Turn with me, if you will, to
Revelation chapter 1. The revelation of Christ, which
we are studying, was given to the church at a time when almost
everyone hated and despised Christians. We don't often think about that,
Those of you who've read Foxe's Book of Martyrs or anything that
has to do with the martyrs in the church or just read the scriptures
and read about how the apostles were treated in their day are
well aware of that. The Romans were then the reigning
nation. They were the reigning power.
And the Romans were just They were moral reprobate, lack
of a better word. And history's uncovering some
of that now, the brothels and all the things that were just
common among the Romans. They were moral reprobates. And
they just, they approved of any and all kind of wicked acts and
all of these type of things and festivals and drunkenness. And
they promoted these things. They okayed these things to be
in public. And much the way they're being
approved in our day, it frightens me because I know the past history
of the nations and how God has judged these nations. And to
see our nation doing the same thing frightens me. But they despised the Christians
for condemning what they approved. And they despised Christians
for refusing to take part in those things. And by their abstinence
from those things, they were condemning them. And that's what
our Lord said, no man comes unto the light lest his deeds be reproved. When you get around light, light
exposes that wickedness and filthiness and men become angry because
of it. You haven't really done anything
or said anything, but it's just how you live and how you think
and what you promote. And then the Greeks. The Greeks
were proud thinkers, philosophers, wise men. They studied everything. Anything and everything. They
studied the stars and the universe, and they were proud thinkers
and philosophers, and they were steeped in idolatry and pagan
religion. They hated the Christians for
preaching the one true and living God and for exposing their gods
for what they were. And they hated and despised the
Christians for it. And then the Jews despised Christians
because they believed, the Jews did, that Jesus Christ was an
imposter. They believed that he was a false
prophet. that he came in pretense to be the Christ. And so they
despised these men for continuing to preach Him and preach in His
name and cast out demons in His name and all that they did in
His name, raise churches up, train preachers, send men out
into the world. They despised them for that.
That's what Paul was doing before his conversion was he was seeking
papers so that he could go get these men and imprison them for
what they were doing. And I believe as the Romans threw
the Christians to the lions and made sport by torturing them
in all sorts of ways, that the Jews saw that as the judgment
of God against these Christians. and said, Amen. They said, Amen,
as these Christians were thrown to the lions. Back in Genesis
3, verse 15, when the Lord gave promise to Adam and Eve of the
coming Redeemer, He said, I will put enmity between Satan and
the woman and between her seed and his seed. And that enmity
continues even unto this day. And it's going to continue until
the end of time. Let me give you what the dictionaries
and the Bible word studies have to say about this word enmity.
Now, he tells us that the carnal mind is enmity against God. The
natural mind, the mind of every man born of Adam is enmity against
God. It's enmity. Well, what is enmity? Well, here's what they say. I
read several of them. Deep-rooted hatred. That's enmity. Embittered. Bitter. Just bitter. Active aggression. Hateful. Ill will. Malice. And open resentment. They despise them. They despise
them. They hated me, our Lord said,
without a cause. Without a cause. They had no
cause to hate me. What sin, he said, have I done
that you're going to stone me? They're standing over there with
those big rocks in their hands. What good deed that I've done
are you going to stone me for? We're not going to stone you
because you did a good deed. We're going to stone you for
what you said. And that's why they, as long as you keep your
mouth shut, You won't feel no enmity from this world. It's
when you open your mouth and confess the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's when the enmity comes. But here's what I'm getting at.
This is the attitude of this present world toward all who
will publicly own and worship, promote, and preach the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, God has, for the most part,
restrained this world. He's restrained this world. And
I'm saying for the most part, because there's some parts of
this world in which it hasn't been restrained. And they'd still
kill men and make sport of them for what they believe. But for
the most part, he's restrained the world from exercising these
violent persecutions of the early days of the church. But let me
tell you something. The hearts and minds of the natural
man, that enmity has not decreased one iota. And all you've got
to do to find out is tell somebody the truth. And they're right
in your face. In John chapter 15 and verse
18, our Lord said this to His apostles. He was making them
ready for His departure. He was about to go to the cross.
He was about to ascend and go to the Father. And He says these
things to His apostles. He said, if the world hates you,
You know this, it hated me before it hated you. I'm the reason,
he said, for that hatred. You know that it hated me before
it hated you. If you were of the world, that
is left as you were born. If God had left you just the
way you were when you were born, left to the philosophy and rudiments
of this world and left to Satan's anti-Christ religion, left under
their influence, If you were of the world, the world would
love its own. But because you're not of the
world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hateth you. Remember the word He said that
I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. And if they persecuted Me, they
also will persecute you. If they've kept My saying, they'll
keep yours. Then the preacher declared in
Ecclesiastes chapter 3 that God has set the world in their heart.
He set the world in their heart. You know what happens, you get
concrete and it's all loose and gummy and you rake it around
and you can shape it and make little valleys in it or you can
screed it off and make it flat. But there comes a time when concrete
sits. And when it sits, you ain't doing
nothing to it. It's done. Whatever it is, that's
the way it is. And this is what the preacher
is saying here. He set the world in their heart. It's set. And it's not going
to change. It's not going to change. So, and listen to this. He set
the world in their heart so that no man can find out the work
which God hath done from the beginning. What in the world
is he talking about? He's talking about that work
of redemption, which God has purposed to do, which is behind
all creation, which is behind all God's providence and all
things and all ages. They can't figure it out. They
can't figure it out. Scientists, philosophers, and
wise men have in our study in the universe, this earth and
the people in it. And they see everything in the
world except the redemptive purpose of God in all these things. Why? Because God has set the world
in their heart. And they cannot find out the
work that God maketh from beginning to end. Men are not angry at
Christians because they live good lives, practice godliness,
or give to the needs of the underprivileged. Men are angry with Christians
because of their testimony concerning the sovereign grace of God in
salvation and of their testimony of man. That's why they're hated. Listen to this, John 7, 7. He
said, the world cannot hate you, but me it hateth. Why? Because I testify of it that
the works thereof are evil. Now, that's what our Lord said. This is the condemnation, he
said, light to come into the world, and men love darkness
rather than light. Men come here. They often come
here and visit. We had a couple last weekend,
came here to visit. I hope they come back. But a
lot of men come here and visit, and they go somewhere else and
visit, and they'll go to that other place. Why? Because they
love darkness rather than light. That's exactly why I see it all
the time. I see it here, I see it in other churches, I see it
in the world. I'm saying these things to you
because if you do not understand the obstacles, if you do not
understand the opposition and the enemy, you cannot see the
glory of the victory that Christ is about to tell us. You have
to see that. This world is not opposed to
religion. It's opposed to Christ and the gospel of God's grace
in him. This world loves religion. It
revels in religion. It boasts of religion. Politicians
chase after religion. Religion grows well in the soil
of natural man. It grows well. Boy, it's just like it's been
fertilized. But let a man faithfully proclaim the Word of God and
the salvation according to the sovereign grace of God, and he'll
be a castaway. He'll be a cast out in society
that won't have anything to do with him. They'll call him a
divisive sectarian. That's all he is. All he wants
to do is divide, divide, divide. That's all he wants to do. They'll
call that church a cult. Oh, they're a cult. Don't go
over there. They're a cult. They're brainwashed. They accuse
him of putting a stumbling block in the way of men and women who
want to be saved. Problem is, nobody wants to be
saved. That's a straw man that religion
has built. Nobody wants to be saved. They
shall be willing, God said, in the day of my power. He'll make
you willing. He'll give you the want to, but
you don't have it. mainstream religion called Christ
a devil worshiper. Did you know that? A devil worshiper. What in the world did he do that
men would call him a devil worshiper? He healed every single sick person
who came to him. He turned none away. But they
did this because of what he said about himself and what he said
about God. And they said the same thing
about John. You can read that in John 8, 48, and in Matthew
11, 18. It said the same thing about
John the Baptist. The Apostle John, who wrote the
book of the revelation of Jesus Christ, which we're studying,
tells us back in verse 9 of Revelation 1, that the reason he was on
this Isle of Patmos, he was in exile. They put him out there
on this island. They put him in a penal colony.
