Well, we come back to Revelation
chapter one this morning. There was so much in last week. As you know, I said that I'm
returning to the book of Revelation after about seven or eight years
away from it. That first series that led to
my book, I feel that the days in which we live, this is such
a comfort from God for his people in these perilous times, as Paul
writes to Timothy, in the last days there shall be perilous
times. And as this world grows ever worse in its rejection of
the wisdom of God, because it is, isn't it? You see what all
of philosophy all around us is a rejection of the wisdom of
God, yet God comforts his people and he reinforces hope for his
people and shows us that we have a good hope and a good end. It's a wonderful message of comfort,
a message from heaven, from the unknowable God to his Son. That's what revelation is. God
gave it to Jesus Christ. God gave it to his Son, who is
the manifestation of God. If you would know God, you must
know Christ. No man has seen God at any time,
said John in his Gospel. The only begotten Son who is
in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. It's the
revelation of Him. This book reveals Jesus Christ,
and it's sent by an angel, by God's messenger, in significations
to John. That's what it says in the first
verse, signified it to his servant John. John the Apostle, the last
living Apostle, about A.D. 95, he sent it by vision, significations,
pictures in human earthly language of things that are inexpressibly
heavenly, and yet he has given us this message. And look, he
tells him in verse 11 of chapter 1, he says, I am the Alpha and
the Omega, the first and the last, and what you see, write
in a book and send it to the churches. What you see, write
in a book and send to the churches. Here we have it, here in our
hands today, in 2023, We have this message from God which He
gave to Christ and sent by His angels signified through His
servant John. We have it here before us. Now,
what we didn't go into in any detail, and I want to in a bit
more detail this week, is from verse 4 to verse 6, the greeting
which comes from the triune God to His church. The Church of
God is the body of Christ. That's what he says in other
epistles throughout the New Testament. The Church, the Ecclesia, is
a company of people. It isn't a building. Everybody
around us thinks that a church is a building to which you go,
and that there's a certain ambience that goes with that building.
Well, it might have an architectural ambience, but spiritually speaking,
no. The church, the place where God
lives amongst his people, is a company of living people who
trust in Christ. And he says, to the seven churches. Well, were there only seven churches?
No, of course not. There was the church at Antioch,
there was the church at Rome, there was the church in Corinth,
there was the church at Philippi. Why? Is this letter not to them? Is this book not to them? Well
no, it's symbolical, signified. Seven is God's number of perfection. And seven is symbolical of all... Why is it place names? Ephesus,
Smyrna... Pergamon, Pergamos, Thyatira,
Sardis, why is it about specific geographical locations? It's
in acknowledgement of this, that companies of believers gather
in specific physical locations, like a handful of us gather here
most Sundays, and we know that by virtue of the days in which
we live, several more of you gather with us over the internet,
and that's great. But it's a company of believing
people, waiting for the Word of God to come to them, seeking
to praise and worship the living God, seeking to know God, seeking
to follow Him. This is followers of Jesus Christ
in specific places, and it includes us today. Seven, and the named
ones here, are just symbolical of all churches in all time.
It isn't churches of nominal, mere nominal professors of belief
in Christ. The world of religion around
professes the name of Christ, but do they know Him? Do they
know Him? Do they know the Living God?
Do they hear His Word? Do they believe His Word? Or
do they decide for themselves what they think his word is today?
No, that's not the true church, they're just professors. No,
this is to the true church of God that believes the living
God, that says to the law and the testimony, this book, the
Bible, to the law and the testimony, if whoever they are speak not
according to this word, there is no light in them, there is
no truth in them. So beware, it's this book, sola
scriptura, The motto of the Reformation, the Bible alone, we only hear
what the Bible has to say, because this is the Word of God to us.
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your
faith in his excellent Word. thing that John has been given,
has had revealed to him, he is writing to the church, and they're
symbolized by these seven churches, but of course it means the whole
of the true church of the living God. And look what his first
greeting is in verse 4. Grace be unto you and peace from
him which is and which was and which is to come. Grace and peace
from the eternal God. God never had a beginning. God
never has an ending. God is the same yesterday, today,
and forever. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
and today, and forever. This is the eternal God. And
there's a greeting of grace and peace. Grace and peace. What
do we mean, grace? You could put it this way. John
is expressing to them, may God, by His Spirit, operate in your
hearts to give you knowledge of the benefits of His grace. Grace? God's riches at Christ's
expense. The riches of what? The riches
of salvation. May those riches be yours. May
you know the living God. Grace be unto you, and peace,
because from that salvation, where Christ has redeemed his
people from the curse of the law, where he has borne the wrath
of God for sin in the place of his people, that brings peace. He has made peace, it says, elsewhere
in the New Testament, through the blood of his cross. Colossians
chapter, I can't remember exactly, 120, something like that. He's
made peace through the blood of his cross. Grace and peace
from the eternal God. Do you know the eternal God?
