Let's turn to Revelation chapter
1. Revelation chapter 1. It has been my purpose, my singular
purpose, in these Bible surveys to show you clearly from the
book of God, from every book in this book, that the message
of this book is Jesus Christ and him crucified. the Old Testament
and the New, sets forth the person, the work, the glory, and the
greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ. In creation, in providence, and
in redemption, and in the book of God, it pleased the Father
that in him should all fullness dwell. Now that which is true
with regard to the book of God as a whole, is particularly and
distinctly true with regard to this last book in the sacred
volume. We read here in verse 1, the
revelation of Jesus Christ. Not the revelation of Saint John
the Divine, but the revelation of Jesus Christ. Not the revelations
of Jesus Christ, but the revelation of Jesus Christ. the revelation
of Jesus Christ which God gave to him to show unto his servants
things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified
by his angel unto his servant John. He showed by many signs,
many visions to his servant John, who bear record, John bear record
of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ. and
of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that read it, and
they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things
which are written therein, for the time is at hand." It is true
with regard to all the word of God, but it is specifically stated
to be true with regard to this book. these 22 chapters in the
last book in Holy Scripture, that those who read and understand
that which is written here are blessed, blessed with spiritual
knowledge, blessed being instructed and taught by God the Holy Spirit,
blessed in the knowledge of the purpose of God in all things. Now as we read through these
22 chapters, two things I would remind you of at the outset.
First, the theme of the book in its entirety is the ultimate
triumph of Christ and His Church over the dragon, over Satan and
his helpers. The book of Revelation shows
us things are not what they appear to be at any stage in time. Things are not what they appear
to be looking at the news when you go home tonight. Things are
not what they appear to be if you understand the apostasy and
darkness of the age. Things are not as they appear
to be when you see the corruption and degeneracy of the society
in which we live. Do not judge God's purpose by
what you see, but judge what you see by God's purpose. God help us to do so. Do not
interpret God's word by the events of history, but interpret the
events of history by God's word. Now John shows us in these 22
chapters that God's purpose is never in jeopardy. Christ, his
church, and his truth will be triumphant at last, and God will
accomplish his purpose in all things. The second thing that
needs to be clearly understood as you read this book, each vision,
that is, each section of the book, is to be interpreted as
a complete vision covering all the gospel age. Every time you
see a distinct vision that John sees in this book, you read it,
don't try to mix the two together. Don't try to mix all the visions
together. You get these reference Bibles and commentaries and they
try to mix everything together and it's all a mess. It's like
taking seven paintings and put them all in one painting and
make all of them fit. It doesn't work. Each painting
is its own picture. And each vision that God gave
to John while he was on the Isle of Patmos is a distinct picture
of God's work in this gospel age. It covers the entire gospel
age. from the first advent to the
second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that John is showing
us in each of these pictures, each of these visions that he
had, the Lord Jesus is showing us by John in each of these visions
that God is accomplishing his purpose. Christ shall prevail
over his enemies. The church of God shall triumph
over hell. and the truth of God shall triumph
over all the world." Now follow those guidelines as you read
through the book, and you'll see very easily the meaning of
the book. It's talking about the glorious
triumph of Christ, our crucified Savior. The book is about Christ,
and we are made more than conquerors in him. Now I want us this evening
to just take several brief pictures given here of our Lord Jesus
Christ, because I want you to see that this book is distinctly
about our Savior. And in these 22 chapters, John
distinctly shows us several aspects of our Savior's glorious person
and work. In chapter 1, verse 5, we see
first that Christ is the faithful witness. This title refers to
our Savior in his prophetic office. He is that prophet Moses spoke
of in Deuteronomy 18, whom the Lord God would raise up like
him. Only difference would be Moses
said, him you shall hear. This is a prophet who doesn't
try to teach, he does teach. This is a prophet who doesn't
try to give us instruction, he gives us instruction. And when
this one, who is our great prophet, comes by the power of His Spirit
through His Word to instruct His people, he sees to it that
you get the lesson. Those who are taught of God are
taught indeed. When God Almighty sends His Son
in the revelation of His Word to the hearts of sinners, He
teaches them His way and His truth. He is the faithful and
true witness of God to His people. And he is our faithful witness
before God as our advocate with the Father. He is that one who
represents God to us, and he is that one who represents us
to God. Look at chapter 1, verse 5 again.
