Thank you for singing that. That's
a song that I asked them to get acquainted with and sing. We
sang that quite a bit up in the church in Almonte, Michigan. And I just love that. It's got
such good words. And they did a good job with
that. Thank you all for singing that
for us this morning. Let's go to Revelation chapter
1 again today. I'll talk to you about seeing
the glorified Savior from the book of Revelation chapter 1. In this scripture, It is John who sees the Lord
Jesus. He sees Him not as He was when
on this earth in the days of His suffering, in the days of
His agonies, not as He was in the day of the
death of deaths. That is, when he gave himself
as a ransom for us upon the cross. John didn't see him as he was.
And John didn't see him as he's going to be in that great day
when he comes back in glory. But rather, he sees a vision
of the majestic Savior as He is now. Not as He was, not as
He's going to be when He comes back the second time, but as
He is right now. John saw Him in His great glory. And this was a vision He never
got over. And I would say this, when sinners
are brought to see the glory of God in the face of Christ
Jesus, it is a faith sight that we never get over. There are some experiences, some
religious experiences, ought to be gotten over. I still remember having religious
experiences when I was younger, and they were real. You know,
when somebody says to me I had a religious experience, well,
I don't question the fact that you had a religious experience.
I just question the fact, was it biblical? Because there are lots of people
who have experiences. I can still remember the experience
of a preacher preaching on a Sunday evening. And he preached about a hellfire
and brimstone. And I got very much afraid. And he said, if you don't want
to go to hell, that burning place, you better believe on Jesus. And I thought to myself, I sure
don't want to go to a burning hell. I'll just believe on Jesus. He said, all you got to do is
believe that He died at the Baird and Rose again the third day.
He said, that's all there is to it. I thought, if that's all
there is to it, then I can do that. And I had an experience. And don't you tell me it wasn't
real. It was real, but it wasn't biblical. It wasn't biblical. In fact, I can still remember
my feelings. after all these years. And I
would bet, now don't go out of here and say the preacher is
a betting man, okay? I would guess that there are
a lot of you who had real religious experiences. And I'll tell you a lot of our
religious experiences We need to forget them, but you know,
they are so deep within us, it's kind of hard to forget them.
I don't put any stock in them. But I'll tell you, this man,
he had an experience. It was real. It was real. I'll tell you, when it happened,
it was on the Lord's Day. He's on an island called Patmos,
one of about 50 different little islands in the Aegean Sea. These were prisons that Domitian, who was the emperor,
this is where he would send his prisoners. Most of them were
political prisoners. Most of them were criminals.
This is where John was sent. He's an old man. Forgive me for those of you who
are 90 and above, but he was old. You're getting on up there
if you're 90, right? And you know what he was? Here's
what he had to do. He was on a chain gang. He had
to bust rocks. We read some of the old historians
and they say, especially Sir William Ramsey, he said that
as soon as John and the other prisoners got to these islands,
they were beaten. They lost all rights as Roman
citizens. if they were Roman citizens and
lost all their properties, all their money was forfeited. They didn't feed them very well,
had to live in caves. They beat them. And John would have had a soldier
with him He had a whip in his hand. If John wasn't busting
rocks fast enough to suit him, he'd whip him. I can't imagine a younger man
going through that, much less a man who's 90 years of age. That's where John was. And you
know what he was guilty of? Preaching the Word. Preaching
the Gospel. Somebody said, if Ezra is arresting
preachers today and putting them in prison for preaching the gospel
of God's sovereign grace of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, prisons
wouldn't be crowded. But there'd be a few. Maybe more
than we think. John's on Patmos. Then he gets a faith sight of
Christ Jesus. This is a man of God. This is
an apostle. He is the last living apostle. All the others have died. Of
course, Judas, he went out and hung himself, being the devil.
But the other apostles, the other ten apostles, and then the apostle
Paul also, who is rightfully the twelfth apostle, those men
have been martyred. John's the last one. And he's an aged man. And here
he is beaten because he's preaching the gospel. And it's the Lord's Day. And he has this unusual vision. First of all, he hears a voice.
