And I think I told somebody,
I'm not sure whether you relate it or not, maybe I told Bill
Parker. But anyway, I spoke last Wednesday
night and I didn't finish the message. And I said, well, when
we gather the next time, I'll finish that message. And one
of the fellows came up to me after the service. He said, if
I fix a Kahlua pig and cabbage, would you speak Friday night?
And I said, we'll work for food. And so I did. And I'll tell you, the pig was
good. I enjoyed it. We're thankful to be back, and
I bring you the greetings of the saints of God there, and
they're very appreciative that you were willing to send us over
there for a couple of weeks. Well, let's go to Revelation
chapter number 15. Let me read the 2nd and the 3rd
verses to you. This is what John saw. He said,
And I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mingled with fire. Here is the wrath of God. If
you read the end of the 14th chapter, You'll read about the
wrath of God that's poured out against the ungodly. Again in
chapter 15, John sees this vision of God's wrath. And he sees a group of people. These are the same people that
he saw back in chapter 7. There he described them as being
a multitude which none can number. He said they're out of every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. And now he says, I saw them again,
once again. Those that had gotten the victory
over the beast, over his image, over his mark, 666. It's not written in their foreheads,
in literal ink, it's in their minds. Error, error, error. See, six is the number of man,
man's number. Failure, failure, failure. That's the mark of the beast. These that John saw, they had
gotten victory over the beast, over his image, over his mark. over the number of His name.
John said, I saw Him stand on a sea of glass. He says, they all had hearts
of God. They're singing. This great multitude,
they're blending their voices together. And guess what? We're there. This is us. This is all of the redeemed of
God's people. It's all of the elect. Every
soul quickened by the Spirit, brought to believe the Gospel.
We're there. We're there. Because John's looking
out in the future in this wonderful vision God gave him. He says they have hearts. They're
singing. Well, what are they singing?
They're singing the song of Moses. That is the song that he wrote
back in the book of Exodus. It's about the Lamb of God saying, great and marvelous are
Thy works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are Thy ways, Thou
King of Saints." These that He sees, they've gotten
the victory. They've gotten the victory. This
is all the people of God. As we are joined together in
the Lord Jesus, we stand together in everlasting glory, singing praises to the Lord. I would remind you that the book
of Revelation is written to troubled, tempted, Tri-believers. People who were in the midst
of great tribulation. John's led by the Spirit to encourage
them. In fact, to encourage all the
people of God. We spoke a couple of weeks ago
about the seven churches of Asia Minor. We said they're symbolic
of all the people of God, of all the church of our Lord Jesus.
Through Him, we've gotten the victory. Now the book of the
Revelation is a three-fold piece of inspired literature. Let me give you this three-fold three-fold statements about the
book of the Revelation. First of all, it is apocalyptic. Go back to chapter 1. Go back
to chapter 1. Look at verse 1. It says, the Revelation literally
the apocalyptic of Jesus Christ. That's the original word or a
form of it. What does revelation mean? Chapter
1, verse 1. What does the word revelation
mean? It means the manifestation, means the uncovering, the making
known, the making visible of our Lord Jesus. The apocalypse. Apocalypse. You hear that word
lots of times today in reference to the future. Well, this is
about the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen, we
know all of the Scriptures is in fact apocalyptic. It makes
known the Savior. It's the revelation of our Lord
Jesus. The Savior said in John chapter
5, search the Scriptures. For in them ye think ye have
eternal life. But these are they which testify
of Me. They bear witness of Jesus Christ. The word apocalyptic or revelation
means to bear witness or to unveil. To unveil. The Scriptures unveil. the Lord Jesus to us. Now, when
He said that, He's speaking about the Old Testament. But that which
is so of the Old Testament is also so of the New Testament. It reveals our Savior. And we
know this. It reveals who He is. Who is
He? Well, He's God. He's altogether
God. He's the everlasting God. He
is the creator. He is the sustainer. But He's
not only God, He's man. Great is the mystery of Godliness. God manifests in the flesh. This book is the revelation of
who He is. We know and believe He is the
Son of God. He's been revealed to us by the
Spirit of God. He is God. Who is He? The Scripture
makes him known. He's the man, Christ Jesus. For
there's one God, one mediator between God and man, the man,
Christ Jesus. He had to be God. He had to be
man. He's altogether God. He's altogether
man. He's not God. He's humanized. And He's not God. Man deified. He's the God-man in the entirety
of His person. He is God and man. He was God
and man when He was on this earth. He was God and man when He died. He was God and man when He was
buried. He was God and man when He arose. He was God and man when He ascended. And let me tell you something,
He's still God and man. He's the God and man. Our Savior. There is a man in glory and this
book is the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He presents
His person. This is the apocalypse of His
