open the scriptures this evening
to the book of the Revelation of the Lord Jesus, chapter 20. The book of Revelation, chapter
20. I'd like to read the first three
verses and speak to you on the subject, Visions of the Conquering
Christ. Specifically, there are seven
of them. Seven Visions of the Conquering
Christ. Let me read the first three verses
of the book of Revelation, chapter 20. John is the speaker. He says,
And I saw an angel, a messenger. That's what the word angel means.
I saw a messenger come down from heaven having the key of the
bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon. that old serpent which is the
devil and Satan and bound him a thousand years and cast him
into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him
that he should deceive the nations no more That is, no more till
the thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that, he
must be loosed. He must be released a little
season. For many years, ever since John
was led to write this passage of scripture, people have debated
upon its meaning. In fact, many who believe the
gospel of God's grace have sadly divided over their interpretation
of this portion of God's holy word. I think lots of people, especially
when it comes to the book of the Revelation are just confused. They read the book. They say,
I just can't make heads nor tails out of it. I just don't understand
it. They know it's about the Lord
Jesus. It is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. It is not the revelation of Saint
John the Divine. We don't need a revelation of
Saint John the Divine. We don't need to know about John. We need to know about John's
Savior. We need to know about John's
Redeemer. We need a revelation of God's
Christ, that One who is the Lamb. As you read this evening, that
Lamb who was slain for sinners according to God's eternal purpose
of grace. And so lots of people when they
read the book of the Revelation, they read over it pretty quickly. And they just don't see the meaning
of it. Especially this portion that
we have before us this evening. What's this about? Who is the
angel? What is this chain that he has? How does he go about binding
Satan? Is this thousand years literal? Or is it figurative? So many
people after reading this, they just walk away and scratch their
heads and they say, well, I can't understand that part of it. But
I know at the end of the chapter, it's about the great white throne
judgment. So I'll just jump to that. I
know there's going to be a judgment, and I know everybody's going
to be there. I know from the book of Acts
chapter 17, the standard of that judgment is righteousness. And I want to be found among
those who believe God's gospel. I don't want to be among those
who are judged by their evil works. Those to whom the Lord
will say, depart from Me, I never knew you. I don't want to wind
up with those whose names are not found written in the Lamb's
Book of Life, those people who therefore must be cast into the
lake of fire forever. I don't want to wind up with
those who perish. I don't want to perish in my
sins. I don't want to die without Jesus
Christ. I don't want to die without having
a righteousness that God approves of. And the only righteousness
that God approves of The only righteousness that God will accept
is not your righteousness nor my righteousness because our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags. The only righteousness
God's going to accept is the righteousness of His own dear
Son that's freely imputed to all who believe this glorious
gospel of how God can be just and justify the ungodly. As we consider The book of the
Revelation. What's it about? Here we have
22 chapters, and we know this. God gave his word in its entirety
for the instruction of his people, for the edification of his people,
and for the comfort of his people. He gives His entire Word, all
66 books, 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament. God
gives us His Word to tell us about His Son. This is a revelation
of Jesus Christ. I know that the last book of
the Bible bears the title, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, but
couldn't we say this is the title of all the Bible? This is the
revelation of Jesus Christ. God has revealed to us His Son. He's revealed Him to us in the
Old Testament in pictures and in types, in figures, in prophecies. We know that. And all those folks
in the Old Testament that were looking for somebody to come
into this world, who's the seed of woman, who's the Passover
lamb, who's the ark of our salvation, who's the smitten lamb, as our
brother read, and all the other pictures of Christ in the Old
Testament. When our Lord Jesus arrived into
this world, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they wrote about His
life, and they wrote about His death, and they wrote about His
resurrection, and then it's left to Luke to tell us about the
progress of the Gospel in that Gospel, in the beginning of the
Gospel age, after the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
it is Luke himself, the great physician, he tells us that on
