Revelations chapter 1, verse 4, John, this John is the
John that the Lord Jesus Christ sent, the disciple whom Jesus
loved. That's this John he's talking
about. When you find him mentioned in the scriptures, the disciple
whom Jesus loved. Found him leaning on the Lord
Jesus Christ's breast. And he's the one that wrote John's
gospel and the three epistles. So this is John, the beloved
disciple. And God uses him here. He's an
old, old man now. He's an old man, some say he
was 95, way up in his mid-90s. And last disciple left, the last
apostle left. And he's used of God here to
write the book of revelations, but it was the revelation of
Jesus Christ. And he addresses and salutes,
he says there to the seven churches in verse 4, seven churches. And those seven churches are
in Asia. And Asia at this particular time
was what we call Turkey today, Mesopotamia, those places. And so he starts writing here
and he gives them a salutation to these churches, to the seven
churches which are in Asia. And he gives them a beautiful,
beautiful salutation. And look what he says, and I'll
read it all and then I'll go back and deal with it. Grace
be unto you in peace from him which is, 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, 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, the Lord Jesus Christ,
be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Now look at this
beautiful salutation that He gives. Grace be unto you. Grace be unto you. And peace
from Him which is, which was, and which is to come. Grace. Blessed, blessed grace. I love
the word grace. I love to use the word. And you
know why I love the word grace? It's because God taught me what
it means. That salvation is by grace. And
this grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the world ever began. Grace wasn't given to us when
we first believed. We believed because grace was
given unto us. And so it's grace, beautiful
grace, blessed grace, undeserved. If grace was ever deserved, it
ceases to be grace. And if grace was ever merited,
it ceases to be grace. And if you mix anything with
grace, it ceases to be grace. If you mix anything with it,
so he says, grace, grace be unto you. May the grace of God be
given you. Rejoice in this grace. Give thanks
for this grace. Bless God for this grace. Because
it's grace that came. It's grace that gave the Lord
Jesus Christ for us. It was grace that given to us
to make us understand God. Understand the things of God.
Understand His blessed word. And grace came and gave us forgiveness
of our sins. pardon us of our iniquities.
Grace was what caused righteousness be coming to us. Paul said in
one place, this grace were in your stead. Justified freely. What? By what? His grace. Thank God for grace. Huh? Thank God for grace. Bless God
for grace. Now I don't want to add on that. We cannot We cannot preach grace
free enough, grace powerful enough, grace gracious enough. How free
it is, how sovereign it is, and how active it is, and how transforming
it is. We can't do it. Then he says,
peace. You know, grace is God giving
us freely everything that we need in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's God's grace which works in us both to will and to do.
Then he says peace. You know peace is the result
of grace understood. Until you understand grace you
won't know what peace is. You really won't. You won't know
what peace is. And you know Peace is this peace
that we're talking about. It's peace of heart, peace of
conscience, peace with God. But you've got to understand
what salvation is and how you get salvation. A person that's
working for salvation, a person that feels like God deserves
him something, and that you've got to do so many things yourself,
you can never have peace. Your conscience will never be
satisfied. But when you really understand
grace, and the results of grace understood in your understanding,
understood in your mind, and grace that you understand, and
grace that you believe, you know what it will do? It will produce
peace. It'll produce rest. It'll produce
rest in your mind. Produce rest in your heart. Produce
rest in your conscience. Because you're not asking for
anything anymore. Because Christ did it all. Christ
did it all. And I tell you what, when you
understand the results of grace, and you believe, then peace is
in your heart to those who have been reconciled to God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said it this way to the
Colossians. He says, Grace and peace be unto the faithful brethren
that are in Christ from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Paul said it again in Ephesians