person, the unveiling of His person and the unveiling of His
work. When He came to this world, He
had a work to do, a work to finish, a work the Father is signing
in the Covenant of Grace. A work for which He volunteered. He is our everlasting surety. He came to do the work of redemption,
of salvation, of reconciliation, of removing our sins and of bringing
in everlasting righteousness. This is the unveiling of the
Lord Jesus and His work, His work, the work of bringing us
back to God. The work of removing our transgressions. And oh, what a work. When our
Savior came to this world, it was as though He rolled up His
sleeves and He said, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. He told His disciples, I have
work to finish. That's my meat. That's what strengthens
me. That's my reason for being here,
to do the work, to do the work. And the Word of God is the revelation
of His work in the Old Testament, pictured and symbolized, typified
in the New Testament, brought forth in reality, in reality. The Bible, the whole Bible, is
then apocalyptic. It's the revelation of our Lord
Jesus Christ and this, the 66th book of the Bible, does just
exactly what the first 65 books did. They revealed Jesus Christ. Secondly, this book is not only
the book of the revelation, is not only apocalyptic, it is prophetic. Look at verse 3, Revelation 1. Blessed is he that readeth, and
they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things
which are written therein, for the time is at hand. You see,
this book of the Revelation, like all of the Word of God,
delivers the will, sets forth the will, and the purpose of
God. Notice again in verse 1 where
it says, "...the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave
unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come
to pass." They must shortly come to pass because God ordained
them. Now many of the things that he
writes about, they've not come to pass yet. And when he wrote them, most
of them were yet to be fulfilled. After the first 2,000 years,
some of this has already been fulfilled, and the rest of it
is being fulfilled. But these must shortly come to
pass. Why must they? What's the reason? The Lord says through John that
these things must shortly come to pass. And we ask the question,
why? And the answer is, because God
ordained them. God purposed them. He has purposed
everything. You see, this is a letter to
the Lord's people. This is a statement to the Lord's
people of things which must come to pass. The things set forth
in the book of the Revelation and in all of the Bible, they
must come to pass because God purposed them. Now we know that in chapters
2 and 3, the words are specifically directed to seven individual
churches. And we said that those seven
individual churches, they just picture all of the ransomed of
the Lord, all of the people of God. And the Lord writes to them
of things which must come to pass in order to prepare them,
in order that they ready themselves, in order that they not be taken
off guard, These are things which must shortly come to pass. The tribulations. Listen, these
folks knew something about tribulation. We just know a little bit. But
these, many of them, would be martyred. They'd be murdered. I mean, the armies would come
in and just shut them down. They were in the midst of very
severe persecutions. But the Lord sends this word
to them that though they are going through
many tribulations, these things must happen. You know, as the
people of God, all of us know to some degree Something about
tribulations, something about difficulties in life, don't we? Sure we do. Listen, these things must come
to pass. They must happen. Nothing happens
just kind of out of luck. Well, that's bad luck. No, there
is no luck, either good or bad. There's God. There's not fate. Fate is nameless and faceless. Fate has nothing behind it. These
things that must come to pass, they must come to pass because
our God ordained them. Our Father ordained them. Our
Elder Brother ordained them. The Spirit of God is bringing
them to pass in this world. They must happen. These things
are prophetic. In the book of the Revelation,
you know what we read? The elect must be robed in white
garments. They must be. The elect must
be washed in the blood. Here's what we read. Babylon
must fall. All false religion is going to
come to a stop. It must be. The dragon must be
cast into the lake of fire. The books must be opened. The
dead must be judged out of the things written in the book. Those
whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life from old
eternity, they must be saved. They must be. They must dwell
with the Lord Jesus. They must inherit a new heaven
and a new earth. These things must come to pass
because God purposed them and nothing and nobody can defeat
the purpose of God. So the book of the Revelation
is apocalyptic. It's an unveiling. It's a revealing. Secondly, it is prophetic. Thirdly,
it is an epistle. Look at verse 4. Chapter 1. John to the seven churches which
are in Asia. Grace be unto you and peace from
him which is and which was and which is to come. He may as well
have begun it this way. Dear church, dear church, here
is a letter to you. It is a letter to the Lord's
people. But it's not a letter. It isn't a letter written by
John's initiation. Oh, he is the human writer. But these words come from the
Lord. You notice He says, Grace be
unto you and peace from Him which is. He's the I Am. and which was, and which is to
come from the seven spirits, which are before his throne,
and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first
begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth."