the day of Pentecost, God saved thousands of people. Thousands
of people were brought effectually into the kingdom of grace. And
then we have the epistles. The epistles which instruct us
in doctrine. In the doctrine of God. In the
doctrine of grace. Somebody asked me recently, do
you believe in the doctrines of grace? I said, I believe THE
doctrine of grace. If you'll check the scriptures,
most of the time, with the exception, I believe, of one time, most
of the time, when you read doctrines, doctrine with an S, it's false
doctrines. When you read of the true doctrine
of our God, It's singular, because you see, truth is singular. There is only one truth. There
is only one gospel. The Apostle Paul says in the
book of Galatians chapter 1, he said, if any man come preaching
any other gospel than the gospel I preach to you, let him be accursed. Let him be anathema. That is,
literally, let him be damned when Christ comes back. So there's
one gospel. There's one message of redemption. The entire Bible tells us about
Jesus Christ and His work of redemption. Well, when we come
to this specific book, the last book of the Bible, if we're going
to understand it, at least have some comprehension of it, and
I don't have all the answers. Nobody does. Nobody's got all
the answers. But if we're to have at least
a general understanding of what the book of the Revelation is
about, we need to understand this. It's about the Lord Jesus
Christ being revealed to us. And I'll tell you what John does
in the book. He reveals unto us, to begin with, who the Savior
is. And then he shows us throughout
the book what our Lord Jesus has done, what our Lord Jesus
is doing now, and what our Lord Jesus will yet do. And as you
approach the book of the Revelation, if you'll do so remembering,
this is what John has set out to do by the leadership and the
inspiration of the Spirit of God. He's telling us about Jesus
Christ. He's telling us what He did. He's telling us what He's doing
now. And I use the word now for every
generation that believers live in. Whenever God's people open
the book, ever since the ascension of our Lord Jesus, and whenever
they read the book of the Revelation, this is what they're going to
read. They're going to read what Jesus Christ has already done,
and they're going to read what the Lord Jesus is doing right
now. Whenever you read it, it's what
He's doing right now. And also, as you read the book
of the Revelation, You're going to read as to what He is yet
to do. Because there are some things
that are yet to happen. And they will happen. Because
God has promised in His Word that they're going to happen.
Now, as we understand the book broadly in that way, then we
can narrow it down a bit. In the book of the Revelation,
John is writing first of all. And we know the Scriptures are
written to all the people of God. And the book of the Revelation
is written to all of the saints of God, scattered throughout
this gospel era, throughout this gospel age. But in order to get
a real good understanding of what the book is about, we need
to remember who the recipients were who first got the book. Because that's the age in which
John was writing. He was writing at the end of
the first century. He is writing for those people
who were severely persecuted. Let me tell you folks, in this
country, we don't know anything about persecution. As you read
back through history, have you read the book, The Fox's Book
of Martyrs? It would do you good to read
that. Whenever you feel like, whenever I feel like we've got
it so difficult, we have it so hard, you read of these people
who sealed their faith in Jesus Christ with their blood. They had it difficult. John is
writing to people who had great difficulties in life. People
were being martyred. Some of their family members
were being butchered. We know that he writes this letter
which was first of all distributed to the seven churches of Asia
Minor. Oh, what severe tribulation they
were going through. Great and awful tribulation. As those who opposed the Gospel,
as the Roman soldiers came in, other enemies of the Gospel,
they took family members and just slaughtered them. And people
who believed the Gospel, false religion took them and arrested
them and did to them what they did to the Lord Jesus. Never
forget this, the Lord Jesus, in the purpose of God, He died
at the hands of religious people. Religious zealous. I know the
Romans actually carried out the crucifixion. They were the ones
who drove the nails and they had put the crown of thorns on
His head and all the rest. They were the ones who executed
our Lord Jesus. But it was false religion who
insisted that He die. False religion. And false religion
has always opposed the message of grace. The message of Jesus
Christ and salvation in, through, and by Him alone. At the end
of the first century, and of course, ever since the martyrdom
of Stephen, that's when the persecution really began to be severe. And
we know that from our studies of the Scriptures. In Acts chapter
8, the persecution began in earnest. right after the death of Stephen.