The eternal God. has good thoughts alone towards
the people that He loved, the multitude, the innumerable multitude. There is a multitude that He
loved from before the beginning of time, that He determined to
save from their sins. This is what this creation is
all about, it's the salvation. of this multitude out of that
world of sin and of rebellion against God. And God, we know,
because I quote it often to you, Jeremiah 29 verse 11, I know
the thoughts that I think toward you. God says to his people in
this world today, I know the thoughts that I think toward
you, saith the Lord. Thoughts of peace. and not of
evil, to give you an expected end. God's got good intentions,
and if God has good intentions towards his people, they're intentions
which will most certainly be fulfilled. They cannot be thwarted. It's impossible. Try as Satan
might, and he does, he cannot thwart the intentions, the good
thoughts that God has towards his people. And how are those
thoughts, how are those good intentions? made known to us,
they're communicated by His Spirit. Look, He says, and from the seven
spirits which are before His throne. Does He mean that the
Holy Spirit is seven? Does He mean that there are seven
Holy Spirits? No. there is one Holy Spirit. But I think what it's saying
here is, just as he says there are seven perfect, symbolical
local churches, there are seven manifestations of the one Holy
Spirit of God. One per church, if you like.
One per symbolical church. So that in all places and at
all times, God's Spirit communicates God's grace and His peace to
each and every one of them. It doesn't matter if you're in
Ephesus, or if you're in Pergamos, or if you're in Laodicea. That
one Spirit, by His seven, by His perfect manifestations to
the Church, communicates God's grace and peace. And it's through
the tangible the get-holdable of, the tangible manifestation
of the unknowable God. From Jesus Christ, verse 5, from
Jesus Christ, who is the tangible manifestation of the unknowable
God, He is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the
dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth, and to Him who
loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath
made us kings and priests, and to God and His Father, to Him
be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. He's the faithful
witness of hidden heavenly truth. How would we know? Creation tells
us there's a God. Intelligent design is stamped
all over it. Whatever unbelieving fools tell
you today, whatever science falsely so-called tries to persuade you
of. It cannot be true. It's absolutely, utterly impossible
to anybody who really seriously thinks about it. This world,
putting its complexity together without a God, is utterly impossible. Of course He's there, but we
know Him. We know His word. We know His
His will, we know His intentions through that which He's revealed
in His Word. And Jesus Christ, the manifestation
of God, is the faithful witness of hidden heavenly truth. He's
the one who bears witness of all that the Father committed
to Him. When He was with His disciples in the upper room the
night before He was betrayed, the night before He was crucified,
in John chapter 15, You know, those chapters of John, and it's
the same man writing this book of Revelation, you know, it says
that in verse 2, John bare record, testified of the word of God
and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that
he saw, not just in this vision, but that which he'd seen in the
ministry of Christ. And John was with him in that
upper room. And it says that he lent on his
breast, a very intimate, close, warm, communication of divine
truth to the disciples as Judas went out to betray the Lord Jesus
Christ. John was there hearing his words
and he heard the Lord Jesus Christ say this, all things that I have
heard of my father I have made known to you. I've told you all
the secrets of heaven. I've told you all the hidden
mystery of heavenly truth of God and of holiness and of sin
and of righteousness and of salvation and of redemption that he is
going to accomplish the next day when he goes to the cross
and dies in the place of his people. He says, I've made all
this known to you. And why has he made it known
to them in that same verse? He says, I call you, you sinners. He is so high, and we, they,
are so low because of sin, and he says, I call you no longer
my servants, but I call you my friends. Friends. Jesus, the
friend of sinners. Here he is, Jesus, the friend
of sinners. He's made heavenly truth known. He's the faithful
witness of heavenly truth. He's the first begotten from
the dead. He's God's rightful, supreme
ruler of his kingdom, the prince of the kings of the earth. He's
king of kings and lord of lords. He's the first begotten from
the dead, the death which he died, the death of the cross,
the death for the sins of his people, to satisfy defying justice,
for the soul that sins, it shall die. And he died. in the place
of his people, so that the justice of God is perfectly satisfied. Its penalty has been paid, the
debt has been cancelled, because in the decree of God, this one
who is the Son of God, who is in whom dwelt the fullness of
the Godhead bodily, He has died, and His blood is precious blood.
His blood is sinless blood. He, the Passover Lamb of God,
died in the place of His people. And dying, He didn't stay dead,
because God was satisfied, and God was vindicated in His justice.
And that which kept sinners away from God, the veil of the temple,
symbolically in Jerusalem, when Jesus died, that was torn from
top to bottom. So that those that couldn't go
into the Holy of Holies now could. There is access through that
which Christ has accomplished. But He didn't stay dead. He rose
from the dead. The Holy One of God did not decay
like you and me. When our bodies die, we will
decay. We will return to the dust from which we're made. But
He didn't. He rose from the dead in a resurrection body, a new
body, one that has gone through the grave and come out the other
side of the grave. And because of that, he gives
hope to his people. He died in order to wash his
people from their sins in his blood. That multitude of people
he eternally loved. Look in verse 18, he says, I
am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell
and death. He lives, he was dead, but he's
alive forevermore. He came back from the dead in
his resurrection body. And so shall all his people come
back in that way. Death is defeated. We know this
from what Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse
55. He says, O death, at the end
of that chapter, you need to read it all. But he says, O death,
Where is thy sting? You know, all of us, whether
we try to deny it or not, through fear of death, as Hebrews chapter
2 and early on in that chapter says, through fear of death,
no, verse 14, Hebrews 2, 14, through fear of death are subject
to bondage. The bondage of what? The bondage
of the fear of death. that it's appointed to man to
die once, and then the judgment. That judgment is certain. But, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory over death through our Lord Jesus Christ, for He
has defeated it. And in Him, He being the firstborn
from the dead, the first begotten of the dead, all of His people
shall follow Him into that eternal bliss that He has made for us. All of us must die, but God in
Christ has overcome death. So he's the firstborn from it.
All his people will follow him through it and into eternal glory. And he has the keys of death
and hell. The Catholics will tell you that
it's the Pope that has the keys of death and hell. Nothing could
be further from the truth. Look at verse 18. I am alive
forevermore and have the keys of hell and death. It is him. It is him. It is Him. He has
the keys. He has, to Him, look, our God
manifested in Christ Jesus, ministered by the Spirit. He has the keys
of death and hell. Psalm 68 verse 20. Our God is
the God of salvation, and unto God, the Lord, belong the issues
of death. Oh my friend, you're all going
to die. We're all going to die. I'm going
to die. It's just a question of when and of what. That's all.
But the certainty of it cannot be doubted. To the Lord, to God
the Lord, to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God the Lord, belong the
issues from death. This one has loved his church,
has redeemed us, and is elevated to His throne and He has elevated
us with Him. He has made us kings and priests
unto God and His Father. To Him be glory and dominion
for ever and ever. He has elevated His people to
reign with Him on His throne, to rule with Him and to serve
Him. And then there's a promise of hope. In this evil world where
everything to do with the goodness of God has been thrown overboard,
there's a promise of hope. Verses 7 and 8. I am the Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which
was, and which is to come, the Almighty. soldiers or troops beleaguered
in enemy territory, longing for rescue, or as I think the military
call it, extraction from a dangerous zone. And there's a promise that
yes, definitely, the rescue troops will come and get them. This
is not their settled state. Pinned down in this enemy territory,
this is not the settled state. the supreme, the beneficent ruler
of his people is coming back to rescue them out of that situation. This is what the promise is to
the people of God in this fallen world. Behold, he cometh with
clouds. You saw him go, but as when he
went back to heaven at the ascension, the promise was given by the
angels that as you've seen him go, so he will come back. And
nearly 2,000 years have gone by and we're still waiting, but
in God's eyes, what is a day but a thousand years, or a thousand
years is but a day? He's coming back, but this time,
when He returns, it's not in loneliness, as the first time,
It's not in a humble manger, in poverty. No, it's in majesty. He cometh with clouds. In Scripture,
coming with clouds speaks of majesty, and of judgment, and
of dominion. Not lowliness is the first time,
and every eye shall see him. You say, how can that possibly
be? How can that possibly be? I have not the slightest trouble
believing that when God says, every eye shall see Him, He is
the God who rules all the laws that govern this universe in
which we live. Are you telling me that He cannot
order things so that every eye on this planet shall see Him?
Do we need a flat earth to see him? No, of course not. Do we
need a globe to see him? No, of course not. He will ensure
that every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him.
And who's that? Is that not, in a way, all of
us? All of us, by our sin, caused him to go to that cross? And
all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. He's
coming back in majesty to be seen by all. He'll be seen by
those who trust him and look and long for his return. Because
to those, to believers, he is a saver of life unto life, as
Paul says. He is life, in him was life. And the life was the light of
man, it shone in Jesus Christ. He is the life, but he'll also
be seen by those who reject him. unto whom, those who do not believe
him, unto whom he is a saver of death unto death. He is a
saver of death unto death. Even so, it's certain. Amen. Look at the end of verse 7. Even
so, it's certain. God has said it is so. Amen. Who is it that comes back? Verse
8. Look who's coming back. Who is the one that's coming
back? We know from the ascension, Jesus, this same Jesus that you've
seen go, will return. Who is it that's coming back?
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending,
saith the Lord, which is? and which was and which is to
come, the Almighty. He's the one that is coming back,
the Christ who came in humility and poverty to die, who has defeated
death by his death and by his shed blood, who rules supreme,
who is Almighty God. Look at the end of verse eight,
the Almighty, Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Almighty
God. He is Almighty God. You know,
the Trinity is a mystery. Don't let anybody try to explain
it to you because you can't. There is one God. Israel was
taught to say, there is one God, only one God. But that God is
manifested in three glorious persons, co-equal. They're all
equally God, yet distinct roles. Christ and the Father. How many
times did Jesus say, I and my Father are one. If you've seen
me, you have seen the Father, he said to Philip. Christ is
the manifestation of the unknowable Father. And the Holy Spirit is
the one who communicates the blessings of gospel grace and
of the life and truth of God to his people. This is the one. Look in Isaiah chapter 40. Turn
over to Isaiah chapter 40, and keep your finger in there, because
we'll be looking at chapter 43 in a moment. But in Isaiah chapter
40, which begins, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your
God, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that
her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned,
for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her
sins. Verse three, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
prepare ye the way of the Lord. and make straight in the desert
a highway for our God. Prepare the way, prepare the
way. Who is it that's coming? Who is it? Look, prepare in the
way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our
God, our God, a highway for our God. Look whose glory is revealed,
verse 5, when he comes, the glory of the Lord, And the LORD is
in capital letters there, small caps. And the glory of the LORD
shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. Why? For
the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. Who speaks the words from
the mouth of the Lord? Is it not the Lord Jesus Christ?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Without Him
was nothing made that was made, et cetera. The Lord, He is the
one that's spoken it. Who is He? He is God. Look in
verse nine. O Zion, that bringest good tidings,
get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bringest good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not
afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. When he came the first time,
behold, look, he has no comeliness that we should desire him. But
behold your God, behold, the Lord God will come with strong
hand. You notice there the Lord God,
Lord is lowercase letters, capital L lowercase letters, which is
the manifestation of God. the unseeable God, the eternal
essence of God. This is Christ. He shall come
with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his
reward is with him and his work before him. His reward of salvation
is with him. Is this Redeemer another God? This Redeemer, this Christ who
would come, is he another God? Look at chapter 43. that we read
earlier. Look at verse 1, But now thus
saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee,
O Israel. He's talking about his people,
the Israel of God, the Church of God. Fear not, for I have
redeemed thee. I have paid the price for your
release from the bondage of sin. I have redeemed you from the
curse of the law. Who did that? The Lord Jesus
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? By Himself
being made a curse for us. I have called thee by thy name,
and thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego learned that Two
or three hundred years later when they walked through the
fiery furnace in Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, and they were not hurt.
For, listen to who's speaking, I am the Lord thy God, the Holy
One of Israel, thy Saviour. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba for thee. This creation, the kingdoms of
this world, all of its purpose is that God would save his people
out of this world. You are precious in my sight.
You are honorable. I have loved you. Where do we
go next? Let's just have a look. Yeah,
verse 3. I am the Lord thy God, the Holy
One of Israel, thy Saviour. I gave Egypt for thy ransom.
Who is it that's speaking here? It's the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Word of God. It is God, the Word, who is speaking. I am the Lord thy God. He is
God, the one who walked this earth, the one who was born of
a virgin, the one who is the Alpha and Omega, speaking to
John, the one of whom Revelation, the book of, is a revelation
of Jesus Christ. It reveals Him. This is the one
who's speaking. He's the Lord God. Look at verse
10. Verse 10. You are my witnesses, saith the
Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe
me and understand that I am He. What's he saying there? I'm sure
he's saying this. that the Jesus who walked before
you in human flesh is none other than God. Before me, there was
no God formed. Neither shall there be after
me. This is no new God, this Saviour. I, even I, am the Lord. And beside me, there is no Saviour. Who's the Saviour of sinners?
Oh, Jesus Christ, would say the religious. Ah, but isn't God
the Saviour of sin? Oh yeah, that's a problem, isn't
it? No, it's one and the same. There's no other Saviour. I have
declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was
no strange God among you. Jesus the Saviour is no strange
God. He is the eternal God. Therefore,
ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. I'm absolutely sure that's what
it is saying. In 1 John 5, verse 20, this same
apostle says, we know that the Son of God has come. and hath
given us an understanding that we may know him that is true,
and we are in him that is true. Even, how are we in the one who
is the Son of God, who is the revelation of God? And in his
Son, Jesus Christ, even in his Son, Jesus Christ. What's the
summation of it all? This is the true God and eternal
life. The true God and eternal life.
Back to Revelation chapter one. as our time speeds away yet again. Back to Revelation chapter 1.
This one, verse 13, that we focused on last week, in the midst of
the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, clothed
with a garment down to the foot. One like unto the Son of Man.
This is Jesus Christ. This is God manifested. This
is God incarnate. This is the Alpha and the Omega
of verse 8. The beginning and the ending
saith the Lord, which is and which was and which is to come. This is Almighty God. The Lord
Jesus Christ is Almighty God. Verse 11. saying this voice,
this voice that he turned to see, who is the one in verse
13, like unto the Son of Man, clothed and visibly appearing. This one said, again, I am Alpha
and Omega, the first and the last, and what thou seest, write
in a book and send to the churches. This is him, the Alpha and the
Omega. I put an article in the Bulletin
this week, which is one of Don Faulkner's, on this very verse,
this very subject. The Lord Jesus Christ as the
Alpha and the Omega. Read it if you can get it, it's
on our website. This one is coming back for his
people. He's coming back for judgment.
Not in humility, but in majesty. For triumph, for triumph. Not subject to the spitting and
the crown of thorns and the mockery, but for triumph. Every eye shall
see him. And the scriptures reveal that
people will run and call for the mountains to fall on them
to hide. But believer. You to whom this
is the savour of life unto life, don't despair. Hope in confidence. We saw last time Christ amidst
his church. This God, this almighty God,
this eternal God, the beginning and the ending, is in the midst
of his church. like the Son of Man, clothed
amidst the seven candlesticks. What are they? Verse 20, at the
end of it. The seven candlesticks is a representation
of the seven churches. Why? Because candlesticks hold
the candles, and the candles bear the light, give the light.
And the purpose of God's witnesses, His church in this world, is
to give the light of His kingdom to a world in darkness that cannot
see it. That's who the seven candlesticks
are. Who are the seven stars in verse 16? He had in his right
hand seven stars. Who are the seven stars? Verse
20. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. Angels,
messengers, the preachers, the pastors, the ministers. We're
not alone. in our wilderness, separation
from this world. We're in it, the world, but not
of it, not of the same philosophy of it. Our Almighty God is with
us. Our Almighty God is among us,
one like the Son of Man in the midst of the candlesticks. He
is the one who keeps us. We cannot keep ourselves, our
grip is not strong enough. But He has promised His people,
I will never leave you nor forsake you. This is what God, the eternal
almighty God, says to the people who trust Him for salvation,
for preservation. He says, I will never leave you
nor forsake you. Whatever we are called to go
through, as Isaiah 43 said, through the waters and through the fire,
whatever, He says, I will be with you. I will be with you.
Can you hear this? We despair at the growing evil
in this world. We get rightly concerned as to
what will happen for our children and our grandchildren and our
great-grandchildren even. What are we going to do? Are
we going to take up arms and fight? No, Jesus said, my kingdom
is not of this world. If it were, my servants would
take up arms and fight. No, no. What are we to do? Trust, wait, watch. He's coming with clouds. He's
coming in majesty. And every eye shall see him.
