That was such a blessing. Thank
you. Open your Bibles to Revelation
chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1. Here in the first chapter of
the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, The Spirit of God
gives to us in this last book of the Bible a fitting end to
the other 65 narratives. And in the very first chapter,
we're taken from the advent, the first advent of our Savior,
all the way to his second advent. And when the Apostle John writes
of our Lord's first coming, he tells us who this one is and
what he did. You'll notice in verse 5, we mention this morning that,
first of all, John mentioned the Father And I'll read verse
4 again. Grace be unto you and peace from
Him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from
the seven spirits which are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ,
who is the faithful witness, and He is the first begotten
of the dead, And he is the prince of the kings of the earth. We've mentioned before there
his three offices, prophet, priest, and king. He's the faithful witness. He's the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. And then you go further in the
first chapter of John, the Word became flesh and dwelt among
us and we beheld His glory. The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father full of grace and truth. He's the faithful witness. He tells us about God. He tells us who the Father is.
He tells us of His own self, of His own work. He tells us
of His Spirit. He tells us of ourselves. He
tells us of our neediness. He tells us of our sinfulness. He's God's faithful witness.
Indeed, the Word of God is but the revelation, the written revelation
of this One who is the incarnate Word. The Word tells us of God's
everlasting covenant of grace, God's purpose to save. There
was somebody I think you said was talking to you and said,
you don't give anybody a chance to be saved. Salvation is not
by chance, it's by purpose. It's by purpose. You don't get
saved by chance. You're not saved by accident.
You're saved on purpose. That's God's purpose. God purposed
it. Salvation is of the Lord. Our
Lord Jesus tells us of God's purpose. He's a faithful witness.
He tells us of the fall, of our neediness, of our sinfulness. He doesn't sugarcoat it. make it more palatable to us,
kind of take the sharp edges off? No. He just says we die
in Adam. He just tells it like it is.
And that's what we're to do. We just say it like the Lord
said. You better say it the way He
said. Say it as the faithful witness declared it. And then
He tells us about salvation by redemption, reconciliation, He's
the faithful witness there. He's the prophet. He is the first
begotten of the dead. What does that mean? He's the first one raised with
glorified body. Someday we're going to die. Our bodies will be buried out
of sight. Our souls will go back to God
who gave them. The body will go to rest in the
earth, in the ground, until our Lord comes back. When He does
come back, He will raise us up, as I'll show you at the end of
the message, and we will have glorified bodies. You say, well, the Lord raised
Lazarus from the dead. He didn't have a glorified body,
though. He was brought back. He lived to die again. The little girl that was raised
from the dead by our Savior, she lived to die again. The little
boy, when the Savior met the funeral procession, and he was
being carried to his final resting place, and life met death, and
death had to flee, that boy came back from the dead. His mother
rejoiced. He lived to die again. But our
Lord Jesus who lived and died, He rose again the third day,
never to die again. His was one offering for sin. One death. That's how He put
our sins away. That's how He satisfied God's
justice. He is indeed the priest of God's
people, and He's the Prince of the kings of the earth. He is
the King. Then John says, unto Him that
loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and
hath made us kings and priests, unto God and His Father, to this
one, this great prophet, priest, and king. And may Him be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Amen. John tells us who He is. He tells us what He did. He redeemed
us. He's always loved us. And because
He loved us, He washed us from our sins in His blood. And He has exalted us. We're
kings and priests together. We're sons and daughters of the
Most High God. You are a priest. Don't listen to, don't pay any
attention to those who say you need to go and confess your sins
to a priest. That's false doctrine. That's
absolute heresy. You, my fellow believing child
of God, you are a priest. You can enter in behind the veil
anytime you want to, through Jesus Christ the Lord. Approach
your God, whose ears are ever open to your cry. And then John
takes us from his first advent immediately to his second advent. In fact, almost without a breath, Having mentioned that He washed
us from our sins, when did He do that? He did that His first
coming. It was His first coming, it was
His death that put our sins away. Make sure you understand, His
repentance doesn't put your sin away. Confession, acknowledgement of
your guilt, that doesn't put your guilt away. is nothing can
wash away your sins and my sins but that effectual bloody death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. John, having said that, it's
almost like he just fast forwards all the way to the end of the
age. And he says, Behold, he cometh with clouds. He's coming. He's coming. That E-T-H. He's coming. Stand on the tiptoes
of faith. Be looking for Him. The Savior said at the end of
this great book, Behold, I come quickly. John answers for all
the bride, for all the willing subjects of King Jesus. Those who have been effectually
drawn by the Spirit of grace to cast their souls upon Him
for full salvation, for the forgiveness of sins, and for righteousness. John speaks for all the rest
of us. He says, even so, come Lord Jesus. Oh Lord Jesus, come tonight.
