.
And He walked upon the burnt offering. And the Scripture says,
As the angel of the Lord who said His name was Wonderful,
He said, My name is Secret, that means My name is Wonderful. Isaiah
9, 6, He has this name, Wonderful Counselor of the Mighty God,
the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. In light of that, the angel of
the Lord manifesting His glory, Manoah and his wife were filled
with fear. They fell on their faces. Manoah
said to his wife, we shall surely die, for we've seen God. Peter, James, and John on the
Mount of Transfiguration. In Matthew 17, 5-6, they heard
the voice of the Lord that said, This is My beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased. Hear ye Him? They saw Christ's
glory. It says, and they fell on their
face. They were sore afraid. And here is John. He sees the exalted Christ. He is so overcome with such glory. Such majesty! Such awesomeness! Such glorious splendor! He just falls on His face like
a dead man. And then it says in verse 17,
He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I'm
the first and the last. Oh, if He would just lay His
hand on us. I know we sing in rightly, so
reach out and touch the Lord as He passes by. You'll find
He's not too busy to hear your hearts cry. He's passing by this
moment, your needs to supply. So reach out and touch the Lord
as He passes by. And that's all well and true,
but I'll tell you what's more important to me, Him to reach
out and touch me. That old leper fell down before
Him and said, if you will, you can make me whole. And the Scripture
says Jesus reached out and He touched him. And when He touched
him, leprosy vanished. That's what I want. That's what
I want. He went into the house of Peter's
mother-in-law. Yes, Peter was married. And his
mother-in-law was sick. You know what Jesus did? He touched
our hand and the fever left. Oh, if He would touch us, the
fever would leave. I tell you when sinners are saved,
I tell you when sinners realize the meaning of the cross of our
Lord Jesus, when we come to appreciate what He did, when He died for
our sins upon that cross, It's when He touches us. And He says,
don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Two blind men
came to Him. He touched their eyes so that
they could see. Oh Lord, touch my eyes. Touch
my eyes. That blind man in the Gospel
of John, our Lord spat on the ground. made some clay of the
spittle, rubbed his eyes. Oh God, rub my eyes, so I can
see your glory, the glory of God, the holiness of God, so
I can see myself, my neediness, my awfulness, my impurity. Oh God, wash my eyes so I can
see, and then I'll see your glory, see your beauty, see the necessity
of blood redemption. He laid his right hand upon John. That's the hand of authority.
That's the hand of power. And he said, fear not. You see,
instead of being filled with dread and fear, the Savior now
says, in effect, be joyful and filled with hope. Why should we not be afraid?
Well, he says, fear not, I am! I am! Who is this who speaks? I am! He's the everlasting, ever-living
covenant God. I am the first and the last. I started everything, I'll end
everything. In verse 18, I am He that liveth
and was dead. Oh yes, John, I died. I died
for your sins according to the Scriptures, but I am alive forevermore. And His resurrection attests
to the fact that He did the work that God the Father assigned
to Him in the covenant of grace. He saved His people from their
sins. I am He that liveth, always liveth,
and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. I'll never die again. We don't
celebrate a mass. The mass is the killing of Jesus
all over again. He died once! And once was enough. For by that one offering, He
put away sins forever. He says, Behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen! That's the truth. He says over in verse 5, to introduce
this book, John says, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful
witness, and now the faithful witness says, Amen! You can trust
my word. As we say proverbially, you can
take it to the bank. He's as good as His word. And
He says, I have the keys of hell and death. He's got the keys to keep you
out of hell, if he's of a will to do it. And he's got the keys of death.
You know who has the keys? The owner. The owner has the
keys. What does this suggest? What
does this represent? Authority? Power? Absolute control? I've got the keys of hell and
death. So it says in verse 19, start
writing. Start writing. You know, he had
said that before. Look back in verse 11. Christ Jesus said, I am Alpha
and Omega, the first and the last, and what thou seest, write
in a book. But He doesn't write anything
till first He sees the exalted Christ. He's not ready to write. He's got to see that One behind
the voice. He's got to see the exalted Jesus
Christ. To see Him as He is, not as He
was, but as He is. And having seen Him as He is,
our Lord Jesus says, now John, get to writing. Write the things
which thou hast seen. Tell them about my glory. and my exaltation, and write
the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter."
And he says, the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest
in my right hand, the seven golden candlesticks, he said, I'm going
to tell you what those mean. See, the Lord shares His secrets
with His people. The book of the Revelation is
written in great symbolic language. And now he has seen the symbol
of Christ Jesus in his right hand having seven stars and he's
in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks and he says in verse
20, the seven stars are the angels or the messenger, they're the
preachers. Preachers of the gospel of the seven churches. I get to thinking about what
an awesome responsibility it is for me to stand up here before
you. We're all eternity bound sinners. How heavy a burden this is. I seek God's face. Oh, I pray
Saturday nights especially. I wake up and I pray, oh God,
don't leave me by myself tomorrow. You know what reassures me? I'm
in His right hand. I'm in His right hand. And all
of His preachers are in His right hand of authority and power.
I don't have any power and I don't have any authority, but the one
I represent does. He does. He's got all power over
all flesh to give eternal life to as many as God gave Him. so
I can come up here with confidence. And the seven candlesticks which
thou sawest, seven churches. That's the body of God's elect. God has made us alive. He lit
a light that will never go out. Praise the Lord Jesus Christ.
May He reveal Himself to each one of us today. And then we'll
be able to say, it is well with my soul.