Today's lesson can be found in
the 22nd chapter of the revelation of Jesus Christ. We're going to be looking at
verses 8 through 10 on the subject of hearing and seeing. But before we do, I'd like to
recap just a little bit on last week's message. Last week, we
talked about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, which he says
here, shall be quickly. You'll notice in those first
several verses, he speaks of his coming and he said, it's
gonna be quickly. Well, you say, how can that be?
It's been over 2000 years. Well, that's just a dot in eternity. It's not even a good dot when
you think about eternity. He said with God, a thousand
years is like a day and a day is like a thousand years. A thousand
years is nothing. That's nothing before God. But men and women live their
wives based upon their own agendas and according to their own sense
of age and time and death. I've been guilty of this. You've
been guilty of it. I look at my father who died
when he was 86 or 87, and I'm thinking unconsciously to myself,
well, that'll be about the time of my demise. Might not be. Might be today. Might be today. But most men and women live their
lives based upon their own agenda. whatever it is they think they
need to do and ought to do and so on and then they live that
according to their own sense of age but time has no part in
God's eternal purpose of grace except the time that he's allotted
uh... for mankind and to accomplish
his purpose of grace but I'm talking about in our daily lives
that has no no part in God's eternal purpose of grace. Our
God is eternal. I've heard men argue and argue
and argue over eternal justification, over eternal redemption. But
our God's eternal, everything he does is eternal. And they
say, well, if you say that man was eternally justified, then
you take away the reason for Christ's coming. No, I establish
it. When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
His Son. Fullness of what time? That time
of redemption and justification. What redemption and justification?
That redemption and justification which He purposed before the
world began. You see what I'm saying? How God's eternal. And
he's unchangeable, and our God is all-knowing, he's all-wise,
he's almighty, and therefore he can work all things and does
work all things after the counsel of his own will. The second coming of Christ is
not delayed except, and this is the reason I said all of this,
except by the fulfilling of God's everlasting purpose of grace. That's what's being done now.
That was what was being done when Christ appeared on this
earth. So as God reveals to John the things which shall shortly
be done, that's what he said to John. That the gospel be preached for
a witness to all nations. You can find that stated before
the end comes. This gospel shall have been preached
To all nations, you can find that in Matthew 24, 14 and in
Mark 13 and verse 10. Another thing is this, that all
God's elect be called to faith and repentance. He's not willing
that any of his elect should perish, but that all should come
to repentance. Every one of them gonna be called,
given faith, Every one of them is gonna persevere
to the end. And here's another thing. Till
every jot and tittle of the word of God be fulfilled. All things
must be fulfilled which were written. Isn't that what our
Lord said? Which were written in the books
of Moses and in the Psalms and in the prophets concerning man. All these things have to be done.
And I know this. The end shall not come till all
enemies be put under his feet. He must reign until all enemies
be put under his feet. And the last enemy that shall
be put under his feet is death. So Christ's coming, when we think
about Christ's coming, his second coming, we expect him to come. And that coming is joyful. It's
a joyful and happy thought to believers. Believers love to
think on the coming of Christ. My soul is everything we want,
everything we desire. But it's foolishness and beneath
the dignity of the wise to think about Christ coming again. Gospel's
foolishness to them who are perishing. Absolute foolishness. And it's
a strong warning to the unbelievers. second coming of Christ. Behold,
he said, I come quickly. And it ought to be a terrifying
thought to the fence straddler, the man who sits up here and
can't make up his mind what he wants to do. Behold, he said, I come quickly. And today I want us to begin
with verse 8 of Revelation 22. where he says, and I, John, saw
these things and heard them. Now you'll notice if you have
a Bible that does so, you'll notice that the word them is
in italics. Now whenever you see a word in
italics like that, it means that the translators put it there
to make it read more smoothly. but I want you to hear it in
the original. In the original it reads, and
I, John, saw these things and heard. This is how the effectual calling
and the continual feeding of our faith is described in the
scriptures. Hearing and seeing. Hearing and seeing. And John
was so, he says this three or four times, and I've emphasized
this in several of our other studies, he's saying here, and
I, John, saw. As though he just couldn't get
over it. God singled me out and gave me
eyes and gave me ears to hear. I, John. In John's first epistle, he writes,
that which we've seen and heard declare we unto you. And in John's gospel, he quotes
the Lord. This is the will of him that
sent me that everyone which seeth the son and believeth on him
may have everlasting life. There is a hearing and a seeing. The scriptures say, faith cometh
by hearing hearing by the word of the Lord. But before he gets
to that statement, he says, how shall you call upon him in whom
you have not believed and how shall you believe in him of whom
you have not heard? There must be a hearing. Seeing
speaks of the eyes of faith and the eyes of understanding. Hearing
speaks of the word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. How shall you hear without a
preacher? And there's a wonderful example
of this over in Luke chapter 24. This is shortly after the
resurrection of Christ. This is where the disciples were
walking along the road to Emmaus and they were all down in the
dumps, everything, all of their hopes had come tumbling down.
This man that they believed was the Christ died on a cross. And as many times as our Lord
told them that he was gonna raise from the dead, yet they never
did hear it, they never did understand it. And they're walking along,
and the Lord begins at Moses, and the Psalms, and all through
the prophets, and he tells them all those things concerning himself.
And when they got back, they said, didn't our hearts burn
within us as he opened the scriptures to us along the way? And then
in verse 44, Luke 24, our Lord said, these are the words which
I spake to you while I was yet with you, that all things must
be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the
prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. The disciples of
Christ knew the scriptures. Jews were raised going to the
synagogue, and every Sabbath day, the Scriptures were read.
From the time they were just little. Some of you children,
you've been in here since you were little. You heard the Scriptures
read. They knew the Scriptures. If somebody quoted John 3.16,
they knew that was John 3.16. We heard that before. They knew
the Scriptures. They were familiar with the commandments. They were familiar with the law
of God in the holy days, and they knew quite well the history
of the Jews and all the covenants established by God with the Jews. But what these men were altogether
ignorant of is the gospel of Jesus Christ. that the Son of God would become
flesh and dwell among them and accomplish the redemptive will
of God. They were totally ignorant of
that. They looked at the kingdom of
God as something earthly, not something spiritual, not something
in glory, but something earthly. And this Christ that they look
for, they look for a man like Moses, a man like David, that's
who they were looking for. They were ignorant of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the grace of God. And so it is
in our generation and all those preceding our generation. There
must be a hearing before there can be an understanding, and
there must be an understanding in order to see. You're not gonna
bow to Christ until you see somewhat of the grandeur of his lordship. When you see the sitting king
of glory, he who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, when you see those things in your heart,
you'll bow. You'll bow to Him. And you're not gonna worship
Him until you see Him in the glory of His mercy and grace.
You see Him, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. When you
have an understanding of that, when you see that, you'll worship
God. And you're not gonna serve Him
until you see His eternal, unchangeable, and effectual love for His people. God loved us and gave his son for us. And
Christ loved us and gave himself for us. He who spared not his
own son, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? Who shall separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus? You see something of that
love, you'll serve him. You'll put all these petty things
behind you, all these petty arguments and all these things, you'll
set them aside. You'll set them aside, and you'll serve him.
You serve him. Paul said, if our gospel be hid,
it's hid to the lost, and whom the God of this world hath blinded
to minds of them that believe not, lest the glorious gospel
of Christ should shine unto them. John, being a chosen witness
of Christ, uses the word hearing and seeing in reverse, because
that's how he experienced it. We've never seen Christ, but
we see him by faith. John saw him by face. Then he
saw him by faith. He saw the Lord, and then he
heard him preach. Now listen to this, Revelation
22, eight. He turns it around again. Now
he talks about that hearing and seeing of faith. He said, and
when I had heard and seen, heard what this messenger of God had
to say, and seen the glory of God, I fell down to worship before
the feet of the angel, which showed me these things. Romans
10 verses 14 and 15, it says, how shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall they preach except
to be sent as it's written, how beautiful are the feet of them
that preach the gospel of peace. Bring glad tidings of good things. John fell down at the feet of
this angel to worship because of the news that he brought to
him. The hearing or even the opportunity to hear is one of
the greatest privileges we could ever be given in this world. I don't have to sit here this
morning and point out to you all the thousands upon thousands
upon thousands who go to church every Sunday and don't hear anything.
They don't hear anything about the grace of God and the love
of God and the mercy of God. or the justice of God satisfied
by the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't hear these things. And I'm telling you, it's a great
privilege to hear or just to have the opportunity to hear. Some go a lifetime, never hear
the gospel. You know, that's how the Lord
saved me. When I was talking with a man about coming to church,
we were having a revival meeting and I wanted him to come. And
he was sitting over there in a pair of cut-off jeans in an
old log cabin, belonged to my brother-in-law, and he was drinking
a big old long-neck blue ribbon beer. And he was sitting there
talking to me and I was trying to get him. I said, why don't
you come tomorrow night? Too late tonight, but tomorrow
night won't you come? He said, why? And I said, well,
we've got an evangelist down here. We're having a revival.
I want you to come hear him. He said, why? And I said, well, I want you,
he preaches the gospel. I want you to come hear the gospel.
He said, you wouldn't know the gospel if you met it in the middle
of the road. You know, for the first time
in my life, I realized I did not know the gospel. He said,
if you know the gospel, tell me what it is. I couldn't tell him. I didn't
know. I'm telling you, it's the greatest
privilege you'll ever have in this world to hear. To hear. But when a chosen sinner does
hear, and God makes him able to hear and believe, he does
not see God's messenger the same way anymore. He sees a man valuable
to him. Valuable to him. He sees a man
sent of God. Not a man who went to seminary,
not a man who was educated or a man who was self-taught and
all this kind of nonsense. He sees a man taught of God and
sent of God. And that's the way he treats
him from then on. And this is exactly what he sees this special vessel of
the Lord and his feet are beautiful to him. His feet have brought
him there with the good news of Christ and the glory of God
and showing him things that nobody else on that isle of Patmos saw
except John. This is exactly what John was
experiencing. But John went a little too far.
And he bowed down at the feet of this angel and was about to
worship him. Verse nine, Revelation 22. Then saith he to me, see thou
do it not, for I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren,
the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book,
worship God. Don't worship me. worship god
now i've never seen an angel i wouldn't know an angel if i
seen him he says many have entertained
angels unaware did you ever think about that? I tell you, I thought my dad
one time was going to hit a car head on. My dad was bad about
looking, and as he got older, he didn't realize how long he
was looking. He'd be looking for 30 seconds
over here or something. We're going down the road, and
there's a parked car there. And he looked to me like the
car was about that far over in front of the parked car. And
I just tucked my head down. I knew we were going to hit that
car head on, but we didn't. We didn't. You know, we have, scripture
says, angels assigned to us who stand in the presence of God.
They minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. They intervene
all the time, we just don't know it. We're not aware of it, and
that's what he said. Many have entertained angels
unaware. But I wouldn't know what an angel
looked like if I saw it. But I imagine the way the scriptures
talk about angels, man is far beneath the angels in his abilities
and in all of these things. He's far, in fact, to magnify
the grace of God, he said he made him a little lower than
the angels. And crowned him with honor and
glory, talking about Christ. but john saw this angel and whatever
he must whatever appearance he must have had john which is he
just fell at his feet and he was going to worship this creature
and that angel said no no no no we're not going to do that
don't do that you worship god worship god so the first thing this angel
tells him is I'm thy fellow servant. I serve same God you do. I serve the risen Savior. I serve
him. I'm your fellow servant. He included himself with John
as his fellow servant of God. And then secondly, he says, I'm
of thy brethren the prophets. I'm here to prophesy. I'm here
to bring you good news. I'm here to show you things that
God sent me here to show you. He wasn't of his brethren in
a physical sense or some reincarnated prophet who appeared to him as
an angel, but he was his brother as he was the brother of the
prophets in the sense that he prophesied of the purpose and
will of God. And then thirdly, he says, and
of them which keep the sayings of this book, That is the word
of God. Now he tells him these things
to encourage him to receive his message and to act upon his message
that he had heard and not to think of him above his station.
That's my desire every time I get up here. I want those things
exactly. Exactly. Both men and angels
are to worship God and worship God alone. where to worship God
as he reveals himself to men through Jesus Christ in the salvation
of sinners. John was to worship God. That
wasn't wrong at all. But not to worship his servant.
To worship the God that this angel come to tell him about. Our God who reveals himself,
reveals himself in three persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yet He's one God. He's one God. Our Lord said, if you've seen
me, you've seen the Father. And how you say unto me, we've
not seen the Father. We don't know the Father. If
you know me, you've known the Father. And I can substitute
this without doing any damage to it. To know Him is to know
the Holy Spirit. Did you know that God in His
Word calls the Holy Ghost the Spirit
of Christ? Did you know that? The Spirit
of Christ. Our worship is of God alone and
to the excluding of angels or men or objects, animate or inanimate. of animals, images, imaginations. The worship of anything apart
from God is idolatry. That's what it is. Psalm 22, 10. And he saith unto
me, seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the
time is at hand. So long as the revelation of
Christ continues and his servants are sent to bring the good news
to men, it is a day of grace and a day of mercy. I never want
to stand up here without emphasizing that to everybody who comes.
You're living in the day of grace and in the day of mercy. You're
living in the gospel age. And I can say to you, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. shall be
saved and I'm gonna tell you who he is, I'm gonna tell you
what he did, why he came, where he's at, I'm gonna tell you those
things. And you call on him, you call on that revealed name
of God and he'll save you. He'll save you. But I'm telling
you there's coming a day when that name won't be declared again
for the purpose of salvation. That day of grace will be over.
It'll be over. But he tells John, he said, now
don't seal this up. Don't go hide this. Don't put
this in a clay jar and bury it. You keep this open. You have
this to be read. You publish this. Don't seal
it up. For the day is at hand. And so long as the revelation
of Christ continues and His servants are sent to bring the good news
to men, it is a day of grace and mercy. And their words are
necessary and needful. The Word of God is to be preached
and the whole counsel of God presented to men. Well, you say, I've heard preachers
say this one and that one and not presenting the whole counsel
of God. If he presents the Lord Jesus
Christ, he has Because everything God has to
say to sinners, He says through His Son. Don't take God's merciful revelation
and seal it up. Don't put it on the bookshelf,
but read it. Read it to yourselves and others.
Include it in your worship. Include it in your day. Tell
of its treasures, and sound aloud its warnings. I cannot overemphasize
the value of the word of God. What if we had no word? What
if we had no revelation of God whatsoever? No messenger to declare
it? We would be at the mercy of every
self-proclaimed dreamer, visionary, and self-taught man in the world. I turned the station on last
night. I was looking for a certain station
to watch a movie and I turned it on. It was one of those religious
channels and this guy was on there just going on and on and
on. And he was a dreamer. God revealed himself to him,
he said, in a dream. And where would that leave us
except with no foundation for our faith and no direction for
our feet and no basis for our rebuke or correction? There's a church down in Spring
Hill, Louisiana that split off of one of the big Baptist churches
down there. One of the people that were promoting
this new church, this new assembly, said, we have no rules and no
regulations. Nothing concerning worship. Dress
how you want. Believe what you want. Sing what
you want. Act how you want. You're welcome. Well, that's what we were doing
before we went to church, wasn't it? Huh? That's where we was. I don't
want to go back to where I was. I'm glad we have God's Word.
and God's messengers to teach us. And blessed be His holy name
for these great and glorious gifts of His grace, His word,
His spirit, His messengers, the gospel itself, and all these
men He's been pleased to use to write and to help us, to help
us, teach us. May God give us an understanding
of that and be thankful for it.