Our Lord is here declared to be the first begotten of the
dead, the first one to be raised from the dead. And this refers
to his priestly office. As the statement that he's the
faithful witness speaks of his prophetic office, this speaks
of his priestly office. If our Lord Jesus is the first
begotten from the dead, then it is obvious he must have once
died. He died for our sins and rose
again for our justification. And when he arose as our head
and representative, we're told in the scriptures that he entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. He entered in once into the holy
place, and He could not do so had He not obtained eternal redemption
for us. And having entered in once into
the holy place, we are assured that He has obtained that eternal
redemption. He has finished the work which
the Father sent Him here to do. With His own precious blood,
our great High Priest now opens forever to us a way of access
to God by which we can draw near to God with full assurance of
faith that God accepts us and smiles upon us. Again, look at
this fifth verse. Our Redeemer is the Prince of
the kings of the earth. Again, this is talking about
our Lord Jesus, not in his essential character as God. That's true
with regard to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God
is God over all, blessed forever. He has his way everywhere with
everyone. But this is talking about our
Lord Jesus as our mediator who has entered into heaven for us,
the only begotten or the first begotten from the dead. By virtue
of his finished work of redemption, the God-man, our mediator, has
been made the sovereign monarch of the universe. He lived and
died and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and
the living. God has now given him power over
all flesh. He rules the universe for the
purpose of giving eternal life to his people. The kings of the
earth are all under his dominion. They have their crowns and wear
them only as long as he has ordained. And they do nothing but that
which he directs, both the good and the evil. The kings of the
earth are men whose hearts are in his hands, and like the rivers
of water, he turns them whithersoever he will. I certainly hope, it
is my desire, I hope it is a rightful prayer, that in our next election,
the Lord God will keep us from, as a nation, having the evil
we deserve. But it matters not who sits in
the office. God puts him there. And it matters
not what his name is or what his intent is. He does only that
which God Almighty directs must be done according to his purpose
of grace for his own people. Now look at this, verses 5 and
6, chapter 1. The Lord Jesus is him that loved
us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and made us
kings and priests unto God. He loved us. He loved us. What a word from God. The religious
world around us says He loves everybody. That makes His love
meaningless, insignificant, and worthless. Oh, but it's special,
because He loves everybody. God's love is different. He loves
everybody. If He loves everybody, His love doesn't mean anything,
because His love doesn't make any difference about anything.
My wife knows that I love her. I love her distinctly, particularly. That means that everything within
my power, everything that I can do, everything that I can control,
will be exercised to the fullest of my ability for her good. How come? Because I love her.
I love her. Oh, I love you, but I love her. Understand that? He loved us. Oh, great, matchless, infinite
love. He so loved us that He gave His
Son to redeem us. Having loved His own, which we
are in the world, He loved us unto the end. He loved us. Because He loved us, He washed
us from our sins in His own blood. By the shedding of his blood,
the Lord Jesus effectually washed away the sins of God's elect.
He washed our sins from the record of heaven, from the memory of
God, and washed our sins from us, making us perfectly holy
and righteous in the sight of God. That's his work of redemption. Now all whom he loved and washed
with his blood, in the fullness of time he makes to be kings
and priests unto God. That's talking about regeneration
and conversion, God's gift of grace to us in time, sending
His Spirit to redeem, to deliver sinners. He gives us a new holy
nature by which we are made kings. Kings are men who reign. That's who kings are. They are
men who reign. They reign over a distinct realm. It's fruit of the Spirit. It's
love, joy, peace, awe. And then Paul says, You know
what that means? It means control from within.
Believers are made to be kings, ruling over their passions by
the grace of God. The passions are just as evil
as ever, but believers are no longer ruled by them. Believers
are made to reign, and soon we shall reign with Christ forever
over all the earth. We are also made to be priests
unto God. are a holy, consecrated, sanctified,
separated people, consecrated to God. Their right ear, their
right thumb, their right toe is all set as consecrated marks
unto God so that we are made to be deliberately, willingly,
by the sweet constraint of His grace, men who continually serve
our God in the holy place, having direct access to God so that
every believer is a priest unto God because we are one with Christ,
our High Priest. And God accepts us because of
Him and in Him. Now look at verse 18. The Son
of God says, ìI am he that liveth.î Sometimes folks wonder why I
donít do like multitudes and adapt a modern translation of
our Bibles. And one reason is because of
the lack of these ETH endings on verbs in the Holy Scriptures.
