You can turn back in your Bibles
to the book of Revelation chapter 1. Title of our message as we
deal with an introduction into the book of Revelation is the
Revelation of Jesus Christ. That's the title of the book.
It's not a great fanfare title. It doesn't actually distance
itself from the rest of the Bible in any unique phraseology as
we will see here. But I have subtitled this introductory
approach to the book of Revelation a gift from the Father, a gift
from the Father. And if we take the term the revelation
of Jesus Christ as a proposition, then it would follow that the
revelation of Jesus Christ is indeed a gift from the Father,
a gift. And I want us to think that through
a little bit. All revelation is a gift. That's point number one in our
PowerPoint. All revelation is a gift. Anytime God reveals anything
to us, it is a gift. You do know that a man can receive
nothing except it be given him from above. John's gospel chapter
3 John made it very plain. None of us can receive anything
Except it be given to us from above so we never boast about
having something as if it was always ours or intrinsic to us
or Originating with us whenever we receive anything from God. It's a gift. I It's an absolute
gift and the Bible tells us in James the book of James chapter
1 I'm going to be sharing with you some principles you already
know But in the book of James chapter 1 James reminds us of
this too that every good and perfect gift comes from above
and comes down from the father of light Do you see that every
good gift? Every perfect gift is from above
and comes down from the Father of Lights. Now this too is a
sort of critical doctrinal truth for those of us who believe God
is the first cause of everything. We recognize that we can obtain
nothing, we can receive nothing, we can maintain nothing, if it
were not for God Himself opening the heavens and pouring upon
us the gift of life, the gift of health, The gift of strength,
the gift of working, the gift of serving, the gift of living
for His glory is not the gift of salvation truly a gift? Have
you been born again? Do you know that's a gift of
God? Are you walking in the truth
of the Gospel? Do you know that's a gift too?
Not everybody knows the Gospel. It's the remarkable thing and
the most satisfying thing that we were able to experience, me,
Adrian and Jeff. Folsom prison yesterday was the
opportunity after preaching for almost an hour Having some lunch
and then we had a Q&A for almost an hour. Can you imagine that
400 men? raising questions about doctrine
Who is God? How do we know God? What is the
Trinity? What is predestination? What
is the election? Can a man lose his salvation?
These things were so wonderfully wonderfully dealt with are so
rejoiced at men hungering to know the reality of those things
that are so So vaguely taught and unclear in our present generation,
but do you know to the gift of teaching is a gift? The capacity
to rightly divide God's Word is a gift and then it's also
a gift that God would use you to teach There are some folks
who have knowledge but are not gifted to teach So to be able
to teach in a way that advances people in a knowledge of the
things of God that too We recognize as a gift. Do you know doors
opening to teach is a gift from God? So God has to open the door
That's a gift then he has to qualify the teacher to teach
that's a gift as well But do you know for people to receive
what you teach is a gift? the hearing ear and the seeing
eye the Lord had made both of them and It's not guaranteed
that just because you're a good teacher people are going to receive
what you say When men and women receive the truth of the gospel,
we say thank you lord Thank you lord because human beings by
nature reject truth And for them to embrace the truth is a wonderful
recognition that the lord had gone before us And given us an
opportunity to share the word of god. So when we think about
the revelation We must understand it as a gift indeed. Now, the next thing I say about
it is that it is a gift from the Father. It's a critical truth. Look at Revelation chapter 1
verse 1 and notice how clear and succinct John is in his writing
of what he saw and heard and notice the language We'll be
just dealing with a few verses in the book of Revelation today
as we deal with our introduction We will skip next week and then
we will come back Over the subsequent weeks and deal with only the
seven churches of the book of Revelation but it will allow
me to deal with certain factors throughout the whole scope of
the revelation of Jesus Christ. But in verse one, you do recall
the nature or the expression that is given to John by Christ.
Notice the revelation, the revelation, and mine are in big letters.
I don't know about y'all, but mine are in big letters. That's
not inspired, but I'm thankful that they did it. Okay? It's not inspired. Folks get
all bent out of shape. Pastor, you didn't put a capital
on that versus a minor letter. Listen now, understand that in
the original languages they were not dealing with capitals and
lowercase and all of that. You have to be very careful.
Some of that but when we translate it from the original into our
English language if we have a proper understanding of the emphasis
of that particular Sentence or that particular chapter then
we may stress it in the writer the translator stressed the opening
statement this first clause the revelation of Jesus Christ the
revelation of Jesus Christ now watch this which God is Gave
unto him I call it a gift of the father It's a gift of the
father. I'm going to make that plain
here as we work our way through so under point number one The
gift of revelation is first and foremost a gift from god as all
gifts are as all life is He is the father of lights and he is
the source the first cause of everything and therefore all
things come from him but in this context and I believe this is
true of everything as well as The gift of revelation is from
the father to the son. Notice what it says, the revelation
of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him. So as you and I are
observing, and we'll be reading through and perusing the first
three chapters of the book of Revelation, what you are privileged
to do is be a third party to a transaction between God the
Father and God the Son. Y'all got that? The Father has
given the Son a gift. The father has given the son
a gift and that gift that the father has given the son is to
our benefit But what you and I are doing is simply eavesdropping
if you will observing a trans Transaction between God the father
and God the son and here is what the father has done for the son
He has given him the gift of being the central figure of all
God's revelation to mankind for His own glory and the salvation
of His people. He has given to His Son, Jesus
Christ, the gift of being the central figure of all of God
the Father's objective and work in this world to His own glory
and the salvation of His people. This too will be expanded further.
But what you notice is called the gift of the revelation The
revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, what is a revelation? What
is a revelation? Well, a revelation is not a creation.
A revelation is not a production. A revelation is not for you to
make something or come up with something or instantaneously
produce something. A revelation is merely, ladies
and gentlemen, the unveiling of something that was already
there. A revelation in this context
is merely an exposure of something that was already in existence. When we talk about the revelation,
the Greek term is apocalypses, from which we get the concept
of a mystery. being veiled or hid, of which,
when once that mystery is made manifest, the veil is taken away. The veil is taken away. So the
revelation of Jesus Christ is not the manifestation or manufacturing
or producing of God the Father of some aspect of who Christ
is at the time of that revelation. It's merely an unveiling of the
glory of God in the person of Christ. It's an unveiling of
His glory, if you will. It's a featuring of Christ in
His exalted state, manifesting His rule and sovereignty over
all things to the glory of His Father and to the good of His
church. Revelation. Revelation in fact,
this is a common term if you know throughout the New Testament
It's not it's not a real new idea. In fact, it's something
that has been running through the whole of Scripture For which
the Bible actually makes it plain that without the grace of God
in the work of the Spirit of God from Genesis to the book
of Revelation The things of God are hid to man In other words,
they are a mystery that even when you read the Genesis account,
we don't have, as it were, an effectual revelation until the
Spirit of God pulls back the veil that's over your eyes and
mine and give us an understanding of those things inherent in the
text. Now, granted, in the Old Testament
there are a great many mysteries that were shrouded over in the
intention of God of which He had planned on revealing when
Christ came. So when the served God came into
the world in its incarnation, there was an unveiling, if you
will, of many of the Old Testament passages that the apostles said
were hidden in times past and in ages past, but has now been
revealed unto us by God's holy apostles and prophets. So now
you can go back to the Old Testament when the veil is removed. And
you can see things in the Old Testament that correspond to
New Testament reality. Is that so? You could not see
it so long as the veil was not removed. It didn't mean that
they weren't there. They were there, but they could
not be seen until there was a revelation. And in fact, our Master put it
like this in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12, verse 2. Go there,
I want you to see this. This is getting into the prerogative
and sovereignty of God to keep his revelation hid until at such
time God is pleased to make it known. Jesus said this several
times in the gospel, but in Luke's gospel, chapter 12, verse 2,
here's what our master said. Now watch this. Now listen to
this. He's speaking concerning the wickedness and hypocrisy
of the Pharisees in the meantime when there were gathered together
an innumerable multitude of people In so much that they trod one
upon another He began saying unto his disciples first of all
now watch this beware of the leaven of the Pharisees Which
is what? Now we just call that religion.
I just call religion. I That's all that is, that's
religion. That's a form of godliness which denies the power thereof.
Religion is a Christless attempt at trying to look like God. That's
all religion is. Religion is a Christless attempt
at trying to please God by one's own good words. And what our
master was doing on this day, as we've been learning in the
Friday study, is exercising his true authority over against the
false authority of that day. The false authority of that day
was the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the high priests. And the
master was saying to his disciples, listen, fellas, the 11 of these
men, their doctrine, their teaching, Luke says it in Luke chapter
16, their doctrine and their teaching is fundamentally hypocrisy. In other words, watch this now,
they do not appear to be what they really are. And then he
goes on to use a phrase that will become a principle to what
we are now asserting about revelation. Look at verse 3. Are you there?
For there is nothing what? That's our word, ladies and gentlemen,
to be veiled. That shall not be what? That's
our word, revelation. There is nothing covered that
shall not be revealed, neither what hid that shall not be made
known. Therefore, whatsoever you have
spoken in the darkness shall be heard in the what and that
which you have spoken in the ear in the closet shall be proclaimed
upon the house up. And the idea is this. There has
always been with God hidden things. There has always been with God
those secrets, those mysteries that are within the framework
of His own will and prerogative of which unless God pulls the
veil back, you and I have no idea what's going on. And when
we talk about revelation, we are talking about not something
being produced or something being made, but something being, as
Jesus, our master puts it, uncovered. For there is nothing covered
that shall not be revealed. Now, notice what he said. There
is nothing covered that shall not be revealed. That's all encompassing. There's nothing covered that
shall not be revealed. There's a day coming when everything
that's covered will be revealed. The veil will be pulled back,
ladies and gentlemen, on everything. Do you believe that? It will
be pulled back on this world. We will see this world for what
it really is one day. You and I are told what this
world is. We're told it's fallen We're told that it's headed towards
judgment. We're told that it's demonically possessed. The whole
world lieth in the lap of the wicked one. We're told that it's
in a state of termination. It's going to dissolve and be
destroyed. But that's simply a message. Until it's revealed
to us, people really don't believe it. We're told that our world
is like the Titanic. It's sinking. And we still got
the musicians on the third deck playing music. And we got people
partying as if they don't believe the proposition that this is
the Titanic and it's sinking. Now, the reason why they act
the way they do is because there has not been a revelation. They've
been told, but they haven't seen the world the way God sees it.
And I hope, I hope that church folk, our Christians, actually
see the world the way God sees it. Now, this is not going to
make you popular with your friends. Because the Bible is very clear
that the world puts on a hypocrisy, a form of being a wonderful place,
a magnificent place to be with all kinds of prospects of happiness
and pleasure and joy. Is that true? See, now, and this
is why the whole of our authorities are trying to get rid of the
Bible because the Bible actually unveils the world and shows it
for what it really is. Only that revelation is a gift
of God. Because men walk around blinded,
blinded by the devil from the truth of God concerning these
realities. How would you act if you saw
things the way God saw them? See, when we talk about revelation,
we're talking about an unveiling of things that are already there.
This is all that I'm trying to get across to you. that the revelation
of Jesus Christ, which first and foremost comes from the Father,
go back to our text so we can move on, is a gift from the Father
as is all revelation. You know how when you thought
you knew everything about a particular thing and a particular person,
and you came to discover that you knew very little about that
thing or that person. And it brought about a kind of
vulnerability, didn't it? because you thought that there
was a revelation but there was still a veil over it and in a
real sense that's how we are in our present world. The only
way you and I see the world rightly is through the lens of biblical
truth and that by the agency of the Holy Ghost helping us
comprehend those things that can only be understood in the
light of God's Word. The book of Revelation is the
final compilation of all of God's Written revelation to humanity
it is the capstone it is the closure of all that God intends
to do has purpose to do from the beginning of time to the
end of time as we know it and on into eternity and so we have
the crescendo the full development the full manifestation or if
you will the unveiling of of the centrality of God's purpose
in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. As we have stated, the
gift of Revelation comes from above. In this context, the book
of the Revelation of Jesus Christ is from the Father to the Son.
Let's affirm that. In the Gospel of John, our Master
stated this principle several times, but it's worth calling
your attention to it since all we're doing today is laying a
foundation for the structure of the book of Revelation. But
in the gospel of John, a couple places I want you to mark this.
Jesus Christ himself was fully aware that all that he had was
given to him. Our master being the last Adam,
the perfect man, the perfect son, was very clear, ladies and
gentlemen, that nothing originated with himself. And when he spoke,
did he not constantly say, I say nothing of myself, I do nothing
of myself, I cannot do anything but that which the Father has
shown me and given to me. Isn't that the way He constantly
spoke? You know what He was doing? He was honoring the Father. He
was honoring the Father. And He was honoring the Father
rightly because that is the true nature of sonship. And it ought
to be with us as well. Ought we not to always honor
the Father? Even as the father honoreth the son so we ought
to honor the son Because as the son honors the father and the
father honors the son we get to see the father in the true
light There's no revelation of god except in the person of christ
and here christ teaches us that revelation That revelation is
a gift from god in chapter 5. He says over in verse 19 now
watch this then answered jesus and said unto them, these are
the carping rulers that are opposing his claims as the son of God
and therefore bearing the nature of God and they are charging
him for that which is true, that he was equal with God. Then answered
Jesus and said unto them, verily I say unto you, the son can do
nothing of himself. Glorious. Do you see that? But what he seeth the father
do, For what thing soever he doeth, that's the father, these
also doeth what? The son likewise. Now watch it
now. For the father what? Loveth the
son. Stay there now. We talked about
this in our men's meeting last night. I just want to throw this
out to you while I'm feeling good. Whenever God calls you
and me to obedience, The premise or presupposition of that obedience
is a love relationship between God and us. Whenever God calls
you to obedience, it is to be assumed that a covenant relationship
is already established, that he is your father and you are
his son, and that it is a privilege for God to tell you what to do. Let's make this very clear for
the children of God in this church. When we read every commandment,
every imperative in the New Testament, R-O, and it speaks to us to love
the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Say, thank you, Lord. Thank you for the privilege of
being in communion with you because it is right for me to serve you
with everything that's in me. And in fact, for you to even
talk to me is a gift. For you to even call me is a
gift. For you to even give me the right
and privilege of relating to you, engaging with you, and my
servile obedience to you is a great gift from God. Now watch this.
My strength for this argument is Jesus Christ Himself. See,
I'm taught of God by Christ. Christ teaches me how I am to
think about my Heavenly Father. Didn't He come to reveal Him?
No man hath seen God at any time. Only He who is in the bosom of
the Father, He hath revealed Him. He hath revealed Him. To what degree you pay attention
to Jesus, to that degree you will know the Father. To the
degree that you understand the relationship between the Son
and the Father, to that degree you will understand the love
of God to you. And may God grant us grace to
respond to him as Jesus responded to him. Listen to the language
now. Here it is. I say unto you, the son can do
nothing of himself. Isn't that what we say? Without Christ,
we can do nothing. I don't care what men say. I'm
not being pious. I know the truth. Life doesn't
originate in me. I have no strength in myself.
I have no wisdom in myself. If God were for a second to pull
the plug on a relationship between me and him, I'm dead. You too. And if God didn't continue fusing
into my being, his light, his understanding, his knowledge,
his will, his purpose, his compunction to do what he would have me to
do, I could never for a second do the will of God. I could never
for a second do the will of God. In other words, I'm not like
a truck that got wheels on it where God just kind of gives
a good go and sends it down the road rolling. Go Jess! Go! Go! I'll catch up with you when
you start slowing down and give you a little more push. No, the
Lord has to drag me all the way through from one end to the other
and bring me on into glory. Am I telling the truth? And see,
this is how the son spoke about the father. And what this does
is it teaches our continued unbroken dependence and interdependence
with God. God's with us. He's with me. He's actually doing the work.
So we quote Philippians chapter 2, 12 and 13 all the time. Work
out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God
who worketh in you the will and to do of his good pleasure. Now,
listen. Listen, I'm humble enough to
accept that. How about you? I'm humble enough to accept that.
And so our Master says in verse 20, these words, listen to it.
For the Father loveth the Son and shows him what? That he himself
what? And he will show him greater
works than these that you may what? See, listen, and our master
is actually not only talking about the things that will shortly
come to pass in terms of his atonement and sacrifice at Calvary,
he's speaking to the disciples, I believe, with every intention
of letting them know they will get the final chapter on human
history concerning what God had already prepared for Christ.
Even the book of Revelation that you and I have. The book of Revelation
is a magnificent book. The things in the book of Revelation
are a tremendous privilege for you and I to be contemplating.
Go back to our text. I just want you to think it through.
Our Lord Jesus made it very plain. He said very plainly, there's
nothing that he has received that he did not get from his
father. And it was his privilege to reveal these things to us. Point number three under the
first heading, the reward of the revelation is a consequence
of his obedience and conquest at Calvary. Why did the Father
give those things to Jesus Christ? Because of what Christ accomplished
at Calvary. Psalm chapter 2 verse 7 and 8 the master having received
from the father the right to sit on his throne As his king
on his holy hill of zion was stated to ask jesus what he will
and the father says I will give you the uttermost parts of the
world for your inheritance in the heathen for your possession
The son of god is sitting on his throne He's already accomplished
redemption and the father is given to him all things. Are you guys hearing me? But
here's the reason why Philippians chapter 2 Philippians chapter
2. I know I'm running you quickly, but go Philippians chapter 2
Here's what the text says in Philippians 2 to underscore that
this gift was not just sort of given to Jesus Sort of arbitrarily
it was given to our master because of his work of redemption Philippians
chapter 2, listen to what it says. You've heard this before. Verses 5 through 11. Let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a what?
and was made in the likeness of men. This is his condescension,
right? And being found in fashion as a man, he did what? Humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the what? Death of
the cross. This humility, this condescension,
this kenosis, ladies and gentlemen, is really a model for you and
me. If we're sons and daughters of God, ought not this to be
our relationship to Him? Humble ourselves, operate as
a servant, mark this. Wherefore God hath what? Highly
exalted him, here's the word, and given him a what? Which is
above every name. Now how does he give him a name
if he doesn't also give him a glory and a revelation? See it? The name or the authority or
the identity or the reputation of Christ is made known to us
in the book of Revelation. The book of the revelation shows
us how that he will be known by all men all over the world
As that vicar sitting on the throne as god's mediator between
god and man the man christ jesus as the ruler of the universe
as the lamb that was slain as the one who now is Controlling
all the affairs of the world But that's a lot of authority,
isn't it? That's a lot of authority. Now, it's one thing for that
authority to be given, as he said in Matthew chapter 28, all
power and authority has been given unto me, right? In heaven
and in earth. But it's another thing for that
authority and power to be put on full display and expose in
a revelation like the last book. See, and that blessing is for
us. The blessing of seeing Christ
in this exalted state, ladies and gentlemen, is for us. And
as we get into the text more, you'll see why. Don't you need
to know that Christ is on the throne? In the day of trouble,
don't you need to know that he's not moved? In the day of your
afflictions, when you are in those throes of doubt and fear,
and the world can shake you up, your own sin nature can shake
you up, You know how fickle we get. You guys act like you are
mountains in here, but you get fickle too. You get fickle too. It's good to know that Christ
is on his throne, even when you and I are shaking to and fro.
I love it. Psalm 8, David, Psalm 18, Psalm
16 rather. David said, I have set the Lord
always before my face. Therefore, I shall not be moved. His not being moved was not because
he had strength in himself. His not being moved is that he
could remember at all times Christ is in control. At all times. That's good stuff. Listen to
it. Listen to it. He says in Philippians
chapter 2 verse 9 through 11, God has highly exalted him, giving
him a name above every name, which is name that at the name
of Jesus, how many knees going to bow? Well now, watch this. If they're gonna bow, they've
got to come to know who He is. And they will. In fact, they
are coming to know who He is as we speak. They are going to
know. The whole world will know who
Jesus is. Not by virtue of just the identity
of His name, but by the authority of His power being executed everywhere
in the world. Verse 10 that every knee should
bow and every in of things in heaven and things in the earth
and things under the earth Here it is verse 11 and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father Mark that there it is mark it every tongue Shall
confess Did I tell you that that word confess both in the Old
and the New Testament means to say everything you know about
that thing Homologeo is the Greek word to say the same things.
Like whatever God says, when you confess, you are simply agreeing
with God. In the Old Testament, yada is
the word that means open your mouth wide and tell everything. You know how when you are brought
before the courts and you know they gonna throw you under the
jail and they give you one opportunity to get out? Tell it all. And
you go to tell it. To confess is to tell it all. Guess what? Every human being,
every eternity bound soul is going to tell it all on that
day. They're going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God, the Father. And this was given to him. This
is his reward. And finally, under this point,
it's a witness and a saving revelation to the church. And what that
means, ladies and gentlemen, is this gift of revelation given
by the father to the son is not exclusive to the father the Son. This gift of Revelation by the
Father to the Son is really of the Father through the Son to
the church. Do you get that? The very fact that you and I
are contemplating the book of Revelation which was written
almost 2,000 years ago somewhere around AD 80 to AD 90 is the
prerogative of God to reveal to the church who Christ is in
his glory. So you and I have the blessing
of being part of that revelation. And in fact, if an unsaved person
is going to know something about the exalted Christ, about the
post-resurrected glorified Christ, how are they going to know except
through the church? If an unbeliever who knows nothing
about the Savior is going to ever come to the reality of a
great white throne judgment and a lamb sitting on that throne
judging humanity as the mediator between God and man, as Paul
stated in Acts chapter 17, God have given Christ to be the judge
of the whole human race, appointed a day wherein he will judge the
world by that man, Jesus Christ. How will the world know that
Christ is going to judge the world except through the what?
Church! That's why you and I are reading
the Revelation right now. The beautiful, beautiful concept.
Revelation chapter 1, go back so we can move on into the next
contemplation of the book of Revelation. So here's what John
says with regards to that truth, the revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave unto him to show unto his what? That's right. Who are his servants? We all
are. Every believer is a servant of God. Every Christian has the
privilege and prerogative of knowing these things. Contextually,
it was John. Listen to the language. To show
unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass, and
he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant whom.
This is the first time that John reveals himself after the Gospels
and after the epistles in a way in which he has said, hey, hey,
I'm the one. I'm the one. I, John, am the one who have
received this last canon of the revelation of God. I just want
you to know I'm the man whom God has been pleased to give
the final apocalypse. of the glory of God in the person
of Jesus Christ. And we thank God for John, do
we not? We call John the revelator, but he's not really the revelator,
he's just the mailman. Do you understand that? John's not the revelator. John
can't reveal anything to you. A man can receive nothing except
to be given to him from heaven. I can't open your eyes. You can't
open my eyes. Only God can open the eyes. But
he does do it through human vehicles. And we are privileged, are we
not? When we are able to actually see and penetrate into truth
and see it for what it is. And so we recognize then the
gift of revelation is from the Father to the Son. It's a reward
of his obedience and conquest that is Christ. It's also a witness
to the world and a saving revelation to the church. The Apostle Paul
said it like this. This is why I say a saving revelation.
Go with me to Ephesians 1. I want to read verses 15 through
23 just to assert that and then go to our second point. Here
is the prayer of one of the apostles who himself was so endowed with
revelation that it's remarkable that such a human being could
contain the kind of information that was given to him by God.
But the apostle said this in his prayer to God for you and
me. Now this is love for the church,
brothers and sisters. Here it is. I'm going to start
at verse 15. Wherefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in
the Lord Jesus, see the premise, faith and love unto all the saints. This is the only way you're going
to get the revelation. You have to be a believer and you have
to love the church of the living God. You have to be a believer
and you have to love the church of the living god. I am not going
to digress But I am amazed at folks who think somehow they
can have the approval and favor of the god of the church And
have such low esteem for the church I see it all the time
in this 21st century generation this disconnect of folks who
think it's just them and god Paul said I am praying for you
who have faith in Christ and love to all the saints. And here
is my unceasing prayer for you. Are you ready? That the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. Isn't that good? Stay there for a second. Where
does glory, dark sauce, have its origin? In God the Father. It begins with him. Is he not
glorious? Everything about God is glorious,
isn't it? Paul said, the father of glory. Did he penetrate in? Did Paul
go in? Because you remember, when he
met God in truth, guess who he met? The son of the living God. He met Christ in his glory. Our
master shined down him on the Damascus road and blinded him
with a light a billion times brighter than the sun. That was
glorious. So glorious it blinded Paul.
He stayed blind for three days so that he could learn that by
nature we are blind until God penetrates our heart with the
revelation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
He gave him three days to make sure he got his gospel right.
that he wasn't better than the next man, that he didn't see
something because his IQ was higher, or that he was wiser,
or that he was born a Jew. God, in his own sovereignty,
revealed his glory in Christ to Paul. And you know what he's
saying? The father of glory. We believe
that, don't you? He is a glorious being, all by
himself, absolutely splendid. in the effulgence of his being.
Now watch this. I am praying that the father
of glory may give unto you. Is it a gift? May give unto you. Now watch this now. The spirit
of wisdom and revelation. There's our word. In the knowledge
of what? Him. My goodness. Open my eyes, oh God. The eyes
of your understanding being enlightened. Open my mind. Illuminate my understanding. Broaden my periphery and scope
of who you are and what you are doing. Help me to see things
the way you do in order that you may know what is the hope
of His calling and what the riches of His glory and the inheritance
of the saints is. And what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to usward who what? according to the working of his
mighty power wherein he wrought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead and set him at his own right hand. I argued
for this yesterday as I taught the resurrection. I'll talk about
it next week. It's impossible for you and I
to receive anything of any saving nature from God apart from the
resurrection of Christ. He raised him from the dead,
sat him at his own right hand in the heavens, far above all
principality, power, might, dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. Boy,
that's a mouthful. That's a mouthful. Isn't that why we call Jesus
Lord? And he is Lord of lords and king of kings. And his name
is greater than every name, not only in this world, but the world
to come. That's amazing. Amazing. Jesus gets first place. He is
preeminent over all things to the church. He's the firstborn
among many brethren. God has exalted him. He's huge. Huge. Huge. Huge. I hope as we get into the
revelation I am able to actually convince you more of that because
I am convinced that people have a low view of our Savior. And
the deficiency of their low view of our Savior contributes to
their lack of faith and their lack of zeal and obedience to
God. He is given the gift of revelation from the Father. It
is a consequence of his obedience, and it is a witness and saving
revelation to the church. It's designed to not only sanctify
us, but build us up, give us faith, and move us out into obedient
service to God. Now, the book of Revelation,
ladies and gentlemen, is really not a new revelation per se. From Genesis to Revelation, you
and I know that Jesus comes in the volume of the book. Is that
not so? It's not like God is unveiling for the first time
who Jesus is in the Revelation. And mark this now, I thought
about this, this is important. Gospel preaching, the preaching
of the gospel, which we do in this place and others as well,
Gospel preaching alone prepares the soul for the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Is that not so? It is the preaching
of the person and work of Jesus Christ that prepares the soul
for the revelation of God. If you don't know it now, here's
the thing. You went to church for many years and you heard
a lot of sermons, but none of them made any impact because
the key to the book wasn't there. You were hearing peripheral doctrines
and peripheral teachings, but you never got the central message
at all. When once the gospel was preached
in its truth, and in its glory, and in its power, guess what
you saw? You saw the Son of God. you saw
the Son of God. And that became the thing that
broke you away from the sort of listless, aimless ideas you
had about God and the Word. All of a sudden, your heart was
filled with glory. Is that true? You were going...
Now, tell the truth. It was like, that's it! That's
it! That's it! That's what I was
missing! That's it! That's what I was
missing! Isn't that crazy? Here, every
time we come to church, we should be singing happy birthday to
Christ, but they don't even talk about him. When we preach the gospel, we
are preaching the person and work of Jesus Christ from Genesis
to Revelation. It's not the tail end of our
message when we call people up to receive Jesus. It's the sum
and substance of the whole of our message. Everything we preach
is about Christ. Now watch this, it becomes for
us then a pre-revelation mode. The book therefore of the revelation
of Jesus, the unveiling of Jesus in his exalted glory is simply
now, now watch this, Jesus Christ in high definition. The book
of revelation is Christ. high-definition in full detail
in splendid glory Like you never saw him before That's what we're
getting ready to go through for three months Jesus Christ in
HD For you tech guys, what's the next level? That's Christ's
who? That's Christ's who That's all
you're getting is the revelation of Christ in a more pristine,
clear, and magnified way. That's good, isn't it? So you
guys are going to be able to take a break for the next two,
three months. I won't be beating you up. You get to just sit and
enjoy your master and marvel at how faithful he has been for
the last 2,000 years to keep us and to maintain a church by
which we can just revel in his care for us. Point number two,
the immediacy of the prophecy. I'm going to run through these.
The immediacy of the prophecy, I'm compelled to talk about it
for two reasons. One is because the book of Revelation
by many teachers, and it's been going on for a long time, depicts,
is depicted and framed in a way that kind of says you don't really
need to read the book of Revelation. You don't need to study the book
of Revelation because it's about stuff going on way down the line. In fact, some of y'all know people
who have lived and died and never read the book of Revelation.
Some of y'all know churches wherein you've been for decades and they
never talk out of the book of Revelation. The assumption is
most of what's going on in the book of Revelation is way out
in the future. And then if they are sort of
prophecy buffs, they scare you out of all your money by telling
you it's getting ready to happen right around the corner as soon
as the Antichrist pop up. Am I telling the truth? Now we're
going to go through a sort of a crash course in prophecy. And by the time you're done with
that crash course, you still don't know what the book of Revelation
is all about. This is true. My first proposition under our
second point, the immediacy of the prophecy. The future is now,
and it has always been. The future is now. I know for
some of you semantically that's an oxymoron, but understand what
the text says. Revelation chapter one, part
three, part C says, listen to what he says. Revelation chapter
one, verse one, part three, part C. The revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which
must shortly come to pass. Do you see that? Which must shortly
come to pass. I'll take time later on to explain
it. What our master is simply saying
is he did not give this revelation to John for it to be given to
the church in the year 2014. The revelation was relevant the
day he wrote it. Are you hearing me? When he says
must shortly come to pass, he was implying very clearly an
unfolding of things that were happening then and the things
of the future that would happen quickly then on in throughout
the whole of human history as we know it. When he uses the
word shortly, it's a term that is used in automotives we call
a tachometer. You know what a tachometer is?
It's an RPM gauge. And when you have a big old souped-up
motor, some of these guys know what I'm talking about, you step
on the gas and the RPMs, the revolutions per minute in moving
those valves up and down in the engine, it's a tachometer that
gauges the speed. And it speaks to the quickness,
the quickness of the fulfillment of the prophecy. Now mark what
I'm saying. Jesus says the prophecy, when
it begins to happen, will happen quickly. Quickly. John knew it
the first century church knew it and throughout history whenever
Christ unveiled the seals as we are going to see Human history
unfolded and it unfolded quickly you and I are in the midst of
the unfolding of the revelation right now It's happening upon
us and in every generation in the church. We have always sensed
and felt the immediacy of Christ revelatory work. Is that true?
The church has always felt a sense of imminence, a sense of his
coming, a sense of his acting within the framework of human
history. Let's see if we can make this good. Look at verse
3. Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words
of the prophecy and keep those things that are written therein.
For what? The time is at hand. Now ladies and gentlemen, It
didn't mean that the time is going to be at hand in the end
of the church age. This same phrase was used when
Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane and he told his disciples, fellas,
it's time to go. The time is at hand. The son
of man is about to be betrayed, be betrayed into the hands of
sinners. And immediately Judas Iscariot showed up with his band
immediately. The time is at hand means right
now. The revelation is now. The future is now. Again, as we contemplate this
idea of the immediacy of the prophecy, look at Revelation
chapter 22, verse 6 and 7. Bear with me, because what I'm
doing is giving you a framework so I won't have to go back to
these passages when I preach through the seven churches, okay?
Revelation chapter 22, listen to what verse 6 and 7 says. And
he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true. He's closing
out the revelation in that beautiful Edenic garden. And the Lord God
of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants
the things which what must shortly be done. Verse seven. Behold,
I come quickly. There it is. Behold, I come quickly. I will save that phraseology
for our seven churches study. But in every one of the churches,
here's what the master says to each of the churches. Behold,
I am already on my way. I'm coming quickly. That's to
every one of the churches. Every one. Can you imagine being
the church at Ephesus or the church at Smyrna? of the church
of Thyatira receiving a letter specifically designed for you. Where Christ himself, the head
of the church, the bride to the bridegroom, says to that specific
church, I know you. I know every one of you in the
church. I know your issues. I know you. And here is the remedy to your
problem. Get busy because I'm already on my way. Are you hearing
that? That's quite apprehensive, isn't
it? That's in our next point there. We'll talk about it shortly.
The immediacy of the prophecy is important. In other words,
we reject a purely Futuristic view the premise upon which I
argue this is because the apocalypse of Matthew's 24th where our Lord
talked to his disciples about the destruction of the temple
and the Persecution and them being brought up before the rulers
and there shall be wars and rumors of wars Famines and pestilence
earthquakes all that stuff we talked about right? well again
our present-day contemporary prophecy buffs love to put that
stuff in the future and But the first century church saw most
of these prophecies come to pass in their day. You can read the
book of Acts and you've got tribulation. You can read the book of Acts
and you've got persecution. You can read the book of Acts
and you've got earthquakes. You can read the book of Acts,
you've got famines. You can read the book of Acts, you've got
warfare. All of the New Testament epistles also imply these things. My point is, When we say the
future is now, point number B, the book of the Revelation is
historic. Are you hearing me? Contemporaneous
and also progressive. Meaning the book of the Revelation
applied in the first century. The book of the Revelation applies
today where you and I are and it will continue till the end
of time. Did you guys get that? Every part of the book of Revelation
has application both then and now and will be when Jesus returns. It's whether or not we will rightly
divide the Word of God and see how those passages apply to where
you and I are right now. Point number C. I say that the
Revelation is historic and contemporaneous in its progression and I quote
Revelation 1, 4, 8, 18, Revelation 4, 8 and following because it
actually gives us a depiction of that sort of process. Look
at verse 4 of Revelation 1. Are you there? John to the seven
churches which are in Asia. Grace be unto you and peace from
him, now watch this, from him which is and which was and which
is to come. Do you see that? Him which is,
which was, and which is to come. Now we were breaking those down
into tenses. What do we have? Present tense,
contemporaneous. Past tense, historic. Futurist,
progressive. What is that text telling us?
It's telling us that history is the handiwork of God. That God is the one that produces
and makes history and that God is relevant in every aspect of
history. There's no time in history where
God is to be viewed as was. See, so I'm jumping into my exegesis
because this is what it takes for you to get sound doctrine.
You read Revelation chapter 1 and you think you're ready to go?
Believe me, I could stay on this verse and preach seven sermons
on the character and nature of God in terms of his constancy,
his immutability, and his relevance at all times. I am the God of
Jacob. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. See, we believe that God is,
not was or will be, is. And He is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek Him. This truly does correspond to
what Moses saw in Exodus 3.14. Tell Pharaoh I is, that I is. We call it the Tetragrammaton
in the Hebrew. And it speaks actually to the reality of who
God is at all times. It's a verb form that means more
than present tense. It certainly means more than
past tense. And it certainly means more than future tense.
It's a perfect tense verb. That's why the best translation
in the English is he is. He not he was or will be. He is! And wherever he is, he
is the same way all the time. He's immutable. He's unchangeable. He's inflexible. He's holy in
all of his attributes. And the God they knew then is
the God we know now. And the God they'll know in the
future is the God we know now. Am I making some sense, brother?
I just want you to get that it's important for you to know and
you can read through the rest of those verses But I want to
wrap this up And so when we say that the immediacy of the prophecy
is that future is now we reject a purely Futuristic view is because
it doesn't correspond to the nature of God. The book of the
Revelation is historic contemporaneous and progressive The character
of God in his dealings with men are always relevant They are
always constant And they are always unchanging. Now, in the
book of Daniel, Daniel spoke of things that were sealed and
things to come. Did he not? Daniel chapter 12
verse 4, 8, 9. I need you to see it. I got about
five minutes. Daniel chapter 12 verse 4, 8,
9. I want you to see the difference
between this pre-revelation apocalypse that Daniel received and how
God instructed Daniel to seal the book. Daniel chapter 12 verse
4 8 and 9 listen to what he was told as he was Dizzied by the
revelations of Jesus Christ given to him did Daniel see Christ
He saw him in his pre-incarnate post-resurrected glory Several
times and it laid Daniel low He got sick of the revelation
He he was sick because of the glory of Christ because of the
judgments that would come upon Israel but in Revelation our
Daniel chapter 12 verse 4 mark this but thou O Daniel shut up
the words do you see it and seal the book to the time of the what
and many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase
and we love to claim the time of the end don't we people still
writing books about us being in the end times I'm over a half
a decade old and people are dying on me who lived all their life
trying to tell folks the world was going to end in our generation.
Now that means something. Are you hearing me? That means
something because I can live another 35, 40, I can live another
50 years. Can you imagine that brother
Jesse 103 years old? I can live another 60 years,
70 years. And if I do, I can affirm and
assure you that some other nut is going to rise up and tell
you God gave them a secret insight as to when the world is going
to end 10 times over. Because somehow the immediacy
of prophecy moves some of us to think that we can think God's
thoughts after him automatically. And we can see the end. But with
God, a day is as a thousand years. And a thousand years is as a
day. That's not a literal concept. It's not saying one literal day
is actually a thousand years. It's simply saying God's not
moved by time like you and I are. He's never in a hurry. When you're
omniscient, time is irrelevant. It's just a tool to fulfill your
goal. Just imagine if you were omniscient. I'm sorry, not omniscient. Omnipresent. There's always eternal
in your nature, just transcendently fixed in a state of permanent
eternality. And time was never a relevant
issue with you. Boy, you can just take your time
and do whatever you want to, right? You can see a thing a
thousand years down the line and touch it and come on back
to where you are. You can get a lot of stuff done, couldn't
you? In any event, you would never be moved This is why while
God seems to be slow and slack, that's our perception of things.
But God's not slack like some men count slackness. Is that
true? And in fact, time is a gift.
I'm going to move on. Time is a gift that God allows
things to continue to act, wind down. The sequential unfolding
of events is for you and me, our infirmity. We have fits when
things are too slow. We're the one with ADHD, not
God. I'm telling the truth. I'm telling
you hurry up Lord help hurry up That's why I tell Christians
slow down because there are people I want to see say You talking
about come back Jesus There's some folks you ought to be praying
for There's some folks you ought to want to see this revelation
to settle their soul down and to get them right with God before
you Talk about come back Jesus You know, I know you love Jesus
more than us. I know that. I know you love him more than
we do, you and Peter. I know you love him more than
we do. I know you love him so much that you can stay in heaven
with you and Jesus all by yourself. I know you, I know, you know,
I know y'all could do heaven without us, us little peon Christians,
because we, I mean, you got Jesus back. I understand that. But
the reality is you need to be waiting patiently for the Lord
to work and people you supposed to love With your selfish butt Lord come back And the church
will say no Lord come back when you want to come back Now we
can already own the fact that he is coming back quickly Do
you understand that you can own that because that's what he said
but quickly it's not your time or mine. It goes on to say in
Daniel chapter 12 verse 8, listen to these words. And I heard,
but I understood not then, then said I, oh my Lord, what shall
be the end of these things? And then he told Daniel, he told
him very clear in Daniel chapter 8 and verse 9, listen to this. And he said, go your way, Daniel.
for the words are closed up and sealed to the time of the end.
Do you know the big difference between the book of Daniel and
the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ? Is that which Daniel
was told to seal up is opened up now? It's been opened up. Go with me in your Bible, Revelation
chapter 5, verse 6 and 9. What Daniel was told to seal
up and remain a mystery, to be uninterpretable, until at an
appropriate time has been opened up for all intents and purposes
for the last almost 2,000 years. John sees in Revelation chapter
5 verses 6 through 9 a glorious reality. Here it is. And I beheld
and lo in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts and in
the midst of the elders stood a what? As as it had been slain. This is what we call the crucified
past tense christ Who has risen from the dead and ascended to
glory and that is at the right hand of god the father right
now having Seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits
of god. That means christ has the authoritative
right to send the Spirit of God who is represented in his perfect
purity and wisdom and power into all the world. Notice what it
says, the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. Verse six is simply an apocalyptic
sort of revelatory statement that Jesus is an authority over
all things and the Holy Spirit has been sent by Christ into
all the world that the gospel might be preached and that men
and women might be able to see Jesus the way we are seeing him
in the text. That might've went over your
head. Listen to what he says over in verse seven. And he came
and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat on
the throne. Who's sitting on the throne? The Father. Who is
the one coming to the throne? The Son. How is he coming to
the throne? As the crucified Christ. What
does that mean? He has accomplished eternal redemption. He has risen from the dead. He
has destroyed our foes. He has been caught up to God
He has the right as the last Adam having victory over death
to come take the scroll out of the hand of God the Father Do
you see that? That's why they all they getting
ready to worship right now Y'all should have been worshiping but
that would see we don't have no understanding But the folks
that saw this lamb approach the throne and take the sealed book
out of the hand of the ancient of days, in this context, the
father, they understand the implications of this. Here it is. And he came
and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon
the throne. And when he had taken the book,
the four beasts and the four and 20 elders fell down before
the lamb, having every one of them harps. They worship it now.
Golden vials they're praying now full of the orders of which
of the Saints are the prayers of the Sun and they sang a new
song Here it is. You are worthy to take the book
and to open the seals thereof for you were slain past tense
and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every kindred
tongue and people and nation and has made us unto our God
kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth read verses
11 through 14 boy they get to worship in This is the greatest
depiction of a worship service you will ever read. All because
Christ rose again from the dead. All because he had power to go
to the throne and receive the sealed book. And from this text
forward, the Lamb unbreaks every seal. CO1, CO2, CO3, CO4, CO5,
CO6, CO7. What's happening? The unfolding
of history. The fulfillment of prophecy.
The transition of God's will being accomplished in this earth.
All because Christ has authority. CO1, CO2, CO3. You and I are in the seventh
seal right now. Seventh seal unfolding in before
our eyes This is the revelation that you get to have church of
your master running the universe. You know, you read the newspapers
I'm gonna stop right here You know, you read the newspapers
or watch the news and get caught up in all of the hoopla that's
going on around the world Listen that's not the real story Watch
this. The real story is Christ is on
his throne running this universe. I He is controlling the affairs
of men. He's allowing evil. He's allowing
wars. He's allowing destruction. But
he's also preaching his gospel. He's also saving his people.
He's also protecting his church. He also is manifesting his glory
all around the world. Now watch this. You have to read
the news and watch the news with revelation glasses from now on. So you can go to sleep in peace.
Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. How are we going to
stop terrorism around the world? Oh, Lord. The financial crisis. Oh, Lord. Oh, the famine. Oh,
Lord. Christ on the throne. Did you
get that? Christ on the throne. Christ
on the throne. Christ on the throne. Christ
on the throne. Amen. Christ on the throne. He on the throne. Thank you.