And it continued on. It continued on to the end of
the first century. It continued on into the second
century. And these were the recipients
to whom John immediately wrote. Now, because this is the Holy
Scriptures, this is the Word of God, this is the inspired
book, the book of the Revelation inspired like the other 65 books
of the Bible, this of course was kept. and preserved in the
providence of God for us. And so it's for us tonight. But
the first recipients were those who were severely persecuted.
And Jehontan writes to those who were severely persecuted
to tell them this. Don't be discouraged. You're on the winning side. The cause of God cannot be defeated. And this is really the message
of the book of the Revelation. Here it is. It is the victory
of Jesus Christ and His followers over Satan and his followers. That's the message of the book.
Get it? It helps to open up the book to you. It's the victory
of the Lord Jesus and all of his people in him over Satan
and all of his followers. As you look at the book of the
Revelation, observing the comments that John makes, what he sees,
these visions, and as you think about the fact that these people
who were the original recipients Remember, these were letters.
These were letters that were written. This was a letter written
and delivered to the seven churches of Asia Minor. Here they are,
many of them meeting in secret places for fear of opposition,
fear of their lives. And one day they receive a message,
a letter, an epistle. And someone says, guess what
we got today from a courier? We got a lengthy message from
the Apostle John. And everybody said, oh, what
does he have to say? Well, it's a lengthy portion. It's God's Word. You know, John
was on the Isle of Patmos. He was on the Isle of Patmos,
exiled for the cause of Christ Jesus. It says in chapter 1,
for the testimony of the Lord, for the love of the Word, he
was exiled. They put him out on this lonely,
rocky island. The thought being, well, he can't
preach to anybody out there. I don't know why they didn't
kill him. They tried to kill him in the providence of God
and in the purpose of God. His life was spared. And we know
from church history records that he was the only disciple, the
only apostle who escaped death by martyrdom. John died of old
age, but somebody said we got a message today from the apostle
John. He's on the Isle of Patmos. Somehow,
in the providence of God, in a manner that's not divulged
to us, the ways of God are mysterious. This book was preserved. This
epistle was preserved and sent to the seven churches. And here
they are meeting. Some of them meeting in caves.
Meeting in homes. People who are discouraged. People
who have lost family members. Who have been martyred for the
cause of Jesus Christ. You get to a passage of Scripture
such as chapter 17 of the book of Revelation. And John sees
Babylon. He sees the great harlot. And
he says, in her is to be found the blood of the saints of God. False religion has killed these
people. And those who survived, they
got this from John. It was so encouraging to them.
And here's what He's telling them. The Lord Jesus and His
followers, the cause of our Lord Jesus is safe in God's people,
notwithstanding the fact that we must go through severe tribulation. You know what the Lord Jesus
said in John chapter 16, before His high priestly prayer, and
then before His prayer, before His agonies in the garden, and
then his death. He said in John chapter 16, in
this world you shall have tribulation. You're going to have tribulation
in this world. You're not going to have a flower
strewn pathway all the way to heaven. And as the people of
God, we need to remember that. Do you expect that after you're
brought into the Kingdom of Grace, after Grace has conquered your
heart, after the Lord Jesus has been revealed to you, do you
expect that God is then going to give you a smooth pathway
all the way to glory? Well, if that's what you expect,
you're wrong. You're wrong. The saints of God
down through the ages have had difficult times. But I'll tell
you with us, as it says in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 3, we have
not yet resisted unto blood. I wonder sometimes if it isn't
going to get that bad. Maybe it will, but that will
be in the providence of God too. But they get this writing, they
get this book of the Revelation, the scroll, And John is encouraging
them. And he does so, giving to them
that which God had given to him. And the message God gave to him
was in seven visions. Seven visions. And remember the
purpose of the book. is to assure God's children while
we're in this world of our ultimate victory, our ultimate victory
over the world, over the flesh, and over Satan. I had Brother
Joe open by reading there in Romans chapter 8. And he read
these words to us. We are more than conquerors through
Him who loved us. Don't ever forget that. We are
more than conquerors through Him that loved us. We've got
battles to fight, but the war has been won. Our Lord Jesus
won the war at the cross. That's where He defeated the
serpent. That's where the head of the
serpent was crushed. So we're more than conquerors
through Him who loved us. We're not conquerors in and of
ourselves because we have no strength. We're weak. You know that yourself as children
of God. You know something of your weaknesses. And you know you can't stand.