on the Isle of Patmos." Now listen, for the Word of God and for the
testimony of Jesus Christ. He said, that's what I'm doing
here. That's what I'm doing here. So what John's visions are about
is to assure the believer that their great God and His mediatorial
King, the Lord Jesus Christ, in spite of all these obstacles
and enemies, shall prevail and shall reign throughout the gospel
age. God is going to do all His purpose. All His purpose. Revelation 1. Let's look at it. Verse 12. John
said, I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being
turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. And 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 with pats 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. And his feet like undefined
brass as if they'd been burned in a furnace, and his voice as
the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand
seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword
And His countenance was as the sun, which shineth in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at
His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon
me, saying unto me, fear not. I am the first and the last. I am He that liveth and was dead.
And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys. of hell and death. Brother Don
Fortner tells a story about a janitor of a school. And these boys would
come in on Saturday, after the Saturday classes, and they'd
play basketball in the gym. And that was the last thing the
janitor had to clean up. And he loved the boys and he
loved that school. He worked there all of his life.
These boys would come in and play ball. And while they were
playing ball, he sat back over on the bleachers and read his
Bible. And one Saturday when the boys had finished, one of
them came by and he said, what are you reading? He said, I'm
reading the book of Revelation. He said, do you understand what
it says? And the old janitor looked at
him and said, yes, I understand what it says. Jesus wins. Now that's what the book of Revelations
is all about. That's what it all about. And
I've never heard a better commentary on the book of Revelations than
that. Jesus wins. You want to know
who wins the war? That's what old Bernard used
to say when he said, I read the end of the book. He said, I know
who wins the war. In these seven verses that I've
just read to you, the Lord begins to give John the first of his
seven visions, Christ, in the midst of his churches. The professing
church of this world tends to think of the work of Christ being
over and Christ himself being no longer engaged in the battle.
They have very little to say about Christ now. They want you
to accept him. They want you to accept his finished
work. They want you to do all of these
things, accept Jesus as your personal savior. But as far as
him being actively engaged, they don't have much to say. They
talk about you and your will and your decisions and all of
this kind of thing. They talk about you and your
good works and what you need to do and you and how much money
you need to give and all these things. But they don't talk about
him being actively engaged in the work. And I guess I could say in as
much as the work of righteousness and redemption is concerned,
this is true. His work is finished. He said
it's finished. on the cross. He finished the
work, the Bible says, and sat down at the right hand of God.
But what this world is ignorant of is that Jesus of Nazareth
is God our Savior. He's God our Savior. And as God,
he can sit on his throne at the right hand of God and still walk
among the candlesticks. He's God. He's everywhere present. He can be there and be here at
the same time. This world saw Him in His humility,
in His humiliation, in His office as our substitute. They saw Him
in His weakness. They saw Him in His shame, in
His tortured body dying on a tree. But when He was raised on the
third day and after showing Himself to many, He ascended back into
glory and took His place at the right hand of God. It says in
Hebrews 1.3, having by Himself purged our sins, He sat down,
now listen to this, on the right hand of the majesty on high. You're going to see him now,
you're going to see him as he is. He's Lord. He's Lord of lords,
he's king of kings, the blessed and only potentate. You'll see
him in his majesty or you won't see him at all. The revelation
of Jesus Christ given after his resurrection, is a revelation
of the glorious, victorious Lord of heaven and earth. The eternal
Christ. The reigning Christ. And as He
told us back in verse 8, the Almighty. Huh? I tell you, not
one time the whole time I was in religion did I ever think
of the Lord Jesus Christ as Almighty. You know that band of rebels
that come to get Him with Jesus at the forefront? They come up
and And they wanted to know where he was, and so on. And Christ
stood up, and he said, I am. And when he did, they fell back
on the ground. And they asked again. And this
time, he said it, and they stood. He's Lord of lords. His power,
I tell you, I believe if he wanted to, he could speak, and every
dead man in the world would rise from the dead. That's what he
said. He could of these stones raise up children unto Abraham.
We don't think of Him as the Almighty. He's Almighty God.
He's Almighty God. He's seated on the throne, and
as God, He can sit there and walk among men at the same time.
And where does Jesus Christ, the Son of God, reveal Himself
to John? Huh? In the candlesticks. in
the midst of the candlesticks. Now, he tells us down in verse
20 of Revelation chapter 1 that the candlesticks are the seven
churches. And these seven churches are
figurative. I remind you again that all these
visions are figurative. And these seven churches are
figurative of all the churches of Christ in every age from the
time that the first one was established to the time when he returns. They're figurative of all these
churches. And he spoke to them all together, and he spoke to
them one at a time. And so he does today. He doesn't
say something to this church that's not so up in Lexington
at Todd's Road or up in Danville at Grace Baptist. He'll speak
to us individually, but what He says to us goes to them too.
And so it is as we get into these things. He'll speak to these
individual churches. He'll speak to the church at
Philadelphia. He'll speak, you know, to all these individual
churches. But as He speaks individually, He's speaking to all. Speaking
to all. If you'll see the sovereign Savior,
the glorious Redeemer, the exalted King of glory, you'll see Him
as He is revealed in the midst of His churches. Paul tells us
in Ephesians chapter 3, verses 10 and 11, that the manifold
wisdom of God is made known by the church. Isn't that what that
says? Makes it known to principalities
and powers and heavenly places. Makes it known to all, the manifold
wisdom of God. It's made known by the church
according to the eternal purpose of God, which he purposed in
Christ Jesus our Lord. How's he going to make it known?
By the church. By the church. And you can talk
all you want to about finding God out on the lake. He's out
there, but you'll never find him in a saving way out on that
lake. You'll find Him in His Godhead. You'll find Him out there ordering
all things. But you won't find Him in a saving
way out on the lake. You'll find Him at the church.
That's where you're going to find Him. When you see Him in
His glory, you'll find Him revealed that way in the midst of the
candlesticks. One John said when he looked
at Him, he said he was like unto the Son of God. Like unto Him. I thought he was the Son of God.
He is. Why did John say there's one like unto the Son of God?
Well, he's like the suffering Savior, still bearing the sacred
wounds, yet he's glorious in his countenance and majestic
in his person. He still bears it. What did he
tell old Daddy and Thomas? He said, stick your hand right
here where the spirit went. Put your fingers in the hole.
He still bears the wounds even in glory. He's still the Lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. But He's not there
in His humility. He's there in His majesty. In
His majesty. He's glorious in His countenance
and majestic in His person. Clothed down to the foot with
a garment. Now, in Revelation chapter 4,
He tells us what that garment is. It was white raiment. White
linen. What does that mean? That's the
garment of the high priest. White linen. White linen. Fine white linen of the great
high priest. And then he tells us this in
verse 14. His head and his hairs were white
like wool, as white as snow. He's described in Daniel chapter
7 just exactly the same with one difference. In Daniel, he's
called the ancient of days. That white hair, it's a figure
of perfect wisdom. That's what it is. It's a sign.
Old age should be a sign of wisdom. in men and women, that gray hair,
that's what it ought to say. And then he tells us here in
verse 14 also, his eyes were as a flame of fire, penetrating
eyes, all-seeing eyes, eyes that can melt the hardest heart or
consume the most fierce enemy. They were as a flame of fire,
verse 15, and his feet Like the fine brass as if it burned in
a furnace. What in the world is he talking
about here? There was a time when his feet were tender. A
time when they got sandy walking to where he would minister and
his feet had to be washed. There was a time when those tender
feet were laid one upon the other and a nail driven through them
on the cross. But they're not that way now.
These feet are brass. They're brass. Feet which shall
trot down all his enemies. He'll reign until all enemies
be put under his feet. There was a day when his tender
and fleshly feet were pierced with nails and left unwashed
by the hypocrites, despised by the self-righteous. But now they're
past the bruising of the old serpent and his seed. and they're
ready to crush the head of Satan. They're brass as if they were
burned in the fire. Verse 15, and his voice as the
sound of many waters. Now, I'm talking about the glorified
Christ. I'm not talking about poor little
Jesus, boy, that they preach today and everybody feels sorry
for him because he can't do anything. His hands are tied. All but a
different picture John gives of the reigning Christ, the victorious
He said his voice is as the sound of many waters. My wife and I
went to Niagara Falls. And we both wear glasses, but
I absolutely could not see. I got down on a deck under the
small of the, the smaller of the two falls. the Niagara Falls
in this place called Hurricane something. Anyway, the last little
step up, she wanted to go up there. The wind was so fierce,
it would just about blow you down, and the water would just
sting. It was coming so fast. And she went up on the very top,
but I sat down on the bottom. But the sound of that water was
deafening. It was deafening. You could stand
here, and she could stand there, and I could just yell, and you
could barely understand what the other one was saying. Just
hard to believe. His voice is like the sound of
many waters. And then I stood on the ocean
side one summer evening, and the sound of those waves was
so peaceful. If I had a hammock, I could just
lay there and go to sleep. It was so peaceful how those
waves would come in and go out. And then I stood before moving
streams up in the Canadian Rockies, and they seemed to sound out
a warning. You come this far, but don't you come any closer.
I'll wash you away. You put your foot in here, you're
gone. I've stood beside such streams, and I've stood on the
shore of these great pools, and they uttered not a sound. It
was just perfectly silent. And that's what John said. His
voice is as the sound of many waters. It can be peaceful. It
can be thundering. It can be silent. His voice is
as the sound of many waters. Ezekiel 43, 2, speaking of the
day when true Israel, the church of the living God, would be established
forever. And God's prophet said, the glory
of the God of Israel come from the way of the east. And His
voice was like the noise of many waters, and the earth shined
with His glory. And he had in his right hand
seven stars, it tells us in Revelations. Seven stars. Seven preachers,
seven ministers, seven pastors. God's preachers are called stars.
He tells that on down here in Revelation. You can read it down
toward the end of chapter 1. He tells you what the candlesticks
were. He tells you what the stars were. But God's preachers are like
stars because they're used to light up the darkness. Back in
Genesis chapter 1, some of you may remember the studies that
we did when we went talking about creation. It says, He made the
stars also, and God set them in the firmament of heaven to
give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the
night, and to divide the light from the darkness. That's what
His stars do. God's preachers are called stars
because they stay where He puts them. They stay right where He
puts them. And men use them the way they
use the stars to find their way. To find their way from point
A to point B. I tell you, how are you going
to find the way of the Lord? You're going to hear. You're
going to hear. So they're stars because they
stay where God puts them. And they're called stars because
Christ Himself is the day star. When He arises in the hearts
of men and women, when that day star arises, what happens when
the sun comes up? Stars didn't go anywhere. Stars
are still out there. But you can't see them for the
glory of the sun. And that's the way it is when
God preaches. You love them. You listen to
them. God blesses them. He blesses
you. But when that day star arrives,
that preacher disappears. He's still there. He isn't anywhere.
But you can't see him for the glory of Christ. They're stars. And then he tells us his countenance
was as the sun which shines in his strength. And if I understand
the purpose of the stars in his hand, as defined by the Apostle
Peter, is to be the light that shineth in a dark place until
the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts.