Well, as I said earlier, I'm
planning today to start a series in the book of Revelation, and
for this first message we're just going to look at the first
three verses. That's my intention this morning, and I've entitled
this message Hidden. Reality. Revealed. Hidden. Reality. Revealed. Now, I'm going
to use an illustration now that I know some of you have heard
before, but never mind, I couldn't think of a better one. But a
few years ago, I think it was only about four years ago, Christine
and I had a holiday to Switzerland. And we flew from Heathrow Airport
to Geneva Airport. and we landed at Geneva Airport
and we transferred to the train and we took the train journey
round the top side of Lake Geneva through Montferrat and then at
a station just down the east side of Lake Geneva we got off
the train with our bags and onto a little rack railway that ran
up through the streets of the town and we could see the lake
and we could see the train and we could see the other people
and the sky was leaden grey above us all the way, leaden grey.
And we got on the train and we rattled through the streets of
this little town, and then it started to climb. And you know,
if you've ever been on one of these racked railways in Switzerland,
you're just amazed at how on earth a train can go up a hill
that's so steep. And it pulls itself up this incredibly
steep hill into the cloud. And so then, we could barely
make out the trees on either side of the track. And we got
to our station in this little village called Villars. And we
walked down the road to our hotel, and we checked into the hotel.
It was a beautiful hotel, all in wood, and there were lots
of other nice people around, and it looked like a nice dining
room. And we went up to our room, which was fabulous. What a lovely
room. It had everything you could possibly
want. It was beautifully furnished, and it had a balcony. And I went
out onto the balcony. I could just about make out the
fact that there were some trees across the road, because it was
thick mist, it really was. And we went down for the evening
meal and the food was good and the waiters and the staff were
all very, very nice. You may think I'm labouring it,
but you see the point is, everything that we could see seemed like
all there was to see. The hotel was good, the food
was nice, the staff were good, we got picked up some nice friendships
with other guests, and it really was very, very nice. And that's
what we thought was our existence. We thought that was the limit
of our existence. The train, the hotel, the room
and the balcony, the food, the staff, the other guests, and
the thick mist all around. That was how it seemed. Nothing
but that which was immediate and thick mist. Does it not seem
like that in this world in which we live? We've got our immediate
environment. We've got the other people that
we come across, whether it be on the train or at the office
or in the school or in the village or wherever it is. We've got
our daily routine, things go on. We've got things that are
highs that make us feel good and things that are low that
make us feel not so good. We've got times of health, we've
got times of sickness, we've got times of plenty. We seem
all to be having plenty of times of plenty. There are times of
shortage as well. There's living, there's dying.
We see people dying around us. World events go on. The news
continues to come in. All the philosophies that the
world around us believes, that goes on as if there was no difference,
as if that was the limit of it. But for those who are believers
in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, those who trust the Lord
Jesus Christ, There's a confidence that there is so much more, that
there is an eternity of blessedness. Peter spoke about it in his prayer,
that heaven in which there is perfection, there is no more
crying, there is no more pain, for all the old things of this
world are past. That's the prospect that believers
in the Gospel of Grace have, but in this world in which we
live now, it doesn't seem that way right now. You know, in my
illustration I told you that on, I think it was the second
morning, not the first morning, the second morning we were there,
we opened the curtains onto the balcony and that mist had gone.
And we were in this fabulous world of glorious blue skies
and towering 12,000 foot high mountains covered in snow on
the top. The difference was just phenomenal. You just couldn't
describe how different it was, how that enclosed world in mist
had become that fabulous opening up of a wonderful view. This
is what it's like, eternal reality. This is what Paul wrote to the
Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians 4, 17 and verse 18, talking about
where we are now. He says, our light affliction.
He means, yeah, we're suffering trials, but it's only light.
Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. There's something
so much better coming. While we look not at the things
which are seen, the immediate things, this immediate world
and its philosophies, but at the things which are not seen,
by the natural man, with his limited vision. Not seen. For the things which are seen,
the things which are all around us, the things that we come across
every day, they're just temporary. They're just for now. But the
things which are not seen, that glorious view that was beyond
the mist, when I'm speaking in heavenly terms, they're eternal. They don't fade away, they go
on. And it's been like that for believers in this world. since
about A.D. 50, I suppose, when the bulk
of Scripture, when Paul had written all of his epistles, when the
other epistles were written, and there was just one thing
left to do, and that was the Revelation, the book of Revelation
was yet to be given. How will God, let's say since
A.D. 50, it's been like this, believers
living in a world which is basically like living in that hotel in
shrouded mist, and having a pretty confident idea that there's a
glorious view out there, but we don't see it right now. How
will God stop his people from despairing? Nearly 2,000 years
have gone on since that time. In about AD 95, or maybe 96,
God gave the book of Revelation to his church via the Apostle
John. That's what he does. He gives
this book to stop his people from despairing that we live
in nothing other than a world shrouded in spiritual mist. That
there really is a glorious heaven, a glorious eternity. Think of
the first century situation. Throughout the Old Testament,
God had promised that Christ would come, the Messiah would
come. Why would he come? It was needful, that if a people
was to be saved, a people who were sinners, then one must come
who is their perfect representative and substitute. with whom they
united in a divine mystery and he must live in their place and
he must die in their place and in dying in their place he must
satisfy the justice of God for the soul that sins it shall die
and he died in the place of his people as the substitute as the
surety he came he was born of a virgin that he might be perfect
that he might not have the sin that all of us children of Adam
have. He lived in this world. He was examined by the law of
God and he was found perfect. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. He was taken to the cross of
Calvary and there he died in the place unjustly. in the justice
of man, but justly in the justice of God, for He was made sin.
He was made the sin of His people, that at the cross of Calvary
the justice of God might fall upon Him and He might pay the
penalty for the sins of His people, that His people might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. At Calvary there He died for
the redemption of His people. And he didn't stay dead. For
God raised him from the dead. For he was delivered up for our
trespasses and raised for our justification. Raised to prove
that what he had done had fulfilled its purpose, had accomplished
its purpose. He had saved his people from
their sins. And they saw him many days. And
then they saw him ascend back to heaven. And him give that
commission, go into all the world and preach the gospel. I'm with
you always, even to the end of the world. They saw that, and
they saw him go up. And the angel said, why are you
standing here? Go and do what he said. Go and bear testimony
of the gospel that you've heard and believed. And it was witnessed. Not just by the apostles, but
by many believers. And the New Testament has been
almost completed. All the epistles have been written.
The scriptures, we've got the Old Testament, and we've got
the gospels, and we've got the Acts of the Apostles, and then
all of the epistles. And the church has grown and
spread. in the face of persecution, some
severe persecution. In fact, God used persecution
to cause the church to spread. Because you know what people
are like, they would have just been a nice big cozy huddle in
Jerusalem if God hadn't brought persecution and caused them to
spread. And they spread over all of the then known world,
all around the Mediterranean, they spread. And then in A.D. 70, the Roman Emperor came and
put down rebellion in Jerusalem, just exactly as the scriptures
had foretold. The prophet Daniel had told exactly
what would happen. In Daniel chapter 9, if you read
the weeks, it's unmistakable what he said. Jerusalem where
that temple sacrifice, where all those pictures of salvation
were carried out throughout the Old Testament dispensation, that
was going to be destroyed for good, for Christ came to put
an end to all of that. And he did it. And in A.D. 70,
the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. They destroyed the Jewish temple.
Jewish worship was destroyed. It's never been re-established.