It's obvious then, this is a correspondence from our God who is Trinity,
to his people, to his church. So it isn't merely an unveiling
or apocalyptic. It isn't merely prophetic, telling
us things which must shortly come to pass. It's an epistle. It's a letter. It's a letter
from the Lord to His people. This is a communique. from our
God to us His chosen ones, His children, His redeemed ones,
His quickened ones. We were watching a little TV
over in the islands late one night last week and
that movie was on You've Got Mail. Cute little flick. You've got mail. Listen, to those
of you who are the people of God, you've got mail. You've got mail. It's this book. It's a love letter from the Lord.
All of this book is yours. It's yours. And specifically,
in this reference, John says, Let me tell you who sends these
words to you. The Father who never changes. The Son of
God who bought you. And the Spirit of God who speaks
to you in your heart. Yes, this is a document. This is a communique. This is
a letter from the God of all grace and mercy to His children
in this world. And He reminds us, though things
may be very difficult for you, and though you may go through
great troubles and trials, and though the tribulation may be
very severe, Know this, all of these things
that shall come to pass, our God says, I have purposed them. They must shortly come to pass. So this book is a apocalyptic
book, it's a prophetic book, and it's an epistle. Well, what
is it about? I read an interesting story recently
about a group of young men who met together every Saturday night
to play basketball at a gymnasium. These guys had gone to school
together and they knew the janitor. These guys went away, went to
college, whatever, and then came back to the same town, same janitor
still there, and every Saturday night he would let them into
the gymnasium to play basketball. While they played basketball,
the old janitor, he sat over on one of the bleachers reading
his Bible. One Saturday evening, they took
a water break. You know, you get older, you
have to have more water breaks, playing basketball. So they took
a water break, and as they did, one of the guys said to the janitor,
he said, hey, what are you reading there? He said, well, I'm reading
the Bible. Well, he said, where are you
reading in the Bible? He said, I'm reading the book of the Revelation.
Oh, he said, well, what's the book of Revelation about? He
said, it's about this, Jesus is going to win. Jesus is going
to win. That's about as good a summary
of the book as you can get. Jesus is going to win. In fact, He's already won. He won the war 2,000 years ago. When he died, crushed the head
of the serpent in fulfillment of the Word of God. This book is about the Lord's
victory over Satan. The dragon. The dragon. Satan is presented as a dragon
because he is so fierce. He is so deadly. He is such an enemy that we cannot
withstand Him. But our Lord defeated the dragon
when He died on the cross. In fact, He defeated all of our
enemies. He defeated our sin. He buried
them in the depths of the deepest sea. They were drowned in Jesus'
blood. He conquered death. He conquered
the grave. Every enemy of His people has
been conquered by our Savior. So when the saints of God in
these churches, when they got this letter from John, who wrote just relaying
to them this letter from the Lord, This would have been very
encouraging to them. A message of great comfort. I remind you these people were
undergoing very, very vicious persecution. In the New Testament, really
there are three great persecutions that are set forth. The very
first one was the Jewish persecution that arose as a result of the
stoning of Stephen. At least that's when it started.
Jewish persecution. After that persecution began,
then the saints of God were scattered, going everywhere, preaching the
gospel. You see, even that persecution,
that's according to the will of God. The Lord Jesus told His
disciples, He said, All power is given unto Me in heaven and
in earth. Now go ye into all the world
and preach the Gospel. Boy, what encouragement to every
preacher of the truth. The Lord Jesus, the One we set
forth, the One whose Gospel we proclaim, He said, go preach,
because I got all power. All power to raise the spiritual
dead. All power to break hard hearts. All power to save, to rescue
those that are lost. To find them, bring them back
safely to glory. Go out and preach the gospel.
But they were hesitant to do that. The Lord will have His
will. He sends persecution. Boy, things
get hot in Jerusalem and that surrounding area. And you know
what happens? The will of the Lord is done.
Out they go. Like sowers with the precious
seed. They go forth with the gospel.
Philip, he goes to Samaria. Others go out further. The gospel
keeps extending further and further and further as a result of Jewish
persecution. Even Herod, he kind of got in
on the persecution. You remember in Acts chapter
12, he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And we read that that made the
people happy. The enemies of the gospel, they
were so thrilled, they said, why don't you kill another one?