Live it. This one who is alive forevermore,
this first begotten from the dead, lives unendingly, continually. He lives forever because he's
life. That's true. Apart from him there
is no life. He lives forever because he's
the living God. That's true. But here the Apostle
is revealing something about the Lord Jesus, or our Savior
is revealing something about himself as the God-man, as our
Mediator. He who once was dead, having
died as our substitute for the satisfaction of divine justice,
lives forever. He died. Thank God he died. But now he is forevermore alive. He lives forever on our behalf
as our mediator. He lives for those for whom he
died, making intercession for us. Therefore, he is able to
save to the uttermost them that come to God by him, seeing he
ever liveth to make intercession for them. He lives to give eternal
life to all his redeemed. He lives, and because he lives,
we also shall live forever. Look at verse 18 again. Our all-glorious
Lord Jesus Christ is the one who holds the keys of death,
of hell and of death. Now in this place, hell simply
refers to the grave. There is no question, with regard
to the doctrine taught here, it is also true of hell beneath. There is no question about that.
But here John is speaking a word of consolation to you who believe. Our Redeemer, by virtue of his
accomplished redemption, holds the keys. The keys. You go to any place of business
and find the man who has the keys to everything. He's the
one in charge. He's the boss. Our Master holds
the keys of the grave and of death. Unto him, the psalmist
said, by virtue of his ascension, Psalm 68, unto him belong the
issues of death, all the issues of death. Now we can, by virtue
of his accomplished redemption, cry, O death, where is thy sting,
O grave, where is thy victory? Because he, by his death, is
the end of death for us. He conquered death, hell, and
the grave when he died and rose again, and therefore these ought
not to have any fear or dread for us. They have no power against
us. In our Lord's redemptive work,
sending his Spirit to us, calling us from death to life in regeneration,
he raised us from the dead. And that one who raised us from
the dead spiritually shall in the last day raise these bodies
from the grave. Triumphantly. This is what the
scripture says. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection. That's talking about the new
birth. I've been raised from the dead. Have you? I'm talking
about raised from the dead. Raised from the dead. If he can
raise my soul from the dead, it'll be no problem for him to
raise this body from the grave as well. And so it is written,
He that liveth and believeth on Me shall never die. We shall not taste death. It's not going to happen because
He tasted death for us. Now, look at verse 1 of chapter
2. Here John begins in chapters
2 and 3 to tell us about this vision, this first vision he
has of our Savior, as the one who walks among his churches. And he gives us these letters
to the churches. He describes our Savior in verse 1 as that
one that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh
in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. The seven golden
candlesticks are the churches of Christ in this world. These
two chapters speak of seven distinct churches. Those churches all
existed while John wrote this epistle. But most people either
refer to those churches as just historic churches in Asia Minor,
or they refer to them as representing various ages of the church in
time and try to make the passage say what it doesn't say. Those
seven churches represent God's churches in this world at any
time in history. And sadly, they represent God's
churches in various stages of their existence in this world.
But of this, we are assured, the Lord Jesus is in the midst
of his churches, walking, walking. He said, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. That gives me a little extra
sphincter when I come to the house of God. There is something
mystical, unexplainable that happens when two or three believers,
just two or three, come together, believe in Christ, seeking his
glory to worship him. When we come together to worship
him, Paul tells us, you are the temple And the Spirit of God
dwells in you. Oh, what a privilege. What a
privilege. The angels of these churches,
the stars that our Master holds in his right hand, the angels
of the churches are gospel preachers. Those pastors appointed of God
to be his messengers to his churches, he holds them in his right hand.
The Lord Jesus puts them where he wants them. gives them the
messages they're responsible to deliver, uses them as he sees
fit, and protects them, always protects them, and provides for
them, abundantly provides for them as they go about his business. Several years ago, Brother Mahan,
his wife, and some folks from Ashland went down visiting Brother
Milton Howard in Chiapas, Mexico. And they found out about some
poor Indian tribes who lived way up in the Chiapas Highlands.
It's been several years ago. And they decided to take some
provisions up for them, arranged to have a service among some
believers there, and took some provisions for those poor folks.
And coming back, came back with a horrible storm. And you can't
imagine what the mountains were like, or the roads were like
in those Chiapas Highland mountains, but they washed out. long drop-offs,
just driving along to see the side of the road just fall out
from under them. And the ladies began to panic. And Brother Henry
said, Milton, stop for a minute. And he turned around, looked
at all of them. He said, We are here doing God's
service as God's servants, and God Almighty watches over us. Now drive on home. They're held
in His hands all the time. In chapter 5, verse 5, our Lord
is described as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. What a name for
the Lamb of God. He is the one who sprang as a
man from Judah's tribe. He is compared here to a lion.