2.14. He. Peace is not a thing. Peace is a he. He is our peace. He is our peace. How do you know God accepts you?
He's our peace. How do you know what he did was
finished? He is our peace. How do you know that God is satisfied
with him? He is our peace. And that's why
we can come to God freely and fully and thankfully. And then
look what he says here. Grace and peace Now watch what
it says here. From Him. From Him. From Him. Everything is from
Him. Through Him. By Him. Because
of Him. And watch this now. And from
Him, watch what it says. Which is. Which is. You know. Has the Lord Jesus
Christ ever changed? He which is. Right now he is. Right now he is. He is what he
is. And then it says, look what he
says here. And which was? What he was, he
is. And what He is, He always was. And when He comes, He which is
to come, what He is and what He was will be the same one which
is to come. That means He never has been
anything other than He is. Let me, you keep this and look
with me in Exodus. Look at Exodus 3.14. He which
is. You know, Our Lord Jesus Christ,
how do you describe Him? How do you talk about His eternality? How do you talk about the time
that He never was? What He is right now is what
He always was. And what He always was is what
He's going to be when He comes. Now how do you explain that? How do you explain that? Look
what He said here. In verse 14, Moses says, listen,
I'm gonna go down, you told me to go down and talk to the fathers.
Go down and talk to Israel. He said, what am I gonna tell
them what your name is? What am I gonna tell them what
your name is? What am I gonna say? And God said unto Moses, I am
that I am. What does that mean? That I am. Before anything else, I am. Seven
times, I believe it's in John's Gospel, Christ says, I am. And
they understood clearly when he said, I am. Two times he took
up stones to stone him. Why? Because he said, I am. I
am. That means that there never was
a time that I wasn't and never will be a time that I won't be.
I've always been what I was and I'll always be what I am. You
just go down there and tell them, I am. Well, who is I am? I am. I am before time. I am the creator. I am the life giver. I am the
savior. I am the Lord. I am the righteousness
of God. I am the bread which come down
from God. I am life. And so he said I am. I understand he said I am. I am
that. I am. There will be a time that I exist
and there will be a time I cease to be. And people by my name
will be blotted off the name of the earth and my name will
never be remembered. That's people that's gone, that
people forgot about and never know who ever existed. But there
never was a time that God wasn't. And oh my, from He who is. He
is. And the one who is always was,
and that same one that was and is, that's the one that's coming
to get us. And oh my, our unchangeable God,
our covenant God, our eternal God. And where there's true grace,
there's true peace. And grace and peace go together
because from Him. from Him, from Him. Then look
what He says there again, from the seven spirits which are before
His throne. Seven spirits. Now what does
that seven spirits signify? Well seven in the scriptures
always means perfection, completeness. When you know that they sprinkle
the blood seven times. And our Lord Jesus Christ, your
seven spirits before... Now God is spirit. God is spirit. And the only one we ever saw
God was the Lord Jesus Christ come into this world. But when
he says the seven spirits before God, that doesn't mean it's seven
in number, nor seven in nature. But it means the infinite, eternal,
perfect Spirit of God. That's what it means. And where
does the Spirit of God come from? From the throne of God. from
God Himself. And so this Spirit, this perfect
work of the Spirit of God, the perfect work that God comes,
and the perfect work that the Holy Spirit does in us and does
for us, the Holy Spirit works in us what Christ did for us
on the cross. And I tell you, so this is the
infinite, perfect Spirit of God. Of course, being perfect, He
goes all over the world. I mean, He's not just confined
to one place. God inhabits eternity. And our
Lord Jesus Christ, while He's on the earth, but the Holy Spirit,
He goes everywhere. And He gives different spirits.
He gives different diversities of gifts. He'll give a preacher.
He'll give a teacher. He'll give a pastor. He'll give an evangelist. And
He gives different gifts to different people. But the thing He always
brings and two things He always does. The first thing He does
is He comes and make us to know the things of Christ. That's
the first thing the Holy Spirit does. He takes the things of
Christ and shows them unto us. And that's how you know whether
you're the Spirit of God. You know John said, try the spirits
whether they be of God. And you know the Spirit of God
When He comes, He never speaks of Himself. That's why you know
Pentecostalism and tongue speakers and people who make a great big
deal out of the Holy Spirit. Now we know the Holy Spirit is
present because this happened, that happened, another thing
happened. But the first evidence of the Holy Spirit being among
us is that He brings and teaches us the things of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He takes the things of Christ
and shows them unto us. And He don't just show them once.