They have synagogues, but they've never ever had a temple in Jerusalem
since A.D. 70. Just exactly as God said. And all the apostles, except
John, have died. Peter, Paul, James, all of them
have died. And there's only John left. And
he is now much more than 90 years old. He's a very old man. The
apostle John. The church is in the wilderness
of this world. When we get to Revelation chapter
12, we'll see the church pictured as being in the wilderness of
this world. How long is it there? This book keeps talking about
three and a half times. A time? times, and half a time,
it's hard to bend the fingers to show what I mean, but three
and a half times. 1260 days, it puts it in different,
what it means is, it's a very long time. The church is in this
world for a long time, but the half time shows us it's a limited
time. It is going to come to an end.
And believers start to think it's like our Swiss hotel experience,
shrouded in mist. the immediate, plus the thick
mist of this world and everything that's in it. But it isn't. So
God provides a spyhole through the thick mist into the glorious
sunshine of God's eternal purposes. And this is the revelation given
to John, the last apostle, just before the canon of scripture
is closed for all time. As it's the first one of these
messages, let me just point out the structure of Revelation.
The most weird and wonderful things have been written about
the book of Revelation. The most abject rubbish has been
believed. People have been hook, line,
and sinkered by hooksters who've been out there trying to fish
them and wheel them in with their weird, strange, oddball theories
about what this book is about. Let me give you the keys to understanding
this book. and the structure of it. I put
it on the back of the bulletin, courtesy of Don Faulkner and
his analysis of this. But the structure of revelation
is this. It's eternal reality revealed
through seven aspects. Seven aspects. Seven different
revelations. Seven different pictures. Seven
is the number of perfection in scripture. It's God perfectly
giving us a picture of how things really are, looking through this
mist into that glorious eternity of the eternal purposes of God.
And every single, all seven, all seven of them, cover all
the time from Christ's first coming to his second coming,
to when he comes again, the time in which we're living. And there
are seven revelations, and each one of them is a different aspect
of how God is dealing with his people in this world. The first
one is in chapters one to three. It's a revelation of Christ in
the middle of his churches, of his church, his bride, his people,
in this wilderness world. And he writes, to the seven churches. Seven is just symbolical of the
perfect completeness of God's purposes. Christ in the midst
of his people, his church, in this wilderness world, that's
chapters one to three, that's the first of them. Then in chapter
4 to 7, we have Christ opening and fulfilling that we see a
seven sealed book of God's eternal purposes. No one's found able
to open the seals of the book to show us what they are. And
one is found, the lion of the tribe of Judah. Christ comes
and he is worthy to open them. Christ opening and fulfilling
the seven sealed book of God's eternal purposes. You see, what's
it telling us? this world is not randomly out of control this
world is not on its own course and nothing can be done to do
anything about it. No, God is in control of all
things is what it's telling us. Chapters 8 to 11 is the third
one. It's Christ protecting his praying people and providentially
executing seven trumpets of judgment. There are seven trumpets of judgment
in chapters 8 to 11. This is a vision, but in the
midst of it Christ protects his praying people and he providentially
executes these judgments for the purposes of his church. Chapters
12 to 14 is the fourth. It's Christ's church and the
reality of persecution, persecuted by Satan, by the world, by false
religion. You look down the history of
the last 2,000 years and you see the severe persecution that the
world and false religion and Satan has inflicted upon the
Church of Christ. You see it in the history of
this country. The martyrs being burned at the stake for believing
the truth of the gospel. It's there. God said, don't be
alarmed. This is how it's going to be,
chapters 12 to 14. The fifth one is chapters 15
and 16. It's Christ sending angels to pour out seven vials, seven
vessels of wrath upon this earth. The sixth one is chapters 17
to 19. Christ's conquest over Babylon. Babylon? Wasn't that the city
that came and took Judah and Israel away into captivity in
the days of Nebuchadnezzar? Yes, it was. But it's a picture
of false religion in this world. Babylon is false religion. Babylon
is the vast majority of what calls itself Christianity in
this country of ours today. Christ's conquest over Babylon,
over the beast, over the false prophet, and then the final one,
chapters 20 to 22, is Satan's final downfall and the glory
of the New Jerusalem. How, when Peter prayed, did he
know about that perfection? of eternal glory is because of
what Revelation 20, 21, 22 tell us. I saw a new Jerusalem, a
new heaven and a new earth, coming down out of heaven as a bride
prepared for her husband. And there, there shall be no
more crying and no tears, for God shall wipe away the tears
from... See, this is how we know. He's opened heaven to show us
these things. And the objective of the book
of Revelation is the assurance of God's sovereign control of
all things. What does Paul say to the Romans?
