But it's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. Well, I'll tell you what, we've
had a wonderful service up to this point. I'll tell you, I've
enjoyed it very much. But I want to, my subject is
found there in verse 8 this evening. I am Alpha and Omega. I want to talk about the Alpha
and the Omega. The Lord Jesus Christ. Now there
are three tenses in which we see the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Three tenses. Well, we behold His glory as
the only begotten Son of God. We behold Him. And then 2 Corinthians
3, it says this, that we have an open face without anything
over our face. Moses had a veil over his face.
We don't have a veil over our face. We don't even have a veil
over our hearts. And we with open face, we behold the glory
of the Lord. And as we behold Him, we're changed
from that image into His image. So that's a progressive change
in us. And then our Lord Jesus said,
Father, I will. that they whom thou hast given
me be with me, that they may behold my glory. We have seen
it, we do see it, and we shall yet see it. But let me read some scripture
here to you. Let's start here in verse 7. And behold, he cometh with clouds,
and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him.
And all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even
so, amen. 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. I, John, who am also your brother
and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience
of Jesus Christ, was in the isle of Patmos. The isle is called
Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. And I was in the Spirit on the
Lord's day, and heard behind me the great voices of a trumpet,
saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. And what
thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches
which are in Asia. under Ephesus and under Smyrna
and under Pergamos and under Thyatira and under Sardis and
under Philadelphia and under Laodicea and I turned to see
the voice that spake with me and being turned I saw seven
golden candlesticks and in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks
one like under the Son of Man clothed with a garment to the
foot and girded about the paps with a golden girdle his head
and his hairs were white like wool and as white as snow and
his eyes were as a flame of fire and his feet like undefined brass
as if they burned in a furnace and his voice as the sound of
many waters and when he had in his right hand seven stars, and
out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance
was as the sun shineth in his street. And when I saw him, I
fell at his feet as dead, and he raised his right hand upon
me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last,
I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell
and of death. What a description of our Lord
Jesus Christ. I talked about the three tenses
in which we see the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
what we want. We want, you know, our first
and foremost motive in preaching is for the glory of God, the
glory of His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our
primary purpose. I want to see people converted,
but if nobody's ever saved, we're going to still preach to glorify
God, glorify His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we want to
see His glory whenever we look into His Word. Now we saw the
work of Christ last week and the results of it. He said in
verse five, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness,
first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the
earth. Now listen to this now. This is the work. Unto him that
loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. That's
his blessed work. And we're the results of that
work. Unto him that loved us. It's one thing to love you. But
then to turn around and wash us. And then not only wash us,
but wash us from our sins. And then turn around and make
us kings and priests unto his Father. We are the results of
the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want to start here in verse
7, go down through these verses and say a few things about this.
First of all, we see the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
said in verse 7, Behold, he cometh with clouds. He cometh with clouds,
and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him,
and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even
so, Amen. It says this talking about the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I told you that this, we have
the coming of Christ, Christ here, and then what happens to
us here and He comes again. He came the first time, washed
us from our sins, and then He's coming again. He's coming again. And when we talk about the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that's the blessed hope of believers.
Oh, what a blessed hope we have in the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Whether He comes after us individually
or whether He comes after us collectively, as long as He comes. And behold, He's coming. He's
coming. I tell you, our Lord Jesus Christ
is coming. And I tell you, and it says here,
not only is He coming, but He's coming with clouds. He's coming
with clouds. You remember, while you turn
with me over to, I think it's Mark. Mark chapter 14. You remember when our Lord Jesus
Christ ascended back to glory in the book of Acts. And all
those disciples, they were standing there watching Him go up. And
they was watching him go up, and he went up and ascended into
the clouds. And there's two men in white
apparel stood beside him and said, You men of Israel, why
stand ye gazing up into the heavens? This same Jesus who went away
shall come into like manner. He went away in the clouds, he's
coming back in the clouds. He's coming back in the clouds.
And that's, you know, Daniel saw this very thing. He saw Him,
the Ancient of Days, and one approaching Him, described exactly
like the Lord Jesus Christ here is, and God was given unto Him
dominion over all the earth forever and ever and ever. And now look
what He said here in Mark chapter 14 and verse 61. Well, a high priest had been
asking him and talking to him, they were judging him. And they
asked him, what is the witness, these witnesses there against
you? But he held his peace and answered nothing. And again,
the high priest asked him, saying, Art thou not the Christ, the
Son of the Blessed? And here we go again with one
of them I am's. Jesus said, I am. And you shall
see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and
listen to this, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the
high priest went in his clothes and saith unto them, what need
we any further witnesses? He told them, says, you're going
to see me again. And I'll tell you, you're going
to see me sitting right up yonder, and you're going to see me coming.
You're going to see me coming. Now he's telling them high priests
right there, you'll see me coming. You'll see me coming. And what
a blessing, he's going to come in power. He's going to come
in glory. He's going to come in such majesty.
And look what he says here now. Not only that, but said every
eye shall see him. Every eye shall see him. Now
how in the world does he mean to people that's on the earth
that ever I shall see him when he's on the earth? No, no, because
it said they also that pierced him shall see him. So our Lord
Jesus Christ, this is one of those mysteries. The scriptures
tells us that Christ, whenever he comes, everybody on this earth,
when he comes, they're all going to be given bodies again. And
when He comes and He comes to judge, every eye is going to
see Him. Every soul that's ever lived
on this earth that had eyeballs to see, they're going to see.
And this is not going to be a spiritual sight. This is going to be a
physical sight. And even that man, that soldier
that took that spear and pierced the side of Christ, and blood
and water came out of it, our Lord said here, He's going to
see me. He gonna look at me. And He gonna wish He never had a
spear in His hand. And I tell you they gonna see Him.
And it's not only to us, it's a blessed hope. To us, we're
looking for Him. To us, it's life. To us, it's
a hope. To us, it's encouraging. It's
comforting to know that our Lord Jesus Christ, He said, comfort
one another with these words, when the Lord shall descend with
a cloud. in power and in majesty and the
dead in Christ shall rise forth first and then those which are
alive and remain shall be caught up to meet him in the air but
here it also says when they see him even they which pierced him
and listen to this in all kindreds of the earth not going to be
a day of rejoicing for them not going to be a day of comfort
for them what does this say they shall wail because of him That
day for them is going to be a day of wrath, a day of anguish, a
day of judgment. And oh listen, the scripture
said, who shall not be able to abide the day of his fierce anger? And I tell you this, I saw a
sign yesterday. I haven't seen one of these in
years. It said, a little old sign for a Baptist church says, Independent, premillennial, and
fundamental. I've seen one of them in a long
time. And Shirley asked me what that premillennial meant. And
I said, I'll tell you what premillennialism means. It means that these people
believe that Christ is going to come back and secretly take
all his people out. There'll be car wrecks all over
the place because he's going to get his people out. and then
Christ is going to come back and everybody else got to stay
on this earth and they're going to have to go through seven years
of tribulation then Christ is going to come and sit on the
throne in Jerusalem and reestablish the kingdom of David and he's
going to sit over there and they're going to go back to offering
the sacrifices again Do you imagine that the King
of Glory has already put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself? The last sacrifice, the only
sacrifice that ever put away sin, the only one, not one bull,
not one goat, not one sheep put away sin. The only blood that
was from sin was the blood of Christ. And to think that he
would get off his throne and come and sit on an earthly throne
and let them bring blood offerings to him again. You've got to be
the highest fool that ever was born to believe such a thing.
And I preached that one time one of them places and I got
excluded. Threw me and Mary and both our
kids out. And then you know what they done?
They sent me a letter recommending me to go to another church. But I told them, I said, listen,
he's not a coming king. And he's going to reign more
than a thousand years. He was reigning before we got
here. He was reigning before God said,
let there be light. He will be reigning when there's
time no more. And he's the light of that city.
He's always reigned and he always will. Oh my, that's what he's
talking about here. Every eye is going to see him.
Oh my, even those who pierced him. He said, oh listen, ask
him, where are those wounds that you got in your hands? He said,
they are the wounds that I received in the house of my friends. And
oh my, even those that pierced him. And you remember when Thomas
said, I'm not going to believe. Thomas, we've seen the Lord,
we've seen the Lord. Well I am not going to believe
it. I am not going to believe it. Until I see myself and I
can stick my finger in his hand. I was there when they stuck that
spear in his side and I can stick my hand in that hole in his side.
The Lord said here Thomas go ahead. Thomas said, well, wait a minute,
Lord, we've got to wait until a thousand years. No, no, he
fell on his face before God and said, my Lord and my God. And that's what we do. We see,
oh, he's my Lord and he's my God. And we bow to him. Oh my. And you know, when it says they
are well because of him, that means a mourning of hopelessness. It's not a mourning of repentance.
And we'll get to it later, they said, they'll say, oh mountains
and hills and rocks fall on us to hide us from the face of the
Lamb. Hide from the face of the Lamb?
They will. And then look what He said, even
so, let it be. Amen. Amen. And then look what
our Lord calls Himself. Look what our Master calls Himself.
Our Lord calls Himself. I am Alpha. and I am Omega the
beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is which was and
which is to come the Almighty now I don't know a lot about
Greeks but I do know this that Alpha is the first letter of
the Greek alphabet Omega is the last letter And he's all, he's the whole,
he starts in the beginning and he's the ending of it. And everything
in between. Amen. And that's what he says
about himself. And you notice how again, here
we go with I am, I am, I am, I am. I tell you, he's a complete,
the perfect, the eternal revelation of God Almighty. He said here
that he is, was which is to come and look
what else he says about himself the almighty now he's almighty
you reckon anybody else has got any might? people want to talk about their
might and the power of their free will and he said he's almighty
that means that there's nobody else got any might There can
only be one who's got all the power. There can be only one
who's almighty. And I'll tell you something,
when you see that he is the almighty, the alpha and the omega, the
beginning and the end, you know what you find out? You ain't
got no strength whatsoever. People say all the time, said,
boy, you know, you got this, you got a lot of strength in
your character and all this. Well, I tell you what, I ain't
got none in mine. Christ is all I want and Christ
is all I need. And I tell you what, I wouldn't
mount to it. I'd spit on the ground without Christ. I tell
you I ain't. And I tell you what, and what
he's doing is he's telling John, he says, you know, said, I'm
the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the ending. He which was,
is, is, and which is to come. He's telling John, said, you
got enemies. But he said, I'm almighty and
there's not an enemy in this world can hurt you. Not an enemy
in this world can hurt you, can destroy you. And then look what
John says now. John's commission, Christ gave
him commission to write. And I John, look how he describes
himself. John's talking now. who am also
your brother oh my we're brothers brothers in Christ he's one of
my brothers in Christ I'll know him when I get to glory you know
that we'll recognize these people John who am also your brother
oh my and then he says I'm your companion oh we're companions
we're compatriots we're companions well what are we companions in?
tribulation It's through much tribulation that we must enter
into the kingdom of God. And I tell you, and in the kingdom
and patience of Jesus Christ. Oh my. Look what he says. We're on common ground here with
John. He's our brother, he's our companion. And he has tribulation. And he said it's through this
tribulation and patience of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, and oh
how we need patience. Oh how we need the patience of
Christ. And the patience of our Lord Jesus Christ. And look what
he says. And out in the kingdom and patience
of Jesus Christ was in the isle that is called Patnos. He said,
why is he in tribulation? Why is he suffering? Why is he
exiled here? Why is he in this isle of Patmos?
Look what he said, for the word of God, because I believe the
word of God, preached the word of God, talked about the word
of God. And listen to this, and for the
testimony of Jesus Christ. I testified of Jesus Christ.
That's what I do for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus
Christ. You keep this and look with me
in Galatians chapter 6. Look in Galatians chapter 6.
Now I'll tell you what. John said here, you know, I'm
suffering. I'm in tribulation. I'm in...
I'm exiled. I'm on an isle over here. Little
old isle of Patmos. And why are you exiled for, John?
Why are you troubled in tribulation? For the Word of God. And for
the testimony of Jesus Christ. Well, look what he said here
in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 12. This is the difference between
somebody like John and these fellas here. As many as desire
to make a fair show in the flesh. They have a desire to make themselves
look good in the flesh. When you find somebody wanting
to make themselves look good in the flesh, you found somebody
don't know nothing about Christ. And that's what he goes on to
say. They want to make a fair show in the flesh, want to show
what they can accomplish and what they can do. They constrain
you to be circumcised. Whether it's baptism or any other
thing. And here's the reason they do
that, because they don't want to suffer persecution for the
cross of Christ. They don't want to do that. And
here's why. He said, for neither they themselves
who are circumcised are those who keep the law. But they desire
to have you circumcised to have you keep the law. And here's
the reason that they may glory in your flesh. Now let's put
that in today's vernacular. You would not believe how many
souls I won to Jesus. A fellow told me one time, said
a maid would come in the room and I'd have her accepting Jesus
before she got, when she was cleaned out of the bathtub. I'd
stay in there and have her saved before she got out of there. Now that's what they do. They
suffer persecution for the cross of Christ and then they want
to glory and that's what they'll say. Boy look at all my souls.
Look at all that I've accomplished. Look at everything we've done.
And they'll brag about themselves but Paul says but God forbid
that I should glory. I can't glory in my flesh, can't
glory in my accomplishments, can't glory in my souls that
I've won. There's only one thing I want
to glory in. That's the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. That testimony of Christ. And
listen to what he said here, by whom the world is crucified
unto me. The world don't want nothing
to do with me and I don't want nothing to do with the world.
That's what he's talking about here. That's why John said, that's
why I'm your companion in tribulation. He suffered for the cause of
Christ. And then he goes on back over
here again in our text tonight. Look what he said. And then he
says there in verse 10, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great
voice as of a trumpet. And I tell you, the Lord's Day
is the first day of the week. That's why it's called the Lord's
Day. Not called the Sabbath. The Lord's Day is the first day
of the week when Christ rose from the dead. The resurrection
of Christ. But from right on here He says
He was in the Spirit. That means that earth and time
and space has no influence on Him whatsoever. None. He's in
the Spirit. Like Paul said, whether I was
in the body or out of the body, I can't tell. I was called up
to the third heaven. That's what he's in. He's in
the Spirit. He sees, but he don't see with physical eyes. He hears, but he don't hear with
his physical ears. He's in spiritual contact with
the Lord Jesus Christ. He sees Christ here and he sees
Him by the Spirit. And you know, that's what Isaiah
said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. Daniel was in a vision. Peter
fell into a trance tonight. God let that sheet down three
times. And they all had these visions.
There's in the Spirit. And they, time and sense and
space ceased to exist for him. Earth ceased to exist for him.
And then he said, oh listen, I heard something. I heard behind
me, back behind me, I heard a great voice. not just a voice, a great
voice. Boy, if you hear his voice, it's
great to hear it, I tell you that. And that voice was as a
trumpet, was as a trumpet. You know, when Moses went up
on the mountain, God blew a trumpet. He blew a trumpet. The day that
the law was given, a trumpet began to blow. And Moses got
up there on that mountain and that trumpet blew. And blew and
blew till Moses stood in the presence of God. Then the trumpet
stopped. And so God used the trumpet.
You remember that. Joshua had the children of Israel
go around Jericho seven times. God could have made Jericho fall
down and not told them to do anything. Just broke down the
walls and let them take it. But he said, I want everybody
to know how I do things. He made them walk around there
seven times. Get up tomorrow, another time. Seven days they've
done it. He said on the seventh day, blow a trumpet. They blew
them trumpets and down come the walls. He said, cry aloud, O
son of man, and spare not, lift up thy voice as a trumpet, as
a trumpet. And he heard this trumpet, great
voice as a trumpet. And then he says, oh my, down
there in verse 11, saying, I'm Alpha and Omega, the first and
the last, and what you see in a book, you write it down and
you send it to the seven churches. Now look at this vision that
he saw of Christ while he was in the Spirit on this day. Now
he said, you know, this was behind me. He said, this was behind
me, this voice. And he said, I turned around
to see. I turned to see. The voice that
spake with me. Spake with me. And being turned,
you know what I saw? First thing I saw, seven golden
candlesticks. Seven golden candlesticks. Oh
my. And then he said, what did I
see in those seven, when I saw those seven golden candlesticks?
He turned to see the voice. See who it is that's speaking
to him. You can't see a voice, but you can see the person who
speaks the voice. Well he did, but he didn't see
anything until all he saw was seven golden candlesticks. And
then he said, oh my, I got to looking, and in the midst of
those seven golden candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man. Well, what did he look like?
Well, I'll tell you what he looked like. I'll describe him to you.
Have you ever read a song of Solomon, Chapter 5, where it
describes Christ, what he looked like, his eyes and his hair and
his golden legs and his skin like, you know, ruddy and his
eyes looked like dust, but just set in milk. And all just describing
what John has described, the sight here to behold. And what
a wonderful, wonderful sight it was to John. Here's the very
one that the scriptures always said, that disciple whom Jesus
loved, that's who he's talking about. He was the one that laid
his head on the breast of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this is
not the Christ that he lay his head on. This is altogether different. It looks different. Look what
he says. And he had clothes on. Oh, how
clothed he was. We talked about that high priest
and how beautiful his garments were and how they were made.
He said, and I turned and saw the Son of Man clothed with a
garment down to the foot. Oh, such a glorious royal robe
went all the way down to his feet. And then you know what
else I saw? I saw that he had a golden belt
wrapped around him to hold that robe. Solid gold belt all the
way around him. It's gold. And then he said,
you know I looked at his hair. I looked at his head and his
hair was white just like wool. And then to make it even more
distinct he said as white as snow. You know when you see sun
on snow it will blind you. And he said his hair was white
as snow. Sun glistening on the snow. And
then look what he said about his eyes. And his eyes were flashing
fire. Flashing fire. Eyes that can
see into every heart. Eyes that can pierce a heart.
Eyes that can burn a heart. Eyes that can judge a heart.
Burning eyes. And then look what it says. And
his feet like unto fine brass. Not only does it look like fine
brass as if they burned in the furnace. It looked like his feet
were glowing. They were glowing. And I tell
you they were as burnished by brass, beautiful, glorious brass,
as burned in a furnace. They were glory. And that was
what he used to trample down his enemies with. Trample down
the enemies with. And oh my, then look what he
said. And that voice, he looked around to see that voice that
spoke to him. And instead of hearing a voice, he saw a person.
He saw this glorious Son of God. This glorious wondrous, glorious
Christ. And then he says this, and his
voice was as the sound of many waters. Oh my. Have you all ever been to Niagara
Falls? Man, I tell you what, that water
running over them falls just roars, roars, roars. You get on the ocean, them big
old waves come crashing in and making noise and crashing in.
He said that's the way Christ's voice was. It's like just water
just running and oh, just running and making just sound like the
voice of water just rushing, rushing, rushing, rushing. And
then I looked, and this voice, I saw what he had. He had something in his right
hand. What did he have in his right
hand? He had seven stars. Seven, everything's seven. He
had seven stars. Oh my, had seven golden candlesticks. Seven stars in his right hand,
is in the midst of those golden candlesticks. And oh, listen to that. And then
this voice that he spoke not only did it sound like many waters,
but out of his mouth, out of that same mouth that voiced as
the sound of many waters. This just shows you how glorious
Christ is. His voice is like a sound of
many waters. Sound as a trumpet, and then
the sound, a sharp sword going out of his mouth. Three things
coming out of the mouth of Christ here, and this one vision here
that he had. Can you imagine? That just goes
to show you how glorious Christ is. He can sound as a trumpet,
sound as water, and then, beloved, he can sound as a sharp two-edged
sword coming out of his mouth at the same time. And you know
what a sharp two-edged sword is always referred to? It's the
Word of God. Sharper than any two-edged sword. And he had these seven stars
and he had that great sword coming out of his back. And this is
a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy One of our Savior. He's coming. He sent this letter
to these seven churches. And He's showing us here He's
coming to instruct. He's coming to rebuke. He's coming
to deal and bless His church, His elect, and to punish everyone
who persecuted his people on this earth. Every single one.
They said, Oh my leg crying to me day and night. Shall I not
avenge them? Shall I not avenge them? Now
look what happens to John when he saw this. Oh my. Brad read in a study tonight
out of Ecclesiastes. He said, When thou goest into
the house of God, be not rash with thy mouth. Don't go and
offer the sacrifice for fools, for God is in the heavens. Let
your words be few, for God is in the heavens and you're on
the earth. And I tell you what, this is
why we reverence Christ. That's why we sit and listen
to what God's got to say. And he said, and when I saw him,
and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
None of us can look at the sun when it's shining in his strength.
Gotta put your hand over your eyes. Gotta put your hand over
your eyes. And when I saw him, I saw him. I heard the voice, I turned to
see. And when I saw him, he said he was talking about a voice,
now he said I see him. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. I was overwhelmed with it. It was
like Isaiah was. You know and the same thing happened
to Daniel. Daniel had a vision and he fell down as a dead man. All the strength was going out
of him. John saw him and he said, I just fell as a dead man. I had no life in me. Had no ability
in me. I couldn't stand in his presence.
He's too holy. He's too glorious. He's too majestic. He's too blessed. He's so high
and I'm so low. And he fell at his feet as dead. Oh my. But look what our Lord
does for him. He does this for Daniel too.
And you know what he said to Daniel? Oh beloved, oh beloved
of God. That's what he said to Daniel.
Fear not, fear not. You're greatly, greatly loved. And he laid his hand on Daniel.
And Daniel sat upright. And look what Christ did here.
And he laid his right hand on me. Now remember, he's got seven
stars in that right hand. Our Lord could have seven stars,
have three different voices, and still lay his right hand
on you. And he laid his right hand upon him and saying unto
me, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. I'm the first
and I'm the last. And look what he said. You know
Abraham, when God appeared to him and it was dark, Abraham
fell on his face and worshipped him. Moses fell on his face before
God. Job fell on his face. But God gave this vision to John
and this is the comfort John. He laid his right hand, it's
what John said, he laid his right hand upon me. And then he told
me something. Don't you be afraid. Fear not.
And you know what our Lord told us? He said, fear not little
flock. Fear not little flock. I've got
you a kingdom from the foundation of the world. And look what our
Lord told him. He said, I am he that liveth
and was dead. I was dead. I was put to death. I suffered death. I endured death. And I was obedient unto death.
But I'm alive. I'm alive. I live. I live. I'm alive. What blessed,
blessed, blessed, blessed words. What blessed truth. Christ is
alive. We sang that song, I know Christ
is alive for He lives in me, He lives in my heart. Our Lord
said, because I live, you shall live also. When Christ who is
our life shall appear, shall we also appear with Him in glory.
It's Christ in you, that's the hope of glory. And oh now, we
as living souls right now are joined to Him, joined to Him
by the Holy Spirit of God. He is our life. I live and because
He lives, we live. And look what He said here now.
And here He is again using that word, I am. And He said, behold,
I'm alive forevermore. Oh, I died, yeah, but I live.
And I'm alive forevermore. And he said, listen, I've got
two keys. I've got two keys. You see these people carrying
all, man, I mean a big old pack full of keys and they try to
figure out which one goes where. Our Lord just got two. And what
are they? Keys of hell and the keys of
death. And hell is locked against us.
We can't go in. He is like David. He has the
keys of David. He can open and when he opens
nobody can shut. When he shuts nobody can open.
And I know two places that he is locked against us. He is locked
hell and we are not going there. And he's like death, and we've
already conquered death because he did. Ain't that right? Oh
my! He, you know, he has the keys
of hell and of death. He has the keys of authority
and power over hell and death. And you know what Paul said?
He said, for me to live is Christ. And you know what dying is? To
me it's gain. God's gain? You better believe
it. It's gain. That's why we rejoice. Oh my
goodness. Peter told them, said, Be it
known unto you men and brethren that God said, I might leave
thy soul in hell and never let your flesh suffer corruption. And he said, I'm not talking
about David. He said, we got David and his
grave right here with us. We're talking about the son of
David. You crucified him and God raised
him from the dead. And right now he's at the right
hand of God. And everything that he does,
he does it for his glory. I tell you what. And so I tell
you, at keys of hell and death. And when we get over in the back
of Revelations, death and hell give up the dead that are in
them. God's going to bring people that's already in second death. Death's already on them. Man,
hell, death's on them. He's going to bring them out
of hell and of death to judge them. And then he's going to
open it and he's going to put them back down in there. He's
going to turn that lock and they ain't getting out. You know what the saints say
then? Hallelujah. The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. That's what they say. When he
does that, when he does that, puts death and hell back in the
pit, that bottomless pit. Oh, every saint of God raises
up and say, Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. You think they're not getting
what's coming to them? I know it sounds cruel, and I
don't want to sound cruel, but you live without God, you're
going to die without Him. If you live without Christ, you're
going to die without Christ. Do you imagine what it's going
to be like for somebody, somebody who stands up in their self-righteousness
and try to face God in their own righteousness, in their own
works, in their own merit, in their own accomplishments, and
stand there in His presence and argue with Him. Tell me why in the world shouldn't,
when Christ died, when Christ put away sin, when Christ satisfied
God, oh when they said justice said I will not let him go. But
mercy said let that sinner go free, for a substitute was found
for me. I know that God had not saved
me by His grace. He had every right to put me
in hell and justly so. But I'm so thankful that He has
it and that He won't. And now He can't because He honored
God and glorified God and done for us what we could not possibly
do for ourselves. Now God cannot ever and cannot
ever punish us. Why? Because He's done punished
His Son. Unto Him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood. And then look what He told John
to do. He said there in verse 19. He said, write the things
that you've seen now, John. Write it all down now. Write
it all down. And the things which are, you
write the things that are and the things which shall be hereafter.
Oh, the things that are right now in my time, I want you to
write it. I want you to write down the condition of seven churches
and the things that shall be hereafter, events that's going
to happen in the future. And then Christ tells him what
this seven golden candlesticks and these seven stars mean. He
tells him. He said, John, here's the mystery
of those seven stars which you saw in my right hand. Here's
the mystery. You saw seven stars in my right
hand. I'm going to tell you what they mean. And I'm going to tell
you what those seven golden candlesticks are. The seven stars are the
angels of the seven churches. And the seven candlesticks which
you saw are the seven churches. And what He's telling us is that
when He talks about the churches, when they're the angels, they're
the messengers, they're the pastors, they're the preachers, they're
the leaders. And He has them in the right hand. He's the one
that has all the authority and the power to raise them up. And
those seven golden candlesticks are these seven churches. And
our Lord told us in Matthew chapter 5, He said, if a man lights a
candle, he don't put a bushel over it. He sets it up so everybody
see the light. And He said, and He said, this
is what you are. You're the light of the world. And Christ makes
His church to be the light. We don't think we're shining
any light, but we're His. We're a candlestick. And every
one of His churches is a candlestick. And they belong to Christ. His
church belongs to Christ. And the preachers belong to Christ.
Because they're all in His hands. And He walks in the midst of
those seven churches. He walks in the midst of them.
Well, man I'd like to keep on going but sometimes you know
I've said all I need to say I think, don't you? Oh my goodness. I really would love to be able
to describe Him the way my heart sees Him and the way my heart
feels about Him. The way you see Him in your heart,
the way He stirs in your heart, the way He is to you, wouldn't
you love to be able to describe Him what He is to you as you
see Him in yourself? Oh boy, one of these days we'll
see Him as He is, we won't have to describe Him, we'll just bow
down and worship. Oh our blessed, blessed Father, Oh, thank you for this day. Thank you for your people. Thank
you for your gospel. Thank you for your word. Thank
you for the men that you use in this place. Thank you for
our dear sisters who pray for us, love us. Thank you for your
precious word. That reveals so much to us. More
than our poor little old feeble brains can handle. More than
our flesh can contain. But oh Lord we love. We just
love it. We love your truth. We love your
word. We love how it describes you.
And you're a living master to us. You're alive to us. You're
a reality to us. You live in us. You're our hope. You're our comfort. You're our
assurance. You're our very life. And we own that now. Your word
and the testimony. Oh God, we love your word. We love your Savior, your Lord,
our Savior, our Master. And oh God, thank you for loving
us and causing us to love you. God bless these dear saints as
they go their ways. Protect them and keep them and
preserve them. Bless Brother Jim Fawcett and Debbie and those folks in Indiana, Cindy
and The dishman's there, God help them. Lord be merciful to
them. The family, God help them. Comfort them, be their strength.
In this very dark, dark hour, we ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.