Revelation chapter 1. Now the book of Revelation is no
different than the rest of the Word of God. Because of the error
of our present world, we tend to look at the book of Revelation
different from the other books of the Bible, but it's absolutely
no different than any other book of the Bible. The book of Revelation
is written to reveal to us the Lord Jesus Christ. The key to
the whole book is in the first words of the book. the revelation
of Jesus Christ. It's like the Lord has left us
the key to the house right at the front door to make it easy
to go in and see everything else in the house. It's all about
the Lord Jesus Christ. If we understand that, we can
understand this whole book. Now, you and I today, I think
we can understand the book of Revelation by looking at it this
way. We look at the book of Revelation much the same way Old Testament
believers looked at the Old Testament scriptures. The Old Testament
scriptures told them that Christ is coming. It kept telling them
over and over again, Christ is coming. He's coming the first
time to come to redeem his people from their sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And those Old Testament believers
believed that. They believed Christ. Their salvation was not
based upon the law. It wasn't based upon a sacrifice
they offered that the law required. They look to Christ to keep the
law for them. They look to Christ to be their sacrifice for sin.
That they believed Christ. We know that our Lord told us
that about the Old Testament believers. They believe Christ.
But now they couldn't see all those details very clearly at
all, because all those details are hidden in the types and shadows
of the Old Testament scriptures. Now, today, by God's grace, we
see those things clearly, don't we? We see those details clearly. because we've seen them fulfilled
in Christ. All those Old Testament prophecies
have been fulfilled in Christ. And we say, well, I see what
that means because we see Christ fulfill it. Well, today we look
at the second coming of Christ very much the same way Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob looked for the first coming of Christ. We
know Christ is coming. We know he's coming a second
time to judge the world in righteousness. We know Christ is coming. He's
coming to gather his people to himself, to take them to be with
him, where they'll dwell with him eternally in perfection. Now, we know that, we believe
that, but we don't see the details of it very clearly, do we? Because
they're hidden in the tides and shadows of the book of Revelation
and other places in scripture that speak of the Lord's second
coming. But when Christ comes and takes us to glory, we'll
say, oh, Now I see what that meant. We'll see what that meant
because we've seen it fulfilled in Christ. So the book of Revelation
is written to reveal Christ to us. I wish the translators had
not given the title to this book, The Revelation of Saint John
the Divine, because it's not the revelation of John. It's
a revelation of Christ that was given to John to write to us.
And as we go through this study, we'll see this in the book of
Revelation. There are seven different visions in this book. Every one
of them is a vision of the same person. They're just visions
from a different angle. Each vision shows us the perfection
of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. These seven
visions are not seven different dispensations or seven different
ages of time. The number seven in scripture
represents perfection and completeness. And we'll see the number seven
all throughout this book It's used to show us the complete
vision of what Christ has done for his people. What he has done,
what he is doing, and what he will yet do for his people. And
the purpose of the book is to comfort the hearts of God's people.
To comfort our hearts by assuring us that Christ our Savior will
be victorious over every enemy. You have so many people Use the
book of Revelation to kind of frighten people, don't they?
All these horrible, scary events and these horrible creatures
and monsters and all these things. That is a complete perversion
of the purpose of this book of Revelation. It's written to comfort
the hearts of God's people, to assure us of Christ's victory
over sin, over the world and over Satan. Christ is the mighty
conqueror. And we who believe in him one
day, are going to be more than conquerors anymore. We'll suffer
for a while. Yes, we will suffer for a while.
We're going to come through great tribulation, but every believer
is going to enjoy complete, ultimate victory in the Lord Jesus Christ
because he's won the victory over every enemy. So the purpose
of the book is to comfort the hearts of God's people. And the
theme of the book is Christ's victory over every enemy, which
is really the theme of the whole Bible. This is why I told you
to start out with the book of Revelation, the same as every
other book of the Bible. It's written to reveal Christ,
his victory over every enemy. You know, when we read the scriptures,
we need to remember this. Christ is not just the main theme
of scripture. Christ is the message of scripture. Christ is the message. And we
cannot understand any scripture until we understand that Christ
is the message of it, of every verse of the Bible. If we, if
the Holy Spirit does not give us an understanding that Christ
is the message of the Bible, of every verse, we're going to
think that the Bible gives us a law to live by. We'll think
that the Bible is written to give us an example to live by,
or we'll think that the Bible is full of heartwarming stories
that tells us just everything's going to be all right in the
end. That's not the message of the Bible. The message of the
Bible is Christ. It's every line, every word is
written to reveal Christ. Now, that being said, let's look,
I want to look this morning at the first three verses of the
book of Revelation and see how Christ is revealed there. Verse
one. The revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave unto him to show in his servants things which
must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it
by his angel and his servant, John. The Lord came and he gave
John a revelation. He gave him a revelation of Jesus
Christ. That's the key to understanding
this whole book. This is a revelation of Christ.
And I told you it's not written to tell us of things to come,
of events and circumstances that are going to surround the Lord's
return. But he says here he gave this
revelation to John to show unto his servants things which must
shortly come to pass. Now, this book is written, it's
given not to show us those things and events are going to happen
when Christ returns. It's given to reveal Christ.
So what does this mean here when he talks about he's got to show
his servants things which must shortly come to pass? What means
this? All these events must shortly
come to pass. Because of Christ is because
of what Christ has accomplished for his people. The important
thing here is not the events. Important thing is Christ. All
of these events will happen before Christ returns and they'll happen,
you know, when he does return. But it's all because of who Christ
is. It's all because of what he accomplished
for his people. And without Christ, none of those
events mean anything to us. Just like the rest of the Bible.
Without Christ, none of these verses mean anything to us. And
really, in a sense, in the mind and purpose of God, the way God
looks at it, That's all that matters, the way God looks at
it. These events are already done. These things are already
accomplished. This book is an unveiling of
who Christ is. It's an unveiling of what's already
there behind the veil. It's an unveiling of what Christ
has already done for his people. Christ has already come and he's
redeemed his people by his blood, by the blood of his sacrifice.
then it's obvious to us. Those people must be given a
perfect body and a perfect soul and be brought to Christ to worship
him forever. That's obvious to us if we understand
Christ has already redeemed his people from their sin. Christ
has already died and he already rose again for his people. Then
it's obvious to us. Everyone Christ died for has
got to be raised from the dead too. They've got to be given
a glorified body just like the body of our Savior. If Christ,
our representative, can't stay dead, we can't stay dead either. If he can't stay dead because
he put away the sin laid on him, then everyone he died for can't
stay dead either because their sin's gone. They must be raised
because of who Christ is. Christ has already broke the
curse of sin by dying for his people. At Calvary, he crushed
Satan's head. The curse of sin is gone. Well,
then it's obvious. that all of God's people must
live eternally free from that curse. They must live in a sinless
body and they must dwell with God face to face. That's what
Adam lost in the garden. That's what he lost under the
curse. He lost that fellowship with God. He could no longer
come back into the presence of God. Christ broke that curse
by dying for us so that his people will live eternally with God
face to face. Christ has already crushed Satan's
head at Calvary. Then it's obvious to us that
God's elect must see and they must enjoy Christ's victory over
every enemy, Satan included. You see, for the believer, Christ
is everything. He's everything. So every event
and every experience all depends upon Christ. The believer must
live free from death. because Christ has destroyed
our enemy, which is death. The believer must live free from
sin because Christ had blotted our sin out under his blood.
The believer must live free from the dominion of Satan, the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. God's children must live free
from that dominion because Christ has crushed the head of that
enemy. For the believer, Christ is everything. But you know what? For the unbeliever, Christ is
everything to them. They just don't know it. Every
event and every experience in eternity all has to do with Christ. When Christ comes to judge the
world in righteousness, no one's going to be judged by what they
did or did not do. That's not even worth judging.
Of course nobody's done enough to live up to the righteousness
of Christ. Of course no one's done enough to be righteous.
We're not gonna be judged based on whether or not we did enough
or we didn't do enough. Everyone will be judged by one
standard. Do we believe the Lord Jesus
Christ? That is all that will matter. That's why there's no degrees
of glory. There's no degrees in heaven. Somebody's not gonna
have a bigger house than another house, or somebody's not gonna
have more crowns than another. That's foolish. The only thing
that matters is Christ. Is Christ my righteousness? If
Christ is my righteousness, then I am equally saved, I'm equally
glorified as with everyone else. I can't be more glorified. If
Christ is my righteousness, It all depends upon Christ. Those
who believe Christ, they're going to be brought into eternal rest
because Christ is their salvation. And those who do not believe
Christ will be eternally damned. And the whole issue is this.
What think ye of Christ? Do you believe Christ? It all
depends on Christ. Now, brother, we need to think
about this. If Christ will be all in eternity, the only thing
that will matter and eternity is Christ. Shouldn't he be all that matters
to us now? Christ is all in our faith. Christ is all in the gospel that
we preach. Christ is all in the forgiveness
of sin. Christ is all in righteousness. Christ is all in sanctification. Christ is all in our doctrine.
Christ is all in our conduct. Christ is all that matters. And if Christ is going to be
all in eternity, we're told He's all in the Word. Shouldn't we
seek Christ in the Word? Christ only. When we read the
scriptures, we should seek Christ wholly. In our study of Revelation,
you'll see this. If you read through this book,
and you're looking for signs, You're looking for wonders. You're
looking for events that will surround the return of our Lord.
This book will become very unclear to you. It will be a great mystery
to you because you'll be lost in all the symbolism of the book.
But this book will become pretty clear to you. If you search for
Christ, who's coming in, it will become pretty clear to you. If
you find Christ and you believe him and you trust in him, All
the rest of the events really won't matter. It'll just all
fall into place if you find Christ in the word, if you find Christ
in this book of Revelation. And John says here that an angel
came to him and showed him these things. Now, I don't know who
this angel is. It may be Christ himself. It may be one of his servants.
I don't know. I really don't think it's an
angel, a created being. It could be Christ. An angel
is a messenger. Christ is the messenger of the
covenant. In the Old Testament, almost always, when you read
about an angel appearing, almost always it's a pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ. He comes as the messenger of
the covenant. Or the angel could be one of
God's servants. I don't know, angels are messengers and there
are times in scriptures that angels are given as a picture
of God's pastors. But either way, verse two gives
us the message of every messenger of God, whether it's the Lord
Jesus or one of his preachers, this is the message of every
one of God's servants who bear record of the word of God and
of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw.
To every one of God's pastors, they bear record of the word
of God. God's pastors always have their
message from one place. from the Word of God. That's
why we go verse by verse through the Word of God. Because our
message can only come from the Word of God. If I come up with
a message for you that comes from any place other than God's
Word, I'm wasting your time. I'm wasting an opportunity to
benefit your soul. The only thing that will benefit
my soul and yours is the Word of God. So our message always
comes from the Word of God. And we do not take God's Word
and use it to prove our theology. That's what you said the other
day. We don't take God's word and say, OK, yeah, this proves
what I already think. No, that's not what we do. That's
a mishandling of God's word. We take God's word and we bear
record of it. We take God's word and we just
declare it. And I tell you how I find my
theology. I find out what God says in his word, and that's
my theology. This is all I have to know to find out what I believe.
I find out what God says in his word, and I believe it. God's
servants bear record of the word of God, and his people believe
it. God gives them faith to believe
his word. This phrase, to bear record,
it means to be a witness of, to give an honest report of.
Well, if we bear record, if we're a witness of what God says in
his word, bear honest, report of what God says in his word.
God's people believe it and they'll be blessed by it. I told you
this before, one of the. I don't know if it's the only, but it's
one of the very few pieces of advice I got from Brother Henry
on becoming a pastor. He said, just deal honestly with
God's word. Just deal honestly with it. That's
what John's saying here. Bear record of it. give an honest
report of what God's word says, and God's people will be blessed.
Second, God's pastors bear record of the testimony of Jesus Christ. We bear record, give an honest
report of the testimony of Jesus Christ, how that salvation is
only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Really the whole Bible, that's
what the whole Bible is. It's the testimony of Jesus Christ. Both Old Testament and New Testament
are the testimony, is the testimony of how Christ accomplished salvation
for his people. And if someone is not bearing
record of the testimony of Jesus Christ, they're a false prophet.
Isaiah said in Isaiah 8 verse 20, to the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, It's because there's
no life in them. They're false apostles. But every
one of God's servants bear record of the testimony of Jesus Christ
from the whole word of God. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
2. The apostle Paul called this the testimony of God, the testimony
of Jesus Christ. Paul called it the testimony
of God. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 1. And I, brethren, when I came
to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's
the testimony of God. Nothing save Jesus Christ and
him crucified. And God's servants would do well
to follow the example of the Apostle Paul. Don't dress it
up with fancy human words. Don't try to use words that that
take the edge or the offense off the gospel to make it more
appealing to the flesh. Just follow Paul's example and
plainly preach the testimony of God in plain, common, everyday
language that everybody understands so nobody can mistake what we're
saying, that it's all Christ. It's all Him. Now look at John
chapter three. That's the job of God's preachers.
But you know the only way any of us is going to believe the
testimony of Christ is if God gives us faith to believe it.
Look here at John 3 verse 32. And what he has seen and heard,
that he testifieth. And no man receiveth this testimony.
Now that's all men by nature, that's you and me, that's every
man and woman, boy and girl that's ever been born. Apart from God
giving us faith in Christ, we hear the testimony of Christ
and no man receiveth his testimony. But look at verse 33. He that
hath received his testimony has said to his seal that God is
true. This testimony of Christ is a
true report. For he whom God has sent speaketh
the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto
him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into
his hand. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. That's what God's servants do.