And more and more. This was about 44 AD, something
like that. Persecution got heated. But that
was Jewish persecution. The second great persecution
came at the hands of the Gentiles. Up until the 60s, approximately,
64-65, we're talking about the first century now, up until then,
most of the persecution arose from the Jews against Christianity. But in the mid-60s, that's when
Nero got power. You remember reading that Nero
fiddled while Rome burned. It was a fire of his own doing,
of course. But after eight or nine days,
something like that, people started to blame Nero. And you know who he laid all
the blame on? The Christians. They were the scapegoats. So
Nero started persecuting the Christians. First Gentile persecution
of the New Testament. One of the very first ones that
he had martyred was the Apostle Paul. He said, he's a ringleader. Brought him to Rome. Cut his
head off. Cut his head off. After that, He crucified Simon
Peter upside down. Remember, our Lord in John chapter
21, He told Peter, He said, another will stretch out your arms. Peter, it is said, told the martyrs,
those who were martyring him, I'm not worthy to die like my
Lord. Crucify me upside down." They killed Simon Peter. You remember reading in the church
of Thessalonica of a man by the name of Aristarchus? You read about him in Acts chapter
19. You also read in the book of
Colossians. that he was a fellow prisoner
with the Apostle Paul. Nero had him killed. You remember
reading about a fellow by the name of Trophimus? He became
pastor of the church at Ephesus. One of the seven churches had
him killed. And many more. Second Great Persecution. Then the Third Great Persecution
broke out about 81 AD, give or take a year or two, under Domitian. He murdered the pastor of the
Jerusalem church, who was a man by the name of Simeon. He also
murdered Timothy. Remember 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy? He murdered Timothy. What did
Timothy do that was so bad? He preached against idolatry.
And Domitian hated to hear that. He wouldn't stand for that because
he was an idolater. So he ordered Timothy to be beaten
with clubs. He was bruised and battered and
lingered for two days before he died. Of course, Domitian
also tried to kill the Apostle John by throwing him in a pot
of boiling oil. But he escaped. But then he sent
him to Patmos. Domitian had Christians killed
for just about every reason. If there was a flood, he said,
it's because of them. If there was an earthquake, it's
because of them. If there was pestilence, it was
because of them. Everything was blamed on the
Christians. And He killed many other people
too. And these people who lived in
this age, they were experiencing this. Now this is something we
don't know anything about. And we're thankful that God has
in His good providence stopped it from happening right here. But it's happened in many places.
And I'll tell you, these people, like the people at Ephesus that
already had their pastor murdered, people in the congregation butchered,
and in the six other churches as well, they knew something
about hardship. They needed a word from God,
and they got it. Isn't it, as a believer, and
I'm not saying there are any new books written, there aren't,
because the whole canon of Scripture, of course, was finished there
toward the end of the first century. But isn't it amazing as a child
of God, just when you need a word from the Lord to your heart,
He sends it to you. One night back in Hawaii when
I preached, later that evening when we were fellowshipping together,
a little boy about 12 years old, he asked me, he said, how can
you tell when God is talking to you? That's a good question,
isn't it? Because I'd said the Lord speaks
to people like us. He said, how can you know when
God's talking to you? I said, because He talks through
His Word. God's got something to say. He
says it through His Word. And the Spirit of God takes the
Word of God and just puts it in our hearts. And you know,
that's more than just the words of a man. That's the Word of
God. And these people, they needed
the Word of God. They're hurting. They're grieving. They're sorrowing. Now, they
got words of encouragement, but they also got words of reproof. Because we need that Word from
the Lord as well. They got words of correction.
These people needed to hear from the Lord. And they did. Because they were in a time of
severe persecution. But let me remind you this. This
persecution against God's people, it didn't just start in the first
century. It started right from the beginning. When a man by the name of Cain
murdered his brother over the gospel. You see, the gospel of
God's grace The way God saves sinners, that's always been the
issue. The seed of the serpent has always
despised God's people, right from the beginning. Yes sir, Cain, he got mad at
God, but he couldn't get his hands on God, but he could get
his hands on Abel. That first blood of a man was
shed over how does the God of the Bible save sinners? And I'll
tell you the persecution, it has been ongoing ever since.