There's the evil one who goes about seeking whom he may devour. He's like a roaring lion. But
for the people of God, He is a toothless lion. He has no teeth. He can only
roar. Now, His roar is pretty frightening.
But He can't harm you. He can't harm you. Because He
is held in check by that victorious God-man who conquered Him on
the cross. So we must remember this. Now,
John is led to write this book. The book of the Revelation is
not a book of random information. That is, information that has
no order to it. Because God is not the author
of confusion. That which God does, and in the
book that He has given us, And in the book we're looking into
this evening, God has given us this book which was written in
an orderly fashion. In an orderly way. Now, we admit
that we run into passages in the book of the Revelation that
are mysterious to us and difficult for us to understand and we can't
explain every single detail. But we can get the big picture.
the big picture. This book tells us that the cause
of God cannot be defeated. Our eternal representative, our
Savior, our surety, He has conquered all of our foes and in, through,
and by Him, we are all victorious. Yes, the enemy is vile. Yes, the enemy is strong. Yes, the enemy stalks about seeking
more victims. But he will never devour God's
people. Isn't that wonderful? He will
never devour God's people. We are safe in Him, that one
to whom God gave us in the covenant of grace. We are everlastingly
united to Jesus Christ. We're safe in the Savior's hands. He has redeemed us. We're robed
in His righteousness. Yes, life in this world may be
difficult. And we may have it hard. And it may even come a time when
we must resist unto blood. But nevertheless, we're more
than conquerors. through Him that loved us. Seven
visions which John saw and recorded by divine inspiration are said
before us in consecutive order. You say, well, why did you read
the first three verses of Revelation chapter 20? I read those three verses for
this reason. I want to understand them. I
want you to understand them. But you're not going to understand
this unless you understand something of what's been said in the previous
19 chapters. Because you see, chapter number
20 begins the seventh vision. The seventh vision. And if we're
going to understand the seventh vision, that the Spirit of God
gave to John. We've got to have some understanding
of the first six. Does that make sense? And as
we have a grasp, as God the Spirit gives us some comprehension,
some understanding of the first six visions, then, in the same
way that we have read and understood the first six visions, That's
when we'll come to understand and appreciate what John is saying
to us, rather what the Holy Spirit is saying to us in the seventh
vision. So let me give you these seven
visions. And I'm going to go back to this passage, God willing,
next Sunday evening. So we're by no means through
with it. But this is just where I wanted to start. Here are the
seven visions. Vision number one. Vision number
1 is chapters 1, 2, and 3. Chapters 1, 2, and 3. Where we
find the Lord Jesus in the midst of His churches, those churches
being called the seven golden candlesticks, which are in this
world. John begins, go back to chapter
1. John begins by identifying the
Son of God. He tells us who He is, and He
tells us what He did. We know who He is. In fact, the
Son of God identified Himself to John in chapter 1 and verse
5, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness. Who
is He? He's the faithful witness. He's
the first begotten of the dead. He is the prince of the kings
of the earth. He is the one who loved us. He
is the one who washed us from our sins in His own blood. Look at verse 8. He says to John,
I am Alpha and Omega. What's that? That's the first
letter and the last letter of the Greek alphabet. I'm the beginning
and the end, saith the Lord, which is, which was and which
is to come, the Almighty. So John begins by identifying
who Jesus is. This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. Well, who is He? John tells us. He tells us. Now, in this first
vision, John sees the Lord Jesus in the midst of his churches.
