Our lesson this morning is a
portrait of the Savior. Now, you know, artists have long
tried to paint pictures of our Lord Jesus. I guess they keep
trying to paint him. It's big business. People want
to buy a picture of Jesus to have in their home. Makes it
feel like their home more religious or something. I don't know. But
you know, every time an artist attempts to do that, they fail.
Nobody knows what the Lord Jesus looked like. Nobody has any idea.
I promise you he didn't look like a six foot four white man.
I know that. But worse than just failing in
an attempt in this painting. Pictures of our Lord Jesus are
idolatry. They're idols. And it's something
that you see so often this time of year, all the paintings and
the little scenes they make, the nativity scenes, you know,
even pictures or sculptures of baby Jesus. They're idols. To make an image of God is an
idol. The Lord Jesus is God. So to
make an image of him is idolatry. And the believer doesn't need
those things anyway. Believer doesn't need a picture.
The believer doesn't need symbols of the Savior because he has
revealed himself to his people through the eye of faith. And
in our text, John gives us a picture of the Savior that every eye
of faith sees. I kind of view this, I saw, I
don't remember who the artist was, I saw this gigantic painting
of King David one time. It was in the Arm and Hammer
collection. They're going through the taking that collection of
art going through Huntington. And I stood in front of that
painting for the longest time just in awe of the artist's skill
and the detail of painting this picture. Well, for about 30 minutes
this morning, I want us to stand in front of this painting that
John gives us and look at several of the different details in this
portrait of the Savior that he gives us. The first thing faith
sees as we stop and look at this portrait of the Savior is we
see Christ as the sacrifice for our sin. Beginning in verse seven,
this is our Savior speaking. Behold, he cometh with clouds,
and every eye shall see him. They also which pierced him,
and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, amen. Christ is coming. He's been coming
back ever since he ascended back to glory. He's coming. And the
eye of faith sees that one coming, sees Christ as him whom we have
pierced. Faith sees Christ pierced for
my sin. I pierced him because he was
pierced as a sacrifice for my sin. That's what Zechariah talked
about in Zechariah chapter 12. We shall see him whom we have
pierced and mourn. Oh, how we mourn over our sin. And I mourn over the sin that
caused my Savior to suffer so much. And what this means is
I see the Savior who I have pierced. It means this, that the Savior
would have had to suffer everything He suffered. His suffering wouldn't
have been lessened to one degree if the only sinner He was saving
is me. He had to suffer everything He
suffered because of my sin. All that suffering of our Savior,
that's what it took to be the sacrifice that put away my sin.
We see Him whom we've pierced. We see Him as the sacrifice for
our sin. And to the natural man, it does
sound kind of frightening, doesn't it? This one whom we've pierced,
he's returning and we'll see him and wail. That sounds kind
of frightening, doesn't it? But you know, to the believing
heart, that's comfort. We're thrilled to hear he's coming
back. He's coming to get his people.
The believer longs for his return. The cry of every believing heart,
the Lord says, I'm coming. And the believing heart says,
even so come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. We long for Christ
to return, because when he returns, we shall be like him. We shall
see him as he is, and we'll be like him. We long to have that.
And when Christ returns, the unbeliever is going to see him
too. Every eye will see him, both believer and unbeliever.
The unbeliever will see Christ. and they're gonna wail. They're
gonna mourn because now, once they see him, now they see, oh,
I'm guilty of crucifying him. I'm the one that yelled crucify
him. I'm the one who has refused to
believe on him. And they'll mourn, they'll wail,
but it'll be too late. They'll wail because they refuse
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And when Christ returns,
that's going to be the only issue that matters. The only issue
that will matter when Christ returns is, do I believe him? Do I believe him or no? Did God
give me faith in him or no? And if I don't see Christ as
my sacrifice, the sacrifice for my sin, I'll wail because I'll
be damned. I'll be damned in that day. But
if I see Christ as my sacrifice, I'll rejoice when he returns.