Ishmael, he persecuted Isaac. Esau, he hated Jacob. Just go all the way through the
Scriptures. And you, in your family, the
difficulties that you have to encounter in your family, the
biggest issue is over this. Religion. Isn't it? That's what
it is. It's so in my family. How does
the God of the Bible save sinners? And most folks in our families,
and we love them, we care about them, but they are promoters
of free willism. Of works religion. And you know,
in your family, and I'm sure it's in your family the way it
is in my family, my extended family, we can talk about just
about anything under the sun and get along. But you can't
talk about the gospel without causing a fuss. Here's the reason. The offense
of the cross has never ceased. It's just as offensive to the
natural man today as it ever was. And I'll tell you, the people
of God, we need some encouragement. Don't you remember back in Isaiah
chapter 40, the Lord told Isaiah, comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. That's what we need. Tell them
God reigns. God reigns. Let's learn this if we haven't
learned it before. This world is not opposed to
religion. They love religion, but they're
opposed to Jesus Christ and His gospel. You take a stand for
Jesus Christ and the gospel of grace, the way the God of the
Bible saves sinners, you're going to have a little persecution
on your hands. But that's all right. It'll do
you good. And after it's over, you'll thank
God that He gave you the grace to take a stand. Boy, in this day today, There are so many people that
are so wishy-washy. They don't take a stand over
anything. Boy, I admire somebody that takes
a stand over the Gospel. Somebody that kind of draws a
line in the sand and says, here I stand. I can do no other. I'm not budging. I love you family. I appreciate you. I pray for
you. But when it comes to the gospel,
I'm not going to compromise for you or anybody else. Take my stand. Keep this in mind. Our God has
all things under His control. Whatever the tribulation. Whatever
the difficulty. And what John says, look here
at verse 9. He said, chapter 1, I, John,
who am also your brother and companion in tribulation, how
is John their brother? He's their blood brother. That's
the best kind of brotherhood there is. The blood brotherhood. We have the same Savior, saved
by the same grace, chosen in the same election, redeemed by
the same Savior, quickened by the same Spirit, who uses the
same Word of God. He says, I'm your companion,
not only your brother, but I'm your companion in tribulation. He knew a little something about
suffering. He's won the two sons of thunder,
sons of Zebedee, and James, his brother. Don't you know that broke John's
heart to see his brother murdered for the cause of Christ? Murdered
because of this, he preached the gospel. He rejoiced that
his brother went on to glory, but boy, you had hurt him. My
brother. My brother. to the other saints
of God. So he said, I'm your brother,
and I'm your companion in tribulation. Listen, others go through tribulation
as well. Here's what John is saying. Don't
think you're by yourself. I'm right in there with you.
I'm with you. And he says this. Let me give
you this. Look over in chapter 7. Here's what he says. Revelation
chapter 7. This is where he sees that multitude. In verse 13, 7-13. One of the
elders answered and said unto me concerning this multitude
arrayed in white robes. He said, walk these. What are
these? Where did they come from? And
John said, Sir, thou knowest. And he did know. And he said
unto me, These are they which, watch this, they came out of
great tribulation. They came out of it. In other
words, they've gone through it, got safely to the other side.
Come out. Oh, they went in, but they came
out. Are you in great tribulation?
Say, oh, preacher, I am. You're in great tribulation,
but you'll come out. You'll come out. For your garments are washed.
They're wiped in the blood of the Lamb. Remember what the Lord
said back in Isaiah 53? This will be the last reference,
I promise. Look at Isaiah chapter 43. Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43. Look at verse 1. But now, thus said the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, And He that formed thee, O Israel."
Here's another one of those love letters. You got mail. What does the Lord have to say
to you? Fear not. Why not? Because I've redeemed
you. I've called thee by thy name. You're mine. Isn't that sweet? The Lord of glory says, You're
mine. He said, I'm your God, you're
my people. The Lord Jesus said, He's not
ashamed to call us brethren. You're mine. Look at verse 2,
When thou passest through the waters, I'll be with thee through
the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through
the fire, you won't be burned. You're going through. You're
going through. You'll make it. You know why? Because the Lord thy God is with
you. Don't be discouraged. I know
tribulation can be difficult. You know what the word tribulation
means? It means pressed in from every side. Do you ever feel
like it's just squeezing me to death? Do you know that's what
the word tribulation means? The Lord says, don't be afraid. I'm with you. I'm with you. And I say, well,
Lord, by Your grace, I'll keep on going then. I'll keep on going. And I know one of these days,
because You said so, I'm coming out. I'm coming out of great
tribulation. And I'm going to sing praises
to the Lamb forever and ever. Amen.