In the midst of his churches. And Jehondon does, in the first
vision, what he does in every vision thereafter. The first
vision covers the entire gospel age. Okay? It covers the entire gospel
age. From the death of our Lord Jesus,
rest of the first century, the second century, the third century,
come on down to this century, even to the very end of time,
chapters 1, 2, and 3 cover all of the history of the human race
since our Lord Jesus gave His life's blood for us. And John
always follows this pattern. He always follows this pattern.
In each of his visions, he tells us what Christ has done, what
Christ is doing, and what He's going to do. He never varies
from that. And this is the way to interpret
each vision. When you get to the first vision,
you keep that in mind. Okay? John is going to show me
what the Lord Jesus has done. Well, what has He done? Look
in verse 5 again. unto Him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood." Now, remember this, John will
always keep first and foremost, he'll keep right in front of
us that One who gave His life for us. Because this is the key
to everything. This is the very gospel of substitution
and satisfaction. So He sets before us Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And as he writes these letters
to the churches, each church is not symbolic of
a different dispensation. No, that's not right. Each of
these seven churches, they tell us what the church is like at
any given time during this gospel age. Sometimes the church of
our Lord Jesus is faithful. suffering hardships because of
the gospel. Sometimes the church grows cold,
like the church at Laodicea. Sometimes the church is like
the church at Ephesus. The Lord said, I have something
against you. You left your first love. But
all of these things are continuously going on throughout this gospel
age. And then in every vision, He
takes us from the beginning of the gospel age all the way to
the end. It's important to remember that.
He does this in this vision. Look at chapter 3. Chapter 3. He takes us to verse 21. To Him that overcometh. Well,
I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame,
and am set down with My Father in His throne." He says, for
all those who overcome, overcome by the grace of God, overcome
by faith, by faith believing the Lord Jesus, believing the
purpose of God, believing the promises of God. What's going
to happen to us? We're going to be with Him. at
His throne. John has, in these first three
chapters, he's taken us throughout the Gospel Age. He has started
where He always starts. That's the key to this book.
He starts where He always starts, at Calvary. He starts with the
blood. He starts with the Lamb having
been slain. And then He takes us through.
The Lord keeps His church. The Lord preserves His church.
And at last we shall overcome all obstacles and we shall be
taken to glory. The second vision is our Lord Jesus opening and
fulfilling the seven sealed book of God's sovereign eternal purpose. Chapters 4 through 7. And John, as he does in every
section, he just starts over. This is what you need to remember
about every vision. In the first vision, he began,
there's the death of our Lord Jesus, and he goes all the way
to the end. He that overcomes, he's going
to sit with me on the throne. He's going to be right there
with me. And then John goes, next vision, right back. Right back. Look at Hab chapter
And this is chapters 4-7, is the second vision. Notice what
he says, verse 1, After this I looked, and behold, a door
was opened in heaven. The Spirit of God put that word,
behold, there. It is amazing heaven would be
open for a sinner. And that's worth a behold, isn't
it? Behold, I saw heaven open. And the first voice which I heard
was as it were of a trumpet saying, come up here, come up here. I could preach a whole message
right here on this. This is so gracious of God to
open up heaven to an undeserving sinner. Well, upon what basis
is heaven open for anybody? The substitutionary work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so, verse 2. Immediately, I was in the Spirit,
and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the
throne." Let me ask you something. Is our Lord Jesus, does He actually
sit on the throne now? Or is He awaiting a future day
when He will be King and Lord indeed? One of the issues I have
with... What is that? Is it stand up
for... I can't remember. Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
maybe. But it says... There's a line in it that says,
and Christ is Lord indeed. Is that what... Is it stand up,
stand up... I can't remember what song it is. I've got news
for you. He's Lord indeed now. Well, what
do you mean? Until every foe is vanquished
and Christ is Lord indeed. I beg your pardon. He is Lord
indeed right now. Peter talks about the people
there in Acts chapter 2 who have crucified the Lord of glory.