Do you despair? Another day goes by and he still
hasn't come, another day goes by and he's... When do you think
he'll come again? This was the question that was
asked. When do you think he will come
again? In the day when you don't think he will come again, is
when he'll come again. That's it. In the hour when you
think not. If the good man of the house
had known when the thief was going to come, he would have
set a watch and prevented him. But he didn't. And he said, that's
what it will be like with the return of the Son of Man. So
there's a vision of the Son of Man. I'm going to have to be
very quick with this. Verses 13 to 16. Look at these. girt about the paps with a golden
girdle. His head and his hairs were white
like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame
of fire, his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a
furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters. In his
right hand seven stars, out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged
sword, and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. This is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the risen, glorified Lord Jesus Christ. It's a vision of absolute
purity. It's a vision of supreme majesty. It's a vision of utter, complete
holiness and perfection. It's one of piercing vision. There is nothing that happens
that he does not see. It's a vision of solid feet,
unlike the feet of clay which most of the kingdoms of this
world are subject to. There's a powerful voice, an
almighty voice, the Word of God, for He is the Word of God. There's
a sword proceeding from His mouth, which is that Word of God, the
sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. He's shining. How bright
is He shining? Can you look upon the sun? Of
course you can't. You'd be blinded. If you look
at the sun, you know, it's what we're repeatedly told, you must
not look at the sun. It's too bright to look upon.
He is too bright to look upon. Verse 17, he is life-draining. When I saw him, says John, I
fell at his feet as dead. The sheer vision of this one
is life-draining, just as it was in the appearance to Daniel,
in the book of Daniel. He fell at his feet as dead,
and the hand was put upon him, fear not, stand on your feet.
Who is this? Who is this? We read in Isaiah
43. Is this a strange God? No, this
is no strange God. There was no strange God with
you. This is God our Saviour. Who is this? Who is this Lord
Jesus Christ? He is the Creator of all things. Did you know that? He is the
Creator. In the beginning was the Word, says John. 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. The Jehovah's
Witnesses will tell you that He is a created creature. All
things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything
made that was made. He's the Creator, God our Creator.
God spoke by the prophets, says Hebrews 1 verse 2, and it says,
but now in these last days He's spoken to us by His Son, by whom
also He made the worlds. Whose word was it that said,
let there be light, and there was light? It was the Word of
God. It was the Lord Jesus Christ. It was this Alpha and Omega,
the Almighty. From beginning to the end, He
was the one who spoke all things into existence. He's the one,
as Hebrews 1 verse 3 tells us, that by His Word, all things
are sustained. They're all upheld, upholding
all things by the Word of His power. He, Christ, is the one
in whose image Adam was made. God made man in His own image.
Who was it that walked with Adam and talked with Adam in the cool
of the day in the Garden of Eden before the fall? It was this
one, it was this Word of God, it was this God manifested who
walked with Adam and talked with him. He was the one in whose
image Adam was made before the fall. He is the one who pronounced
the curse for sin when they did sin and fall. He is the one who
in the same Encounter. Judging the serpent for his evil. He is the one who promised redemption
from it. Redemption from the curse. Redemption
from the fall. He is the one who did that. And
he showed it. How did he show it? An animal
was killed. And where Adam and Eve had tried
to cover themselves with fig leaves that they sowed by themselves
with their own efforts, God clothed them in animal skins. Is that
not such a beautiful picture? of the Lamb of God coming to
die in the place of His people. He showed grace to Noah. He called
Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees. He spoke by the prophets. He
spoke by David in the Psalms. He performed miracles with His
people to preserve the way for the promised seed of the woman
to come. He, this one, the Lord Jesus Christ, is a consuming
fire. He is the righteous judge. He
is the friend of sinners. He is the redeemer of captives,
the one who pays the ransom. He is our God and our Saviour. There is no strange God amongst
us. He is the one that John saw. He is the one that is amongst
those who believe him now as we walk through this world in
these latter days. In this, what I believe, is this
little season of Satan, where there is such deception and delusion
all round. Yet, if you're a believer on
the Lord Jesus Christ, then He is with us. He is with us. Look
at this. Fear not, he says. Verse 17,
at the end of it. He said to me, fear not. He saw
this awesome sight that would make the life drain from you.
And this one says, fear not. I am the first and the last.
I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I'm alive forevermore.
Amen. And have the keys of hell and
death. He is the one. Look at Romans
8. We'll finish with this. What
shall we say? Verse 31, Romans 8, 31. What
shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, if this God
is for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own
son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with
him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Yes,
Satan would seek to lay things to my charge, but he can't make
them stick, for Christ has died. Who is he that condemns? It is
Christ that died. Yea, rather, that he's risen
again. Who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh
intercession for us? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword,
As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long,
we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For
I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing
that happens in this world, nothing that is concocted by the governments
and the authorities of this world to try and implement the kingdom
of Satan, nothing can separate the people of God from their
God. Nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.