There's a voice that comes behind him and says in verse 8, I am
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord,
which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty. Then John says in verse number
10, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. I was worshiping. He was by himself, but he was
worshiping. We're thankful we can gather together for public
worship, but you can worship God anywhere through Christ Jesus. You can pray anywhere. I know
several years ago, people got all upset. They took God out
of school, took prayer out of school. You can't take God out
of school. You can't take God out of the
job, out of the workplace. Because God's not in the workplace. He's not in the school. He's
in His people. His people can worship Him through
Jesus Christ anywhere and anytime. John's a worshiper. He says,
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. Then he said, I heard behind
me a great voice as of a trumpet. The voice said, verse 11, I am
Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and what thou seest,
write in a book and send it unto the seven churches which are
in Asia. He lists the churches. He gets
to verse 12. He says, I turn to see the voice
that spake with me, and being turned by the Lord, I saw seven golden candlesticks,
and in the middle, I saw one liken of the Son of
Man. He looked like the Savior, and
yet He was different. John knew He was the same, but
there's something most majestic about His appearance. He said of this Son of Man, He
said He had a garment down to the foot. He was girt about the chest with
a golden girdle or sash. John said, I looked at his head.
His head and his hairs, they were white like wool. In fact,
he said, as white as snow. And he said, I saw his eyes.
His eyes were so penetrating. Like lasers, literally. Like a flame of fire. John said in his feet, he said
his feet were like into fine brass as if they burned in a
furnace like glowing red. Fiery. He said his voice was as the
sound of many waters. He said he had in his right hand
seven stars. And he said out of his mouth
went a two-edged sword. And Jehon said his countenance
was as the sun shineth in his strength. Jehon saw a vision. of the glorified Savior. And He never got over it. And I say to you, if you ever
see the Lord Jesus, the sovereign Christ, by the
work of the Spirit, if you ever have a faith look at this great Redeemer. You'll never get over seeing
His glory. And you'll never want to see
anything else or anybody else in a spiritual way except Jesus
only. Do you remember when the three
favored disciples went up on the Mount of Transfiguration
with the Savior, Peter, James, and John. And our Lord showed them a little
bit of His glory. Why, they wrote about Him as
brighter than the noonday sun. Peter said, let's just build
three tabernacles or booths up here. One for you, one for Moses
and one for Elijah. Because Moses and Elijah appeared
with Him and they spoke about His exodus, which He would accomplish
in Jerusalem. That is, they were talking about
redemption. See, those people in glory, the saints of God in
heaven, they're interested in the same gospel we're interested
in. They're interested in the same subject we're interested
in. The Lord Jesus and Him crucified. They talked about that redemption,
that death He would accomplish, that He would finish in Jerusalem. And Simon Peter seeing these,
Jesus, Elijah, and Moses said, it's wonderful being here, it's
such a blessing being here. Let's build three tabernacles. And a voice came out of a cloud
and said, this is my beloved son. And then suddenly Moses and Elijah
vanished. They saw nobody except Jesus
only. And I'm telling you, He's the
only one you need a faith site of. The old prophets, we read
them, they tell us about Jesus Christ, but the old prophets,
they can't save you. We thank God for His preachers.
His preachers tell us the truth about God. They tell us the truth
about us and our sinfulness. They tell us the truth about
redeeming grace. God's mercy to us through the
Lord Jesus they tell us about. Preachers tell us about how God
can be just and justify the ungodly. But you don't need to look to
me because I can't help you. I can't save you. I can't break
your heart. I can't make you believe on the
Son of God. I can't give everlasting life
to you. I can't put your sins away. Don't
come confessing your sins to me. I've got to go to the same
one to confess my sins that you need to go to to confess your
sins. Who can forgive sin but God alone? And it can only do
it in a just way through the death of the Lord Jesus. You need to look to Christ Jesus.