He said, God hath made that same Jesus both Lord and Christ. Lord and Christ. And John, when
he sees heaven open, he says, Behold, a throne was set, and
one sat on the throne. But here's my question. How did
he get there? How did he get there? I'll tell
you how he got there. By way of the cross. That's how
he got there. You see, Peter writes, and he
says, all of the Old Testament prophets spoke of the sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow. And John sees
Him in His glory. In His glory. He sees Him on
a throne. A throne is set. It's fixed. It's immovable. It's stable. What is our stability tonight? You say, oh, the world, everything
just seems like it's rocking and reeling. Is there any stability? The throne of God is stable.
And therefore, God's eternal purpose is stable. And it's all
being executed and fulfilled by our Lord Jesus Christ. John
uses the same method. that He used in the first vision.
I say John did. The Holy Ghost did. The same
method in the second vision as He did in the first vision. He
tells us of the death of our Lord Jesus. He reminds us of
that. Well, that's the basis of the
heaven being opened is the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
that One who sits upon the throne Who is Lord indeed? Who is worthy
of all power and glory and all praise and honor? That's our
Savior. Who humbled Himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. This vision,
which goes through chapter 7. When you get to chapter 5, that's
when John sees a book. A book. The book is written within
and without, and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. That's
a book of God's predestination, especially God's predestination
of all events, of all circumstances, of all people during this gospel
age. And John sees the book is sealed. The seven seals. And he's sad because this book
represents everything God is purposed to do during this gospel
age. From the first appearing of our
Lord Jesus to his second appearing. You can read in the book of Hebrews
chapter 9 of the three appearings of our Lord Jesus. That is, His
first appearance when He came to put away sin for the sacrifice
of Himself. And He now appears in heaven
for us to intercede for us. So that's the word He uses. He
appears for us in glory as our great high priest and as our
advocate. And soon He will appear again
on this earth. That's His second coming. John in this vision, he sets
forth the first coming of our Lord Jesus, and then he shows
us our Savior receiving this book from God. This One who is
worthy to open the book, who is the Lamb slain, and He's the
Lamb slain for the foundation of the world. John sees him executing
then the eternal purpose of God by loosing the seals of the book. In other words, that's everything
that's happening today. That was everything that was
happening during the 1st century and the 2nd century and the 3rd
century and so forth and so on until the very end of what we
call time. As our Lord opens the seals,
He breaks the seals of the book. to bring to pass God's eternal
purpose. And as God's people realize that
our Lord Jesus is executing the will of God, Well, we break out
in praise. All the redeemed in heaven break
out in praise. Don't you praise Him tonight?
Aren't you gloriously happy and thrilled? Don't you rejoice that
there is one in heaven who is worthy to take the book and open
the seals thereof? There's somebody executing the
purpose of God. Listen, it's not just mayhem. It looks lightweight to us. It
looks like nothing has any purpose, there's no rhyme, no reason,
anything. Wait! Our Lord Jesus is bringing
everything to pass according to God's eternal purpose. So
as the people of the Lord, we should rest easy. There's nothing
to fear, there's nothing to worry about. Everything that happens,
God has ordained for it to happen, and our blessed Savior who is
our shepherd, who is our friend, who is our Savior, who is our
substitute, our advocate, He's bringing all these things to
pass for the glory of God to fulfill His purpose and for the
good of His people. So John sees that. And then at
the end of the vision, and this is as far as we'll get tonight,
look at chapter 7. He does the same thing. He takes
us in the first vision, the first three chapters, He takes us from
the death of our Lord Jesus all the way through these ages, all
the way up to the time when He says, all that overcome, you'll
be with Me. Be with Me in glory. And then
He gets to chapter 4 and it's like He says, okay, now let's
just start over. But we'll look at it in a different
way. But he's still viewing the same
gospel error, the gospel age. And he says at the beginning
there in chapter 4, he sees heaven open, behold, has heaven opened
for us by Christ Jesus. He's the one who opened up the
way to God. He's the new and living way.