That's what you prayed in your prayer back in the office. Come
tonight. And He will come one of these
days. as a thief in the night unexpected,
after he gathers his last elect into the Kingdom of God. After
the last sheep, the last lost sheep, after he's found it and
picked it up on his shoulders and bring him a home to God,
that's when the end is going to come. He says, every eye shall see
him, they also that pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth
shall wail because of him, even so, amen. And then it's as though the Lord
Jesus, upon Hearing John say these things, of course by the
Spirit of grace, by the Spirit of inspiration, our Lord Jesus
immediately begins to speak. And He says to John, and He says
to us, because this is a letter written to God's people, He uses
these words, I am. Who are you, Lord? 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 begins to speak again.
But it's the Lord Jesus who says, I am Alpha and omega, the beginning
and the end. Now there is some understanding
given of that statement down in verse 11 and also in verse
17. The voice says, I am alpha and
omega, the first and the last. Look at verse 18, I am he that
liveth, and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell
and death. Back up to verse 17. And when
I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead, and He laid His right
hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and
the last. The first and the last. And look at how the book ends.
Go over to the 22nd chapter. See how it ends. See what the
Savior has to say at the end of the book. He's saying nothing
new. He's still identifying Himself
to John and to us, telling us about Himself. He says in Revelation
22 and 13, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the
first and the last. The Lord in the Old Testament
often said that He was the first and the last. I'll give you some
references if you want to look those up, if you want to jot
them down. We won't take the time to look at them now, but
in Isaiah 41 verse 4, Isaiah 44, verse 6. Isaiah 48,
verse 12. Our Lord Jesus is identifying
Himself with that One who spoke in the
Old Testament. This is the Son of God. who in
the Old Testament said through the prophet Isaiah, I'm the first
and I'm the last. I'm the beginning and I'm the
ending. And now he gets to the last book
of the Bible and he's saying the same thing. I'm alpha. I'm alpha. First letter of the
Greek alphabet. Omega. Last letter of the Greek
alphabet. He's the beginning. He's the
ending. He's the whole alphabet, in fact.
He's everything in between. He's Alpha. We know that the
Jewish people used that word Alpha to mean those who are the
chief, those who are the greatest. In our society, we often speak
of those who are, you say you have several, let's say you have
several men together, and one of them just naturally comes
in and takes the lead. And we say of him, he's the alpha
male. Maybe a pack of dogs. He's the
alpha. What does that mean? He's the
chief one. He's the leader. He's the one who's got authority.
This is what the Jews meant when they used this, and this is what
our Lord means when He says this, I'm the chief one. I'm the leader. I'm the greatest. I'm the highest. He is the one who is the dominant
one. I've known some men in my life
who were very, very strong alpha males. And every leader has to
be, to a certain extent, kind of an alpha male. But you know,
you've met some men and maybe some alpha women too, but they
walk in the room and they just kind of take over. Right? They just take over. And it's
like everybody suddenly, they know, this person's in charge. This is what our Lord is saying.
