Turn with me to the book of Revelation. Chapter 1. It is a joy that we're here. We're thankful that
the Lord has brought us this way. We're thankful that Brother
Frank called us. This is a sacred place. It's just a desk. They call it
a pulpit or whatever it is. But it's not this. It's this
place that we feel. Brother Frank has been preaching
the gospel. I've known him for probably 40-some years. And for him to call me or ask
me to come and stand where he stands every week It's an awesome
task. It's a sobering task. But it's
a joy. It's a joy. And what I want to
try to look at, we're going to look at the first three verses
of Revelation, chapter 1, and see what it is that God is telling us. He starts out with the revelation,
singular. For years, when I read through
the Revelation, I said, Revelations. You put the S on the end of it.
But not so. This is one singular revelation
that God gave of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it
is of this entire book. From Genesis through Revelation,
there is one thing. There is one main character.
in all the book. He is set forth in different
things. He's set forth in sacrifices,
holy days. He's set forth in the Old Testament
scriptures as fulfilling the law. In the New Testament scripture,
in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, he says, here he is. He's come. All that the Old Testament prophets
prophesied of, All that they taught the people that was going
to come to pass, now here He is. Here He is. And when John saw Him, he said,
Behold, there He is, the Son of God. And then from Acts to
the book of Revelation, it tells us He's coming back. He's coming
back. And in this first chapter, He
is titled with at least 15 different titles in this one book. He is the faithful witness, as
in chapter one. He is the first begotten of the
dead. He is the prince of the kings of the earth. Him that
loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and made
us kings and priests unto God. This is all Him. This is all
who He is and what He's done. He that liveth. He who holds
the keys of hell and of death. He that holdeth the seven stars
in his right hand. He that walketh in the midst
of the candlesticks. He's the Lion of the tribe of
Judah. He's the Root of David. He's
a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He's the faithful
and true. He's the Word of God. King of
kings and Lord of lords. The One who declared, Behold,
I make all things new. I am Alpha and Omega, the bright
and morning star. All these titles are given to
Him in this one chapter here. So surely this is the revelation
that God gave of His Son, and He gave it unto His servant John,
and He told John, He said, You write these things down, and
you send them to the seven churches of Asia. And he uses that word
seven as a fulfillment, as completion. You send it to all the churches
throughout all the world. You tell them what I have said
concerning my son. This is what revelation is. This
is the revelation that God gave of his son. And this thing of Well, it's a dark and mysterious
book. It's a thing too hard to understand. No, it's not. No, it's not. If we read this book, as we read
all the scriptures, if we read it with this understanding that
our Lord is victorious over death, hell, and the grave. He is victorious
over Satan and all his powers. He is victorious over all religion. He will bring them to their knees. All time shall confess that He
is Lord for the glory of God the Father. That's what we have
right here in this book. So let us look here closely.
Revelation 1 verse 1. The revelation of Jesus Christ. which God gave unto him, to show
unto his servant things which must shortly come to pass. And
he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John. The word revelation simply means
what is revealed by divine inspiration. This revelation of Jesus Christ
which God gave unto him. God's telling the world and all
that is in the world. This is my son. This is my son
in whom I'm well pleased. And I'm going to tell you all
things concerning him. That's what the prophet said.