A lion. I like that. A lion is strong, courageous. Like a lion, our Savior devours
all His enemies. Like a lion, He always prevails. He prevailed over His enemies.
He prevailed with God for us as our surety and substitute.
And He prevails over the hearts of chosen sinners at the time
of love appointed of Him from eternity as the lion crouches
in wait. So the Son of God crouches in
wait, not humbly, meekly waiting for you to do something for Him.
If He waited for you to do something for Him, He'd wait till you were
swallowed up in hell. Oh no, He crouches like a lion,
waiting. And then He comes in omnipotent
grace and prevails over the hearts of chosen sinners. In chapter
5, verse 5 again, our Lord is described as the root of David. Later in chapter 22, he's called
the root and offspring of David, because he is both God, from
whom David obtained his life, and the man who came from the
root of David's house. As a man, our Savior arose as
a root out of dry ground, and yet he is the root from which
all his people draw their life. He is the root of our family
tree. Look at verse 6. In the midst
of the throne stood a Lamb. What a picture. The only two
times in this book where we see the Son of God standing is here
and over in Acts chapter 7 as the martyr Stephen was being
stoned to death. Stephen said, I see the Lord
Jesus standing to receive me. The only two times. He stands
as a Lamb, stands as a Lamb. He stands as a Lamb in the midst
of the throne of God, which John saw in chapter 4, verse 1. Christ
our Savior, who was slain for us, stands in the midst of the
throne because He is the center of all God's decrees about which
John is here speaking. He is that one who is the center
of all that God does, all his works, and he is the one who
executes all God's purposes. He alone is worthy, and he alone
is able to take the book that John saw, and to loose the seals
thereof, and fulfill all the book of God's decree of predestination. Christ stands in the midst of
the throne. He stands there in the midst of the 24 elders, the
church of God. He stands there in the midst
of those four living creatures John spoke of in chapter 4. Those
living creatures, same ones Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6. Those living
creatures who symbolically represent gospel preachers. He stands in
the midst of the throne as that one who is the object and fulfillment
of all God's purpose. And he stands there as that one
who is the object and delight of all his people. the object
of our faith, the object of our message, that one to whom we
continually look. The throne, John saw, represents
the glory of God and the dominion of God, and all of it is in Christ
the Lamb who has been slain. Look at chapter 10. In the first three verses of this
chapter, and again in chapter 20, the first verses of chapter
20, Our Lord Jesus is described as a mighty angel. He stands with his left foot
on the sea and his right foot on the earth. And in his hand,
that book. That book. I love this picture. I love this picture. The sea
and the earth representing all the isles of the earth. and the
earth itself, all the nations of the earth, all people, all
God's creation, and standing over all with the book that John
saw by the throne of God, the book that the Lamb took and opened. Here he is, fulfilling it all,
fulfilling it all. He is the angel. the archangel,
the prince of angels, the mighty angel, that same one who came
in Revelation 20 with a great chain in his hand and bound Satan,
the devil, that prince of darkness, bound him in his chain. Our Savior
said, I, if I be lifted up to the earth, will draw all men
unto me because now is the prince of this world cast out. Satan
is ruled by him. so that he may fulfill all that
is written in the book. He speaks and it's like the thunder
uttering her voice, John said. Then in chapter 13, verse 8,
this Lamb who is the mighty angel of the covenant, this Lamb who
is God's messenger, he is the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Now let me give you the long
and short of that. and justified and sanctified
and glorified. In Him, the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world, we were given all grace and all the blessings
of grace, all that God Almighty gives to chosen sinners in time,
He gave to us in eternity in this Lamb. And we are said to
have God's salvation from eternity. Now, look at chapter 19. Jump
all the way over to chapter 19, verse 11. The Lord Jesus is here declared
to be faithful and true. What a name for God my Savior. He well deserves it. He's faithful to his people all
the time. Though we believe not, yet he
abides faithful. Oh, what reason we have to thank
God. His faithfulness doesn't in any
measure depend upon our faithfulness. Faithful, faithful. He's a faithful
friend, a faithful brother, one who sticketh closer than a brother.