I'm in charge. You don't get any higher than
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, for a little while, He stooped
low. There is His stated humiliation
as God's servant. Made lower than the angels. God's
faithful, God's righteous servant. We talked about it in the Sunday
School lesson this morning. God said in Isaiah 52 verse 13,
Behold, My servant, My servant, he was made low in order to save
us, in order for the suffering of death. He had to be made low. God can't die. God can't suffer. Man can't satisfy, but the God-man
can both suffer and satisfy. He did suffer and He did satisfy
the justice of God for all of His people. He was made low,
but wait, He's Alpha. He's been exalted. He's exalted
over all. He is the Chief One. He's Alpha
in all of His offices. He's the chief shepherd. The
Bible speaks of our Lord Jesus as being the great shepherd in
the covenant of grace. The good shepherd when He laid
down His life for the sheep. And Peter writes in 1 Peter chapter
5, when the chief shepherd shall appear. Alpha! Alpha! The greatest! The Hottest! None above Him! That's the reason
we read every knee is going to bow to Him. Every tongue is going
to confess, He is the Lord. He's Alpha. That's what He said
His name is. He said, My name is Alpha. I'm
Alpha. If you read over in the book
of Colossians, in fact, go over to Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2, look at
verse 10. To all the children of God, hear
God's Word. You are complete in Him. In other words, you're liberally
supplied with everything you need. You lack nothing in Christ
Jesus. You're justified. You're righteous. before a holy God. You lack nothing
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're complete in Him which
is the head. He's the head. That's what alpha
means, the head. Nobody above Him. He's the head. We're the body. Where the head goes, the body
goes. What the head says, that's the
way it is for the body. Look in chapter 1 of Colossians
here. Look at verse 18. He is the head
of the body, the church. That guy over there in Rome who
dresses funny, got a hat like fish head, he's not the head
of the church. He's Antichrist. I know who the
head of the church is. I know who the head of the body
is. That one whom God says He is. Christ Jesus. He's Alpha. He's Alpha in the church. He's
Alpha in the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from
the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence
that He might hold first place. He's the head. Look at Ephesians,
the first chapter. Ephesians chapter 1, look at
verse 18. I'll start. The eyes of your
understanding, Ephesians 1.18, the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His
calling and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of His power
to us who believe according to the working of His mighty power,
that is, according to the energy of His mighty power in us. Why
is it that we believe? Because the energy of God is
at work in our hearts. If the Lord leaves you to yourself,
if He leaves me to myself, we're not going to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. We'll believe on the Son of God.
We'll embrace Him. We'll flee to Him. We'll run
to Him when this energy of God is at work within us. In fact, He says in verse 20,
it's the same energy which He wrought in Christ when He raised
Him from the dead. You reckon there was divine energy
put forth to raise Jesus Christ from the dead? Sure was. It's going to take that kind
of energy to raise you. So you can just forget about
baptismal regeneration. You can forget about decisional
regeneration. Well, won't you choose Jesus?
Won't you make your decision for Jesus? I tell you, your choice
and your will doesn't have that kind of power. It's going to take resurrection
power. This is not the hour of decision. We made our decision in the garden. That's right, Adam made our decision,
put his fist in God's face and said, I'm not going to have you
to reign over me anymore. That's it. We made our decision. Thank God he overrules our rebellion
and our stubbornness. and He doesn't leave us to ourselves. Oh God, don't leave me to myself. I'm my worst enemy. I'll die
in my sins. I'll die in unbelief. I'll die
in rebellion unless you put forth that same kind of power that
raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Make that work effectually
in my heart. Isn't that right? You know that's
right. It's what the book says. Keep
reading. Look at verse 20, "...when He
wrought in Christ, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him
from the dead, set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places,
far above all principality and power and might and dominion,
and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also
in that which is to come, and hath put all things under His
feet, and gave Him to be the Head, the Alpha." He's the Alpha! Who made Him alpha? God did. On what basis is this man Christ
Jesus made alpha? His successful work of redemption
which He finished on the cross. He did the work the Father gave
Him to do. And God said, You're alpha! Set
Him at His own right hand. He's all things to the church.
He's head over the church, which is His body, the fullness of
Him that filleth all in all. He's alpha. He's the highest
rank. You don't get any higher than
He is. I tell you, when you need help
in your soul, I pray for you. But you need to go to somebody
who can help you. You know, when I go to a business,
I like to go to small businesses and deal with the owner. Talk
to somebody who's in charge. Because usually these little
sales gals, you can't say to them, well, I tell you, I know
the tag says $10. I'll give you $8 for it. And
say, well, I can't do that. I can't do it. Where's the owner?
Talk to the owner. Talk to the head. Let me tell you something. You
need help for your poor soul? Go to the head. Go to Alpha. I'll pray for you. We'll pray
for you. But I can't do anything for you
other than that, preach the gospel to you. But I know who does save
poor sinners. It's Sovereign Christ. Alpha!
Go to Alpha! He's the head. He's the head
of all things. He's got all preeminence. He's
at the right hand of God. He's the chief in honor and in
dignity and He's got a name above every name. He's Alpha and He's
Omega. That's the last. That's the lowest. And in His state of humiliation,
He became the lowest. God came down here and joined
Himself to human flesh. What a stoop! Becoming a servant, walking in this old vile world, then subjecting Himself to the
abuse of men, and willingly taking upon him the indebtedness of
all these people, actually a debt he assumed for the foundation
of the world. He had to be a lamb slain, butchered, bloodied, crucified, despised and rejected of men,
scarcely recognized as a man. He says in Psalm 22, I'm a worm
and no man. He's Omega. Omega. He's Alpha. And you see, He's everything.
from A to Z, from Alpha to Omega. He is the whole. He's everything
to God. God purposed before this world
began to exalt His Son. That's what God's intention's
always been. Give Him a people to glorify
His grace, glorify His work of redemption, and make those people
to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. God's purpose
has always been to exalt His Son. He's everything to God. He's
everything to God. He better be everything to us. Our message is not, won't you
give Jesus a chance. Our message is not, why don't
you try Jesus. He's all in all. Bow to Him. He's the Lord of glory. I already
hear Christmas carols being sung. I like to sing them myself. Oh,
come let us adore Him. Christ the Lord. Adore Him. Not a baby! Alpha. Alpha! Seated upon His throne. He's the greatest. He's the highest. He's not a little infant in a
manger anymore. Thank God He came that way. His sinlessness is evident in
the fact He wasn't born of the seed of man, born of the seed
of woman. But as a baby, He didn't save
us. It's His bloody death that saved
us. We preach His substitutionary
sacrifice on the cross. Everybody's infatuated with a
little baby. Well, I'll tell you what, that
little baby grew up and suffered, bled and died, was buried and
rose again the third day, and he's been exalted. He's the chief,
he's the head, he's the king, he's alpha. You better bow to
him. You better bow to him. He's everything
in the purpose of God. And He's everything to His people.
He's our Savior. He's our Sovereign. He's our
Sacrifice. He's our Sin-Bearer. He's our
Satisfier of Divine Justice for us. He's the Water of Life for
us. He's the Bread of Life for us.
He's our Shepherd whom we gladly follow, whithersoever He leads. He's our Teacher. He's our Commander. He's our Foundation upon which
we build all of our hopes. for heaven and eternity. He's
the rock upon which we stand. He's our refuge from the storms
of life. He's our righteousness. He's
our life. He's our way. He's our portion. He's our freedom. He's our wisdom. He's our shield. He's our strength. He's our song. He's the horn
of our salvation. He's our life. He's our resurrection. He's our ladder to heaven. He's
our all in all. He is everything to God's people.
Go back to Revelation 1. So this is how John is introduced to Him, at least
in this setting. The Savior says this. He is writing this letter and
then He says to these saints. He says in verse number 10, He
said, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. I heard behind
me a great voice as of a trumpet. That's the title of the message,
the voice from behind. And the voice said again, I am
Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and the voice said,
what thou seest, write in a book, send it to the seven churches
which are in Asia, under Ephesus, and under Smyrna, and under Pergamos,
and under Thyatira, and under Sardis, and under Philadelphia,
and under Laodicea." And then John said, I turned to see the
voice that spoke with me. Literally, I was turned, because
then it says, and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks,
and I saw somebody standing in the middle of them. The first thing he says, though,
is, I heard a voice. I heard a voice. He heard the
voice, and then being turned, he saw a glorious sight. This is the way, if I can make
an application of this, this is the way that saving grace
comes to us. We hear, and then we see. We hear the voice of the Lord.
The voice of the Lord is His Word. We hear His Word. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing by the Word of God. You see, John saw this glorious
Redeemer, but he saw Him upon hearing the voice of Him. You hear and you believe the
voice of the Lord. The voice of the Lord got the
attention of Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. Well, they wouldn't have stopped
running except that they heard the voice The voice of the Lord came to
them in the cool of the day, not in the heat of the day, not
in wrath, not in judgment, but in mercy, in grace. They heard the voice of the Lord,
the voice of the Lord. You read Psalm 29, the voice
of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thundereth,
the Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord, that thunder,
you know, when Israel, they heard the voice of God, it came to
them like thunder. Like thunder. I was preaching
somewhere, I can't even remember where it was. And I'm preaching
on this very thing, the voice of the Lord, not from this passage.
But from another passage, talking about the voice of the Lord being
like thunder, and all of a sudden it started thundering outside.
