That the Lord has been pleased
to give us a word. Give us a word. There's nothing
like meeting together in a public place and the Holy Spirit setting
the table for us, feeding us. There's just nothing like that
on this world like that. It's just something that only
believers know. They set at the table. We set
at the King's table. Like Mephibosheth did. And we've
been eating the king's fare all these years. Eating the king's
fare. Alright, let's look here in verses
4 through 6. John, to the seven churches which
are in Asia, grace be unto you and peace from him which is,
and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits
which are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and
the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us,
and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made
us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory
and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Now John, he was that disciple
whom Jesus loved. This is the one, every time he's
mentioned in the New Testament, in John's Gospel, that disciple
whom Jesus loved. And then one that leaned on his
breast. And he's the beloved disciple. And here he's used
to the Lord to reveal the visions. Reveal the visions that's been
given to him. And God sent it to him through
an angel. And the first thing he does here,
he says, you know, to the seven churches which are in Asia. He
salutes the seven churches. Now we'll go through these seven
churches. But he, when they talk about them in Asia, it's the
same place as Turkey is now. Eastern Turkey. And so that's
where they were. And that's where the churches
was. And that was, of course, it was all under the rule of
Rome back in those days where they said all roads lead to Rome. And it was just a Roman province
there and that's where all the seven churches were. Seven churches
were. And when he first starts dealing
with the seven churches, he starts with Ephesus. He starts with
Ephesus. That's where he preached and
stayed for so many years. It was the nearest and dearest
to him and the closest to Patmos and that island on which he was
exiled to. But these seven churches, as
we deal with them, they represent the entire God's church mystical
church now when I talk about the church I'm talking about
God's elect people that that's in the body of Christ when we
talk about his church these seven churches represent the entire
church all of God's people throughout this dispensation over and over
and over again but he has a beautiful salutation here look what he
says He said to John, to the seven churches which are in Asia. And now here's how he salutes
them, these seven churches. Grace be unto you and peace from
him which is, which was, and which is to come. And I tell
you, he's the first thing he says, grace and peace. Grace and peace. Grace. I love that word grace. I find
such assurance in the word grace. I preached a message here a while
back on grace, grace, and more grace. But grace to you. And if we have grace, it's got
to be given to us. And it's grace, blessed, blessed
grace. It's undeserved. If it was deserved,
it would cease to be grace. If it was deserved, it would
cease to be mercy. And I tell you what, it's unmerited.
There's no way we can merit anything from God. So He said, Grace be
unto you. May God bless you in grace. May
God pour grace out upon you. May God fill you with His grace. And this is one thing that I
love about grace. And this is a verse of scripture
God helped to teach, that He used to teach me the Gospel,
and open the whole Bible up to me. God who has saved us, And
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. And you know, He's given
to us back there. He's given to us in time. But once we get it, that's all
we want. Ain't that right? Don't want
nothing else but grace. Give us grace. Oh God, give us
grace. Grace that forgives sins. Grace
pardoning our iniquity. Grace. Blessed grace. And when we talk about grace,
it's God giving. And He gives free, it's free
grace. Fully grace. And what grace is,
is God's good will toward us. It's His good work within us.
He works in us by His grace both to will and to do His good pleasure. And if He let us go of His grace
just for just a little bit, just a little bit. Unbelievable what
we would be and what we would do without his grace. And then
look what else he says, grace unto you and peace. Peace. Peace is the result of
grace undeserved. You know, when you believe and
you trust Christ and you know you're saved by grace, when you
understand grace, when you understand how God saves a sinner, and He
saves you by His blessed grace and brings His power to bear
upon you, and He doesn't charge you and put your iniquities under
you and tells you, I'll not remember your sins and iniquities no more. And when you understand grace,
and you understand how God saves a sinner, and you understand,
beloved, what He's done for you, where grace goes, peace always
follows. When you understand grace, then
that's when peace comes. And until you understand grace,
there ain't gonna be no peace. You know, grace, when you believe
it, it gives you peace in your mind, Oh, what peace of mind
it gives you. It gives you peace in your heart.
And I tell you, you know why we have peace in our heart? It's
because we've been reconciled to God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. The scripture says we were in
enmity with God. They that are in the flesh are
enmity with God. And that enmity is a hatred.
It's an animosity towards. And then not only would you have
enmity, but we were enemies of God. And so how in the world,
and reconciliation means bringing two opposing parties together. And making friendship and bringing
harmony and bringing communion. Well, we could not reconcile
ourselves to God. We were His enemies. We had enmity
in our hearts. How in the world is this reconciliation
going to be brought to pass? Christ went to the cross and
through the blood of His cross, through His death on that cross,
He slew that enmity in a person's heart when he comes to save them,
and he slays them, they don't become enemies of God anymore,
they become children of God and sons of God, and it's all because
of what Christ did on the cross. We're reconciled. You know God
called Abraham his friend? You know what we are? We're closer
than friends. We're sons of God. That's closer than a friend,
ain't it? We're sons of God, children of God, joint heirs
with Christ. And I'll tell you what, He made
peace. He made peace. When I was thinking about this
this evening, when I was looking at these notes, I got to thinking
about America at war. The last war we won as America,
as a nation, was World War II. We ain't won a war since World
War II. We went to the Korean conflict and that's all it was,
they called it a conflict. Went to Vietnam, went to Iraq, went to Afghanistan, went to
all these places and there was never no peace established. They
just quit fighting. Just quit fighting. Said let's
just stop it. But I tell you one thing, God
won this war. He won the war. He said that
on us, didn't he? As old Scott used to say, stack
your arms! And I tell you what, when God
comes in His blessed grace, He establishes peace, and you know
how He establishes on the basis of righteousness, on the basis
of His Son's blood and His death. In fact, the scripture says,
Christ, He is our peace. He's our peace. He's our peace. So grace and peace be unto you. And then look what He says, He
said, from who? Look what He says there. From
Him, which is, which is in the present tense, which was in the
past tense, and which is to come in the future tense. So he's
the same. He is, he was, and he's the same
one, to come. Oh my. Let me show you. Look over in
Exodus 3. Look at Exodus 3. Here's who
we're talking about here. Exodus 3 and verse 14 You know
When we're talking about from him who is Who was and who is
to come? Our unchangeable God our covenant
God the God of eternal love and mercy and grace And look what
he said Moses God's gonna send Moses down to Egypt that said
save his children bring him out of them and And then look what
he says there in verse 13. Moses said unto God, Behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel, shall say unto them,
The God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, hath sent me
to you. And they shall say to me, What
is his name? What's his name? What shall I
say unto them? Who am I going to say? You know
what he said? He said, I am that I am. That means there never
was a time that I wasn't, never will be a time that I won't be,
and never will be a time that I cease to be. So he got down
there and said, who sent me down here? I am. That means, when
we talk about I am, that's what John is saying right here. He
said, I am. I am he which is, He said, I
am right now. What I am, I have always been. What I am, I am right this moment. And what I am, I'll be as long
as eternity lasts. I'll be the I am. And that's
what John said, I am he which is, which was, and which is to
come. And I tell you, when you understand
these things about God, oh my, there's true grace, true peace,
and where grace goes, peace follows. And then look what else he says
here now, in verse 1. And from the seven spirits, grace
unto you, peace from him which is, which was, and which is to
come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne.
Oh my. Now when he says the seven spirits, Grace and peace to you from the
seven spirits and from he which is, which was, and which is to
come. Now when he talks here about seven spirits, I told you
the word seven is 54 times in this particular book. But it
doesn't really mean that there's seven of them in number. Seven
always means perfection, always means completeness. And so when
it says seven, it's not seven in number, not even seven in
nature. But it's telling us that the
Spirit of God is everywhere, doing all things, and He comes
from He which is, which was, and which is to come. He comes
from the throne of God. And I tell you, wherever the
Holy Spirit comes, He gives different gifts to different people. He
gives different gifts. But it's all the same Spirit.
And it operates in different people's hearts in different
ways. And it tells us here the seven Spirits which are before
His throne. Seven Spirits. And that means,
beloved, that He goes... He's everywhere. He just... It's like God. He's God. And God's everywhere, and that's
what He says the Holy Spirit. He comes and gives different
gifts to different people. He gives pastors, teachers, evangelists,
people to pray, people to give. He gives different spirits, I
mean different gifts and operations. And as God governs from the throne,
The Holy Spirit comes from God and comes from His throne to
His people. And His people, He goes and does
what... You know when our Lord... Darrell read back in John 14
this evening. And that's what he said. He said,
I'll go away. I'm going away. But I'm not going to leave you
by yourself. I'm not going to leave you without
any comforter. I'm going to send the Comforter to come. I'm going
to send the Holy Spirit. He's going to come. And He's
going to take my place on this earth. And it's the Holy Spirit
that comes to us, and teaches us, instructs us, and blesses
us, and meets the needs of our hearts and our understanding.
And that's why He calls them seven spirits. Perfect! Perfect
goes everywhere could be at all places at all time And then look
what he says in verse 5 And all grace and peace and peace unto
you from he which is which was was and which is to come from
the seven spirits Before the throne and also grace and peace
from Jesus Christ Where else is it going to come
from? Where else is it going to come from? Where else is God
going to give us anything? Except through His blessed Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when it talks about the Lord
Jesus Christ, He's God the Son. You know we look, you know John
says that The Word of Life which we have seen, which we have handled,
that was manifested. He saw the Lord Jesus Christ
in the flesh. He walked with the Lord Jesus
Christ. He leaned on the Lord Jesus' breast. Christ loved him. And so he know
what it was to be with the Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh. To
walk with Him and talk with Him and hear Him pray. and love Him
and sit and eat a meal with Him. And oh my, if God gives us anything,
it's got to come through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. All
spiritual blessings in heavenly places come through Him. God
has nothing for no one apart from His blessed Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then look what He says now. He said, He's the faithful witness.
Who is the faithful witness? You know we're saying that hymn,
great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness. How faithful
do you think the Lord Jesus Christ is? And it says here he's a faithful
witness. Well I'll tell you some things
he is faithful to. He is faithful to His Word. I do know that. Our Lord is faithful to His Word. Whatever He says, He will do.
Whatever promises He makes, He's going to keep it. Whatever He
says He'll do, it's going to be accomplished. And so He is
true to His Word. But let me tell you something.
He's faithful. He was a faithful witness to His elect. He faithfully
witnessed to his elect. He faithfully called his sheep
by their name. He faithfully laid down his life
for his sheep. He faithfully came down here
and told us about God. He faithfully revealed to us
his holy word. And I tell you something else
he was faithful to. He was faithful to his enemies. You know what? He was faithful
witness to his enemies. You know what he said to them?
He said, you generation of vipers and serpents? Boy, I'd hate to
bet you'd call somebody a whole generation of vipers and serpents.
Call them a bunch of graves. Call them a bunch of whited sepulchers.
Call them a bunch of hypocrites. And you know what he finally
said to him? He said, how are you going to escape the damnation
of hell? Now that's being a faithful witness
even to your enemies. And then you know what a faithful
witness he was? Bless his name. When he was on
the cross, what a faithful witness our Savior was. He witnessed
of the sovereignty of God. He witnessed to the obedience
of God, He witnessed to the wrath of God, the justice of God, the
love of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God, all on that
cross. He faithfully witnessed there.
And He faithfully witnessed to all of His children when He said
this, Father, forgive them. Oh, forgive them. Why? They don't know what they're
doing. They don't know what they're doing. And oh my, if he hadn't
have prayed for us, we still wouldn't know what we're doing.
We wouldn't know. But he was a faithful witness.
And then he is a faithful witness to all of God's counsels. You
know what he's called? He's called the Counselor. He
is a witness to all of God's counsels from all eternity. He
said, no man has seen God at any time save the only Son who
is in the bosom of the Father. He hath what? He come to declare
Him. To declare Him. And you read
there tonight, he said, Philip said, Lord, show us the Father
and it will satisfy us. It will be sufficient. We won't
ask for anything else. And our Lord said, Philip, have
I been with you such a long time? Such a long time and you've not
seen Me? He that hath seen Me has seen
the Father. And I tell you what, he's a faithful
witness. He's so faithful that he's the
author and the finisher of our faith. He was faithful witness
in the days of his flesh to the revealed will of God. And now he's even a faithful
witness to us. Faithfully, faithfully, faithfully.
Witnesses to us. Does not never leave us to ourselves. I tell you we can believe his
testimony. We can believe his promises. We can believe his
word. Because he is a faithful witness. Now here's something else about
him. You think about this one. From
Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness and the first begotten
of the dead. Now what does it mean to be the
first begotten from the dead? We was begotten from the dead.
All of us. We were dead in trespasses and
sins. And we were quickened. Quickened
by the Holy Spirit. Given life. But what does it
mean he is the first begotten of the dead? What in the world
does that mean? You know there's two men in the
scriptures went to heaven without dying. Enoch was not because
God took him. And then Elijah, a great big
chariot come down and picked him up and carried him to glory. But those fellas didn't die.
Lazarus died, the young girl died, and the widow's son died. And the only way they can have
life is for Christ to give them life, to speak to them, to touch
them, and to give them life. But when it talks about Him being
the first begotten from the dead, now our Lord Jesus Christ was
dead. When they come and took His,
Joseph said, please let me have His body. That's what he got. He got a body. And he got a body
and they took that cross down and took him off that cross.
Pulled them nails out and got him off that cross and they prepared
his body just like you would prepare a body. And they put
spices on his body and they wrapped him up in these wonderful linen
clothes and they put him in a tomb and put a cloth across his eyes. He's dead! He was no sight in his eyes,
no hearing in his ears. He didn't see nothing, know nothing,
understand anything. He was dead. But early, early, early Sunday
morning, he got up. How did he do that? He's God. You know, he gave up the ghost
and he says, now it's time to come back from the dead. And
I tell you what, by his own power. By his own power. You know somebody,
call somebody that's been dead four days from the grave and
give them off by just calling their name. Don't you know that
he's got the power? He came back to life on his own
power. He was the only one who ever
died and came back. Nobody else has ever done that.
I'm not coming back when I'm gone. Who'd want to come back? But after our Lord, He came back. And they went looking for Him
in the tomb, said, He's not here. Where's He at? He's risen. Where's He going? He's going
to Galilee to talk to you fellas. Oh my, first begotten from the
dead. He's the first He's the first parent from the dead, and
because He raised Himself from the dead, that guarantees our
resurrection from the dead. If He rose from the dead, everybody
who He died for, that scripture tells us that He said He would
raise our bodies like unto His glorious body. This thing, this body, oh this
body. Scriptures tell us, Paul says,
you know, oh this wretched man that I am. You know when he talks
about a wretched man, he's talking about a dead body hanging on
his back. And sometimes that body gets
so heavy that you just think it's going to get you all the
way down. And then sometimes it gets to stinking so bad that
you'll say, oh wretched man that I am, please let this thing get
off of me. But it ain't going to happen. You'll pack it till you die.
That old dead body, that old corrupt body. And this body here
is corrupt. But one of these days, as our
Lord Jesus gave himself life from the dead, raised himself
from the dead, and walked for 40 days and 40 nights, and proved
himself by many infallible proofs that he was the Son of God, risen
from the dead. That I tell you what, because
He did that, that guarantees every single one of us that what
He did for Himself, He's going to do for all of us. Huh? Oh my. And He's going to by the
same power raise up all His people from their graves. Look over
here in 1 Peter 1. Look over here in 1 Peter 1.
Won't you see something? You know, our Lord said, I'm
the resurrection. Resurrection is not an event.
He's the resurrection. Look what He said here in verse
3, 1 Peter 1 verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. which according to his abundant
mercy, not just abundant mercy, hath begotten us, given us life,
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, a living hope. How did
he do it? By the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. He give us abundant mercy, give
us a living hope. How? By Christ's resurrection
from the dead. We got a living hope because
He was raised from the dead. And look what He raised, what
we gonna get? this is that living hope to an
inheritance incorruptible and an undefiled in that fadeth not
away listen to this now reserved in heaven for you oh my oh because He said, You know
He has begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. You know this resurrection, nobody has ever died and come
back again. Nobody. Now I read something
the other day. I just read this the other day.
There was a fellow over in Africa. They pronounced him dead and
took him to the morgue. And they got ready to cut on
him and start embalming him. And when they stuck him, he jumped
up and started screaming and hollering. They never checked to see whether
he was dead or not. They just sent him over to the
morgue because somebody told them he was dead. But he didn't come back from
the dead. He is alive. But to think about somebody.
Let me ask you this. You know, when that rich man
went to hell, you know what he asked Abraham? He said, send somebody. Send somebody.
He didn't even ask himself to get out. He didn't say, let me
out of here. Please come here and get me. Please come here. He just said, drop a water. But
he said, send somebody. to talk to my brothers, lest
they come to this awful place. You know what our Lord said? If they believed God and Moses
and the prophets, they wouldn't believe though one rose from
the dead. And they wouldn't believe Christ
raised from the dead. I'll tell you, do you know how
awful man is? How depraved man is? That you,
if somebody Went out to a grave and they said, listen, I'm going
to dig the grave up, you know, and somebody had been dead 24
hours or whatever. They dug up the grave and opened
it up and called them back to life. That would not produce
life and not one soul on the topside of God's earth. The only life that's ever gave
life to another life is the Lord Jesus Christ. Men can see miracles
Men can witness miracles and talk about miracles all they
want to. But there's only one way. I don't care how many people
got from the dead. I don't care how many angels
people saved. Only one person can save a sinner
and do anything for him. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
The first begotten from the dead. And then look what else it says
about him. It's now down here in verse 5 here of Revelations
1 again. And he's called the first faithful
witness, first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings
of the earth. What in the world is he talking
about there? That means that he's the one who's got all power and
all authority. You know, everybody in this world's
power is limited. I don't care who they are, their
power is limited. And their wrath is restrained. You know why? Because Christ,
He's the one that raises up and sets people down. He doesn't. You know Pilate said to him,
you know when Christ wouldn't answer him? He said, don't you
know I've got power to crucify you and I've got power to let
you go? Our Lord finally spoke and you know what He said? You
don't have any power at all. You have no authority. You have
no power. You have no authority. You know
where you got your power, your authority? From up yonder. And I tell you old Pharaoh, old
Pharaoh said, let my people go. I ain't letting nobody go. You
know what God said to him? He said, Pharaoh, I raised you
up for one reason. So everybody to understand how
powerful I am. That I've got the power, I've
got the authority, and I've got the ability to raise you up and
kill you. I can drown you in a teaspoon
of water if I want to. Ain't that right? Oh, listen. People have power. And here's
another thing. They're accountable to Him. They're
accountable to Christ. Everybody's going to stand before
Christ. The scripture says the captains and the kings of the
earth are going to stand. The great and the small are going
to stand before Christ. And they're going to have to
give an account. Well, that's good news for me. I've done given
account to Him. That's good news to his people.
And here's the thing, men can't be as bad as they would be in
this world. And neither can we. Because Christ
restrains people. Restrains people. And then look
at the wonderful adoration where it says there. Unto him that loved us. Oh God. Unto him that loved us. Purely,
freely, graciously He loved us. His love was and is effectual. His love is effectual. And then
look what it says, and He washed us from our sins in His own blood. Sin stains the soul. Sin pollutes
the soul. Sin leaves guilt upon the soul. And there is a fountain filled
with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunged beneath
that flood lose all their guilty stains. Jesus paid it all, all
to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it, washed it white
as snow. He took away the effects of sin. He took the stains away, the
pollution away, the guilt away. Everything about sin is gone
from us. How? By His blood. by His blood,
washed us from our sins in His blood. Oh, how can red blood
take such black-hearted people, sinful people, and make them
as white as snow, pure, sinless? And then look what else He said
to us in verse 6. And hath made us kings and priests
unto God and His Father. Now what in the world is he talking
about here? Well, the girl's got a song, you know, said, I'm
a child of the king. And he's made us kings. That
means we're going to reign with him. We're royal descendants,
if I could say that. We're the children of the king. Christ is the king of kings and
he made us kings and made us priests unto God our father now
I want you to see another thing over here in first Peter 2 9
first Peter 1 2 9 look here let me show you something you know he said Israel said
you'll be a holy nation unto me well God made us a nation
his people is considered a nation look in verse 9 But you are a
chosen generation. Listen to this now. A royal priesthood. Royal, that's what it is, royalty.
Royal priesthood. And holy nation. A holy nation. A peculiar people, a purchased
people. That you should show forth the
praises of him who called you out of his darkness into light. And God reckons us kings and
priests. As kings we reign with Him. He's
sitting at the right hand of God and the scripture says we're
seated together with Him. Now look back over here at 1
Peter 2, 5. Look in verse 5 here. You know, priests, they have
something to offer. They're allowed into the holiest
of holies. They're allowed into the presence of God. Now look
what he said here in verse 5. He also, as living stones, are
built up a spiritual house, now listen to it, a holy priesthood,
to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. We offer spiritual sacrifices.
We offer our prayers. We offer our thanksgiving. We
offer the fruit of our lips. We offer our praise. But because we're priests, we
come with spiritual sacrifices and we allow them to come into
the very presence of God himself. Christ is our great high priest,
he says to the right hand of God. But we as priests, we can
come right into the very presence of God, the Scriptures tells
us we can. I'd love to show you that in Hebrews 10, and then
I'm going to quit. Hebrews 10. You know, and the
only thing that's acceptable is what we offer through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 10, 17. When we offer prayers, when we
offer thanksgiving, when we call on Him, when we
come to worship Him. Since He's a spiritual person
and we're spiritual, that's all we can offer. We don't have anything
tangible that we can offer Him. Nothing. Nothing. But look what
He said here in verse 17. Hebrews 10, 17. And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now where remission or payment
of these is, there's no more offering for sin. If you ain't
got no sins and iniquities, you don't need another offering.
You don't need an offering. Since we don't have to have a sin offering,
we already got one. Having therefore, brethren, listen
to this now, boldness to enter into the holiest Not just the
holy place, but the holiest of holies by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know, that's why we come.
And then look what it says in the last part of that, verse
5. Let me go back over here and show you this. Then I'm done.
Look what it says here. Revelations 1. And hath made
us, in verse 6, and hath made us kings and priests unto God
and His Father. Now listen to what he says now.
To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. And that's
what we say. Because of the grace and peace
that's given to us. Because of the Spirit that comes
to us. Because of the faithful witness
of our Lord Jesus Christ. because of the resurrection of
our Lord, because He loved us and washed us from our sins in
His own blood, made us kings and priests, and we ascribe to
Him all glory, all power, and all dominion. He's everything. He's everything. Amen. Lord, we bow our hearts in your
holy presence. Thank you for the day. You've
been very gracious to us. Very kind to us. Very pitiful
towards us. And we thank you for that. We
thank you for your word. Oh, your word. Sharpen any two-edged
sword. And Lord, it speaks of you. Tells
us about you. And what you've done. And what
you're doing. and what you will do and Lord
you made us a promise made us promises and Lord we believe
every one of them you've been so faithful to us faithful faithful
faithful faithful faithful and oh Lord forgive us of everything
that's unlike you God bless these dear saints as they go their
way go to their homes go to their jobs God bless them, Lord strengthen
them, encourage them, meet the needs of their homes, meet the
needs of their hearts. We pray for those who are still
weak and frail among us, Rick and Helen and others that pray for Gary, God
help him. Lord Jesus, we need you and we
look to you. And ask for your power and grace.
For Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing its words. It sounds like music in my ear,
the sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because He first loved me. Good night and God bless you.