All right, second, the second detail I want us to see is when
faith looks at this portrait of Christ, faith sees Christ
as the one who's sovereign in salvation. Verse eight, he says,
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,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the man Jesus of Nazareth. is eternal
God. He says, I am he which is, which
was, and which is to come. I'm the one who always is. He just always is. He's always
the same. The man Jesus of Nazareth says,
this is my name, the Almighty. He's the Almighty God, Almighty
God who's sovereign to save. Christ is the sovereign. and
he's the only one who has the power to save. He's the only
one who has the will to save. He's sovereign. He has the right
to save whom he will, to choose whom he will, and pass everyone
else by. And faith doesn't rebel against
that. Faith sees that Savior, the sovereign Savior, as my only
hope of salvation. But faith sees the truth of this. Christ is the Savior. He's almighty
to save. He can choose who he will to
save, and he's got the power to do it. And faith sees that,
and faith doesn't rebel against it. Faith says, Lord, save me. I need saving. I need a Savior.
Would you be my Savior? Call me. Faith sees Christ as
sovereign in salvation. Thirdly, as we look at this portrait
of the Savior, we look at all the details of it, faith sees
that Christ is all in salvation. Look at verse 10. John says,
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great
voice as 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, unto
Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira,
and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. John says
that Christ is Alpha and Omega, and the Lord said it himself
in verse eight, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
ending. John says he's the first and
the last. Alpha and Omega were the first
and the last letters of the Greek alphabet. And what this means
when the Lord says I'm Alpha and Omega, it means that Christ
is all. He's the whole alphabet of God. He's the whole purpose of God. Christ is everything in salvation. John says he's the first and
the last. Christ is the first of salvation. He's the beginning
of salvation. Where did salvation begin? It
began in eternity past when only God was. And at that time, Christ
was salvation. He stood at that time as the
lamb slain for the foundation of the world. Even then, he stood
as the sacrifice for the sin of his people. He's the beginning
of salvation. When the father elected a people,
you know how he elected them? In Christ, in his son. Christ
is God's first elect. He's the beginning of salvation.
Before the creation of the world, Christ stood as the surety of
his people. He's the beginning of salvation.
And then Christ is everything in what I'll call the middle
of salvation, the middle time of salvation, man's time here
on earth. During that time, Christ is all in salvation. He accomplished,
during this time, he accomplished all of the salvation of his people
by himself. Sinners need entombment. Christ
is our atonement. Christ is our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification, our redemption. We need a sacrifice. Christ is
our sacrifice. He's the high priest that offered
a sacrifice, and he's the altar on which the sacrifice was offered.
He's all. Christ is all of our hope. He's
all of our resurrection. Christ is all in this middle
of salvation. And then in the end, when God
wraps everything up, Christ will still be all in salvation. All
of eternity is going to be focused on Christ. You just go through
all of eternity, go through all of it as much as you want, and
you'll never reach a place that Christ is not all. He's the glory
of it. He's the focus of it. He's the
reason of it. And that's the gospel that God's
given us to preach. It's the gospel that declares
Christ is all. That's the gospel the Lord gave
to John here. He said, John, this is the gospel. You write
it. And this is our gospel. Christ
is all. All you need is Christ. Go to
him. Trust him. Rest in him. Our gospel
is all about Christ. It's who Christ is. It's what
Christ did. It's why Christ did it and where
he is now. Faith sees Christ as all in salvation. And fourthly, as we look at this
glorious portrait John gives us, faith sees that Christ is
all. He is the gospel that's preached
in the church. Look at verse 12. John says,
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
candlesticks, one likened to the Son of Man. Now that verse
would sound very confusing if the spirit didn't explain it
down in verse 20. Look at verse 20. The mystery
of the seven stars, which thou sawest in my right hand, and
the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels
of the seven churches. The pastors of the seven churches.
And the seven candlesticks, which thou sawest, are the seven churches. The candlestick is the church
of Christ, his people. And Christ, where is John seeing? He sees him in the midst of the
church. Now the church is not a building.
God's church is people. John saw the Savior always in
the midst of his people, right in the midst of them, that's
where he is. Do you know there's nowhere you can go that God's
not there. He's always with his people.
David said, whither shall I go to flee from thy presence? If
I go into the heavens, thou art there. If I go to the lowest
parts of the earth, thou art there. If I try to cross the
sea, thou art there. Everywhere I go, God's already
there. He's always with his people.
You can't go somewhere God's not. But even more precious than
that, do you know why a believer can never go anywhere God's not? because He dwells in your heart.
So everywhere you go, He's with you, dwelling in the hearts of
His people. But then the Lord is always with
His people in a very special way in the public worship service. This is a very special time.
The Lord Himself put His blessing, His seal of approval on it. He
said, where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there I am. in the midst of them, which is
exactly what John saw. He's in the midst of his people
gathered together to worship him. And John gives us a picture
of that here in verse 10. He says, I was in the spirit
on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet. Now the Lord's day John is referring
to there is Sunday. It's the first day of the week.
Now, John is when he's a little boy, he was growing up, you know,
when he worshiped, on the Sabbath day, on Saturday, the Sabbath
day. But he's not worshiping on the
Sabbath day here, is he? No, he's worshiping on the Lord's
day, the first day of the week. We don't observe the Sabbath
day. We don't observe a Christian Sabbath where, you know, you
rest or you don't do certain things on Sunday in order to,
you know, earn favor with God. You know why we don't do that?
Christ made an end of the law. But now we have a Sabbath, don't
we? Christ is our Sabbath. We don't need a day. Christ is
our Sabbath, Christ is our rest. So the New Testament church worships
on the first day of the week, on the day that Christ arose
from the grave. And it was on that day, the day
where the church meets, that John received this vision of
the Lord. Now, you know, every day is the
Lord's day. The thing that's special about Sunday is it's
just the day appointed where we meet together and worship.
You know, whatever day we meet together, that's a special day.
But, you know, in our society, Sunday is set apart for the worship
of the Lord. But every day is the day the
Lord's made. You just remember this when you
get up in the morning, tomorrow morning. Monday morning is always
the worst. You wake up and you gotta go to work, right? You
just remember this tomorrow morning. This is the day the Lord's made.
I'll be glad and rejoicing. Every day is the Lord's day.
And God is to be worshiped every day. I'll tell you how we do
that. We don't have to, if we don't come to the worship service
on public worship service on Monday, we can worship God driving
to work, thanking God for a new day, thanking God for giving
us life and health and strength, thanking God for giving us a
job. We worship God just as we go throughout our day. Just acknowledging
Him in all things. Everything that's happening throughout
the day. God did this. God purposed this. Millions,
I mean, I don't know how to calculate that in years. Eternally, God's
purposed this. We worship Him by acknowledging
Him. We worship God by seeing Him in everything. We were driving
up to Lexington the other day, and I was just looking. We drove
a little while, and there were snow flurries, and I despise
snow, but you know, as long as it's not sticking on the road,
it's kind of pretty. Then we drove through, and the clouds
part, and the sun burst through, just beautiful. God did that. The creators created all this. It's seeing Him in everything.
That's how we worship Him. But now the public worship service,
now that's special. Because, I'll tell you why it's
special. Because Christ is there with his people. The Lord reveals
himself. Here, he's in our midst. And
here's how he reveals himself to his people. Through the preaching
of the word. Faith cometh by hearing. And
hearing by what? The word of God. That's how the
Lord reveals himself to his people. If you want to see the Savior,
I'll tell you what you do. Be where he's preached. Be where
his people meet together to worship him. And the church here on earth
is important. The picture that John uses of
the church is a candlestick. Now a candlestick, it doesn't
produce any light all by itself, does it? How does the candlestick
give light in a dark place? by putting the candle on it,
by putting the light on it, and the candlestick holds the light
forth to lighten the dark place. That's the function of the church
on earth. We don't have any light of ourselves, but our function
is to preach Christ the light to this dark world. That's how
this dark world is going to be lit. If it is, that's how it's
going to be lit, through the preaching of Christ the light. Then fifthly, is faith looks
at this glorious picture of our Savior. Faith sees Christ as
our high priest, verse 13. In the midst of the seven candlesticks,
one likened to the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to
the foot, and girded about the paths with a golden girdle. Now
this garment is not just any garment. It's what John's referring
to here is that glorious garment that the high priest wore That
garment had all of the colors, all those beautiful colors in
it. Each of those colors represented something that Christ would be
for his people. It had the color blue in it.
And that blue is the color of the sky, representing Christ
coming down from heaven as God to save his people from their
sin. It had the color red in it. Red's the color of Adam.
God's gonna come from heaven from the blue? And he's going
to be a man, a man like Adam. But now he's going to be a man
without sin. And because he's a man, he's got blood, that red
blood that's sinless to shed to put away the sin of his people.
That garment had gold in it, showing us the deity of Christ.
Jesus is God. And that's what makes him able
to save sinful men. And it had the color purple in
it. Purple is what you get when you mix red and blue. Red, the
color of man. Blue, the color of heaven. This
is the God man. Come to save his people from
their sin. That garment was glorious. It was beautiful. Anytime you
saw the high priest wearing that garment, you know exactly who
the high priest is. That garment stood out. But now
listen, the high priest just didn't walk around the camp wearing
that garment for show. He's not a figurehead. He had
a job to do. What was his job? To offer the
sacrifice for sin. And that's what Christ, our high
priest, came to do. He came to offer the sacrifice
for sin. And Christ is not like Aaron
and his sons. Aaron and his sons offered thousands, hundreds of
thousands of sacrifices. Christ just offered one. Aaron,
he never offered a sacrifice that could put away a single
sin. But Christ, with his one sacrifice, put away all the sin
of his people. By the one sacrifice of Christ,
that's all it took to perfect forever them that are sanctified. So you could call this robe that
Christ is wearing the robe of Christ's righteousness. John
says it's a robe that covers his whole body. Well, the body
of Christ is people. His righteousness, the righteousness
of Christ, covers all of his people, makes all of them just
like Christ. It's because of the sacrifice
that he offered. And then John saw him with his
golden girdle. Well, that was another garment
the high priest wore on the day of atonement. And the girdle
is a symbol of service, being girded for service. Remember
when the Lord washed his disciples' feet? He girded himself with
a towel, girding himself as a servant. Well, that's how the Savior came.
This glorious King, who is all in salvation, came to this earth
as a man, as the servant of his Father, to do all the work that
was required to save the people that God gave him in the covenant
of grace. Our Lord told his disciples that,
Matthew 20, verse 28. He said, the Son of Man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister, to give his life
a ransom for many. That's why he came, to be the
servant, to do all the work that was necessary to save his people. And that's what he did. You know
how Christ made all of his people righteous? By doing every work
the law requires. He did it perfectly. And he gives
that righteousness to his people. And because Christ is our great
high priest, the believer has free access to God anytime we
want. All we gotta do is come through
Christ, our great high priest. Then next, as faith stands and
looks at this glorious portrait that John paints for us of the
Savior, faith sees Christ as the eternal Savior. Verse 14,
his head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow.
Now, you know what white hair shows. It shows old age. I was
talking to a fellow yesterday at the conference at Todd's Road.
He said, we've been friends a long time. He said, when we first
became friends, we both had dark hair. Well, what does it mean
that we don't have dark hair anymore? It means some years
have passed, doesn't it? White hair shows age. And it's
a very sad thing. in our day that age is not respected. It seems like the only thing
that is respected is youth and vigor. But age ought to be respected. Wisdom ought to come with experience
and age. It ought to. Now, unfortunately,
it doesn't always. And so those of us who have a
few years, we might want to remember that. Wisdom is supposed to come
with age and some experience. Let's not act a fool. Let's act
like, pray the Lord give us some wisdom and act like we got a
little bit of it, you know. But Christ here appears in his
snow white hair. You know what John saw? He saw
the Savior, the Ancient of Days. This one, that babe born in a
manger is the Ancient of Days. His goings forth have been of
old, from everlasting. Christ is the ancient of days.
There's some wisdom comes with that. He has all wisdom because
he is wisdom. He's wisdom personified. The
Lord Jesus Christ, that babe laying in a manger is the eternal
father. What a mystery. Try to figure
that out. Can you figure that out? Of course
we can. Well, here's a hint. If you've
got a God you can figure out, he's not God. God cannot be figured
out. He's the ancient of days. But
you remember in our study of Psalm of Solomon, Psalm of Solomon
5, when the bride, when she's describing the Savior, she doesn't
describe him with snow white hair, does she? She describes
him with locks that are thick and bushy, black as a raven,
she said. What the bride is describing
is seeing the Savior at the strength of youth. Well, are we confused? Which is it? Does he have black
hair or white hair? Which is it? Is he old or ancient
or is he eternally, is he young? Well, he's both. He's both. The
ancient of days is eternally young. The ancient of days never
changes. He has the eternal strength of
youth combined with the wisdom of being ancient. He never changes
and he never will. He's the eternal Savior. Then
next, faith sees Christ as the all-seeing Savior. Darwin Pruitt
was telling me Friday evening about a picture that his sister
Evelyn painted. He said, we had it in our house
for years. He says, a picture of a clown. And he said it was
very detailed, very nice. He said, but the children were
scared to death of that picture. They'd say, Daddy, that clown's
eyes are following me. They were noticing that everywhere
they went, that clown's eyes following them. Well, here as
we stand, look at this picture of the Savior. His eyes stand
out. Look here at the end of verse
14. And his eyes were as a flame of fire. John saw Christ with
eyes of fire, eyes that burn with God's wrath against sin.
And there are eyes that burn through everything. They see
everything. You can't hide anything from
these eyes of fire. They see everything. But those
eyes are also eyes that burn with warmth, burn with warmth
for his people that melt the sinner's heart. And when the
believer sees those eyes, they're thankful. I'm thankful those
eyes of fire do see everything. Nothing can be hid from him.
You know what that means? He sees all my sin. Wayne, he didn't miss one of
them. Not one of them hid from him. And because he saw them
all, he put all my sin away. And I'm thankful. Christ sees
things as they really are. When he looks at me, you know
what he sees? He don't see what I see when
I look at me. He sees me as I am. He sees me
as he made me in his Son. I'm thankful for those all-seeing
eyes. In faith, as it stops to look
at this glorious portrait of the Savior, faith sees our Savior
who suffered and died and rose again. Verse 15, and his feet
like undefined brass, as if they burned in a furnace. Now feet
are for walking. So why did John see this feet
of fine brass upon our Savior? Well, it's because Christ our
Savior walked through the fire of God's wrath against the sin
of his people, a raging hot fire that would have destroyed all
of us, but the Savior walked through it. And he described,
John describes his feet as fine, shiny brass. Grass is not gonna
be melted in the fire. It's not gonna be destroyed in
the fire. It's gonna make it shinier and more beautiful. That's
the way John saw the Savior. Christ endured God's wrath against
the sin of his people. He walked through it, and he
walked out the other side. He did suffer and die, but he
rose again. That's what we read in verse
18. Savior said, I'm he that liveth and was dead, and behold,
I'm alive forevermore, amen. and have the keys of hell and
death. Tell you what that means. By
his death, Christ obtained eternal redemption for his people because
he put their sin away. Then ninth, his faith stands
and looks at this picture. Not only does faith see something,
faith hears something. Faith hears Christ in his word.
Verse 15, his feet like undefined brass as if they burn in a furnace,
and his voice as the sound of many waters. The picture that
John uses to describe the voice of the Savior is of many waters,
like a huge, rushing body of water, like a waterfall. And I thought of this illustration.
I used to love to watch Westerns. If you've ever watched Westerns,
you've seen this scene. Some poor old cowboy, all by
himself, he's trying to save a group of women and children
from a horrible gang of bad guys. He's outgunned 15 to 1, but he's
going to go save them. And he's got this group of women
and children running away from the bad guys, and they come to
a river. They're trapped. Here comes the
bad guys. And that cowboy, he gets a few logs that are falling,
straps them together, makes a raft, and they jump on the raft, and
they're saved. They're floating down the river.
Bad guys can't track them in the water, you know. And as they're
floating down the river, celebrating their escape, suddenly they hear
sound. Now, they can't see it yet, but
because of that sound, they know what's ahead. They're scrambling
off that raft. You know, earlier they're trying
to scramble to get on the raft. Now they're scrambling to get
off of it. There's sound ahead. And they don't see it, but they
know up ahead there's a waterfall. How do they know that? The waterfall
is its own witness. It has its own, the sound of
it is its own witness. Long before they see it, they
know it's there. That's the voice of Christ speaking
to his people. He speaks to his people through
the preaching of the gospel. Now God sends pastors, preachers,
to be witnesses of Christ. You're all hearing that right
now. You're all hearing the sound of a man preaching. But if God Almighty ever speaks
to you, you're not going to wonder who's speaking. If he speaks
to the heart, you're going to know it. You're going to know
who's speaking. He's his own witness. And that
note that the voice of Christ sounds is always clear and unmistakable. John says at the end of verse
10, he heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet. The voice
of Christ is the battle trumpet that sounds. And he never sounds
an uncertain sound. The voice of Christ always declares
that Christ is all in salvation. And you don't, it's not unmistakable.
It's not uncertain. It's unmistakable. It always
calls us come to Christ, come to him for salvation. Then next
faith sees Christ as the word of God. Verse 16, He had in his
right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp, two-edged
sword. Now that sharp, two-edged sword,
remember this is a picture. He doesn't really look like this.
This is a picture. It's a representation of the
Word of God, the sharp, two-edged sword. And you know, I can't
stress enough the importance of God's Word. Christ is only
revealed in His Word. You can't see Him as saving power
anywhere else but in His Word. The only way God speaks salvation
to the hearts of His people is by revealing Christ in the Word.
And it's the preaching of Christ that's a sharp two-edged sword.
It both kills and makes alive at the same time. The preaching
of Christ the Word, that's what kills the flesh and gives life
to the spirit. It's the preaching of Christ
the Word that cuts away the stony heart of sin and circumcises
and gives a new heart. It's the preaching of Christ
the Word that both strips the sinner at the same time clothes
him in the righteousness of Christ. Then last, faith sees Christ
as all of the glory of God. The end of verse 16, in his countenance,
was as the sun shining in his strength The glory of God can
only be seen in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can only
see, how is it that God can be merciful and still be just? It's only through the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's greatest glory can only
be seen in Christ. And if we ever see him as he
is, if he ever reveals himself to us as he is, I'll tell you
what we'll do. We'll fall down and worship. John said, when
I saw him, when I saw that, I fell at his feet as dead. I hear a
lot of people talking today, that's not their reaction to
this Jesus they preach, is it? You want to know why? They haven't
seen him. But if we ever see him as he
is, we'll fall at his feet as dead. And the last thing I want
you to see is this, the compassion of Christ for his people. Look
at verse 18. Verse 17, John said, I saw him,
I felt his feet as dead, and he laid his right hand upon me,
saying unto me, fear not. John, don't fear. That same hand
reached out and touched that leper and said, I will. Be thou
clean. It's the same hand that reaches
out and comforts his people today. Comforts our hearts through the
preaching of the gospel. And that's how we're comforted.
That's how we're brought to his feet, and that's how we're comforted.
It's by seeing Christ as he is. That's a pretty good portrait,
isn't it? All right. Lord bless you.