We know that he makes all things work together for good to those
that love God, who are called according to his purpose. This
is the purpose of it, the assurance to his people. You know, child
of God, if you're here in this world and you worry about the
news and you worry about what's happening and are we going to
be safe and all the rest of it, just be assured God is in sovereign
control of all things in earth and in heaven. Why? Because he
has one purpose above all else, the eternal good of the people
he loved with an everlasting love. He says in Jeremiah to
his people, I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore
with cords of love have I drawn you. So then, let's look at these
three verses. First of all, Verse 1, the revelation
of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants
the things which must shortly come to pass, and he sent and
signified it by his angel unto his servant John. It's the revelation
of Jesus Christ, given by the human agency of the Apostle John,
but it is the revelation of Jesus Christ. What does it mean to
be the revelation of Jesus Christ? Well, it could mean that it's
the revelation that Jesus Christ gave, or it could mean that it's
the revelation of Jesus Christ as the object of that revelation.
He is the one who is revealed. Well, I think it means both things. It means both things. He, who
is God, come in the flesh, that's our Lord Jesus Christ, was given
this revelation by God. You say, but he is God. Yes,
he is God. But in his office, as the God-man mediator, when
he was born at Bethlehem, he became that which he wasn't before.
In eternity of old, our Lord Jesus Christ was there. In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. He was in the beginning with God. By him all things were
made, and without him was not anything made that was made.
But at Bethlehem, two thousand years ago, the one who was eternal
God, the second person of the glorious Trinity, became that
which he hadn't been before. He became a man. He became a
man. God contracted to a span, as
that hymn says. He became a man, fully man, perfect
man, sinless man, to come, to satisfy the law for men, and
by men I mean men and women, those of flesh and blood like
we are, those who are sinners. He had to stand, if he was to
pay the price of sin to the justice of God, he must become a man. And in his office, of the God-man
mediator, for there is one mediator, and one only, there's no priests,
we don't need popes, we don't need priests, we don't need vicars,
there's one mediator, says the scripture, between God and man,
and oh do we need a mediator, we who are sinful, and he who
is holy, and dwells in unapproachable light, we need a mediator, and
there is only one, there is one mediator, there's not several
paths to God, there is one mediator, between God and man, the man,
Christ Jesus. He's the only one. There is none
other name, as Peter said, to the scribes and Pharisees and
elders in Jerusalem. There is none other name given
under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. Anybody that
tells you otherwise is telling you a lie. The eternal truth
of God is that it's in our God-man mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he gave, God gave this revelation to our God-man mediator. He is
the manifestation of the truth of God to his people. If you
would know God, you must know him. No man, says John, chapter
1, verse 18 of his gospel, no man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,
He hath declared Him. No man's seen the essence of
God, but our Lord Jesus Christ has made Him known. He's manifested
Him. If you would know God, you must
have Jesus Christ revealed to you. In all of His divine offices
of mediation, you must have Him revealed to you. And I can preach
Him, and other preachers can preach Him, but it must be by
the Spirit of God coming and speaking in your heart. and showing
you in your heart. You say, I don't know about these
things. Pray that he will show you. As that hymn says, pass
me not, O gracious Savior. Hear my humble cry. Whilst on
others thou art calling, do not pass me by. O Lord, do not pass
me by now. He is the message of Scripture.
It's the revelation of Jesus Christ in this book, as in all
other books of the Bible. Because He is the message of
Scripture. What's the message of Scripture? Jesus Christ. He
is the message of Scripture. Him and Him alone. John 5, 39.
You search the Scriptures, says our Lord Jesus Christ, to the
Pharisees, to the most religious folks. You search the Scriptures,
for in them, you think that you have eternal life, and in that
you are right. These are they that speak of me. The scriptures
speak of Christ. Luke 24, beginning, the disciples
on the Emmaus road, beginning at Moses and the prophets. He
expounded to them in all of the scriptures, what did he show
them? How to live? No. He expounded to them in all
the scriptures the things concerning himself. So the Apostle Paul
was determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ
and him crucified. He said confidently to the Ephesian
elders, I have not failed to... I'm not shunned to declare to
you the whole counsel of God. What's the whole counsel of God?
Oh, it must be this and it must be... No, it's one thing. determined
to know nothing else among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He is the fulfillment of all
of God's names. Listen to some of these things.
Jehovah Jireh, God will provide. How does God provide? Through
our Lord Jesus Christ. He provides all that we need.
Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals you. How does he heal us from
our sins? In the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is our God who heals us. Jehovah Nisai, the banner over
us, the banner of love. How is that? The Lord Jesus Christ
with his church. Jehovah Shalom. Oh, to be at
peace with God. Shalom is peace. It's Hebrew
for peace. He is God our peace. How does
he make peace? Through the blood of his cross.
He is Jehovah Raha, the Lord is my shepherd. Who is our shepherd?
I am the good shepherd, said the Lord Jesus Christ. All of
it is fulfilled in him. Oh, I need the righteous. How
righteous do you need to be to qualify for heaven? You need
to be the righteousness of God. If you fall short of the righteousness
of God, you are not fit for heaven. Jehovah Tzidkena, the Lord our
righteousness. This is the name by which he
shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is the Lord our righteousness. He is. He is called that name,
and he calls his bride that name. This is the name wherewith she,
his bride, shall be called. the Lord our righteousness. Jehovah
Shammah, the one who is present, I will not leave you nor forsake
you. He is the one who is with us.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Psalm 23. Who's that? It's Jehovah Shammah. It's our God, our Jesus, Shammah,
who is present with us and others. He is Jehovah Hosinu, our maker. Without him was not anything
made that was made. He is Jehovah Mekadesh, which
is the one who sanctifies you. How are we sanctified? Our Lord
Jesus Christ, who is made unto us. Wisdom from God and righteousness
and sanctification. Oh, I know some that might listen
to this don't like that. I know some who claim to be so
Christian, and so reformed, and so orthodox, and when I once
told them that Christ was our wisdom, and our righteousness,
and our redemption, they said, yes, very good. But when I told
them Christ was our sanctification, oh, were they furious with me.
They put us out of the church. when I told them Christ was our
sanctification, but he is. He's made unto us sanctification.
He is the sanctification of his people. He's our Jehovah Jesus. Jesus, the one who saves. Call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. If you would know peace with
God, you must know that you're in Christ, who has redeemed you
from the curse of the law. Cursed, this is what the law
says, you can read it in Galatians 3, it's quoting Deuteronomy.
Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things, all things
written in the book of the law to do them. That's what the law
says, do them perfectly, never failingly, absolutely consistently
and live. And cursed is everyone that doesn't
continue in that. Put your hands up. I'm cursed.
I'm cursed. Before that law. But, but, has
Christ redeemed you? Has Christ paid the penalty?
Has Christ bought you back? Has he paid redemption's price
to redeem you from the curse of the law? Three verses on it
says he has. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law. How did he redeem us? He himself
was made a curse for us, for he bore the sins of his people
in his own body on the tree. And how does that confirm assurance
to you? This is what Romans says, Romans
15, 13. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace. How? In believing. If you believe
this, if you say, yes, I know. I know. I believe in my heart. He's given me heart faith. I
believe his gospel. He fills you with joy and peace
in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of
the Holy Ghost. It's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. This book is no different. The
purposes of God are revealed to his people in the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. And it's shown to his servants. Look in that verse one again.
