I certainly don't want to teach
anything wrong out of it, that's for sure. Nowhere in this Bible
do I want to teach something that's wrong. Nowhere. But here in Revelation, let's
read the first three verses. the revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which
must surely come to pass. And he sent and signified it
by his angel unto his servant John, who bare record of the
word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things
that he saw. 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. When we
talk about the word revelation, a lot of writers call it the
apocalypse. But really the revelation is
an unveiling. It's an unveiling. And it should
be and can be understood by, it was understood by the believers
in John's day. It's been understood by believers
through the ages. And so it should be understood
and should be and can be understood by us if God enable us to. Now let me give you three things
to remember, three things to remember. that the revelation
here is the history of the world and the history of the church
and God's government, God's government in Christ from our Lord's first
coming to His second coming and the final judgment when we talk
about history the history of the world or the history of the
church talk about God's elect people we can always say it's
His story It's His story. Everything that's ever happened
in the past, God's purpose, God's decree,
God's will. Everything in the future, it's
God's government. It's His story. He even told
the story. I've told the story and how he
governs this world and his blessed son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he will until the final judgment when the sheep are on the right
and the goats are on the left. There's not going to be no intervening
period. When Christ comes in the final
judgment and men behold him in his glory, see him coming in
power and great glory and clouds in every eye, even those that
pierced him shall see him. Then I tell you what, the judgment,
I personally believe the judgment won't, people act like the judgment
is going to be this great big old long long thing. Listen,
the judgment's done here. Judgment's done here. You know, judgment begins at
the house of God. When a person hears the gospel,
there's a judgment. Every time you hear it, you make
a judgment. And God makes a judgment. Those who believe on Christ,
God has made the judgment that you're one of His elect. And
you hear the gospel because you're one of His. And if He makes a
judgment that He's going to give you ears that you ain't going
to hear. And He's going to send you a strong delusion that you
should believe a lie and be damned. Judgment's been started right
here. All he's got to do is just bring them all together and say,
you go your own way and you all go on with me. That's the way
it's going to be. It ain't going to take a long
time. It ain't going to take a long time. And here's the second
thing we need to remember. What was going on in the day
that this was recorded and revealed to John. Now these saints were
suffering. Suffering greatly. I mean the
church was hated and despised. And you can go through church
history and start and go back under the Caesars. They had emperor
worship. And you know and they set themselves
up to be God and if you didn't worship them, they'd kill you.
They'd kill you. Have somebody to kill you. And
we remember just like in John the Baptist. They killed John
the Baptist. Cause they didn't like what he said. But in John's
day they were suffering. John was in exile. He was hated. And the church was hated. Christianity
was hated. It was unlawful to be a Jew in
Rome. If you was a Jew in Rome, they
run everybody, every Jew, everybody who was a believer out of Rome.
Made them all leave. Blame them for anything that
happened. They blame it on believers. And
you think that the world has changed? I mean, I'm just going
to give you something. They'll let Walmart stay open.
They'll let Lowe's stay open. They'll let all the grocery stores
stay open. But one thing they don't want you to open up is
that's the church. Unless you set so far apart and wear a mask.
Don't you dare go to church. There's people suing the government
because they don't have the right to tell us where we can go worship
or not. Now I ain't going to sue the government over anything.
I'm going to go worship. If I've just got one or two or
three, that's all we'll have. But we're going to go worship.
Huh? Listen. And I'll tell you what,
it's no different today than it was then. Now they just, they'd
love to put churches out of business. They really would. And here's
the third thing I want you to remember. The purpose of God
and the scriptures is to make men wise unto salvation that's
in Christ. That's what this blessed book
is giving. The whole thing is to make men, the purpose of God
and the scriptures is to make men wise unto salvation which
is in Christ. And the Bible, the Bible, whether
it's from Genesis to Revelation, it's a spiritual book, it's a
spiritual book. And it's a book, a spiritual
book with a spiritual purpose. It's a spiritual book from Genesis
to Revelation. And a carnal mind can't get it.
They can't understand it. And this has a spiritual purpose.
And what is that? To make men wise unto salvation
which is in Christ. You know, before I go any further,
look in Romans chapter 15 and verse 4. I just thought of this.
I want you to see this. Romans 15 and verse 4. Talking about the Scriptures.
And what their purpose is. Romans chapter 5 and verse 4
15 and chapter 5 chapter 15 and verse 4 For whatsoever things
were written aforetime What was the Bible written for
what was the scriptures written for whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning We need to learn God
wrote these things for us to learn and that we through patience
Waiting, just keep doing what we do and patience and comfort
of the scriptures might have hope. That's what God gave this
book to teach us. And then as we learn more about
it, we learn and we wait on God. We wait on God. And when we find
that and we wait on God and what He's doing in our lives and what
He's done in the history and what He's done in the history
of our lives and in our future, we're going to have comfort and
we're going to have edification. We're going to be built up. And
let me say this. If the revelation here that we're
talking about, don't say revelations, it's Revelation 1. One book. If it was a prophecy, of predicted
isolated events or some great person predicted you know they
get down say well this is going to happen at this time and this
what means going to happen at that time and this what means
going to happen at that time and this great person is going
to rise up there and this great person is going to rise up there.
Man you wouldn't get anything out of that. But if we start
with Jesus Christ, our Lord, and understand that this book's
about Him, of His coming, of His work, and what He's doing
for us, and has done for us, until He comes again, then we
get something out of this book. I remember when Ronald Reagan
became president. I heard some fellas say, you
know, his name is Ronald Wilson Reagan. six letters in every
one of his names. And they said, oh my, he's a
666. You've got to be, you've got
to be, we talk about people being, Shirley and I talked about being
dense. She talks about me being dense. I'm pretty dense sometimes. She said, I'm pretty dense. Told
me on the way to church, you're pretty dense. I've got to explain
things to you. She has to explain her jokes
to me. But anyway, Where was I at? But you know if it was like they
said Ronald Reagan the 666 somebody comes up with that it's pretty
dense that's what I was saying yeah I'll get back where I was
and you know the God's people God's people we're looking for
Christ wherever we go we're looking for Christ and I hope by God's
grace that we'll see Christ all the way through this blessed
book our Lord Jesus Christ but in another thing if we see in
this revelation the principles of God's government God's government
and that government is always operating in this world always
operating there's never a time that God's not governing this
world Never a moment that God is not governing things in this
world. And if we understand and see the principles of God's government
in this world operating at all times, We can see that, we can
see God's hand in history and His wonderful, wonderful, wonderful
protection that He gives His people and preserves His people. And He's already and is giving
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And when we realize
that we'll be edified, we'll be built up and we'll be comforted.
And that's what I want for you and myself is to be built up
in the faith and to find comfort in our Lord Jesus Christ in the
Scriptures. That's what I want for all of
us. Now let's look here at verse 1. Let me go down through here
and say a few things. Here we go. He said the introduction
of this is called the first verse. contains the title and the key
to this book the revelation of Jesus Christ the revelation of
Jesus Christ now let me say beloved the whole Bible the whole Bible
is a revelation of Jesus Christ not just this last book this
is the last book in the Bible this is the top stone there ain't
going to be nothing else written after this this is it But the
whole Bible is a revelation of Jesus Christ. In the beginning,
God created. God created. Who's created? By
Him, by Christ, was all things made that are in heaven, that
are in earth, and that are under the earth. So listen, and you
go with me. Genesis 3.15 is talked about
the seed of the woman. Who's that seed of the woman
he's talking about? And so I tell you, you know, this whole Bible,
this whole blessed book is a revelation of Jesus Christ. And here is
what is the seed and it's an unveiling. It's an unveiling
of the purpose of God for the history of this whole world and
the history especially of His elect. and especially the history
of his elect and I tell you what in this revelation look what
it says which God gave unto him and I tell you beloved especially
his elect and it's from God it's an unveiling and then it says
there not only is it the revelation of Jesus Christ now listen to
this which God gave unto him you know Our Lord Jesus Christ, God highly
exalted Him. God exalted Him. God himself
said that this is my beloved son and don't you listen to nobody
else. Don't listen to Moses unless
he's talking about me. Don't you listen to Abraham unless
he's talking about me. Don't you listen to anybody that's
not talking about my son. And thy Lord Jesus Christ, that's
the way he is. He said God gave unto him. You
know what God gave unto Christ? Everything. Everything I want
you to keep keep a few verses look over in John check keep
revelation here and look with me over in John's gospel chapter
5 I'm gonna go through here and show you a few things about About
what God gave unto Christ, but God gave everything John 5 20
God gave unto Christ everything and one thing that he gave him
is a name and It's a name that's above every name. It's the only
name. It's the only name by which a
person must be saved. If anybody's saved, it's going
to be by Jesus Christ. Salvation, God gave it to Christ. Authority, God gave it to Christ.
Power, God gave it to Christ. Grace, God gave it to Christ.
Mercy, God gave it to Christ. Blessings, God gave them all
into us in Christ. All the promises, He gave them
to us in Christ. And I tell you what, I love to
talk about that thing. I love to talk about it. We look
here in John 5, 20. Talking about what God gave the
Son. For the Father loveth the Son,
and showeth him all things that himself doeth. And he'll do greater
works than these, that you may marvel. Now look over here in
chapter 7 and verse 16. Look what it says over here,
what our Master said. Talking about what God gave unto
him. Oh they would say, how in the
world does this man know anything? He done went to no schools or
nothing, having never learned letters. Our Lord answered them
and says, my doctrine is not mine. Well whose is it then?
It's my father's that sent me. Same doctrine my father's got,
that's what I got. And then look at chapter 12 verse
49. I want you to see these things. John 12, 49. Look what our Master said here, talking
about what God gave unto him. The revelation that God gave
unto him. Look what our Master said, I've
not spoken of myself. I'm not. But my Father sent me,
which sent me. He gave me commandment. He commanded
me what I should say and what I should speak. And what He's
saying is that when you hear me, you're hearing what my Father
says. When I speak, I'm speaking what
my Father told me to say. And so if God put His Word in
Christ, and God gave the love of the Son and put everything
in His hands, Well, I'll tell you what, that's whose hands
I want to be in. I want to be in His hands. And God highly
exalted our Mediator. And the Scriptures tells us He
must reign. He must reign until the last
enemy is destroyed and He'll put everything under His feet. And when all the kingdoms of
the earth are subdued, He'll turn around and give them unto
His Father and say, I mean this world and everything
that's in it, whenever kingdoms are subdued, who's going to subdue
them? Christ is going to subdue them.
And then he's going to turn around and say, here Father, here's
the kingdoms of the world. I whipped them all for you and
for your glory. And God gave our Mediator, gave
our Lord Jesus Christ, our Mediator, the history of the world and
His purposes for His people. Look in chapter 5 here, Revelations
5, and look with me in verse 1. Let me show you some things
here real quick. God gave to our Lord Jesus Christ,
our Mediator, the whole history of the world. And God's purpose
for His people in Christ. John, now here's what he saw.
He said, I saw in the right hand of him that sat on a throne a book written within, and on
the backside sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel
proclaiming with a loud voice, Who's worthy to open the book
to loose the seals thereof? Now look down at verse 7. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
and he came and took the book out of the right hand of him
and set it upon the throne. In other words, God said, here's
the book. Here's the book. Who's the only
one that opened that book? Luke 7, the Lord Jesus Christ. He went right to the throne of
God and took that book. Took that book. We wait until
you see what that book is. And I'll tell you, it was given
to Christ here. It says there in Revelations
1 there, it was which God gave unto Him. It was given to the
Lord Jesus Christ by His Father to reveal it to us. To make it
known, it says, make it known to His servants, to show unto
His servants. It was given for Him to reveal
it unto us. When our Lord had his high priestly
prayer in John 17, he said, Father, these believed that I came out
from you. And they believed the word that
I gave unto them. And I pray for them which shall
believe on the word that I gave unto them. And so that's what
he gave. He said he gave this revelation
unto Christ to show it to us. to show it unto his servants.
Show it unto his servants. And then it says this, and it's
got something that's going to come to pass real, real quick. Things that should happen are
going to happen pretty quick. And oh my, now listen to this. And he said, you know, and he
sent and signified it. He sent and signified it by his
angel. sent and signified it by his
angel. And it concerns things which
shall soon come to pass. And then he says, and he sent
and signified it there, verse 1 again, by his angel to his
servant John. The Lord Jesus Christ, it's not John's revelation, it's
the revelation of Jesus Christ. And you know when you, somebody
done quoted it tonight. In Isaiah 9.6, it says there,
the government is upon his shoulders, and he shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince
of Peace. Five glorious titles. John, he said, they gave unto
his servant, John. That's one of the most blessed
titles. Paul, how many times did he say? Paul, a servant of
Jesus Christ. Jude, the brother of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Joseph and Mary's son. A direct
brother of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know what he called himself?
Instead of, I'm a brother of the Lord. He said, Jude, a servant
of Jesus Christ. And ain't that a wonderful thing
to call yourself? Just a servant. Just a servant. Just somebody that's going to
stand before Him and do what He says to do and do it when
He says it. Just wait on Him. Wait for His
bidding. Wait for His telling us. And
then it says He sent His angel and signified it by His gospel. By His gospel. And there His
servant John, look what it says in verse 2. who bear record of
the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of the things
that he saw. You know John said that I don't
know how many times. You can go to John's gospel and
you know what it opens up with? It said, In the beginning was
the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. And all things that was made
was made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that
was made. In Him was life. In Him was life. Now just, you
know, John is right to you, John's right before Revelation, 1st
John. Now look what he said here in 1st John chapter 1. Right
there, it's just right in front of Revelation. He's called the
one who bear record of the Word of God. He bore record of the
Word of God and the testimony. He told us about Christ and the
testimony of Christ and of things that he saw. This is what he
said in his first little epistle. That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which he's seen with our eyes, which we've
looked upon, And even our hands have handled of the word of life. He touched the Lord Jesus Christ,
the word of life. And he said this life was manifested. It came into this world. And
we've seen it. We've seen it. And we bear witness
to it. What? That testimony of Christ
he talked about. And show unto you that eternal
life. Where was that eternal life at
before it got here? It was with the Father. And it
was manifested unto us. That which we have seen, and
that which we have heard, we're going to declare it unto you.
We're not going to share it with you. We're not going to sit down
and discuss it. We're not going to sit down and
argue about it. That which we have seen and heard,
declare unto you. That you also may have fellowship
with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and His Son,
Jesus Christ. That's exactly the same thing
He says right here. back there in verse 2 of Revelation
1 John who bear record of the word of God bear record of the
testimony of Jesus Christ and only told of the things that
he saw only told of the things that he saw and listen that's
enough just tell what you seen and heard that's enough that's
enough that's enough I remember First time I ever preached in
a sovereign grace church. I never had, you know, I never
had preached in a sovereign grace church. I knew some preachers,
but I didn't know them very well. I just knew them. And it was up to Scott Richardson. And I'll tell you what, IQ couldn't
have given me $100, I couldn't have spent. I mean, I was nervous as a cat. Stayed up until 2 o'clock in
the morning, couldn't sleep. Oh, I was stressed out. You know,
nobody wants to fall flat on their face. And especially not
there. But anyway, I got there. And,
you know, the Lord had gave me a message and I was hoping that
he would be pleased to bless it. But brother Henry came up
to me and he said this, he said, just tell what you know. Just tell what God's done for
you. That's all you need to say. Don't
say no more than what you've seen and what you've heard. For
yourself. Not what somebody else seen,
what somebody else heard. That's what it said here, John,
bear record of the word of God. And of the testimony, he just
told what he himself saw and heard. And that's all we need
to do. It's just tell what we've seen
and what we've heard. They asked the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, did you teach this and
that? And you know what he said? Ask them that heard me. You want
to find out what a preacher believes? Ask them that listen to him. So he said the servant John which
saw, and then look what here, look at verse 3. This is serious
right here, talking about the word of God, and believing the
word of God, that this is really truly God's word. He said blessed,
blessed as he that readeth. And they that hear the words
of this prophecy, of this preaching, of this story, and keep those
things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. Oh my. He that reads. Do you know that
very, very few people could read in our Lord's day? Very, very
few people could read in our Lord's day. There's lots of people. I've come down here and I met
several people that couldn't read. You know, if they made it to
the 8th grade in a little old country school house somewhere,
they was very fortunate to get that far. And they couldn't read. So who in the world, how are
they going to hear anything? Somebody else had to read too. And that's
why I said, He that readeth. Let me show you what I'm talking
about. Go back over here to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. Go back to Hebrews and then the
first Thessalonians. Look what it said, he that readeth,
he that readeth and heareth. There were places where people
were appointed to read to the people who assembled to worship.
And here in 1 Thessalonians 5, in verse 27 it says this, I charge you by the Lord Jesus
Christ that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. Somebody
had this letter that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. He said,
I charge you to read it. Read it to all the brethren.
Somebody stood up and read it. And when they got up in the old
days, they didn't have Bibles. Only one feller they got up to
read. He's the only one that had the
letter. And he read it to everybody else. And look over here then
in Colossians chapter 4. There's another one of them instances.
You know somebody read to him. I know we used to have the Bible
on cassette tape, then you could get it on CD and you could go
down the road and let somebody read the Bible to you. And then
now they've got Bluetooth and if you've got a Bible on your
phone, you can just put Bluetooth on there and click on your verse
and start reading, you know, and they'll read over your radio.
That's amazing to me. Somebody read it to you. Of course,
they're reading it in a voice. They're not reading it to you
in a southern voice. I tell you that. They got a very proper
accent. If I read it, then people would
be saying, back it up. What did you just say? Very hard to understand. But
look here in Colossians chapter 4 and verse 16. And when this epistle is read
among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans,
and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. So you read this and then you
take the one from Laodicea and read it too. And then let me
show you one last thing in Acts chapter 15. Look at Acts chapter
15. One last thing and then I'm going
to wind this up. But that's what it means, he
that readeth. Now you and I are able to read,
and I'm very thankful for that. Very thankful. That's why God
gave us all a Bible. Because as men learn to read,
God put a Bible in the common people's hands. But here in verse
30, look what it says. And when they were dismissed, they
came to Antioch, and when they had gathered the multitude together,
they delivered the epistle. which when they had read, somebody
read it to them, they rejoiced for the consolation, for the
comfort that they got from it. So there was readers, he said,
blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear, oh my, it's just
as important to hear And that's why we pray, Lord, and I know
you pray this way, Lord, give me ears. Oh, please, please give
me ears. Oh, to hear your word. And I've
said this, I don't know how many times, whenever you open a Bible,
if you're going to read the Bible, then you open it up. Don't never
start reading wherever you are, unless you stop and say, Lord,
this is your word. This is your word. I'm ignorant. I'm slow. And I can't understand
a thing in it if you don't bless me. So you bless it to me. And if you only read this, it's
better to read three verses than read three chapters. If you read
it with some understanding from the Holy Spirit. God blesses
you to understand three verses while you're reading it. Like
you read tonight out of Deuteronomy. God blessed you to understand
some things out of that. We were blessed to hear you say those
things out there. And if God gives us just three
or four verses and blesses it to our heart, we can say God
met with us. But don't never open a Bible
without saying, Lord this is your word. This is your word. And we're not opening a magazine.
We're not opening a magazine. We're not reading a newspaper.
We're reading God's Word. And He's the only one that can
give us an understanding of it. He's the only one that can make
it alive to us and real to us. And so they that hear and keep,
not only hear it, but keep it. And that word keep means to guard
it. Oh Lord let me guard your precious things. And then He
says the time is at hand. And that word blessed there is
the first of seven beatitudes. You know the beatitudes in Matthew,
you know the blessed are they and blessed are they and blessed
are they? Well there are seven beatitudes, seven blessings in
Revelation. That's the first one. Blessed
he that readeth and that heareth and keepeth these testimonies. Our Lord, we bow our hearts.
Oh, we bow our hearts. I bow my heart. Oh, I hope it's
down. Oh God, I want it to be down.
Down before you. Lord, your word is just... Lord, without you, it's just
words on paper. But oh God, if you're pleased
to bless it, if you're pleased to take it and teach it and instruct
your people with it, instruct me. Lord, we want to be instructed. We want to sit here as students,
servants, learners, learners. We want to sit here and learn.
We want to learn from you. We want to learn from the Holy
Spirit. We want to learn the things of God, the things of
Christ, the things of this blessed, blessed book. Lord, we want to
learn. Oh, Lord. God bless it. Lord, help us, direct us, and
Lord, give us ears. Oh, Lord. You always say here
in this word, he that hath ears, let him hear. Lord, give us ears. that we can hear. We ask these
things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. He's the savior. my soul. Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul. He's
the Savior of my soul. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul.