Alright, turn with me this morning
to Revelation chapter 1. Last week I gave you kind of
an outline of the book of Revelation. And then we looked at the first
two statements given to us by the Spirit of the living God.
We need to be reminded often A lot of times I'll tell you
Paul said or John said or Peter said, more or less to tell you
what book it's coming from, but I don't care who's writing it.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. So in fact, it's the
Holy Spirit saying this and saying that. And I've had people in
the past to say, well, you know, Paul lived in the in the ancient
world. He, you know, he's not living
in today's world. He didn't face the problems that
we face today. That's just a cop-out. What God
says, he says, and it's applicable to all ages and all generations,
not just for one generation. And it's not of that man necessarily
who's speaking, although he believes these things, but it was inspired
by the Holy Spirit of God for him to pen those things that
he wrote. So I gave you kind of an outline
and then we begin to look at these first two statements given
to us by the Spirit of the living God. The revelation of Jesus
Christ which God gave to him. Now he's not talking about giving
it to John here. He's talking about this revelation
which was given to Christ. He is the revelation. He is the
revelation. This book and every other book
in the Holy Scriptures is a revelation of Jesus Christ. Well, you say,
well, surely the book of Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and
all the books of Moses and the old prophets, surely they spoke
of the law and spoke of... No, no. Under the influence of
the Holy Spirit, the Apostle said to Him, give all the prophets
witness. All the Scriptures. Don't just
think because it says this in Psalms, it has no application
to you who live in the present time or in the Gospel age. The whole Bible is the revelation
of Jesus Christ. And He's the revelation of God
because God was pleased that in him should all fullness dwell.
He's the fullness of the revelation. You're not going to get any knowledge
of God outside of Christ. Don't you listen to people who
talk about being out on the lake and having a vision and God spoke
to him and told him who he was and all this type of thing. It's
just not so. Jesus Christ is the revelation
of God. And this is important because
I go to meetings sometimes, and I get in situations like I did
up in Van Buren, and I sit there and I listen to men talk about
these visions that they get, and callings that they get, and
things that are contrary to the Scriptures. And I'm told in the Scriptures
just to ignore them, to leave them alone. If they speak not
according to this book, it's because there's no light in them.
So this book and every other book in the Holy Scriptures is
a revelation of Jesus Christ. Did you know that Jesus Christ
took to Himself the name, and He's the only one, the Father
doesn't use this, the Holy Spirit doesn't use this, only Christ.
He's called the Word. The Word. What are words? A word is a vehicle. That's what
it is. It's a vehicle to take the thoughts
of one and convey them to another. That's the only reason for having
words. Other than that, we don't need them. But he tells us in
1 Corinthians 2, he said, how can you know the thoughts of
another unless he tells you? Even so, you can't know God unless
God tells you. He has to tell you. And how does
He tell you? Primarily through the Word, which
is Christ. Listen to John. This is John's
Gospel. You go through here and you see
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That's not how they're titled
in the Scriptures. It's the Gospel of Matthew. The
Gospel according to Matthew. The Gospel according to Mark.
And in the Gospel of John, he begins this way. In the beginning
was the Word. Isn't that what he says? The
Word. God purposed from the very beginning
to manifest His name to men. That's what creation is all about. That's what salvation is all
about. He is going to manifest His glory to somebody. And He is going to do it through
His Son. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. And this Word, this man, Jesus
Christ, He created all things. And without Him, nothing was
made that was made. He is the Light. He is the Light. He is the Word. In 1 John 5,
verse 7, it says, For there are three that bear record in heaven,
the Father, Now listen to this, the Word and the Holy Ghost. The Son of God alone has this
name given Him, the Word of God. He's called the Word of God because
He's the revelation of God to men. And everything that God
is pleased to reveal of Himself, He's purposed to reveal in His
Son. The man who knows nothing of Christ, I hope you'll listen
to him. The man who knows nothing of
Christ, you say, well, who is Jesus Christ? And you begin to
talk away saying, I don't know any of those things, but I accepted
Jesus for my personal sake. The man who knows little of Christ
knows little of God. Now, that's just so. He knows
little of God. Everything God's pleased to reveal,
of Himself, His purpose to reveal in His Son. Listen to this, 1
John 5, verse 20. And we know, who does? Believers. How many of them? All of them. We know that the
Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we
may know Him that is true. And we are in Him that is true,
even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Now let me read you something
our Lord said about those places and people who heard and saw
and yet remained in indifference and unmoved. Listen to this,
Matthew 11, 25. At this time Jesus answered and
said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast
revealed them unto babes, even so, Father, for so it seem good
in Thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son," now listen, "'and he to whomsoever the Son will
reveal him.'" A man who knows nothing of Christ knows nothing
of God. Jesus Christ is a revelation
of God, and not just God in an abstract manner, but God as the
Father of a people He chose in Christ and sent into this world
to accomplish His will. And this revelation, this saving
knowledge, this knowledge of God, John said, was given him
by God. And this knowledge was given
in him and to him to show God's redemptive purpose and will in
these last days, to instruct, to teach, to make his servants
aware of what's taking place around them and to assure them
of its sure success because of who it rests on. It rests in
our surety, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in his final statement
here in verse 1, he says that he sent this revelation and signified
it by his angel unto his servant John. The word signify means
to make it known. He made it known to John by this
angel, his angel that he sent to him. Now, the word angel means
minister. It means minister. He tells us in Hebrews chapter
1 toward the end of that chapter that His angels are all ministering
spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of
salvation. And God often sent messages to
His people by angels. The word angel means minister.
And you and I have no ability to know God. If we're to know
Him, follow Him, and have fellowship with Him, He must make us meet
or make us able to know Him and provide for us a teacher.
He said, how are you going to call on Him in whom you have
not believed? How are you going to do that? I don't know what you would call
them, but the so-called professing church, I'll use that term this
morning, because they don't know what to say. They just say Jesus. They just say Jesus. And they
let you do your own definitions. They let you do your own explanations. And they said, just receive him. Just believe on him. Believe
on him. But he said, how are you going
to call on Him in whom you have not believed? How are you going
to believe in Him of whom you have not heard? No man has an
inherent knowledge of Him. The air is not going to reveal
Him. How are you going to call on Him? How are you going to
hear? How are you going to believe
on Him unless you hear? Let's send somebody to you to
tell you the truth. How are you going to hear without
a preacher? You're not going to do it. How
shall you hear? All right. Verse 2, Revelation
chapter 1. Talking about this angel that
God sent unto him. Here in Revelation chapter 1
and verse 2. Who bear record of the Word of
God and of Jesus Christ, And of all things that he saw, God
always speaks through His Word. Now listen to this, who bear
record of the Word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ. The testimony of Jesus Christ
is the gospel of God. That's the good news. It's the
testimony of God concerning His Son. This is what we got to hear. We don't need to hear how to
be made a better family. We don't need to hear how to
be successful in business. You can be successful in business
and go to hell, the rich young ruler did. He had everything
you could ever want. Pilate was a king. You can go
on and on and on. Just being successful don't make
you saved. It doesn't mean that you have
some kind of special relationship with God. It's the gospel of God. And his
gospel testifies of his person. He's both divine and human. He's
God and man in one person. Often speaks of himself in the
realm of a human being as though he were limited in his thoughts
and limited in his... No man knoweth the hour, save
the Father, not even the Son. With the Son's God, he knows
all things. He knows the hour. But not as
a man. Not as a man. And you can go
on and on. He often speaks that way. He's
both divine and human. His gospel testifies of His appointments. He's Savior. He's Mediator. He's Intercessor. He's Redeemer
and Lord. His gospel testifies of His accomplishments. His incarnation. God robed Himself
in human flesh. Came into this world. testifies
of His suffering and death, His fulfilling the law and righteousness,
established by His own obedience for His elect, His resurrection
and our justification, His acceptance in ours and heaven itself, and
His intercessions for us in glory. Oh, I tell you, God would just
snuff us out like stepping on a grasshopper if it wasn't for
our intercessory glory. And this angel had seen these
things accomplished and bear testimony of all these things
that he has seen. Verse 3, Blessed is he that readeth,
and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those
things which are written therein. For the time is at hand. This book along with the other
65 books of the Bible are to be read and believed. not telling
us to ignore the means of preaching, but to make ourselves familiar
with the Word of God. One of our young men came and
asked me about one of the articles. Was that the Word of God? I said, yes, it is. That's what
this article was about, and told him where it was in the Scriptures.
But I couldn't tell him where it was in the Scriptures if I
hadn't read it. You need to read the Scriptures even though you
don't understand them. Read them anyway. Memorize them
as best you can. Read those things because a lot
of times when I'm preaching, I don't have time to give you
chapter and verse. It's not telling us to ignore
the means of preaching, but to make ourselves familiar with
the Word of God and to prove those things which we hear and
keep those things which we prove. How are we going to prove them
in the Word of God? Have you ever told that in religion?
I never was. Never was. Believers are given
an unction, the Bible said, from the Holy Woman. This is the only
place in all the New Testament that that word unction appears.
I think it's the only place in the entire Scriptures, Old Testament
and New, where it appears. And it appears there in the book
of Peter. In 1 Peter, he tells us that we have an unction of
the Holy Woman. But in the original, the word
unction appears twice. In one spot, it appears as unction. It appears twice, in 1 John 2,
verse 27, and it appears there. In 1 John 2, 20, rather, it appears The word unction appears, and
then in verse 27, the same word appears, but it's translated
anointing. Anointing. Under the law, kings
and prophets and priests were anointed. They were anointed
as a token of being a recipient of divine grace. They were anointed. Every time you see that word
anointed used in the Old Testament, that's what it's talking about. It's symbolizing being a recipient
of the grace of God. No one else has the ability given
to them to be taught, to hear, or to understand except those
that are anointed by the Holy Ghost. Is that right? Now listen to this, verse 3.
Blessed is he that readeth. And they that hear the words
of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein,
for the time is at hand." How does one keep these words? You come in here and I preach
to you and teach you and I read from the Word. How do we keep
that? How do we hold on to that? What's
he talking about here? How does one keep the words of
God? Well, the word keep here means
to treat something as special, as rare, and valuable. And to you, therefore, which
believe he is precious. Who is this he? This is he that
we read of in the Word of God, and it's precious. Everything about him is precious.
Everything he says and does is precious. He is, as the pearl
of great price, more precious than all else. Our Lord said
to the woman at the well, if you knew. If you knew. I could tell you
that this morning. Some of you here to hear me.
Some of you here to eat. I don't know why you're here.
But I'll tell you this. I'll tell you what the Lord said
to that woman at the well. If you knew. If you just knew. If God had ever anointed you
to hear, opened your eyes to see, if you knew who it is that
stands and speaks to you, you would have asked of me for water.
I wouldn't have asked of you. You'd ask of me, and I'd give
you living water. And it would have been in you.
You would have drank this water and it would have been in you
a well of water bubbling up unto eternal life. Oh, we keep these things because
they're precious. They're precious. What makes the gospel of Christ
and His church so commonplace in the world today? They speak of these things so
frequently. They jest about these things. Why is his word so little considered
and so little read and believed? Why aren't men and women lined
up today? Why aren't they lined up today
trying to get in here to eat? Why is that? Because they're
ignorant. of who He is and what God has
given in Him. The ignorant of it. The man who
reads and hears is a man that keeps what he hears and reads
close to his heart. He don't ever want to lose it.
He don't ever want to lose it. I had these things in my head
one time and lost them. I lost They were gone. They were
gone. But He pleased to open my heart,
and this time it didn't just go in the head, it went in the
heart. And I hold these things close. I hold them close. That's what He's talking about
here in this verse in Revelation. He's a blessed man. Now listen
to this. For the time is at hand. What time? What time? The last time? Yes, we're living in the last
days. The age of revelation and grace?
Do you know there's a time coming when there's not going to be
a revelation of grace anymore? This period of grace, this period
of gospel preaching, this period of grace is going to be gone
forever. Gone forever. This is the age of the revelation
of grace. This is the gospel age. This
is the time ordained of God, the time of the full revelation
of Christ. And I'm going to tell you something.
If you're a believer here today, if God's anointed you to hear,
this is your time. God never speaks. He never speaks. in terms of salvation about tomorrow,
or next week, or next month. It's always today. Today. Read it over in Hebrews chapter
3. Three or four times he puts it in there, and I'm going to
tell you how he does it. He capitalizes it. Today. And he said, if the Holy Spirit
testifies of these things, don't you be like those men back there
under Moses coming through the wilderness whose carcasses fell
in the wilderness and rotted. Don't you be like them. You listen
and you obey and you take heed today. The time is at hand. You see what he's telling John?
The time is at hand. This is the time ordained of
God, the time of the full revelation of Christ. You're not going to
hear anything beyond what you're hearing here today. There's no
salvation in anything else other than Him. There's no hope in
anything else other than Christ. Listen to this. He appeared one
time in the end of the world to put away sins. by the sacrifice
of Himself. And He is now, by virtue of His
representative obedience and death, our righteousness. I don't have any other righteousness. My righteousness is Christ. God
had sent me to hell in a heartbeat if anything depended on my righteousness. There had never been a time like
this time, a time of accomplished redemption. resurrected glory
and reigning grace. There's never been a time like
this time when the King of Zion sits enthroned on the Father's
right hand arranging all things and bringing to pass all things
and expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. There's
never been a time like this, a time when the means of communication
are so great and so affordable that It cost us a dollar. This message that I'm typing
today, it cost a dollar to put it on the internet. You know
where it goes? All the world. All the world. Anybody with a
computer anywhere in this world can listen to this message for
a dollar. Huh? My soul, I look at that, I just
can't hardly... When I see all the ills and things
about computers, and then I look at this and see what God's doing
with this knowledge and with these things, well, this is the
reason He gave me a knowledge to make this thing. And then there's a warning. There's
never been a time like this time. It's the last and final time. And I beg you young ones in here
today, don't treat these days and these opportunities as casual.
Don't you do it. Don't you do it. Don't treat
them as casual as though they were food in the factory and
you can go get it whenever you want to. You can't get it whenever
you want to. The time is at hand. The Lord
could well return before we ever go back to eat today. And now John will give us his
introduction. Verse 4, Revelation 1. John, to the seven churches which
are in Asia, grace be unto you, and peace from him which is,
and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits
which are before his throne. Now we are going to find this
word seven all through the book of Revelation. Seven, seven,
seven, seven vows, seven trumpets, you're going to find all the
way through this word seven. And it's very instructive. It's
a number which represents completion, perfection, and satisfaction. He uses here the word seven not
to say that there were no other churches, but as a figure to
represent all the churches of God throughout all the world.
Local churches are said to be the pillar and ground of the
truth. Out of these churches, God trains young men for the
ministry and by example and by doctrine are prepared to pastor
churches. And it's important to realize
how God ministers to the world in this gospel age. And that's
how this letter begins. He walks among the candlesticks,
his churches. These things are important for
us to understand about John's introduction here. First, that
he's addressing all his churches throughout the whole of the gospel
age and throughout the world wherever he'd been pleased to
establish one. And secondly, that he's talking
to every individual church. He's talking to us here in this
verse. And it's important to do that
whenever you're reading the scriptures. You don't need to apply them
to the rest of the world. Boy, I wish he'd been here to
hear that. No, you're here to hear that. Apply it to yourself. And here where he's talking about
these seven churches, boy, I'm glad I wasn't in Laodicea. No,
he's talking to you. All these descriptions of these
troubles in these churches, he's talking to every church. And
they all have these same problems. just like those that he healed.
He healed one that was blind. He healed one that was lame.
He healed one that was dumb. He healed one that was dead,
one that was demon-possessed. It doesn't mean that some sinners
are blind and some sinners... No, it means that we're all blind
and dumb and paralyzed and dead and leprous. That's what it means.
All of these things are descriptions of the sinner. And so all of
these problems in the churches are descriptions of every church.
We all have those problems. Now, to these churches He writes,
Grace be to you, and peace from Him which is, which was, and
which is to come. Churches are assemblies gathered
together by God. In Matthew 18, 20, our Lord said,
For where two or three, now listen to this, are gathered together
in My name. There am I in the midst. Now, I've heard this quoted many
times wrong. He's not saying where two or
three decide to gather. That's not what he's saying here. He's saying where two or three
that I gather. You see the difference? There's
assemblies gathered all over the world today. They're not
worshiping God. They're not preaching the gospel.
They're not of God. And this is not a guarantee just
because they assembled together that he's going to be in their
midst. But he's talking about his elect and where he's pleased
to gather together to begin an assembly of God, even if there's
just two or three. If he gathered them, he's in
the midst. He's in the midst. God's church, whether it's one
local church or of a combination of churches,
these are the principal source of God's ministry to the world. I've never seen anyone enjoy
any success in the ministry who did not spend time in the local
church. It's not my experience. I've never seen it. I've never
seen it. Or to be sent by a local church
or to be recommended by a local church. And generally speaking,
John addresses them as being recipients of God's grace and
His peace. Grace and peace beyond a year.
All right, let's look at this statement, and I'll quit. And
from the seven spirits which are before His throne. The seven
spirits here are representative of the Holy Spirit who abides
in all these seven churches. I don't know why he represents
himself as the seven spirits, unless he's saying that this
is the complete presence of the Holy Spirit, or if he's talking
about it in that sort of tongue. I really don't know. I don't
know why he represents himself as the seven spirits, except
to say that what the Spirit teaches in one church, he teaches in
another. I get so tired of people saying,
well, God gave you that revelation. He gave me another one. Oh, no,
He didn't. God, the Holy Spirit, is the same. And one of us is
wrong. He doesn't reveal one thing to
this church and something else to that church and something
else to this church. He speaks the same. But perhaps this is talking about
the presence and power and anointing of the Holy Ghost upon all His
seven pastors in those seven churches.