It's a bloody way. It's a way of sacrifice. It's
a living way. Christ Himself is the way. He's the way to God. He sits
on the throne by virtue of his successful substitutionary death. He's unfolding God's eternal
purpose. And then you get to the end of
this second vision in chapter 7. John sees the end. Once again, he sees the end.
But this time, he sees it more clearly. He sees it in a more
definitive way. and listen to what He says. And
I'll give you this, and I think probably what I'm going to do
Wednesday night, I'm going to break away from my studies in
John Wednesday night, and I'm going to continue this Wednesday
night. But let me just give you this,
and then we'll sing, and we'll go home. Chapter 7, verse 9. Now this is the end of the second
vision. Chapter 7, verse 9. And remember,
since He's at the end of the second vision, He is at the end
of time. He is going to take us up to
that point where time shall be no more. We know He is going
to do that. Watch this, let me just read, beginning in verse
9. After this I beheld, and lo a great multitude which no man
could number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues,
stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white
robes and palms in their hand, and wrapped and robed in the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus. They stand perfect in His beauty
and His comeliness. They cried out with a loud voice,
saying, Salvation to our God, which setteth upon the throne
and under the Lamb. And all the angels stood round
about the throne, and about the elders and four beasts, and fell
before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen. Blessing, and glory, and wisdom,
and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be unto
our God forever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered,
saying unto me, What are these? which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? Where did they come from? And
I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are
they which came out of great tribulation. Oh, how comforting
that was! to those first century believers
when they said, these are they, robed in white robes, standing
before the throne of God. They came out of great tribulation.
And those folks knew something about great tribulation. Like
I said, we don't know anything about great tribulation, do we?
We don't know about that. We do have some difficult times,
but nobody's coming in here trying to shut us down. You know, the
law is not after us. And so far in God's good, wise
providence, the laws of the nation say we are free to meet here
and worship God as we understand that He should be worshiped.
And I'll tell you, I'm thankful to live in a nation where we
have laws like this. I'm thankful for the freedoms
God's given us. I don't like to talk about rights.
We don't have any rights. We got a lot of privileges. You
want to talk about rights, you want to talk about what you deserve
and what I deserve, death, judgment, and hell. There it is. There's
our rights. That's what we got a right to.
Oh, we're blessed with privileges. I know this country's got a lot
of problems. But more gospel, more of the
gospel of Jesus Christ has gone forth out of this country than
any nation in the world. From the United States of America. And there's still preachers.
And I know, we know some of them. But there are a lot of them we
don't know. Little pockets of believers. And we're discovering
some of them. where men stand up unashamedly. They preach God's sovereign grace,
election unto salvation. They preach the successful substitutionary
work of our Lord Jesus Christ. They preach the regeneration
of the Spirit of God. They preach imputed righteousness
but justification. God's got His servants. Some of them go through some
tribulation. Maybe we will. But I'll tell you this. They've
washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Watch it. Look at the next verse. Verse
15. Therefore are they before the throne of God. They serve
Him day and night in His temple. And He that sitteth on the throne
shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them nor any
heat. For the Lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto
living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes." End of the second vision. He does the same
thing in the second vision he did in the first vision. He takes
us from the death of Jesus Christ The Lord's faithfulness through
all of these generations, all the way to the end. And He gets
to the end of the first vision and says, now let me just start
over. I'll start over. We'll go right back to the starting
place. We'll go right back to the death
of our Lord Jesus, and I'm going to take you through. And even
now, our Lord, He is executing the will of God. That's what
He's doing. Say, what's the Lord Jesus doing
now? He's bringing the past, that which God purposed to do,
and He'll continue to do that until at last He calls us home
to glory, and then we shall be found a multitude which no man
shall number. whose robes are white, have been
washed in the blood of the Lamb. And in that day, we'll be in
the midst of the Lamb, we'll be with Him forever and ever.
And all of our tears..." Some of God's people shed a lot of
tears in this world. He said He's going to wipe away
all of them. No more sorrow. No more sadness. No more grief. Only joy in Christ Jesus forever
and ever. Tell you what, I'll pick this
right up Wednesday night.