Don't look to the church. Don't look to religion. Don't
look to your decision. Don't look to your faith. Don't
look to your repentance. Don't look to the preacher. Don't
look to the baptism. There's one you need to look
to. That's the glorified Savior. That one who has been glorified
on the basis of finishing the work that God assigned to him
in the covenant of grace. The work of saving his people
from their sins. The work that he gladly did.
The work he voluntarily entered in to do. He has finished that
work. He's reconciled His people. He's
put away all of our sins. He's brought in everlasting righteousness. He's gone back to glory. God's
satisfied. Bless the name of God. Believe
Him and look to the glorified Christ. And if the Spirit of
God ever gives you a faith look at Christ, you'll never get over
it. You'll never get over it. John
didn't. No child of God ever gets over
seeing the Lord Jesus. Now, if you have a religious
experience, you'll get over that. Sooner or later, you'll get over
it. But you don't get over seeing
Christ Jesus, seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. John saw Him, and where did he
see Him? He sees Him in the midst of the
churches. He is always with His people. John says, I looked and He said,
I got turned around. He said, I saw seven golden candlesticks. That is symbolic for all the
church of the Lord. There they are. And right in
the middle, in the midst of them, that's where Christ Jesus was.
He sees the Savior in the midst of the churches. He's always
with His people. The shepherd is always with the
sheep. He said, I'll never leave you
and I'll never forsake you. It isn't surprising at all that
in this vision, John sees the glorified Christ in the midst
of his people. He is our great Joshua. He is the great Jehovah who saves. Who has promised to all of his
Joshuas, as I was with Moses. So, I will
be with you. I will not fail you, and I will
not forsake you. Oh God, the Spirit let me hear
that down in my heart. When this glorified Savior says,
I will not fail you, preacher people have let me down
through the years. I don't doubt that, and I suspect
you've let people down yourself too. See, that's true too. But I'll tell you somebody who'll
never fail you. He'll never let you down. And He'll never forsake you.
That's Jehovah our Savior. Christ Jesus Himself. He's with
His people always. He's right in the middle of His
people. Wherever His people are, He says,
that's where you'll find Me. That's where you'll find me. He is with His church as the
foundation, and we're the building. The Apostle says, other foundation
can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. He's a necessary foundation. You see, a foundation can exist
A long, long time without a building. You put in a good foundation,
it will just stay there. Later on you can build a building
on it. But a building is not going to last long without a
foundation. Our Lord Jesus is in the midst of His people like
a foundation. And there is a sense in which
He didn't need us. He's the everlasting foundation,
sovereign, unchanging, and the unchangeable God. He existed
forever as the second person of the Trinity. He could exist without us, but
we can't exist without Him. He's the foundation upon which
we build. In fact, He's the foundation
God the Father has laid. He laid this foundation. Therefore,
thus saith the Lord God, Isaiah 28, 16, Behold, I lay in Zion. I lay in Zion for a foundation. Who laid the foundation of Jesus
Christ for the building of the church? God Himself. He is the one we build upon Christ
Jesus. The foolish man builds his house
upon the sand. The sand of his deeds. The sand
of his feelings. The sand of his experiences.
The last man builds on the rock. Christ Jesus. He is a sure foundation. He is a tried foundation. There
He is in the midst of the church. And all the church is dependent
upon Him because He is the foundation for all of us. And He's a sure foundation. He
holds us all up. Every sinner given to Him in
the covenant of grace, every sinner He redeemed by His blood
on the cross, every sinner the Spirit of God brings to Him to
lean upon Christ, to build all of His hopes for salvation upon
Jesus Christ, that sinner has an everlasting foundation because
he's built on Christ Jesus the Rock. He's in the midst of His church
as an invisible foundation. You know, you build a house,
get the foundation, build the house on top of it. You can't
even see the foundation. But it's there. And the foundation of God's people
He's invisible to the natural eye. You can't see Him, but He's
here, and He's real, and He's everlasting, and He'll never
fail us. We build upon Him. And He is an everlasting foundation
because all who build on Him shall never perish. John sees
Him in the midst of the churches. And all of the churches are dependent
upon Him. This church and every other local
church that exists in this world is dependent upon Jesus Christ
the Lord. All of the redeemed of God. All
of the elect of God. We are all of the called of God.
We are dependent upon Him alone. And so long as the foundation
stands, we shall stand. How long will He stand? Forever. No wonder He says, I give to
My sheep eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand." He is with the church as the
foundation. We're the building. And I'll
tell you, He's in the midst of the church. He's with His church
as the head of the body. Certainly, our Lord Jesus, He
stands in the midst of His church as one who is near kin to us.
as one who has a precious relationship to us. He is to the church our
husband. We're his bride. He is our father. We're his children. He is our
brother. We're his brethren. He is our
friend who gave his life for us. He's our master. He's our teacher. He's our king. He is our captain. He is our
physician. He is our advocate. He is our
shepherd. He is our bishop. He is our keeper. But He also stands in the midst
of the church in a nearer relationship than this. He is the head and
we are the body. He is the sovereign head. He
is the ruling head. He is the living head. He is
the wise head. Oh, how dependent upon the head
is the body. We derive our life from Him. We derive our salvation from
Him. And we are subject to Him. He
stands in the midst of the church. There He stands as the foundation. There He stands as the head.
And then thirdly, there He stands as our life. What is Christ to
His people? There is the Lord Jesus surrounded
by these seven local congregations which are symbolic of all of
the people of God of all ages. What is Jesus Christ to all of
His people? He's our very life. Our life. He said, I'm the resurrection
and the life. The reason we live spiritually,
the reason we live eternally, the reason we have everlasting
life is because He who is life is with us to give us life. You
wouldn't have any life at all if He didn't give it to you.
First of all, you wouldn't have any physical life. Because we read in Acts chapter
17, in Him we live and move and have our being. You wouldn't
have physical life if He didn't maintain your life. But then
you wouldn't have spiritual life either. Paul wrote and said, when Christ
who is our life shall appear, then we shall be like Him and
with Him. He is our life. Separated from Jesus Christ,
there's just death. But in union with the blessed
Savior, He's our life. He is said to be formed in us.
Christ in you, the hope of glory. To His church, He is our life. As the Father raiseth up the
dead and quickneth them, even so the Son quickneth whom He
will. There He stands with the church,
with His people. And He is with His church, number
four, as our light. Our light. We were in darkness. There's only one reason we have
spiritual light. There's only one reason we are
enlightened in our souls and in our hearts to see and discern
the Scriptures, to discern the Gospel, to have some understanding
of how Jesus Christ paid our sin debt and brought everlasting
righteousness for us, brought it in for us. There's only one
reason because He who is the light has given us light. We were in the dark, but we're
not in the dark anymore. We're children of light. It's what the Scripture says. He's in the midst of His church.
He's with us as our food and water. Our food and water. We feast upon Him. He is the
bread that came down from heaven. He's the manna we eat every day. There He is in the midst of His
church and He feeds us. He is the shepherd who leads
us into the green pastures of His Word, of His Gospel. He is our food and He is our
water. He is a living fountain. He is
not a cistern. He is a living fountain. Of what good is water? Well,
water washes the filthy. That's what He does. He washes
the filthy. That's us, filthy in sin, filthy
in our iniquities. He washes us. In the water of
His Word and in His own blood, He washes us. Of what use is water? It not
only washes the dirt off, washes the filth away, but it quenches
thirst. He gives us a thirst for this
gospel. He gives us a thirst for salvation. A thirst for God. David said,
as the deer panteth after the water brook, so panteth my soul
after thee, O God. I'm thirsty for God and Jesus
Christ says, come unto me and drink. And we do. We drink. Are you thirsty for life? Are
you thirsty for God? Are you thirsty for righteousness?
Are you thirsty for salvation? Jesus Christ says, come to me.
I'll give you living water. I'll give you living water. And
I'll tell you, water not only washes us and not only quenches
our thirst, but it makes us fruitful. It makes us fruitful. We bear the fruit of the Spirit,
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. You know why we bear that fruit
of the Spirit? Because the fountain is in the
midst of the churches. There He is, Christ Jesus, the
living fountain. He's in the midst of His churches
as the way to the Father. All other prophets and all other
preachers, here is what we declare. We will show you the way. Let
me tell you about the way. Our Lord Jesus, He comes to us
and He says, I am the way. I did not just come to show you
the way. I came to make the way by my substitutionary death and
I am the living way. Come on to Christ Jesus. He is
the way to God. He said, no man cometh to the
Father but by Me. He is with His church as the
door to salvation and to heaven. He said, I am the door. By Me
if any man enter in, he shall be saved and go in and out and
find pasture. He is in the midst of His churches
as the Redeemer. He still bears the mark of substitution. After His resurrection, He told
His disciples, reach hither your finger, put them into My wounds. You see them there? He told Thomas,
look here at My side. Don't be faithless, but believing. He's the Redeemer. He's with
His church also as the Shepherd. to the sheep. Wherever the sheep
are, you're sure to find the shepherd. What kind of a shepherd is He
to the sheep? He's the Great Shepherd. His
blood is the blood of the everlasting covenant shed by the Great Shepherd.
He's the Good Shepherd that gave His life for the sheep. John
chapter 10, verses 11 and 15 tell us that. And He's the Chief
Shepherd who will come again. And as they sang so beautifully
a while ago, He's the seeking and finding shepherd. I was a
wandering sheep. I didn't love the fold. But He
sought me and He found me and He brought me to Himself. And
all these churches, all these people, Christ Jesus in the middle. He sought and found every single
one of them. Not one of them came because
they just decided they'd come. They came because He pursued
them in grace and in everlasting love. And He found them through
the preaching of the Gospel. He's with His church as our righteousness. We have no righteousness but
His righteousness. There He stands in the middle
of the church and here's this white-robed group all around
Him. There they are and I can see
them all. And they're all blameless and spotless before God. Whose righteousness do they wear? It's the righteousness imputed
to them freely by grace. It's the righteousness He established
by His obedience unto death. even the death of the cross.
And He is with His church also as one who disciplines and who
chastens. As you read through the letters
to the seven churches, and you know John, he had to write, once
the revelation was given to him, he had to copy it over. He had
to have seven copies to send to the seven churches. But He sends these out to them,
and to some of them, they're strong words of rebuke, chastening
words. He'll say to one church, listen,
you better straighten up. I'll take the candlestick away.
I'll take the light away. You won't even realize it's gone.
You'll keep on going through the motions of religion, but
you'll be out there by yourself. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens.
He scourges every son because He loves us. He sits as the refiner
of His precious jewels. And He won't let the trials of
life and the troubles and so forth, He won't let them get
too hot to where they'll destroy us. He sits and watches. He's with His church as our shield
and defender. There He is in the middle of
the church! And every enemy, He'll take care of them. He's
in the middle of the church as that one who supplies all of
our need. Every need your soul requires
is met in Christ Jesus. Who of God has made unto us wisdom? and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. He's with His church. He stands
in the middle of His church as a sun to warm us, to illuminate
us. He stands in the midst of His
church as the dew and the soft, gentle rain to refresh us. And He's with His church, with
His people, as our peace. I know He made peace by the blood
of His cross, but you know what the Apostle Paul says? He is
our peace. He stands in the middle of His
church, and His very standing with us says, everything's alright
between you and God. He is our peace. And He's with His church as our
guard and companion through death. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil. Why not, David? Death roars at us. It frightens us. How can you
say I will fear no evil for this reason? Thou art with me. He's with us in the midst. You don't have to be afraid to
die. And He's in the midst of His church as a guide to glory. Psalm 73, 24, For this God is
our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even to
death. He's with His people. And He'll
guide us right on through death and take us all the way home
to glory. He is always with His people. John saw the glorified
Christ. He rejoiced in Him because He
is always with His people. Every need we have is met by
this glorious Savior. And someday, soon, we shall see
Him face to face, won't we? Number 511.