Romans chapter one, the title
of our lesson this morning is who Christ is and what he's done. You remember last week I told
you this book of Revelation is the revelation, the unveiling
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the revealing of the message
of salvation in Christ. Now, what is the message of Christ? The message of Christ revealed
in the book of Revelation is the same as every other book
of the Bible. It's the message of who Christ
is and what he's done for his people. Let's look here, beginning
of verse four. 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. Here's the first
thing about the message of Christ. The message of Christ is for
God's elect. It's for God's church, his people.
The seven churches who are mentioned here represent the complete church
of God throughout all of history. The number seven that we see
so often in the book of Revelation is the number of completeness.
And we'll look at each of these seven churches in the upcoming
study, the letters to the individual churches. But for now, what these
churches represent is the whole church of God throughout all
of the ages. In every local church, goes through
all the stages and times that are addressed in the letters
to those local churches. But the point here is that this
message of Christ is sent to his church, to the whole church,
to all believers on earth. The only people that we have
good news in Christ for is God's church, for his elect. And here's
the message of Christ that is given to God's church. Number
one, the message of Christ is grace for sinners. John says,
grace be unto you. Well, who is this message of
grace in Christ for? Well, it can only be for guilty
people, right? The only people who need grace
are guilty people. And we ought to know we're guilty. There are many witnesses that
tell us we're guilty. Look over at Romans chapter three.
First of all, the law tells us we're guilty. That is the purpose
of God giving the law is to show us, tell us that we're guilty. Romans chapter three, verse 19. Now we know that what the things,
whoever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by
the law is the knowledge of sin. The law was not given as to give
man a way to earn a righteousness. The law was not given to tell
us how to live. The law was given as an indictment
against us. The law is given to show us every
point of our guilt before God. The law was given to show us
that all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
We're guilty. That's what the law says. Second,
the second witness that tells us we're guilty is our own conscience. Look back here, page of Romans
chapter two, verse 14. For when the Gentiles, which
have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law,
these having not the law are law unto themselves, which show
the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience
also bearing witness and their thoughts, the meanwhile accusing
or else excusing one another. Our own conscience constantly
is telling us we're guilty. We're guilty. We're guilty. We
haven't done enough. And then the third witness that
tells us we're guilty are other people. All you got to do, if
you usually don't even have to ask them, just wait long enough,
they'll tell you you're guilty. They'll point out your sin. And
you know why? It's easy for us to see the guilt
and sin of others. Now, It's a wrong, self-righteous
attitude to point that out. But the charge is still true,
nevertheless. We're guilty. Those three witnesses,
the law, our conscience and other people tell us that. We're guilty. So all of us desperately need
God's grace because we're guilty sinners. And the only way grace
can be for sinners like you and me is if it's in the Lord Jesus
Christ, which is what John says here. Grace be unto you. And
it talks about being from the Father, from the Son and from
the Holy Spirit. God is gracious to his people
and he gives them what they do not deserve because God gives
his people what Christ deserves. He gives his people what Christ
earned for them by his obedience to the law that he imputes to
them. God gives his people what Christ earned for them because
of the death of Christ took away the sin of God's people. Grace
can only come to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Second, the message
of Christ is the message of peace with God for sinners. John says,
Grace be unto you in peace. This is a very important piece
because man is at war with God and it's a war we started and
it's a war we cannot win. Well, if it's a war we cannot
win, How can we ever have peace with God and not be destroyed
by God? The only way that's possible
is in Christ. Normally, if there's a war, the
way you win the war is by completely destroying the other side, destroying
their ability to make war, just destroying their will to make
war, just utterly destroying them. Well, then how can a sinner
have peace with God if God doesn't destroy us. Only in Christ. Christ made peace for his people
through the blood of his cross. The father destroyed the son
as a substitute for his people. That's how we have peace with
God, because Christ bore the punishment that we deserve and
made peace through the blood of his cross. Sinners have peace
with God because Christ made peace by satisfying God's justice
for us. Sinners have peace with God because
God gives his people, in the new birth, he gives them a new
heart. He gives them a new heart that loves God. It doesn't want
to be at war with God, but that loves God. He gives his people
a new heart that willingly bows and submits to God, that will
seek peace with God on God's terms. A heart that's willing,
to just unconditionally surrender to God's terms. And sinners have
peace with each other. Believers have peace with one
another in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because we've all
been washed in the blood of Christ. You know why we have peace with
each other? Because we're all in love with the same person.
We're all in love with Christ. So we have peace. Peace with
God, peace in our conscience, and peace with each other through
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The message of grace and peace
is to the Church of God, to God's people. And here's the third
thing. Here's who that message is from.
The message is from the Father, from the Holy Spirit, and from
God the Son. This is from the whole Godhead.
When John speaks here of Him, which is and which was and which
is to come, that's God the Father. That's the Eternal Father. God
dwells outside of time. So he just always is. He said,
I am. That's not just always in the
present tense. That's we don't have a tense
of a verb tense like this in the English language, but it's
past, present and future tense all in one. God just always is. He dwells outside of time. And
since God is eternal, his message of salvation in Christ is eternal,
too. And that's such a comfort to
God's elect. Since salvation is always been conditioned upon
Christ before God ever created anything. He chose a people to
say he put those people in his son and their salvation was always
conditioned upon Christ. So then after creation. Adam
couldn't do anything to destroy it. And after we're born, we
can't do anything to destroy it and lose it either. The salvation
of God's elect has always been by the will and purpose of eternal
God. And God never changes David.
God cannot change. Then the salvation God promised
and God purposed in Christ can never change either. This message
is from the eternal father. It's an eternal message of salvation.
And this message is always a message of Christ is also from God, the
Holy Spirit. What John here talks about from
the seven spirits, which are before his throne, Those seven
spirits represent the Holy Spirit. They're not seven different spirits
with seven different messages. Remember, seven is the number
of completeness. So these seven spirits represent
the perfect spirit of God who applies the whole message of
Christ to the hearts of his people. It's a revelation of Christ. The message is from the Father,
from the Holy Spirit, and then the message of Christ is from
Christ. the son of God himself, look
here at verse five. And from Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful witness and 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. That's who the message is from.
It's from the Lord Jesus Christ. And this Jesus that John speaks
of here, It's not just any Jesus. It's not like Paul told us in
2 Corinthians 11, another Jesus. Paul warned us, don't you listen
to this message of another Jesus. This is a specific Jesus. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who the message of Christ
is from. And John tells us, how can you identify? You know, there
are many different Jesuses. There are many different gospels
that declare different Jesuses. How can you identify the Lord
Jesus Christ, the savior of sinners? You can identify him this way.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the savior of sinners, is prophet, priest
and king. Now, we say that Christ is prophet,
priest and king. He bears all three of the offices
in the church. What that simply means is this,
is that Christ is everything in salvation. Christ is all in
salvation. John says here he is the faithful
witness. Well, that faithful witness is
the office of prophet. who tells us about God. Jesus
Christ is that prophet. God told Moses. Moses looked
at the children of Israel. This people is a stiff necked
people. They won't listen to me. They're rebellious. And Lord
said, you just keep preaching to them. You keep telling them
what I told you to tell them. Moses, one day I'm gonna raise
up a prophet like unto you from among the brethren. Him the people
will hear. That prophet is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He speaks. He speaks the message
of Christ. He speaks the message of grace
in himself and mercy and peace in himself. God's elect always
here. Always. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the faithful witness. He bears witness to salvation
in himself. And he's the faithful witness.
He's the faithful witness who did everything the father sent
him to do. The father sent his son with
a job to do. To make an end of sin. to bring
in everlasting righteousness for his people. And Christ our
Savior was faithful to do it. He did everything the Father
gave him to do. If you look back at Galatians
chapter 2, this is important that Christ
is the faithful witness because sinners are saved by the faithfulness
of Christ. Galatians 2 verse 16. knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus,
in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ, not by the works of the law, for by the works of the
law shall no flesh be justified. Yes, if we're going to be saved,
we must believe in Jesus Christ. We must have faith in Christ,
but we're saved by the faith of Christ. by the faithfulness
of Christ to do everything that God required to save His people
from their sins. Thank God He's the faithful witness
who did everything the Father sent Him to do. Christ is the
faithful witness to the truth. He's the faithful witness to
the truth of every attribute of God. God saves sinners in
justice. God saved his people. He never
overlooked their sin. He never just pretended their
sin didn't exist and and passed over it in the sense that he
just ignored it. No, God is just. That's the character of God.
He is just. And Christ was a faithful witness
to the justice of God. How was he a faithful witness
to God's justice? All you've got to do is look
at him hanging on Calvary's tree, suffering God's wrath against
the sin of his people. He bore witness to the justice
of God. God saves sinners in grace. The
character of God is to be gracious. Christ bore witness to that,
to the truth that God is gracious. How did he do that? Again, all
you got to do is look at Christ suffering on the tree. He's suffering
everything his people deserve. so that the father can give his
people everything Christ deserves. That's grace. Christ bore witness
to that by his death as a substitute. God saves sinners and righteous.
The character of God is to be righteous, that he can only accept
perfect righteousness. Christ bore witness to that.
God's righteous. How did he bear witness to that?
Throughout his life, he bore witness to the righteousness
of God. All you've got to do is look
at the Lord Jesus Christ doing what we can never do. Obeying
the law perfectly. And His obedience to the law,
His obedience as a man, is our obedience to God. God loves sinners. Everybody today, man-made religion, talks
about the fact that God is loved so much that they talk about
it to the exclusion of all of other God's attributes. But it's
true, God is love. And the Lord Jesus Christ bore
witness to that. You know how He did it? Look
at Him suffering as a substitute for God's people at Calvary. God must love sinners. He must. Look what He did to His Son,
the Savior. He must love sinners. Christ is the faithful witness
to who God is. Christ is also the faithful witness
to who man is. If the only way the likes of
you and me can be saved by Christ suffering everything that he
suffered, that gives clear witness to how vile by nature we are. That gives clear witness to how
lost in sin we are by nature. It's clear witness how much we
need the Lord Jesus Christ to save us. Look what it took him
to save this people. He gives clear faithful witness
to who man is. Christ is the faithful witness.
He's a faithful witness of God by being the Word of God personified. If you want to see how God saves
sinners, you want to find out how is it that God saves sinners? Don't go buy some religious book
that tells you, you know, here's how to be saved. If you want
to know how God saves sinners, all you've got to do is look
to Christ. He is this whole Word personified. He is God's righteousness personified. He is God's justice personified. He is God's grace and love for
sinners personified. God saves sinners by the perfect
obedience and by the perfect substitutionary death and sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to see salvation,
all you've got to do is look to Christ. Christ is salvation
personified. He's a faithful witness. Then
second, Christ is the priest. John says he's the first begotten
of the dead. That speaks of the priest who
makes sacrifice for sin for the people to God. Now, he's the
first begotten of the dead. How does that mean he's the priest?
Well, if Christ rose from the dead, he must have died first,
right? If he's going to rise from the dead, he had to die.
Well, why did Christ die? He had no sin, he did no sin,
he knew no sin. How is it that he could die?
Well, Christ died as the sacrifice for sin. And when the sacrifice
for sin was offered, not only was Christ the sacrifice, Christ
was the altar. The writer to the Hebrew says,
we have an altar. Christ is the altar on which
the sacrifice was offered. And Christ is the high priest
who offered the sacrifice, who offered the sacrifice of himself
and took his blood behind the veil. into the holiest of all
before the father to put away the sin of his people. And when he took his blood for
the father behind the veil, he obtained eternal redemption for
us, for all of his people. And you know what? He never had
to offer another sacrifice. Very unlike the high priest there
after the order of Aaron, all they did was offer sacrifice
after sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice. And when one
died, his son took his place and started the whole process
all over again. Just one sacrifice after another. But Christ just
offered one sacrifice for sin forever. And then he sat down. One sacrifice for sin, the one
sacrifice of Christ, was all it took to put away the sin of
his people. What a high priest. Christ is
prophet. He's the priest. And thirdly, Christ is king.
John says he speaks here of the prince of the kings of the earth.
That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's king of kings and lord of
lords who rules over all. Christ rules over this creation,
over everything that happens in it. He rules over it as king. And you know why he does that?
You know why he takes such interest in the most minute details of
the goings-on of this earth that we think are insignificant, that
don't have any effect? Christ rules over that. You know
why? He rules over everything to ensure the salvation of his
people that he died for. Every event that's ever happened
in our life or ever will happen, some of them we think are insignificant. Some of them we think are bad.
Abby and I were talking before the service. If I kept getting
the news that her dad keeps getting, I would just think, what's going
on with her? Why? This seems bad to me. This I can assure you, not one
of those incidents has happened by accident. Dale's life or yours
or mine or either. Not one. Even the things we think
are just completely insignificant. Christ has ruled over it for
this purpose. Guarantee the eternal salvation
of his people. Now when the whole world is going
crazy around me, that's what I like to think about. God's
sovereign in this thing. This thing's not spun out of
control. I love to think of the sovereignty of our Savior over
everything. Since He's the King over all,
His purpose of redemption for His people can never fail. Now
that's who Christ is. He's everything in salvation.
He's prophet, He's priest, and He's King. Now here's what He's
done. This great Savior, this one whose
all in the salvation of his people, this one who's all in the gospel,
this one who's all in glory, this one who's all in heaven,
who's all in eternity. I want you to listen what he's
done for his people. First of all, John says he's
loved. He loves his people. And Christ's
love for his people is eternal. It doesn't have a beginning and
it doesn't have an end. That means we didn't do anything
to make God to start loving us. No, He loved us before anything
was ever created, and He loved us knowing what we'd be by nature.
He loved us anyway. His love doesn't have a beginning,
and His love will never end. Christ agreed to be surety for
His people. Before anything was created,
the Father and the Son entered into a covenant. covenant of
grace to save a sinful people that God chose out of Adam's
fallen race. The Son, who knows all things,
agreed to be surety for them, even though He knew how defiled
and vile the sin that they would be. He knew how they'd fallen,
Adam, but He agreed to be their surety anyway. Knowing what it
would take to save them, He agreed to be their surety. You know
why? Because that's his character.
In the fullness of time, the Son of God, the Prince of Glory,
the glory of heaven itself, agreed to humiliate himself and become
a man. He took on him the form of his
creatures. You know why he agreed to humiliate
himself like that? Because he loved his people.
There's no other way to say it. His people were lost in sin.
The only way they could be saved was by the God-man. God had to
become a man to be the representative of His people, so He could be
the sacrifice for His people. And it's hard for us to understand,
to get in our mind the humiliation of the Savior, how He lived His
life. I mean, from a boy, He knew who
He was. He's God. Yet he put himself
under the control to obey, to submit to parents who were his
creatures. He submitted himself to parents
who drew their breath from him. Yet he submitted himself to their
rule and obeyed them always. In all things, he obeyed them.
He went through his earthly ministry, obeying his own law, doing it
perfectly. so that he could establish righteousness
for people that he loved. So he can impute that obedience
to them because they couldn't be made righteous any other way.
You know why he agreed to do that? You know why he agreed
to do all that work? He loved people. And then he went to the garden
to pray. He said, Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. He knew the horrible suffering
he was about to endure. Yet he said, nevertheless, not
my will, but thine be done. And he willingly went to the
cross. He willingly allowed himself
to be taken, to be subjected to a mock trial by the Jews.
He willingly went into the presence of Pilate, willingly. And he
made sure he told Pilate he was there willingly. He said, you're
not in control of this thing, I am. I'm here willingly. He went to
the soldier's hall willingly to be beat, to be mocked, to
have that crown of thorns thrust upon his head. He willingly left
there to go to the Calvary's hill and he laid down on a cross. He laid down on a hunk of wood
and willingly gave his hands and his feet to be nailed to
it so that they could stick him up between heaven and earth and
mock him as he died. To suffer old agony, to suffer
being made sin for his people, to suffer having his father desert
him, to suffer in absolute, utter darkness, and then for life personified,
to give up the ghost and die, and to have a dead body lay in
the tomb for three days. You know why he willingly went
through all that? Because he loved his people. He loved them
with a love you and I cannot understand. It passes all knowledge,
but he loved his people and he willingly subjected himself to
all of that to be the sacrifice for the sin of his people. He
loved them. He desired their sin to be put
away. Christ has loved his people.
Secondly, Christ has washed his people from our sin in his own
blood. Part of the meaning of this word
washed is plunged. That's how sinners are saved.
By being plunged in the blood of Christ. Washed clean and white. Washed from the filth of sin. Washed from the spot of sin.
Cleansed from the stain of sin. Every trace of sin washed away
by being plunged in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. That's how we're washed. Our
own obedience to the law could never do that. We could never
accomplish holiness by our obedience to the law. All of the ceremonial
washings of the world that were in the world that were required
by the law could never cleanse us from sin. But the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ has already purged, cleansed us from all
of our sin and set us free from the dominion of sin. Thirdly,
Christ has made his people royalty. Verse six says, and hath made
us kings. Christ has made his people kings
by causing us to be born into his family. Someone who's born
into the family of the king, they're royalty. They have royal
blood flowing through their veins because of who their father is.
They're born into the family of the king. God's people are
born again, made part of the family of the king, made royalty.
Christ made his people kings, royalty, by making us one with
him, one with the one who is the king. Christ made his people
kings when he gave us royal garments. He gave us his spotless robe
of perfect righteousness. That's a kingly garment. that
he gives to all of his people, making them kings. Christ has
made his people kings who rule. We are more than conquerors through
Christ, through him that loved us. In Christ, we've overcome
the world. In Christ, we've overcome sin.
In Christ, we've overcome Satan. So God's elect are kings who
rule. No longer are we under the dominion
of sin. because Christ put our sin away.
We rule in him. And fourthly, Christ has made
his people priests. Verse six, he's made us kings
and priests unto God. And that in the Old Testament
rule, the priests were the only ones who could come into the
presence of God. They could come into God when
they brought the sacrifice for sin. But now they could only
come at certain times. They couldn't come into the Holy
of Holies just any time they wanted to. It was only on the
day appointed of God, the day of atonement. And they must come
with the blood of the sacrifice or God would strike them dead.
Christ has made his people priests. Priests who are far better than
Aaron and his sons. Believers are made priests. You
can come into the presence of God anytime you want. You can come in boldness. You
know, that high priest, he wore the bells around the hems of
his garment. So as he moved around, the people
would hear the bells ringing and know he's still alive. There's not a lot of boldness
in that, is there? Like, well, he might die. We might have to
pull him out. I don't know if he's going to be accepted or
not. There's not very much boldness there. If Christ is your Savior,
you come Go into the very presence of God anytime you want, knowing
you'll always be accepted because of the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And you don't need a priest.
I don't think anybody here doesn't know this, but this bears saying. You don't need a priest wearing
a funny looking costume going off into a little room to pray
for you. Talk to God for you. I saw the most sad, heartbreaking
thing the other day on TV. These Catholics were talking
about how much you need the priest. You go in and this little room,
you know, you got this divider between you and him and you confess
your sins to him and then he gives you, you know, three Hail
Marys and you put some money in the poor box and you don't
have to worry about it no more. But they said, oh, he does. He's
taken your sins into himself. And then he's got to go into
another room and pray for you to put those sins away. That
is the saddest thing I think I've ever heard. God has saved
you. If Christ died for you, he's
made you a priest. You don't need somebody else
to go pray for you to put your sin away. Christ has already
done it. And you can come directly into the presence of God any
time you want to find grace to help in time of need. That's
what Christ has done for his people. What's the result of
all that? What's the result of who he is
and what he's done for his people? Well, the result of it is this.
Christ gets all the glory. Verse six, and has made us kings
and priests unto God and his father to him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. In this message of Christ,
Christ gets all of the glory. I don't care how long this earth
keeps spinning. I don't care how much man thinks
we keep developing a better, we're more sophisticated and
more advanced and more civilized. I don't care what changes man
thinks happens on this earth. As long as God leaves a preacher
on this earth, in the message of Christ, Christ will get all
of the glory. And as long as God leaves a people
on this earth, when God's people hear this message, you know what
they're going to say? When they hear Christ gets all the glory,
He did it all, He gets all the glory, they're going to say with
John, Amen. So be it. That's just exactly
the way I want it. Christ should get all the glory. And when God wraps this thing
up, and time is no more, and He brings His people to be with
Him in heaven eternally, Christ will get all of the glory. That'll
never end because eternity doesn't have an ending. The occupation
and the desire of everyone in heaven will be this, to give
Christ all the glory, just to shout it and sing it and have
eternity and a perfect body and perfect soul to forever sing
his praises and give him all the glory. And that's what we'll
do, because that's what Christ has made us by his grace. All
right, I hope the Lord blesses you.