Shown to his servants. God shows his word to his servants. To those who believe him, he
shows his word. He doesn't show his word to the
world in general. He doesn't. You say, why doesn't
the world? Because God has not chosen to
show it to them. What do we see? A few weeks ago,
we looked at Psalm 147, verse 19. One of these little phrases,
you know, don't neglect your Old Testament. It says, he showeth,
God shows his word unto Jacob. Meaning, nobody else. Jacob,
the people of God. Jacob, symbolical of the people
of God. Jacob, symbolical of the sinners
that God has saved by his grace. He shows his word to his friends. New Testament, John 15, verse
15. Jesus says this. This is the
God-man mediator. This is God in human flesh. He
says, I have called you friends. The one before whom John fell
down as dead when he saw him in that revelation as we read
in chapter one of Revelation. When he saw him like Daniel when
he had his vision he fell down as dead at his feet. Have you
ever been so shocked that you fell down dead? He did. He fell down as though
he were dead when he saw this glorious Lord Jesus Christ. When
he saw him He fell down as dead. This one said, I have called
you friends. This one who is God said, just
think of that, to be called the friends of one who is so glorious. For he says, for all things that
I have heard of my father, which God gave him, verse one, which
God, all things that I have heard of my father, I have made known
to you. When you have a friend, don't
you tell one another your secrets? You do, don't you? That's, you
know, when you think, who are my real friends? They're the
ones with whom you share your secrets. Jesus said to his people,
I have called you my friends, for I have told you all things
that I have heard from my father. Colossians 1.26, the word of
God. Even the mystery which has been
hid from ages and from generations Now he has made manifest to his
saints. Has he shown it to you? Has he
given you heart, faith to believe willingly? Just turn briefly
with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Now let me just skip through
from verse six quickly down to the end of the chapter. Paul
is speaking to them about, he's talked about by the foolishness
of preaching, God is pleased to save those who believe, and
he says what is needed is spiritual discernment. Now look from verse
six, he says, we speak wisdom among them that are perfect,
made perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor the princes
of this world that come to naught, but we speak the wisdom of God
in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory. There's a wisdom
of God that the world in general doesn't know. None of the princes
of this world knew it. Verse nine, as it is written,
eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that
love him. It's, they're beyond that mist. We live in a mist.
And they're beyond that mist. They don't know them. But God,
verse 10, has drawn the curtain aside. God has revealed them
to us by his spirit. Us, those who believe. those
who are his people. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knows the
things of a man? I don't know what you're thinking.
You know what you're thinking. But what man knows the things
of a man save the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so
the things of God knoweth no man. But the Spirit of God does.
and those to whom the Spirit chooses to reveal it. Now, he
says, verse 12, we have received not the Spirit of the world,
but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God, which things we also speak,
not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the
Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man, man in his natural state, doesn't receive
the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him. Why
is there nobody else here listening to us this morning? Because what
we're talking about is foolishness. Neither can they know them, because
they're spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth,
discerneth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct
him? But we, his believing people, have the mind of Christ. Why?
Because he's given us. He's shown it unto his servants.
He's shown these things. He's signified it. He's signified
it. And look there, it says at the
end of the verse, sent and signified it by his angel. Signified, signified
it. He's given it in signs and in
pictures. This book of Revelation, you
say it's got weird things in it. It's because it's speaking
heavenly language that we can't understand. And he puts it in
signs and pictures that we might understand it. He signified it.
Then he sent it by his angel to John, who bear record. You
know, he passed it on. As Paul to Timothy said this,
Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 verse 2, And the things that
thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou
to faithful men. those faithful men shall be able
to teach others also." This is how God imparts his divine truth
to his servants, through angels, messengers, through prophets,
through apostles, through pastors, through evangelists. As Ephesians
4 says, those ministry gifts that God has given to his church,
this treasure of the truth of God. Oh yes, it's in very earthen
vessels. You know, just old clay pots.
I've got clay pots down the garden and they get wet and then they
freeze and they all fall apart. They're just so fragile. You
hit them with a hammer and they shatter in a thousand pieces.
They're so fragile. That's what we are. Earthen vessels.
And yet you can put in the most beautiful plant. You can put
treasure in it. And this is what the gospel is.
It's treasure in earthen vessels. And just as Paul was imprisoned
in Rome that we might have gospel treasure in epistles from the
one who called himself the chief of sinners, so John was exiled
on the Isle of Patmos. We read that earlier, didn't
we? Verse 9 of chapter 1. 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. He was exiled
there for preaching the gospel. Get him out of the way, put him
on, you can still go there today, it's a little island in the northern
Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey. You can go to the isle
of Patmos. This is where John was effectively
locked up. And while he was locked up there,
God gave him the book of Revelation. Write it down, write it in a
book, pass it on to his servants. We have that from John, just
like John Bunyan. I know it wasn't scripture that
he wrote, but John Bunyan was locked up for 12 years in Bedford
jail, just up the road from here. 12 years, and in that time, Pilgrim's
Progress, the Holy War, many, many other writings were produced.
God did that for the purpose of his church, signified it to
his angel, so that he might show his servants the things which
must shortly come to pass. And what was the purpose of it?
With the intention of blessing his servants. Now look at verse
3. Look at 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. Read, hear,
and keep. I'm very glad that we're not
required to understand. I'm very glad that we're not
required to understand and pass an exam on it, aren't you? We'll
be blessed if we read it, if we hear it, and we keep it. Read
it. Read it. It's the Word. The Word
with a capital W. because it's about Christ, who
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. All things were made by him,
without him was nothing made that was made. The Word became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Read this Word, for this Word is just as much the Word of God
as any other part of the Word of God. It's the manifestation
of the mystery of God to people. Oh, what a firm foundation, as
we sang in our first hymn, how firm a foundation, ye saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word.
Read it. We have it. Feed on it. Do you
know, it's so easy to read it, to even read it daily and not
feed your soul with it. Meditate on it, feed your soul
with it. This is the great, as the coronation
service of the kings and queens of this country says, this is
the greatest treasure this earth affords. To have this book in
our hands, read it, and the words of this revelation, read it.
Hosea 4 verse 1 says this, Hear the word of the Lord, ye children
of Israel. For the Lord hath a controversy
with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor
mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. Oh, read it, and hear
it. Luke 8, 18, Take heed, therefore,
how ye hear. Hear it. Take heed how you hear
it. Pray for the help of God's Spirit
to teach you and guide you. Oh, we need that. As we look
at these revelations in coming weeks, we need the help of God's
Spirit to guide us and to teach us in it. And then thirdly, keep
it. Keep it. What does that mean,
keep it? You know, I don't think it means
keep it in a sense of legal obedience in the flesh. You know, it's
not giving us a whole load of rules and regulations by which
to live by, but what it is giving us is a foundation of eternal
truth on which to build everything that we think and do. What did
the foolish man do? The foolish man built his house
upon the sand. You remember this, don't you
children? The foolish man built his house upon the sand. And
sand's not very good for building houses on because when the rain
and the storm and the wind came, it blew against the house and
you know what the house did? The house on the sand fell flat. It came crashing down because
it didn't have a good foundation. But the wise man, remember what
Jesus said? The wise man built his house
upon the rock. solid rock, and the rain came,
and the floods came, and the wind came, and beat against that
house, and the house on the rock stood firm. Nothing could move
it. This is what it is to keep, to
keep these words, to build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ,
on the things that are written herein. We may not understand
all, but build your life philosophy on these words, and seek to follow
the words of the Good Shepherd who says, do this, my sheep hear
my voice and they follow me. Build your life on these things,
build your life on the eternal reality of God and his sovereign
control over all things for his people's good because that is
what this book shows us. And so I hope as the weeks progress
we'll be given some light and unction from on high to look
and delve deeply into some of these things and see what our
God is saying to us for our encouragement. Amen.