They wrote of him. They wrote of him. They told
what he has done, is doing, and will do in the future. They told
who he stands for, they told who he represents, and they tell
who he glorifies him, or who he glories in. God revealed his
son. And as he reveals him, if you
read down through this one chapter, you'll see that he reveals him
at least with 15 different titles. He is the one. who opened the
book, took the book out of the servant's hand and opened it
up. Before, this book was sealed
with seven seals. And John said, I looked, and
there was none able to open the book or to look therein. And he said, I wept much. John
looked throughout all the world, throughout all the great men
of his day, and there was none that was able to open the book
this book that was sealed with seven seals. And he said, I wept
much. I saw no hope for mankind. I saw no hope for myself or any
of my descendants. And oh, it caused me great troubles
and trials and tribulations as we weep over our children or
weep over our friends. We desire them to know the gospel,
but we have no power to do that. And so John looked and he said,
There's none. I found none in heaven or earth
that was able to open the book. And then he comes. And he takes
the book from the minister's hand. And the Spirit of God says,
John, weep not. Behold the Son of God. Here he
is. He's able to take the book. He's
worthy to take the book. He has the power to take the
book, and he has the power to open it up and reveal it unto
a people. Oh, what power. Speak unto the
hearts of your people that they may see and that they may know
and that they may understand that there's one God. There's
one mediator between God and man, and that's the man Christ
Jesus. And this is who we desire to
look into and find more about Him. We just looked at the song
of Solomon, the love that he had for the church. Oh, that's
what we desire. We desire to know more about
Him. And as this book here is written,
As God gave John inspiration to write these words down of
all that he saw, all that he heard, and all that was revealed
unto him, he wrote these down, and now we have it. We have it. This is the Word of God concerning
his son. So what are we going to do with
it? What are we going to do with
it? Without the grace of God, we push it aside as any other
book. Men read this book, well, I know
what's going on there. Oh, no. Until the Spirit of God
reveals, and that's what this is, the revelation, the revealing
of Jesus Christ by God the Father unto a people. And it's only
by grace. I don't care how much a man studies,
without the grace of God, it will be a closed book. But when
God opens it up, oh, the joy, the gladness that we have when
we read, He took my sins unto Himself, and He died on the cruel
cross in my room and in my stead. Well, how do you know that? This
is what God reveals to His people. He reveals unto them, you're
mine. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, and I have worked all things, all things, from creation to
glorification, I have worked all things for your good and
for my glory. Well, how do you know that? That's
what the book tells us. All things work together for
the good to them that love God, to them that are called according
to His purpose. That's what the book tells us. And as He reveals
unto us all the mystery that is laid out before us, how can
God take upon Himself flesh? Men can't understand that. The
natural mind can read it. Well, yeah, I see what that is.
Explain that to me. I can't explain it to you until
God explained it to people. And then they see. Who was it
Job said, I know that my Redeemer liveth. How do you know that? God revealed it to him. I know
that one day He shall stand upon the earth, and I shall see Him
as He is. Well, how do you know that? God
taught us. He reveals it, and He explains
these things unto us through the teaching and the preaching
of the gospel. Listen to what He said in Luke,
chapter 24. He said, And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, He expounded unto them all the Scriptures
concerning himself." Now, can you imagine the Lord of glory
standing here and teaching and preaching the gospel? And it went over their heads.
It went over their heads. Listen to what again he says
in Luke chapter 24, verse 44. And he said unto them, These
are the words that I have spoken to you while I was with you. You remember everything that
I've said to you. I've walked and talked with you
for three years now, teaching and preaching the gospel. And
all things must be fulfilled. I've told you that. Which were
written in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms
concerning me. All these Old Testament scriptures
Concerned me, he said. Then opened their understanding. They saw the things that the
prophet was talking about. They saw the sacrifices. They
saw that was what it took to appease God. They saw these things,
but they never understood them here. Then opened their understanding
that they may understand the Scriptures. And he said unto
them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooves Christ to suffer
and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance
and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And your witnesses, now you know. Now you understand. Now you can
go unto all the world, until all the world what I've told
you. Go unto them and preach the gospel.
You tell them who Christ is. You tell them what He has done.
And you tell them what He is doing right now. He's sitting
at the right hand of God making intercession on my behalf. You
go tell the world this is what the Son of God came to do. And
all the promises and blessings of God given to sinful men and
women are yea and amen in Christ. They're true, they're steadfast,
but only in Christ. Apart from Christ, God's promised
nothing but wrath, but wrath. You read through this book of
Revelation, to the church they sing a new song, worthy is the
Lamb. To those outside, The grace of
God, they cry for the rocks and the trees and the hills to fall
upon them to hide them from the face of their God. All the love,
all the mercy, all the grace that God has toward your people
is found in this one person, Jesus Christ the Lord. And all
the revelation and all the knowledge that God has as a triune God,
we find in Christ. for he is all and all unto the
glory of God by Jesus Christ. Oh, that we may make much of
him, that we may tell men of the greatness of our Lord, that
we may declare his power, his might, his authority to rule
the world. Men today say, oh, the world
is in an uproar. Oh, no. It's exactly where he
purposed it to be before he ever created it. But we don't understand
that. I don't understand all of it
either. But I know it's true. The Word of God tells us that
it's true. The Spirit of God reveals it to us that it's true.
And we simply bow. We don't try to... Let me find
the word I'm looking for here. We don't try to explain God.
Only God can explain Himself. And this is what He's doing right
here. He's telling men and women all around the world who the
Son of God is. The revelation of Jesus Christ
which God gave unto him and he revealed it unto his servant
John. He is the message, or the message
of Holy Scripture. He is the teaching that we may
understand. He is likened to him who has
the keys to open the Word of God. Only Christ can reveal this
to you. I don't care how great an oratory
a man is. He can only speak to hear. He
can only speak to your head. It must take Christ to reveal
it unto your heart. This is not a revelation of John
now. John was the writer of it. John
was the one that saw it, and John was the one that God used
to write it down and to send it to the churches. But this
is the revelation of Jesus Christ, given to John as a recorder,
as a witness, as the one that was to tell other people about
it. Mr. Hendricks wrote, the man
who wrote the entitle of More Than Conquerors, He makes two
points that are crucial to a proper understanding of the book of
Revelation. William Henderson. The first
theme is, or the first statement is, the theme of this book is
the victory of Christ. The victory of the church over
Satan and his helpers. God's promise is not in jeopardy. It's not in jeopardy. There's
no, oh, who's going to win the battle? Is Christ going to come
out on top? Or is He going to have anybody
to worship Him? Oh, no. No, it's settled. It's settled. Christ and His
church is triumphant. It's triumphant. Oh, we're going
through low places right now. We're going through trials and
tribulations right now. but we have the victory. And that victory is in Christ
Jesus the Lord. We are not in jeopardy of falling
away. We're in the hands of Him. He
will not let us go. We're not in jeopardy of going
after other doctrines. Oh, we know that we sin and come
short of the glory of God daily. Our minds wander, our thoughts
tend to run wild, but we're kept by the power of God. We are in
His hands, and He says, I will not let you go. And the second, each vision that
John saw, each section of this book must be interpreted as a
vision covering the whole entire Gospel age, from Genesis through
Revelation. takes these things that John
writes here, and they say, well, this happened here, or this is
going to happen tomorrow, this is going to happen next week.
This is a vision of the entire gospel age from beginning to
end. And the gospel age tells that
Christ has won the victory. He has satisfied the justice
of God. He has appeased the wrath of
God. And he has sat down. victorious
over all creation. All things are in His hand that
He may do with them according to His own will. There's no confusion
here. But when men try to take these
things and apply them to natural illustrations, apply them to
what Jerusalem is doing right now, what Israel is doing right
now, they make a confusion within their own minds and within their
own hearts. Christ is victorious over all
things. That's what this revelation tells
us. John, according to history, was
banished to the Isle of Patmos. He was there for what history
says for preaching the gospel. I've read some things about John.
They said some of the kings were afraid to kill him. They were
afraid to do him this or do this to him. So they simply took him
out and dropped him off on the isle. What was there, I have
no idea. The Scripture don't tell us.
But John was there and God was there. That's enough. If he's
there, we're satisfied with being there. And I don't find anywhere
in Scripture where John tried to build a boat and get off that
isle. God was there, God taught him, and John stayed there. Now
look at verse 2. God sent this and signified it
by his angel unto his servant John, and John, as a faithful
witness, he bore record. He told others. He wrote these
things down. He bore record of the word of
God. and as a testimony of Jesus Christ
and of all things he saw. John, by the record, of what
God showed him. We read in John chapter 1, verse
1, it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not
anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men. And the light shined in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man, the
Son of God, whose name was John. That's Him. He said, The same
came as a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through
Him might believe. He was not that light. John said,
that's not me. It's not me who gives this life. He was not that life, but he
was sent by a witness of the life. And the word was made flesh,
John said, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The
glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth. In him was life. In him was life. And life only
in him. And he came and give his life. for a people, or for a people. And of His fullness, for all
we received, grace for grace. For the law came by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at
any time. The only begotten, which is the
bosom of the Father, He has declared Him, or He has revealed Him,
and these people, to bear record. Oh, John said, I saw things that
is not right for me to speak. He looked. Was it Paul that's
called up into the third heaven? And he said, I saw things that
was not lawful for a man to speak. John, I believe Paul saw The
angels and all those risen saints gathered around the throne of
God in worship, and they sung a new song with new hearts, with
new tongues that's not lawful for you and I to even speak of.
They gave God the glory as the glory belongs to Him, which we
cannot do. which we cannot do as long as
we're in this flesh. We attempt to, we desire to,
we plead for God to give us the ability to do so, but as long
as we're in this flesh, we will never worship God as God deserves
to be worshipped. You say, well, that's putting
men down. Oh, no. That's raising him up
higher than we'll ever attain to. That's raising him up where
he belongs. where he's at and where he dwells
right now. This is the gospel which testifies
of the person, of the truth of his deity, and the reality of
his human nature, of the union of two natures. Oh. Divine God, but yet took upon
him our flesh. How is that possible? How is
that possible? It's only possible in one man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the very Son of God. Oh, if we could only
get a hold of this, the testimony of Jesus Christ, what great things
he has done for us. What great thing He is doing
right now for us. He's mediating on the right hand
of God. When my sins and when my shortcomings... He said, Father, lay them not
to their charge. I've suffered their sin debt.
I've paid their sin debt. And now they are made one with
God in Christ. That's who we are. That's who
we are. We look at ourselves as lowly,
sinful creatures, and we are. But oh, when we see Him as the
holiness of God, and we say, we're in Him, what does that
make us? It makes us the holiness of God.
Let me find the scripture, see if I've got it down here somewhere.
It says, know ye not that ye are the temple of God, that God
dwelleth in you. And men say, well, that's blasphemy.
No. in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He dwells within our hearts.
And we dwell within His heart. And we are one with Him. And
everything that He does, we did. Brother Paul Mahan, several years
ago, when the church at Kingsport was just getting started, they
met for a conference. And Brother Paul was one of the
messengers. And he preached this message. It's stuck here. I wish
I could remember all of it, but I only remember bits of it. And
he said, What is it to be in Christ? And that was the title
of his message, In Christ. And he used an illustration of
a young woman being with child. And he said, Everything that
that woman does that child does. Everywhere that woman goes, that
child goes. Everyone that accepts that woman,
accepts that child. For that child is in her. He
said that's what it is to be in Christ. Now one day, that
child will be separated. We can only take an illustration
so far. One day that child will be separated
from the mother. But oh, not so in Christ. Not
so in Christ. We shall never be separated from
Him. We will dwell with Him throughout
eternity, ever how long that is. And everything that He did,
if I'm in Him, I did in the mind and purpose of God. Now everything
that I did, He didn't do. I sinned and come short of the
glory of God. It's me in Him. It's not Him
in me in that sin. But it's me in Him. And every
time that He satisfied the law of God, in every point, He crossed
every T and dotted every I, the writer said. I did it in Him. I did it in Him. That's the relationship
that He has with me and I have with Him because I am in Him. And when He's satisfied the justice
of God, I satisfy it. When He was baptized, I was baptized. When He was raised, I was raised.
When He walked the streets of glory, I walked the streets of
glory in the mind and purpose of God. Am I still there yet? No. But I shall be. because of
the relationship that I have with Him and He has with me. Look what it says in verse 3.
Blessed, warm, happy, blessed is He that readeth. Now there's
many reasons. And it's a blessing to even have
the Word of God. All men are blessed to even have
the Word of God. but listen to what he says here.
And they that hear, they that hear the word of this prophecy,
and keep those things which were written, for the time is at hand. Blessed is every man to be able
to just read it, but all we that hear, we that hear by the grace
of God, And although it says, and keep those things which are
written, in Him we keep them. In Him they have been kept. In
this flesh, no. That's the reason this flesh
must be put off. That's the reason that this flesh
must return to the dust of the earth. For the Lord the Spirit
is returned unto him that gave it, there to be ever joyful with
the Lord. there to enter into the most
glorious place that has ever been written about, that we may
be one with Him, that we may see Him as He is and be made
just like Him. But there's also another promise. As He is, so are we in this world. Now explain that. I just did. As He is, so are
we in this world. Even while we live in this sinful
flesh, even while our minds are separated from thinking upon
the Word of God, as Christ is, so am I right now. That's the reason that Paul could
write and say, there is therefore now, right now, no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. Right now, as we sit here, and
our minds may be here, our minds may be there, our thoughts may
be toward it with different things. Right now. In the beloved. I'm accepted in Him. Brother
Rupert Driver barks out a song that I've only heard one other
person sing it. In the Beloved, accepted am I. Risen, ascended, and seated on
high. God sees my Savior, then He sees
me. In the Beloved, accepted and
free. That's our state. That's our
state. right now if we are in Christ. So look to Christ, come to Christ,
hear his word, believe his word, love him with the love that he
sheds abroad in our heart that we may send forth unto him. Lord,
I believe. Help thou my unbelief. Thank
you for your time.