Well I'd like you to turn with
me to Revelation chapter 1 this morning. Of course we're living
in very strange days, I mean quite unprecedented in the lifetimes
of most of us, we can't remember anything quite like this on such
a worldwide scale. This Covid virus is highlighting
what a broken world we live in. I don't think governments have
ever seemed quite so clueless and quite so incompetent. Absolutely
amazing. We vote for people that we think
are going to lead us in a sensible direction. and do the will that
the people have voted for and yet we end up with absolutely
hideous situations going on and ridiculous restrictions on our
civil liberties, on our freedoms being imposed and experts are
saying that this is the way it's got to be done and yet people
with some sense really do question so much of this. We have such
draconian controls all around. You see, godless, unbelieving
society all around. Life in this world is about eat,
drink and be merry, get what you can, go where you can, enjoy
what you can, for tomorrow we die. Make the most of it. You
only get one life. You're an awful long time dead,
they say. This is what life is about. And
yet, at the moment, by government edict, so much of it is put on
hold. And I've started to hear people
saying and mean it that, quite honestly, life is not worth living
like this. If this is how we're going to
have to be controlled for the future, life is not worth living
like this. But it affects believers too,
of course. We all live in this world. The
Second World War affected believers, just like it affected unbelievers. Everybody was affected by it,
and this affects everybody as well. Those who are Christ's,
those who are His people, His church, His elect, we all in
the flesh, in these bodies, feel the frustration of this situation
too. But we have what the world doesn't
have. We have comfort and reassurance from God by His Spirit. He's
called the Comforter. Jesus said, if I go, if I leave
you and go back to glory, we will send, I and my Father will
send the Comforter to you. He sends the Comforter, His Holy
Spirit. Through His Word, He shows us
the truth of God. He shows us that God's kingdom
shall triumph and God's people shall share in its victory and
in its eternal bliss. The things around us, everything
around us, the things that we feel are so solid because we
can touch them and handle them and taste them and see them,
the Word of God tells us that they are things that are fleeting.
They're passing away. They consume our attention. They
feed our fears. But spiritual reality, the things
that you can't see with natural senses, the things that you need
light from on high, light from God, the enlightenment of God's
Spirit, the new life, the new birth from on high, that's spiritual
reality. that spiritual senses, that faith
senses, that is what is truly enduring. The things that we
see and can feel and touch, the Word of God tells us they're
all passing away. They will all dissolve. They
will all be gone. It will all be replaced. There
will be a new heavens and a new earth in which dwells righteousness
when the end comes and when Christ returns to establish without
rival His kingdom. This is what we need to see,
to take our fear away, to take our frustration away in these
days. Think back, well you can't think
back, but let me tell you, in the year A.D. 95 or thereabouts,
give or take a year or two, when the church, the early church,
the first century church, might have been tempted to doubt, what
was it all about? You know, you think about it,
60 odd years ago, Christ died on the cross? And did we see
him return to glory? You know, there was the great
fanfare at Bethlehem, the story of the shepherds, the angels,
glory to God in the highest on earth, peace, goodwill toward
men, and then 30 years of relative silence, and then he appears
on the scene, and he ministers for three and a half years. And
there are 12 who are with him very closely, and a lot more
who are hangers-on and roundabout. and he completes his ministry
and does everything that Messiah was going to do and then he goes
to the cross and he dies and he accomplishes redemption and
he returns to eternal glory and the Roman Empire carries on persecuting
anybody that contradicted it. The Roman Empire carries on doing
its thing Where is his coming? Is he coming back? Many must
have been tempted to doubt. And so in A.D. 95, God gave the
revelation to Christ in signs and wonders, sorry, signs and
in visions, that's what it means when it says signified in verse
one, via the Apostle John, to show his servants what must happen,
that we should not fear, that we should know that God is in
control of everything. John, who is the one that wrote
this, was told to write it down and put it in a book. John is
the Apostle John. He is one of the inner circle
of the disciples. He is one of the three, Peter,
James, and John. John is the Apostle. He says
he is the disciple whom Jesus loved. He is the one who leaned
at the Last Supper on Jesus' bosom. He leaned upon him. He
touched him. He embraced him. He put his arm
around him. This is the one that was so close
to the man, Christ Jesus. So exalted, given such heights
of vision, as you see when you read through the rest of the
book, the truth of God that was revealed to him. is quite remarkable
and yet, look, he's filled with humility. Yes, he's an apostle
with authority in the church, the authority of God to write
doctrine, to write truth, to preach truth, to be the definition
of truth for the church for all ages. The foundation of the apostles
is what the church is built on, the apostles' doctrine. That's
the very foundation of the church. Here he is with all of this authority,
but in verse 9, he's just John, your brother and your companion
in tribulation, in trouble, and in the kingdom and patience of
Jesus Christ. He's just your brother, believer,
here is this one who's given such vision and yet he's just
your brother, your companion in the service of Christ. Now,
look at the background of it, first of all, in verses 9 and
10. I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation,
and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle
that is called Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony
of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's
day, and I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet. He was
on this little island of Patmos, you can visit it today, it's
in the Aegean Sea, a little rugged piece of rock, it gets very hot
there and there's not much grows there, it was a pretty barren
place. And I think what it is saying, though it isn't 100%
clear, but I think what it is saying that he had been exiled
there. for preaching Christ. He says
he was there for the, what does it say, I was in the island for
the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. He'd been preaching
the word of God. and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Isn't Jesus Christ, you know, gentle Jesus, meek and mild?
Why would anybody, you know, oh, you know, the people of this
world, they don't think Jesus was a bad person, do they? They
think, you know, he tried to do some kind things, and I don't
know whether we believe all the miracles, but Why does the world
persecute Jesus Christ? I'll tell you why. It's very
simple. It's very simple. It's because he preached the
righteousness of God. He preached the kingdom of God,
which is founded on the righteousness of God, and not on the sin of
this world. He preached the righteousness
of God, which is alone established on the basis of the redemption
that He has accomplished for the people, the multitude that
He loved. And that is God's sovereign choice.
It is not of Him who wills, nor of Him who runs, but of God who
shows mercy. It is not of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, nor of the tradition of families,
nor anything of the sort. It is the will of God to save
whom He will save, to give light to whom He will give light. And
now, when people hear that, they're not too sure about this Jesus.
That's not the message this world wants to hear. You go around,
there's a dozen churches within a mile of here. You go around
those churches, you will not hear that. They'll talk about
Jesus, but they will not preach that message. They will not preach
that message at all, of the sovereignty of God. They even use the words,
the sovereignty of God, but they don't believe it. They don't
practice it in what they say and in what they do. Jesus was
hated because of the gospel he preached of sovereign grace and
particular redemption. And John was exiled for it. Just
like John Bunyan was locked up in Bedford jail for 12 years
for preaching that gospel. And it wasn't the gospel that
the National Church put its seal of approval on. And so they locked
John Bunyan away to stop him from preaching. And so it will
always be. The kingdom of this world, the
kingdom of Antichrist, hates the gospel of God's grace. Now,
John was, he says, in the spirit, and I think what that means is
that He felt particularly spiritually alert to the Holy Spirit's revelation
of eternal truth. He was in the Spirit. It was
as if the Spirit's really speaking to him. Do you know there are
times in the experience of believers, sometimes things seem so cold
and hard and barren. and other times are sweet, sweet
the moments rich in blessings, says that hymn, which before
the cross I spend. When the spirit is particularly
attuned, it might be words in the verse of a hymn, it might
be some scripture reading, it might be a sermon and a phrase
out of it that you're hearing or reading, and you feel particularly
spoken to by the Spirit of God, spiritually alert to the comforter's
revelation of eternal truth. But God's people in this world,
we're people of flesh and blood, and of natural physical senses,
of sight, and of hearing, and of touch, and of taste. And in
this world, we can only receive truth in human language. in physical metaphors of spiritual
truth. And so the Revelation has to
use terms like we read in here, further down in the verses 12
to 18 or thereabouts. You read of candlesticks You
read of a garment down to the foot. You read of gold. You read
of brass. You read of white shining hair. It talks of the sound of many
waters, great thundering waterfalls. We read of stars, and of the
sun. This sun of man shines like the
sun in his strength. We read of a sword, that out
of his mouth comes a sword, that he has a set of keys in his hands. These are all physical metaphors. for spiritual truth. They're
not to be taken literally. They are not literal. They're
representatives. Imagine somebody becomes your
friend who was born blind, and there are enough people in that
condition even in these days of scientific medical wonders,
but they've never ever experienced what it is to look on a beautiful
scene. I mean the scene that always
comes to my mind is the one that the Lakeland cam man up in Coniston
puts on his website more days than any other, which is Tarn
House from the Scott Memorial, you know, looking down on Tarn
House. Absolutely beautiful, gorgeous scene, gorgeous. Now
you imagine you take your friend there, because it's one of your
favourite places, But he can't see it, and he's never ever going
to see it, never ever going to physically have the optic nerve
stimulated with that beautiful scene. So you try and explain.
Now, you try and imagine, you try and put into words, and you
try and conjure up a picture in that person's mind, that blind
person's. This is what God is doing to
us, we natural physical creatures. He's giving us a picture in metaphors
to describe the reality. Remember, spiritual reality is
the true, solid, enduring reality. The physical things we see are
fleeting and passing away. They're going to pass away. The
Word of God is absolutely clear. So then let's see what this tells
to us and how, in these strange days, it reassures us. Christ
and his people in this world. In verse 11, The voice that John
hears, he hears behind him a great voice as of a trumpet. Michael
used to play the trumpet. It's very hard, isn't it? Playing
a trumpet quietly is very, very hard. When we used to sing in
the Wellingarden City Choir and the orchestra used to join, amateur
musicians and amateur brass sections find it very difficult to play
quietly. It tends to end up sounding like
a traffic jam in a Spanish street, you know, pa, pa, pa, it's just
very, very loud. The idea being conveyed here
is of a trumpet, a loud instrument. And the voice says this, I am
Alpha and Omega, the first and... Who is speaking? The one who
calls himself Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. Who is
this? Look back to verse 8. We read
it again. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the ending. Who? Says the Lord. Which is,
and which was, and which is to come? The Almighty. Who is it? This is Almighty God. This is
the infinite, almighty, unknowable God, who is revealing Himself
to His people in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The
physical expression of the being and character and nature and
name of God is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God. He is
the Word of God. Later on in Revelation, He appears
in a vision, and the name that is on Him is the Word of God.
He is the Word of God. And he is told to write in a
book for the seven churches. Why seven? These were literal,
physical churches in Asia Minor, in modern-day Turkey. Ephesus,
you can go there. You've visited Ephesus, haven't
you? You've been there. You can go to these places. All these
seven churches, why seven? Well, seven is symbolical of
God's completeness, of God's perfection. It's representative
of God's perfection. But think a little bit more about
the number seven. You know, the number seven, it's
a strange number. It's the number of days we have
in a week. It's a prime number. It's difficult to break down. Well, you can only say seven
is one times seven. It's not anything times anything
else. It's a prime number. But listen, it's three plus four,
isn't it? Three is the number of God. Four
is the number of man, the number of creation. Three plus four
is God working on mankind to redeem His people to redeem by
blood justification. Seven. Three plus four equals
seven. The seven churches. Or you could
think of it as six plus one. Remember the days of creation?
Six days of creation. In six days you shall do all
your work, but the seventh is the Sabbath unto the Lord. Six
plus one. Working in this fallen world
to establish a Sabbath rest. Where is our Sabbath rest? Where
do we find our Sabbath rest? in forbidding ourselves from
doing certain things on the day that is now called Sunday. No,
no, no, no, no. Where do we find our Sabbath
rest? Christ is the Sabbath rest of his people. There remaineth
a rest for the people of God. Christ is the rest of his people. He is the Sabbath rest of his
people. And these seven churches are
representative of the whole church in the world until the end of
time, including us today. So these represent us. Those
of us here, those scattered around, we're scattered all around the
world. And in verse 12, he turns to see the voice that spoke with
me. He turns to see it, and being
turned, what does he see? Candlesticks. He sees seven golden
candlesticks. The same as the churches, seven
churches. He sees seven golden candlesticks. What do candlesticks do? They
give light. No, they don't. They bear the
thing that gives the light. The candlestick holds the thing
that gives the light. The candlesticks are the churches.
What is the light? Christ is the light. He said,
I am the light of the world. Being in him is not to be in
darkness, the darkness that the world is in. The church are the
candlesticks that bear the light of Christ in this world. And
in the midst of the seven candlesticks, you see, it pictures that seven-branched... I have to do it like that somehow. But you know in the temple there
was the seven-branched candlestick on the altar in a line. This
was when Israel was the church of God on earth in the Old Testament
dispensation. But now the church is from every
tribe and tongue and kindred. So they're, as it were, in a
circle with the Son of Man in the midst of them. In the midst
was the Son of Man, in the midst of them. In the midst of his
churches is the Son of Man. I just want you to turn to Daniel
chapter 7. The book of Daniel, chapter 7,
remember that was written, when was that written? 700, 600 years, I'm not very
good at remembering details of history, but 6 or 700 years before
Christ came, maybe a bit less than that. Anyway, Daniel 7 verse 13, and
he sees a vision. Daniel sees a vision. Daniel's
a book of visions. And in verse 13, I saw in the
night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with
the clouds of heaven and came to the Ancient of Days. Who is
the Ancient of Days? Of course it's God. the Eternal
God, the Ancient of Days. The Son of Man came to the Ancient
of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was
given Him, the Son of Man, dominion and glory. God gave Him dominion
and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages
should serve Him." The people of God? a multitude that no man
can number, from every tongue and tribe and kindred. And his
dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. And
his kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed, compared with
all the kingdoms of the world which shall be. This is the Son
of Man, this is the pre-incarnate Christ before He has come and
accomplished redemption at Calvary. But now, you see, the Son of
Man then was brought to the Ancient of Days, and also, sorry, you
don't need to turn to it, but I'll read it out to you. in verse
9 of that same chapter of Daniel. Verse 9, I beheld till the thrones
were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, God, God, whose
garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure
wool. His throne was like the fiery
flame, and his wheels as burning fire. garment like snow, white,
hair of his head like pure wool, white, white hair. This is the
Ancient of Days, the Ancient of Days there. Now, in verses
13 and 14 of Revelation 1, in the midst of the seven candlesticks,
one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to
the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle, He's the
one who said He is Alpha and Omega. He is the one already
who is the Almighty from verse 8. His head and His hairs were
white like wool, just like the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7 verse
9. As white as snow, and His eyes
were as a flame of fire, and His feet like unto fine brass,
as if they burned in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of
many waters. The Son of Man now, in Revelation
1, is as the Ancient of Days. You see? He's come, He's accomplished
everything. He's accomplished salvation.
The One that John sees, who is the Alpha and the Omega, is the
Son of Man. He is the Ancient of Days. There
was no strange God among you, says Isaiah's prophecy. as if
he's predicting the way that people would start to talk about
multiple gods. No, there was no strange God
among you. The Son of Man is the Ancient of Days. He is very
God of very God. Who is the one who is standing
in the midst of his churches in this world, in the day in
which we live, this day of COVID confusion, if I can put it that
way. The One who stands amongst His people is Jehovah Jesus,
is Saviour God, is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
but the Lamb slain in time, our Passover Lamb at Calvary 2,000
years ago, in time to accomplish redemption. And we bow before
Him and we say, here is our God in our midst. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our God in our midst. Just as Thomas, the doubting
disciple, said, you know, he wouldn't believe because he didn't
see the risen Christ come and meet with the others in that
room where they were. And a week later, he was there
and the Lord Jesus came among them. And he said, Thomas, come
here. Look at my hands. Look at the nail prints. Look
at the spear mark in my side. And what does Thomas do? He falls
at his feet. My Lord and my God. This is the
one. The one on whose breast the Apostle
John leaned at that last supper. The one who had no form nor comeliness
that we should desire him. The one who just looked like
any other man. The one whom the Pharisees hated,
religion hated, the one whom they persecuted. my Lord and
my God, the one by whom God speaks to his people. Look, you can't
get this powerfully enough. We've been looking at Hebrews,
well it seems some time since we've done it, but on our Wednesday
nights, but Hebrews chapter 1, look at verses 1 to 3 again,
just look at these words, commit them to memory if you can. Hebrews
chapter 1 and verses 1 to 3, God who at sundry times and in
diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets." That's how God spoke to his people, by prophets that
he sent. By the foolishness of preaching
it pleased God to save those who believe. He raises up preachers
of the gospel. It is God's way of declaring
his truth. He has, in these last days, spoken
unto us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things,
the inheritor of all things, all things, all things, all that
is God's is Christ's and his people's in him, all of it, heir
of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. Ah, just like
that, you know. This is how powerful he is, by
whom he made the worlds. What else can you tell us about
Him? You see, He is the one who expresses God to people who can't
see God, who being the brightness of His glory, and the express
image, the outshining of His person, and upholding all things
by the word of His power. laws of physics, gravity, electromagnetic
force, strong nuclear force, all these things that theoretical
physicists are constantly trying to unify into one standard force. I'm sure it is one standard force,
but it's Christ, Christ who upholds all things by the word of his
power. Listen what he did. when he had
by himself. You think, oh, we'll bow down
before his power and majesty, having created and upholding
all things. No, here is the key thing. When he had by himself
purged our sins, the kingdom of God is established on righteousness. The kingdom of God populated
by sinners, redeemed by grace, has to have sins purged from
it. And how was that done? By death.
by the death of God Himself in the person of His Son. When He
had by Himself purged our sins, purged the sins of His people,
He sat down. Why sat down? Completed. You sit down when the job's done,
don't you? You sit down when the work's finished. He sat down
on the right hand of the Majesty on high, being made so much better.
Have you seen Him with the eye of faith? He's the one who is
in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. He's in our midst
today. Do you want to know Him? Do you
want to know Him? Look, just one more from Hebrews
chapter 11 this time. Chapter 11 and verse 6, it says,
Without faith it is impossible to please Him, God. For he that
comes to God must believe that He is. We must believe that There
is a God who is above all things and the cause of all things.
and also believe that he is a rewarder. A rewarder with what? A rewarder
with the knowledge of God. A rewarder with eternal life
from God. With eternal fellowship with
God. He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Seek
the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way, says Isaiah, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts. Let them turn to God. You must
believe that He is and that He's a rewarder of them that diligently
seek Him. Believe Him, diligently seek
Him. He will reward you with spiritual
sight, with eternal truth. Look how He's clothed. This One,
this God, this Almighty, this Alpha, this Omega, the Son of
Man, in the midst of the seven candlesticks, He's clothed with
a garment down to the foot. Girt about the paps with a golden
girdle. Does that not ring of the description
of the priestly clothing, the high priest's garments in the
Law of Moses given to Aaron and his sons. These were just a picture
of the true priest who is our Lord Jesus Christ, who is not
a priest after the order of Levi, after the order of Aaron, but
he is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. What
does a priest do? A priest's job, a priest's role
is to mediate. between sinners and holy God,
to mediate between sinners whom God cannot abide in His presence,
for He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and God in
the holiness of His glory. 1 Timothy 2 verse 5, there is
one God and one mediator between God and men. the man, Christ
Jesus. This is him in his priestly robes.
All of the attributes of God abound up in him. Paul tells
the Colossians that in him dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He has piercing eyes. What does
that mean? There is nothing that is hidden
from his view. He sees everything. the dark
secret places of our hearts and minds, this one is able to see. He's shining, his brightness
is as the sun. He is the light of the world.
But oh, what a light of the world. As the sun, you cannot look at
it. It is too physically bright for us to look at. You look at
it and you're blinded. And he is as the sun, shining
in his brightness. Just to use a metaphorical comparison
of how bright is this one that this world cannot see. To this
world there is nothing other than darkness when it comes to
the truth of God. But he's not one who stays silent.
The voice of many waters, loud, he speaks, he's God, he speaks
loudly. And out of his mouth goes a sharp
two-edged sword. That sword is the word of God. takes, says Paul to the Ephesians,
with the armour of God, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word
of God. This is the Word of God, the
sword of the Spirit. It's God who speaks, this is
His Word, this is His Christ, this is the voice of Christ.
You know, it's popular to have Bibles in which The physical
words of Jesus, the man, are written in red as if they're
more important than the rest. It's all the Word of Christ.
This is all the Word of God. And the vision drained the life
from John. He says, when I saw him, I fell
at his feet as dead. Daniel had a similar vision in
Daniel 10 and verse 10. And he fell at the feet of the
vision of Christ, he fell at his feet as dead, the life force
drained out of him. The life force drained out of
him. We would, if we were to have the vision as they had,
but we have it by faith here because he gives it to us, and
he sends his comforter to comfort us with it. This glorious being
who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but left that
glory, that glory of heaven. He shared it with the Father
from the beginning, the one triune God, but he laid it aside for
a while. We see Jesus, says Hebrews 2
verse 9, who was made a little lower or for a little while lower
than the angels. Why? so that he might die as
a man. For the suffering of death, we
see him crowned with glory and honour. But having accomplished
redemption, he's now glorified. The one who is in the midst of
his church is glorified. He prayed for this. Now, O Father,
glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I
had with thee before the world was. Father, I will. that they
also whom thou hast given me, his church, his people, whom
he redeemed from the curse of the law by being made a curse
for them, I pray that they might be with me where I am, that they
may behold my glory which thou hast given me. This is our Lord
Jesus Christ now. Not the babe in the manger of
religious sentimentality, but the triumphant redeemer of his
people, the sovereign upholder of the universe. Look where he
is. Where is he now? He's in the
midst of the seven candlesticks. us here, you solitary believers
out there, you two or three gathered together in His name. You know,
He promises to be in your midst. You little churches, you little
flock, taken out of the world and despised by the world, treated
as outcasts from society. Read Revelation 13, those are
the days in which we're living. We're living in Satan's little
season. He's released to deceive the
world again, and deception's never been quite on the scale
it is today. But praise God, he has his people,
he has his church, he has that woman whom he gives wings of
faith. to fly to a wilderness separation from this world where
he feeds with the word of life. The sovereign potentate, the
powerful one, is in your midst. He graciously feeds his flock
with the word of truth in wilderness separation from this world by
the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. How? By means
of the seven stars. The seven stars he tells us in
verses 16 and verse 20. The stars in his hand are the
ministry gifts he gives to the church. The angels of the churches,
or the word really means messenger, the messengers, the ones he anoints
to preach, he gave some apostles and prophets and evangelists
and pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints.
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ. Here we are in this world, believing God, diligently
seeking Him and His truth, confidently hoping for heaven, the coming
of the kingdom of God, yet so often doubting, so often weak
in the flesh, so often plagued by sin, so prone to wonder and
prone to unbelief, susceptible to Satan's lies concerning the
kingdom of this world and antichrist, impotent in ourselves, But He
has shown us that He is in the midst and we're standing with
Him as it says in Revelation 14 verse 1 on Mount Sion. His people in this world with
Him on Mount Sion, kept safe for eternity, certain to pass
to glory. How to be so sure? Verse 17,
He laid His right hand upon me saying unto me, fear not. Fear
not, I am the first and the last. This is God, the beginning of
all things and the ending of all things. He is the essence
of life. But look, I am he that liveth,
but was dead. He who was dead to redeem his
people, he died, it was death that was necessary to redeem
the people of God, to satisfy the justice of God, that his
people, the ones he loved with an everlasting love, might be
justified from the law's curse. So that it says, who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? Christ has died. Satan,
the accuser of the brethren, is disarmed. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Justice is satisfied. This one
has come and died and redeemed, but never to die again. I am
alive forevermore. And he says in John 14 verse
19, because I live, you shall live also. The omnipotent
sovereign holds the keys. Verse 18, I have the keys of
hell and death. You need to know him. He has
the keys. What's the purpose of this vision?
to comfort God's people in this world of turmoil, of uncertainty,
of the fear of death, isn't it? That's what it says in Hebrews
2, who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. In this world of turmoil, uncertainty
and fear of death, the purpose of this vision is to comfort
the people of God. to assure that all things under
God's complete control, accomplishing His eternal purposes of grace,
and encouraging us, whatever's happening in this world, fear
not. However frustrating you might
find it, it's all in God's purposes. He's bringing it all to an end. You see, if God be for us, who
can be against us?