They bear record of the word of God, which reveals Christ. We preach the testimony of Jesus
Christ and depend on God to give faith to his people. And he'll
do it because that's how God gives faith to his people. It's
through the preaching of the word, through the honest testimony
of Jesus Christ. Now, when we read God's word,
I can't stress this to you strongly enough. When you read God's word,
read God's word to find Christ, to find salvation in him. Don't
read God's word to find out how to live. Don't read God's word,
find out how you ought to treat people or how other people ought
to treat you. Read God's word to find Christ. You find him,
the rest of us gonna take care of itself. Look here at verse
three in our text, Revelation 1. Blessed is he that readeth,
and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those
things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. Now
John says, whoever reads this word, whoever hears it, whoever
believes Christ is the subject of this word is blessed. You know why he's blessed? Because
if he believes it, he's got Christ. That's why he's blessed. And
God has given us a great blessing here. This is something we ought
to be thankful for every day. God has given us a place in our
town, in our area, our community, where his word is read and where
his word is preached. And you notice this when you
come here to the worship service, God's word is the center of everything
we do. It's the center of everything
because this is where the blessing is. Look back at Romans chapter
three. This was the advantage that the
Jews had in the Old Testament, that God gave them his word. And we have the same advantage
today. God has given us the advantage, the blessing of having his word.
It's not everywhere, but God gave it to us here. We get Romans
3 verse 1. What advantage then hath the
Jew or what prophet is there of circumcision in the all that
he doesn't just mean of circumcision. He means of all of the law of
all of the prophets. He said much every way chiefly
because that under them were committed the oracles of God. Under them was committed the
word of God. Now you know from seeing the
history of Israel, not all Israel are of Israel worthy. Not all
national Israel were of spiritual Israel. Some believed. Some did
not believe. Many did not believe. What does
that say to you and me? God's given us the same advantage
of having his word. What does it say to you and me?
says to me, we ought to pray. We ought to beg God in prayer
that we not just be hearers of the word, but doers of the word. That we be believers of the word,
that we be keepers of his word. When in John, when he writes
here in Revelation 1, he says, that hear the words of this prophecy
and keep those things that are written there. That word keep,
it means to prevent from escaping. Look at Hebrews 2. Let's pray
that we be doers of the word, keepers of the word, that we
prevent from escaping from us the word of God. Don't let the
message of God's word escape our hearts. Hebrews 2 verse 1. Therefore, we ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at
any time we should let them slip. For the word spoken by angels
was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompense of reward. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? Wreath the first began to be
spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.
How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation revealed in
God's word? Well, we won't escape. We won't
escape because there's no other salvation. This word keep, it
also means to hold unmarred. Let's pray that God give us the
wisdom and the faith and the determination to hold God's word
unmarred. How do we do that? Hold God's
word unmarred. By doing what Peter said, by
preaching the sincere milk of the word, something that's unmarred,
something that's untainted with human thought and ideas and chemicals
and all those things, just preach the sincere milk of the word
of God. We'll hold it unmarred. And let's
pray that God give us the wisdom to use God's word for the purpose
that God gave it. God, the purpose of God's word
is to reveal Christ. then let's seek Christ in the
Word. Let's not mar God's Word by trying
to take God's Word and prove what we think is true. You can
take almost any crazy idea you've got and find some verse of scripture
you can twist to prove your idea, but that don't make it so. That's
marring God's Word. Let's keep God's Word unmarred
by asking God to give us the faith to just read it and believe
it. to seek Christ in it, to reveal
Christ to it. Let's keep God's Word unmarred
by reading God's Word and believing what it says. Even if it doesn't
agree with something I used to think, let's just believe God's
Word. One last thing, let me give you
this. Let's seek Christ and His Word
urgently. Urgent. I would encourage every one of
us to spend more time in God's Word. I know I have a great advantage
that none of you have. I get up every morning and I
start my day in God's Word. Pretty good way to start your
day. But we should all spend more time reading God's word,
not just here, but. Every day in our in our homes,
in our everyday life, you know, not not just here, but God's
word is something we're told to take with us, take it in your
heart, take it with you. Well, the only way we can do
that is by being familiar with it, by reading it, just reading
it for our own enjoyment. And see Christ in his word urgently,
urgently, because John tells us Time's at hand. Time's at
hand. Even if the Lord does not return
soon, He says, I come quickly. Behold, I come quickly. But to
the Lord, that might be a thousand years. I don't know when He's
going to return. But even if the Lord does not return soon,
I promise you this, He's going to return for you and me right
quick. In your mind, think right now, when
is it you think you're going to die? I bet you it'll be before then.
Whatever time went through your mind, I bet you it'll be before
then. I bet you. So what should we
do? Seek Christ urgently. Seek him
urgently. Because seek him in his word.
Seek him in his gospel. Seek him in the testimony of
God. Because that's the only place the Savior is revealed. It is my personality to be kind
of intense. And I don't want that to seeking
Christ urgently just to be my personality. It is my heart's desire that
God be merciful and cause me and you both to seek Christ urgently. He's all around.