He just keeps on showing them to us. He keeps bringing the
things of Christ. He keeps bringing us the things about Him and His
glory and His power and His grace and His love and His forgiveness. All the things that Christ is. And then He brings the blessed
work of Christ and shows us what He accomplished by His death,
what He accomplished by His blood, what He accomplished as His perfect
on the cross. And so the Holy Spirit comes
and He operates on us. You know, as Paul said, the operation
of the Spirit of God. Now, you know, I can't give you
a new heart, but God can operate on you and take out that stony
heart and put a heart in you. God can take and go into your
brain, go into your mind, go into your understanding. and
he can be so dark in there so dark that you can't see light
you can't see Christ you can't understand anything but he can
go into your mind I can't but he can go into your mind and
he can start taking that darkness away taking it away and all of
a sudden light starts working its way in there and the next
thing you know says I see I see I understand I got it That's why he has to do this.
He has to come and he, you know, we're born spiritually blind. Spiritually blind. But God can come and, you know,
they have these laser surgeries, you know, where they can work
on the eyes and fix your eyes. You don't have to wear glasses
anymore and that kind of stuff, you know. They can do all kinds
of things for your eyes now. But our Lord Jesus Christ could
come to a man as blind as a bat and operate on his eyes. And
you know what he'll start doing? He'll start seeing things by
faith. He'll start seeing things from
the scriptures. He'll start seeing things that
he never saw before and understand things that he never understood
before because of the Spirit of God. And then look what it
says here. And these seven spirits which
are before his throne. Before his throne. Everything
we get comes from the throne. Everything we have comes from
the throne. Thank God he's on a throne. A
throne. He has two thrones. The throne
of government and the throne of grace. But here is the throne
of God. Comes from the throne. There's
a glorious throne up there. And God sits there. And He directs His affairs. He directs where the Holy Spirit
goes. He directs who's going to be saved and who's not. He
directs whose heart He's going to open and who's not. Everything
that He does, since He's on His throne, that means that He's
sovereign, that He's got the authority, He's got the power.
So here's the thing, the man that's on the throne, he does
what he will. He does what he will with whom
he will. If he wants to send a spirit into one man's heart
and leave the other sitting there not having a clue what's going
on, he can do that. I remember a man saying one time,
he said he sat in the same church for 22 or 23 years and he said
he counted every tile in that building. I don't know how many
times. He sat in the service and just
counted the tiles and the roof and the ceiling. 22 or 23 years, just sitting
counting the tiles. And then one day, God come and
done an operation on him. He never counted tiles again. I hope you don't come in here
and say, well I'm going to see how many lice there are in here.
I'm going to count the pews while that preacher is preaching. I'm
going to figure out what I'm going to have for dinner while
that preacher is preaching. I ain't interested in what he's got to
say. Oh, I tell you when the Holy
Spirit comes, that's a horse of another color. He's going
to You know, people really need to understand this, and I know
some of you do. But honestly, God's on His throne. He is the only one that can send
the Spirit where He will. And He does not have to send
the Spirit of God to you. He don't have to do a thing in
the world for you. He don't have to come to you. He don't have
to speak to you. He don't have to make Himself
known to you. And if He does, You know why He'll do it? Because
of Christ and the grace that He gives us in Christ. If He
ever does it, that's why He'll do it. And it won't be because
there's anything good about you. He won't do it because there's
anything bad about you. He'll do it because of His grace
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ain't that right? And then look
what it says. I love this right here. Grace
and peace unto you from he which was which is and which is to
come from the seven spirits and listen to this and from Jesus
Christ from Jesus Christ You know go back up there to verse
2 look what it says here His servant John who bear record
of the Word of God and Oh, you go in John's gospel and go here
in John's little John's and you'll find out who bear record of the
word of God. I bear record that what God said. I bear record to what God said. I bear, and then look what he
said, I bear record of the testimony of Jesus Christ and all things
that he saw. John said, the word came into,
and I handled the word of life. That life came into this world
and I handled that word, I handled that life, I handled that person.
And he comes here and he says, from Jesus Christ. And everything that God has for
everybody is in his blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
God the Son, the eternal Son of God. And John saw him in the
flesh and now he sees him glorified. And look, I want you to see over
here in verse 17 of chapter 1. Look down at verse 17. This,
you know, people jump up and say hallelujah
and clap their hands. Somebody told me about a A lady that leads a worship sometimes
in a supposed to be a great church and they'll get up and they'll
do like this here. Let's all get, let's get our
hands in the air. Let's give Jesus praise. Let's
get our hands in the air. Let's give Christ all this. Let's give a big hand raised
for Jesus. Let's give a big praise for Jesus.
But look what happened to John when he saw him. He saw him as
he was, his countenance that shined as that of the sun and
his strength. It's like Isaiah said, I saw the Lord high and
lifted up, and his glory filled the temple. And when I saw him,
the same him that you find up there in verse three that I just
taught, when I saw him, I fell at his feet. You know what? Beloved, that's
the first place we go. That's the first place we go. We go to His feet. And He said,
I fell as one that was down, and I was at His feet as dead. I mean the glory of Christ, the
glory of God, and the shining presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When you see Him, there's nothing you can do. You got to fall down and the
scripture says they brought unto him that were sick and laid them
at Jesus' feet. And I tell you beloved, I remember,
let me tell you something about myself just a little if I can.
But I remember when I got lost, I was told somebody the other
day, I was sitting at my kitchen table and it was about daylight
was coming on. I was sitting there. And I was
reading the scriptures and all, you know, and I didn't see a
vision or anything like that, but I was reading and I saw that
Christ was crucified that died just for me. I saw him that day
for me, me alone. And the love and the grace and
the fact that he would do that for me overwhelmed me and I wept
like a baby and I got down on my face and I said, Lord, I said,
I'm a sorry dog. That's what I call myself. I'm
a sorry dog and you don't owe me anything. Oh, don't owe me
nothing. But if you will, if you will,
would you show me mercy? That's how I said it. I said, I'm a sorry dog. And if you will, will you have
mercy? Did I tell you this idea, you
know, that you have to switch your bitch, be chumpin' your
blowgum? Chumpin' your blowgum and you want to come down and
accept Jesus? You got, you sittin' there with
your pride and arrogance, say, well, I'll let Jesus into my
heart, I'll let him do something for me one of these days. Oh,
listen! If He ever does something for
you, you'll spend the rest of your life blessing Him, praising
Him, thanking Him, asking for grace and mercy every day of
your life from then on. Oh, they won't argue anymore
with Him. Oh no. And I'll tell you what, I know
you've done it and I know people have done it this morning when
they come to the service they say, Please be merciful to us. Give us grace today. And you
say, Lord, and I come, I always come up here and I say, Lord,
have mercy on me and have mercy on the people that I have to
preach to. But oh my, look what is Jesus. He said, oh, and I, Lord, listen
to what the Lord did there in verse 17. And he laid his right
hand on me. That right hand is the power
of authority. And power, he says, my own arm
brought me something. And so he laid his right hand
on me. And the first thing he said to him was, don't you be
afraid. Don't you be afraid. Oh my. And then look what it says about
him. Back over here then in verse 5. And from Jesus Christ, and
listen to this, who is the faithful witness. Oh the faithful witness. You know what he witnessed to?
The first thing we find him witnessing to in the scriptures was that
he was in the bosom of the Father, declared Him. He that was in
the bosom of the Father declared Him. He came and faithfully,
faithfully made God known to men. Philip said, Lord show us
the Father and that will satisfy us, that will be sufficient.
And he said, Philip, have I been with you such a long time, and
you've not seen me? For he that hath seen me hath
seen the Father. And when our Lord Jesus Christ
said, the words that I say, they're not mine, but his is said. What
he said is that every word that comes out of my mouth is a word
from heaven itself. It's from God the Father. Now
I have my opinions. I have my conviction. So those
things would come from me. But everything that came from
my Lord Jesus Christ came from the Word of God. And it was the
Word of God. He didn't just come down here
and say, well, I'll tell you this, and I'll tell you another
thing, and I'll tell you this, and I'll tell you that, and I
got this conviction, I got this opinion, I got this belief, and
I got that belief, and I think you ought to do this, and I thank
you. When you listen to Him, what He had to say, you is listen
to the Word of God, you is listen to God speak to us. Is that not
right? And oh here is a faithful witness
of God and he was a witness to the eternal counsels of God.
Everything that God said in eternity. Our Lord Jesus Christ. He gave
it to him. And he had the counsels of God
from eternity. And then here is a faithful witness
in the days of his flesh. Oh my here is a faithful witness
in the days of his flesh. And he came here to reveal the
will of God. this is the father's will which
sent me that all that he hath given me
all that he hath given me I should lose nothing and his will is
that I should raise him up and this is the will of God that
he which seeth the Son seeth the Son and believeth on him
hath everlasting life and you know I believe I've told you
this before But there's two will of God's in the scriptures. Two
will of God's. There's the revealed will of
God. That's this right here. That's this. That's the revealed
will of God. The word. God's blessed word.