And after the service was over, somebody said, that's the voice
of the Lord. You just preached to us about the voice of the
Lord. It's powerful. In fact, it says in Psalm 29,
verse 4, the voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the
Lord is full of majesty. John said, I heard His voice.
I heard this voice. I tell you, it was an awakening
voice. It was a voice that got his attention. And if we're going to embrace
this gospel of God's grace, the Lord has got to speak to us with
a voice that grabs our attention. Otherwise, we won't listen. We're
not going to listen to the mere voice of a man. It's going to
take the voice of God. Now, I do believe from the Scriptures
that God has a general call. He speaks in a general voice
through His Word, by His preachers, through providence. But we always
resist that. It's like Stephen said to the
Jews there in the book of Acts, when he was preaching to them
that sermon that resulted in his martyrdom. He said, you do
always resist the Holy Ghost. The general call of the Gospel. Many are called, few are chosen. What the Lord Jesus said. Proverbs
chapter 1, God says, because I called and you refused. He
says, one of these days you're going to call and I'm not going
to hear you. What kind of call did God put
forth? The general call that comes forth from the Word, comes
forth from the lips of His servants. Of this much you may be certain.
Nobody will ever believe the Gospel until the voice comes
to you like it came to John. Like the sound of a trumpet in
your soul. And then that voice has such
effectual power, you'll be turned. And then you'll see His glory.
Then you'll see His beauty. That's exactly what happened
to John. And being turned, he saw this
voice behind him. Oh, for the effectual call of
grace. Let me give you one more passage.
Look at John chapter 5. John chapter 5. May Alpha speak to us tonight. Speak to you, speak to me, and
I believe he has already. John chapter 5. Look at verse 19. This is after
the healing of the man who had been laying for 38 years. The Lord healed him on Sabbath
day. Told him to rise, take up his bed and walk. Immediately
the man was made whole. He was on the Sabbath day. The
Jews were greatly offended as we know because we've studied
this. They got all upset with the Savior because He said in
verse 17, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work, and therefore the
Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had
broken the Sabbath, but had also said God was his Father, making
himself equal with God. Then the Savior said this, then
I'll just begin in verse 19. Then answered Jesus and said
unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The son can do nothing
of himself, but what he seeth the father do. For what things
whoever he doeth, these also doeth the son likewise. He speaks this as that servant
of Jehovah. For the father loveth the son,
and showeth him all things that himself doeth. And he will show
him greater works than these that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up
the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom
He will. For the Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. That all men should
honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth
not the Son, honoreth not the Father which hath sent Him. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that, watch the order, heareth my word,
hears the voice, and believeth on Him that sent me." That's
faith, which is sight, seeing the Lord. "...hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is already
past." Hey, I'll tell you, when you're turned, you're made alive. Soon you see. Dead man can't
see. You know who you can see? A live
man. Somebody's been given sight and given life. He's passed from
death into life. Read on, verse 25. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice, the voice of the Son of God, and they that
hear shall live. That's what happened to you.
You heard the voice of the Son of God. It came to you in power. His voice spoke and as He spoke
that day in John chapter 11, it said, Lazarus, come forth. He spoke to you, come forth.
Come forth. He called you by name because
He knows His sheep by name. Somebody said that passage in
John chapter 11. It's a good thing the Lord said,
Lazarus, come forth. If He had just said, dead, come
forth, everybody in the whole cemetery would have been raised
from the dead. Well, He certainly has that kind
of power. But He calls His sheep one by
one by name. to hear the voice of the Son
of God. They that hear shall live. Verse
26, For the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given
to the Son to have life in Himself, and hath given Him authority
to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Marvel
not at this! But the hour is coming in which
all that are in the grave shall hear His voice. And now John
goes all the way to the end. that final day of resurrection,
and shall come forth everybody, they that have done good under
the resurrection of life, they that have done evil under the
resurrection of damnation. Everything that the wicked man
does, everything that the man who dies in unbelief, everything
that he has done is nothing but wickedness. And they brag on their works
when they get to the judgment, but the Lord says, you're just
workers of iniquity. All those things that you did
under the name of religion, you're just workers of iniquity. Workers
of iniquity. Oh, the voice, the voice from
behind. Oh, voice from behind, speak
to me. Speak to you. And if He speaks
to us, He'll turn us and we'll listen. My sheep, what's the
next words in John 10, 27? My sheep hear my voice. And I know them. They follow
me.