He's a faithful husband. He is such a faithful husband
to his chosen bride that he will never leave her And he will never
allow her to leave him. And he's true. Always true. I have some friends who, every
time I talk to them on the phone, or every time I get a letter
from them, me and his wife both, they say, thank you for being
true to our souls. They had no place to worship
them for years and listened to our tapes. And I think every
time I hear them say that, I wish I could be as I ought to be. But blessed be God, He is true
to our souls in all the fullness of His being. Then in verse 13,
He is called the Word of God. He is the eternal creating Word
of God by whom all things were made. He is the incarnate living,
revealing word by whom God makes himself known to men. He is the
almighty saving word by whom God calls out and saves his people
in regenerating grace. Then in chapter 19 and verse
16, we read that our Savior is the King of kings and Lord of
lords. Again, this is as we saw in chapter
1, speaking of our Lord's mediatorial character. Peter declared on
the day of Pentecost that the outpouring of God's Spirit upon
his people was a declaration that God had made that same Jesus
whom you crucified Lord and Christ. He's seated on David's throne,
King of kings and Lord of lords. Soon that one who is the rightful
monarch of the universe shall be acknowledged as the rightful
monarch by all, even those who are his enemies. Every knee shall
bow to him. All that are incensed against
him shall bow before him, either in grace or in judgment, but
bow before him they will." Now look at chapter 21, verse 5.
In verses 5 and 6 we read that our
Lord Jesus is here speaking and he says, I make all things new. In grace, he makes all things
new, so that we who are in him are new creatures in him. Behold,
old things have passed away, and behold, all things are becoming
new. In heavenly glory, he makes all
things new. He grants his people a new name
and a new life. a new life without the possibility
of sin or sorrow or death. And then the day is coming when
he says he will make a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth
righteousness. Look at chapter 22, verse 13. Our Lord has declared here to
be the Alpha and the Omega. the A and Z. What on earth does
that mean? That means he's the beginning
and he's the end of all things and everything in between. All
creation begins with him and ends with him. All providence,
all the events of providence are ordered by him, by his eternal
decree and shall be bound to his glory in time. All our salvation
is Christ. That's it. Christ. He is salvation. You remember what Simeon said?
He said, Now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace. Mine
eyes have seen thy salvation. He is salvation. He alone is
wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
He is salvation. He performed it. He has the glory
of it forever. He's the Alpha and the Omega.
He's described in chapter 22, verse 16, as the bright and morning
star. He is the light that shines in
darkness, the darkness of our hearts, giving light of the knowledge
of the glory of God. He is the day star of grace,
the sun of righteousness, risen over this sin-cursed earth with
healing in His wings. And He is the star of that great
day yet to come that shall shine and light the new world forever.
Then our Lord says in chapter 22, verse 20, Surely I come quickly. Soon he shall appear. Suddenly, without warning, the
King of glory will come to destroy his enemies with the brightness
of his coming. And he will come to gather his
saints unto himself. Then cometh the end. You can
read about it in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 24, 25 through 28. In the end, our Lord Jesus, as
our mediator, will do one last thing. Then he will deliver up
the kingdom unto the Father, saying, Behold, I and the children
that God hath given me, and God shall be all and in all. Now look at chapter 21. Let me
give you a couple of things to take home. Chapter 21, verse
4, when Christ comes again and delivers up the kingdom to the
father, when he lifts his hand and says, time shall be no more,
then we shall see his face and God shall wipe away all tears
from our eyes and there shall be no more sorrow and no more
death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more
pain for the former things are passed away. Impossible as it is for us to
imagine, there is a time coming when we shall weep no more, for
we shall have no reason to weep. No reason. Heaven is a place
of sure, eternal, ever-increasing bliss, and the cause of that
bliss is God our Savior. Heaven is a place of joy without
sorrow, laughter without weeping, pleasantness without pain. In
heaven for eternity. there will be no regrets, no remorse, no second thoughts, no lost causes,
no sorrows of any kind. Our God shall remove all sin
from us. and remove us from all sin and
remove all the evil consequences of sin. Sorrow and death and
sickness and pain. Heaven is a world of life. Eternal life. Now, look at chapter 22, verse
4. And they shall see his face.
Oh, what a prospect. We will see him face to face. But this is more than just physically,
literally seeing him. We'll see him. We'll see him so as to know him. And seeing him, we will be conformed
to him. When we see him as he is, we
shall be like him. Then shall I be satisfied,
O God my Savior, when I awake in thy likeness. and be it forever. Forever. His will will be my
will. His desire, my desire. His purpose, my pleasure. His praise, my delight. His satisfaction, my satisfaction. will see Him, see His face in
constant, conscious, blessed, perfect communion, knowing that
it shall never be interrupted. Well then, may we rejoice to
hear our Savior say, Surely, I come quickly. How our hearts
ought earnestly to pray. Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen. Lindsay, let's try to sing one
more time. There'll be no dark valet when Jesus comes. Number
147.