Christ came here and that word tells us about Christ. And then
there's the secret will of God or the decorative will of God.
That's the will of God that he carries out unbeknownst to us.
And you know his will of decree, his will of decree is what saved
us. And we didn't know we was an
elect until God made us know it. We didn't know we were chosen
until God revealed it to us. We didn't know Christ died for
us until God showed it to us. We didn't know what the blood
was until God taught it to us. So we didn't know that God loved
us with an everlasting love until we heard the gospel. So all those
things was in the will of God, in the perfect will of God, the
decorative will of God. But we don't know it until He
lets us know it. We don't know who the elect are.
That's why we preach the gospel. Because we know that God's gonna
do His will and get His people. And I don't know who they are
and I don't know when they'll go after them. And it ain't none
of my business. That's His. But I know He'll
do it. You know, I know you'll do it.
And oh, he was a faithful witness. He's been a faithful witness
to us, has he not? Oh, what a faithful witness he's
been to us. He's been so faithful to witness to us of his love
for us, of his grace for us, of his work in us. And how he said, I'll never leave
you, I'll never forsake you. And we're like John, you know.
We bear testimony to Jesus Christ. We want to bear testimony to
Him and Him alone. And we can believe. We can believe
His testimony. We can believe His promises.
We can believe His Word. We can. You know why? Because
He's faithful. Then look what He says right
after that. And from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness and
the first begotten of the dead. Now what in the world does he
mean, first begotten of the dead? Well, you know a lot of folks,
Lazarus was raised from the dead. The young Jairus' daughter was
raised from the dead. The winner's son was raised from
the dead. But somebody else did that for him. But now Lord Jesus
Christ, He was dead. He was dead. And they took His
dead body down from the cross. And they wrapped it up and they
put it in the grave. And they put a great big stone
over it. But on early Sunday morning, first day of the week,
that stone was rolled away and the Lord Jesus Christ by His
own power, by his own will, by his own, he died by his own will
and when it was time for him to come back to life, since he
had life in himself, life came back into him and he come out
of that grave. That's why he's the only one
who ever come from the grave by himself, by his own power. And so, you know, and when you
went in that tomb, and that's what, when they went in that
tomb, they looked in that tomb and everything our Lord Jesus
Christ was wrapped in, all the, it was laying there just like
it was. But the napkin was laid over
here. So he took the napkin off his face. Now how did he take
the napkin off his face when he's wrapped in all these clothes? How did he do that? That's why
he's God. That's one of his glories. He just rests up there, took
that off his face, laid it down, and you looked in there, and
that closed. That's why they're always looking
for that surrounding, whatever they call it, to give evidence
that they can prove that Christ existed. I don't need proof that
he existed. You know, we live by faith. But
he left all that in there, and they looked in there, and there
it was. next thing you know he said Mary she said oh lord and
she fell at his feet he was the first begotten of the dead he
was the first if I could say that from the
dead. That's why he's called the head of the resurrection.
He's the only one who died by his own will. He's the only one
who raised himself back again from the dead by his own will
and own power. And he raised himself up by his
own power. And he said, herein doeth my
father love me. And this same power that raised Christ from
the dead, that He come out of the grave, that's the same power
He works in us when He raises us from the dead. That's the
same power, the power of the resurrection power is the power
that God raises us from the death of our sins in. And that's the
same power that all of his people he'll raise up from their graves.
Raise up from their graves. I want you to look with me over
here in 1 Peter chapter 1. Just go back to your left just
a little. 1 Peter chapter 1. Look with
me over here. Oh, I tell you. We go to graveyards and we decorate
graves and we put flowers on graves and we stand at our loved
ones graves, our mothers, our fathers, our sons, our daughters,
our husbands and wives and people that's went on before and mother
and father-in-laws and grandmas and grandpas and we walk out
there and we're standing on them. But if you're standing there,
the day the Lord Jesus Christ come by, if you're standing in
front of your loved ones too, their graves, if you're standing
in front of it, when the Lord Jesus come back, if you're standing
there, you'd go, that person that you're standing on, if he
was a believer, that ground would just bust open. It'd just bust
open. You'd be standing there and all
of a sudden they're coming out. And if you're a believer, when
they come up, when they go up, you're going to run up behind
them. And that's going to happen just
as sure as there's going to be people out visiting their loved
ones and standing in front of their tomb, standing in front
of their headstone, and they're going to be standing there and
Christ is going to come and that ground is going to open up and
the dead in Christ shall rise first and then they which are
alive and remain shall be caught up together with them. Wouldn't
it be wonderful to be standing there at your loved one's grave,
and they come out, and you look at them, and they're going up,
and then you go laugh with them. Wouldn't that be something? And
they're going to laugh. You know why? Because Christ
is the resurrection. He said, I am the resurrection.
But look what He said. Look what He said over here in
1 Peter 1, verses 3 and 4. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy,
abundant mercy, hath begotten us, given us life by living hope,
by the resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ from the
dead and this is what he's going to give us now to an inheritance
we've been begotten we've had life given to us and we have
a living hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead and our
hope is this to an inheritance he's going to give us incorruptible
undefiled that fadeth not away and where is it reserved at? Got a reservation You go to some
restaurants and things like that and they say, you got a reservation?
No. Well, sit down out there then. Well, there ain't going
to be no sitting down, you know. I got a reservation. They're
going to say, wait outside the door until we get all the rest
of them in. That's not the way it's going
to happen. All right. And then let's go
back over here in Revelations. I'll hurry. I'll hurry. I hope
I'm not wearying you. And I tell you from Jesus Christ,
the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, there in
verse 5, and he's the prince of the kings of the earth. What
does that mean? That means that our Lord Jesus
Christ has all authority. That means that he is prince
over all the, you know a prince is not supposed to be a king,
but this prince here, This prince, our Lord Jesus Christ, he's prince
over all the kings of the earth. You know how many kings have
come and gone? How many kingdoms have come and
gone? You know how they are raised up and how they exist? They exist
by him. He said, I raised up nations,
I set down nations. He called Cyrus, he called Cyrus
hundreds of years and called his name as he'd be the one bringing
his people up out of Babylon. And it's by Him that they have
their authority. And by Him their power is limited. By Him their wrath is restrained. And to Him, the Lord Jesus Christ,
they're accountable. Now that's good news for me.
And I know it's good news to you. Good news to His church. Men can't do as bad as they would. And we can't. But I tell you
what, There's a lot of things we don't like about our government.
There's a lot of things we don't like about what's going on in
this world. But there ain't nobody in any position of power or authority
but by the Lord Jesus Christ. He can give us a wicked king
or he can give us a good one. He can give us an abominable
president or he can give us a good one. He can do whatever he wants
to. And that's the way it's going to be until we leave this world.
Right? And then look what it says, you
look at this one, so we have this beautiful salutation. Now
look here at this wonderful, wonderful adoration. Again now
in verse 5, unto him, oh it always is about him, unto him that loved
us and washed us from our sins, oh my, in his own blood. You know, it's in this chorus
book. Dark the stain that soiled man's
nature. And I tell you what, deep, deep
stain. And I tell you the stains, the
sins so stained us, sins so stained us and sins so got in us that
the only way in the world that sins The stain could be taken
away. It's for Christ to wash us from
our sins. Wash us in His blessed blood.
And that's what He said. He washed us from our sins in
His own blood. What made Him do it? Unto Him
that loved us. He loved us. And oh my, sin stains
the soul. It pollutes the soul. Leaves guilt upon the soul and
the only thing that can take away the guilt, the only thing
that can take away the sin, the only thing that can take away
that pollution that's in our hearts and in our souls is the
blessed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood of Christ cleanses
us from all sin. He didn't leave any, any that
he never washed away. There's not a sin that we have
or ever had, have now or ever will have that Christ hasn't
already washed it away, took it away, it's gone. If you're
a believer here right now, every sin you ever committed from the
day you was born and you had Adam's sin, And every sin you've
committed since then, until you leave this world, Christ has
already washed it away and paid for it. People say, well, I heard
a fellow told me the other day, he said, I don't want to preach
something like that. He said, I don't want to give people,
I don't want to give anybody the excuse to sin. That's what he
says. I don't want to preach that and
give people an excuse to sin. Have you ever had an excuse to
sin? Excuse me, I didn't mean to sin
like that. Excuse me, I didn't mean to say
that. Excuse me, I didn't mean to do that. No, no. I don't need an excuse to sin.
All I got to do is live. All I got to do is breathe. All
I got to do is exist. But you know why it doesn't torment
me and doesn't make my conscience just grieve and make me, you
know, it's because I know my sins are gone. Did you hear what
Jesus said to me? The sins are all taken away. They're gone. They're gone. And a man that would use that
to go out here and sin with a high hand, he don't know nothing about
God and he don't know nothing about grace. That's right. And the only thing, and then
it says he washed us, washed us. That word washed is the same
word in the tabernacle that says the labor where they went in
and washed. That's what that word means. It delayed us. It
put us in this labor and washed us. And then look what it says
here. I'm going to wind this thing
up here. Washed us from our sins in His
own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His
Father. Now, you know, this is something
I need to preach on here one of these days pretty soon. Kings
and priests You know, if you're a son of a king, that means you're
royalty. And you are. I'm going to show
you two things, if I can. I want you to look in Exodus
chapter 19 with me. Look in Exodus 19. I'm going
to show you a couple of things here about being a priest. Being
a priest. You know, Catholics have priests. Lutherans have priests. Greek
Orthodox have priests. But they're really not priests.
A priest has access into the presence of God. And not only
does he have access, but he can go in there also because he's
a king. Like David went into the tabernacle. Our priest went
in tonight. David went into the tabernacle and ate the showbread.
But look what it says here in verse 6 of Exodus 19. This is God saying now, tell
all my people, tell my people, that ye shall be unto me a kingdom
of priests. A kingdom of priests. That's
the people now. And not only are you going to
be unto me a kingdom of priests, but you're going to be a holy
nation. You're going to be a nation that's going to be holy. Now
that was never carried out in the nation of Israel because
they was under the law. But now look over here, you go
back over here to where we were. Go back to your left again to
2nd Peter. And look what it says here in
2nd Peter chapter 2, or 1st Peter chapter 2 in verse 9, excuse
me. 1st Peter 2.9. And look what it says here. And this is Peter walking, talking
to... He said, I want to put you in
remembrance of some things. But look what Peter says here. But you are a chosen generation. Generation. You're a chosen generation.
Listen to this. A royal priesthood. Who is? We are. He's writing to us. A
holy nation! God's elect, God's people when
they're all gathered around is a holy nation! It's a nation
of people that God made to be that way. Then a peculiar people,
a purchased people. And why did He do this? That
ye should show forth the praises of Him who called you out of
darkness into His marvelous, marvelous light. God calls us
kings and priests. And you know why? Because of
what Christ accomplished. And as a priest, We have access
to God. Only the priests could go into
the tavern. Only the high priest could go
behind the veil. Now we as priests, we can come
into the presence of God and not only that, but we can go
into the holiest of holy where only the high priest could go.
Huh? Want me to show you that? I'll
show you that and I'm going to quit. Look in Hebrews. Hebrews chapter
10. You know it's over there in Revelations.
Go back to your left and go back to Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 10, let's look
at this together. You know it's a, that's what's
so wonderful about the word. The word shows us, teaches us,
and it shows us, and we offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. Look what he said in verse 17,
Hebrews 10. and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now, where the remission of these
sins are? There's no more offering for
sin. If sins are gone, why do you need another offering? Since
there's no more offering, since our sins and iniquities are gone,
having therefore, brethren, boldness, liberty, freedom to enter into
the holiest, listen to this, by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's why we say, Father, we
come into thy presence, where you go into the presence of God.
At the mercy seat, behind the veil. And so let me give you
this last thing over here in Revelation 6, 1-6, and then I'm
done. Look what he says now. Not only
has he made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, Christ
did this for us. And we, because of this, because
He washed us, because He laid us, and because He's a faithful
witness, and He gave us grace and peace, because of that, we
say to Him, be glory and dominion forever and ever. And everybody
says, Amen. We ascribe all the glory to Him. Don't we? Describe all the glory
to Him. Our blessed, blessed Father,
we thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Your grace. Thank You for Your saints. God
caused your gospel to bring forth fruit today to your glory. We're
very thankful for it. Thankful for your word. God bless
us as we continue on in this service. We praise you and thank
you in Christ's name. Amen.