Some years ago, a group of men
met every Saturday night at a local high school to play a little
basketball. That's what fellows do when they
start getting old and don't want to admit it. Meet for a while
and play basketball until somebody gets hurt pretty bad. That's
not uncommon at all. But each Saturday night as they
would play, the janitor used to sit over in the corner and
just read his Bible, getting ready to worship God on Sunday
mornings. Most of the time folks just ignored him and he'd just
read, meditate a little while. When they got done he'd go home.
One Saturday night he was reading his Bible and the fellow walked
by before he left and said, what are you reading? He said, oh
I'm reading the book of Revelation. And he kind of snickered and
said, do you understand that? He said, oh yeah. He said, well what does it mean? He said, it means Jesus is going
to win. That's just about the best explanation of the book
of Revelation I ever read or heard. The Lord Jesus Christ
is going to win. There's just no question about
it. He is winning in all things. He shall prevail. He's described
as the lion of the tribe of Judah who has prevailed. Now as you
read the book of God, and read particularly this last book in
the book of God, try to remember the message of the book is plain
and clear. Jesus Christ shall prevail. He shall win. He shall be triumphant
over all things. Now that message is delightful
and comforting to us today as we face trials and difficulties,
as we sometimes face what appear to be insurmountable, insurmountable
objects and difficulties before us. But try to imagine how comforting,
how delightful that message was in the day in which John wrote
this last book in the New Testament. The book of Revelation was written
about 94 or 95 AD, about 60 years after our Lord's death, maybe
a little more. By this time, the Church of God had become
the object of severe, intense persecution throughout the Roman
world. Persecution that ought not surprise
us any, because the Church of God has always been, is now,
and always will be, the subject of hatred, animosity, and persecution
by those who do not know our God. As Cain slew Abel, Ishmael
persecuted Isaac, and so it was in the days of our Lord and his
apostles. The reason they hung him on the tree is because they
despised the message of God's grace in him. Now the world's
not opposed to religion. The world loves religion. Men
by nature are religious creatures. We seek some kind of religion.
Every man does. But the world despises Christ. the God of Holy Scripture, the
gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ. Everybody loves
his notion of God. Everybody loves his idea of what
God is, or at least what they think he ought to be. Everybody
loves that which he entertains as his concept of Jesus. What is your concept of Jesus?
Well, I don't give a hoot what your concept is. What your concept
of Jesus is, what your concept of God is, is totally irrelevant. The world despises the Lord God
Almighty as he is revealed in this book, and despises those
who serve him because they serve him on the footing of Christ's
righteousness alone. Cain hated Abel because Abel
brought a sacrifice, picturing the sacrifice of Jesus Christ,
his only acceptance with God, and he killed him for that reason.
because God accepted Abel through a substitute, and he refused
to accept Cain on the basis of his works. And that's the point
of animosity between the seed of the woman and the seed of
the serpent to this very day. Yet by the time we get to John's
day, the end of the first century, The church had experienced things
that we can really not relate to much in our day. You see,
God in his providence today restrains the persecutor's power. He, by
social restraint, by legal restraint, he restrains men from doing what
they would really like to do. But don't ever imagine, don't
ever imagine that the persecutor's power has changed in him, or
his will has changed in him. It has not. I recall, I think
I've told you this before, the first time Brother Larry and
Chris came over to the house, he called me one Saturday afternoon.
Oh, this has been 23 or 24 years ago, maybe more. And somebody's
giving him some of the tapes that I preached when I was at
Lookout, and he was asking some questions, I believe this, that,
and other. I said, are you talking about election and predestination?
He said, oh yeah, that's what I'm asking about. I said, well,
I don't know what you're asking about, but yeah, I do believe
what the scriptures teach about that. He said, could I come over
and talk to you? So he did. He was assistant pastor
at Oak Hill Free Will Baptist Church in Oak Hill, West Virginia.
He came over and chatted. We visited a while. And then
we had supper, and he chatted, and we visited a while. And then
we had a snack, and he chatted, and we visited a while. About
1 or 2 o'clock in the morning, he went home. And as he started
to leave, I said, You coming over tomorrow? Here's what I
have to preach in the morning. I said, what are you going to preach?
He said, I'm going to preach what we've been talking about.
I said, well, our services start here tomorrow night at 7 o'clock.
He said, well, we'll have services there tomorrow night. I said,
you won't be needed tomorrow night. He said, what do you mean?
I said, if you go home and preach what we've been talking about,
they'll throw you out on your ear before the day is over tomorrow.
He said, oh, no. I've known these folks all my
life. They love me. I said, well, I'll see you tomorrow night.
About three o'clock in the afternoon, he called me up and he said,
what time did you say your service is starting? The opposition hasn't
changed. The cross of Christ has not lost
its offense. It has not diminished in the
least. Things are exactly now as they were in John's day. But
in John's day, God did not restrain the persecutor from power to
execute his will. Politically, the church in the
Roman age was looked at as being opposed to Roman authority because
the people of God refused to recognize Caesar as Lord, they
were looked at as being somehow opposed to the state. Religiously,
they were despised because they would not accept the other religions
of the society. Sound familiar to you? It was
not that these Romanists were not congenial and warm and friendly
and religious. They were. They just would not
accept anyone who would not acknowledge that all religions are the same
and all religions are all right. After all, we're all trying to
work for the same goals and doing the same thing socially. God's
elect were despised by the Roman state because God's elect proclaimed
clearly that the only footing upon which men can approach God
is sinners through the blood and righteousness of Christ the
Lord. That means we're all in the same boat. That means we're
all made up of the same stuff and it ain't much, it's just
sin. That means there's no difference between men before God Almighty.
That means that if we stand accepted of God, we must stand accepted
of God through the merits of Christ the Substitute and elitism. This idea of social class and
structure of social class that seems to be so, doesn't seem
to be, it is such a dominant aspect of civilized world. Not
just the civilized world, a dominant aspect of every society. no matter
how barbaric and uncivilized. We all like to think we're better
than somebody else. But in Christ Jesus, it doesn't
matter whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, black or white, bond
or free, male or female, rich or poor, learned or unlearned,
you're a sinner. And the only way you'll ever
come to God is through Christ's blood and His righteousness. And the
only thing that makes you differ in this world is His grace. Economically,
God's people were considered a threat. Strange as it seems,
But the priests and craftsmen, the idol makers who made their
living off of religion. I want Paul to talk about it.
Those folks who made their living off of religion found Christianity
to be a threat. In Acts chapter 19 in Ephesus
when Paul came preaching the gospel and folks turned away
from their idols there was a riot. There was a riot in the streets.
Well, they've taken away our business. Nobody wants our idols
anymore. They worship Christ. Nobody wants religious trinkets
anymore. These fellows preach that we worship God in spirit
and we don't need all this nonsense. In fact, things got so bad in
that superstitious age of enlightened, educated folks, those brilliant,
brilliant Roman folks, those brilliant Gentiles, brilliant
Greek philosophers. And those brilliant folks had
the idea that every time something bad happened in society, it was
the retaliation of their gods against Christianity. And so
you're just pulling that out of your head. Listen to this.
Tertullian, who was indeed a brilliant scholar in the 3rd century, who
was a brilliant academic and a theologian, one who served
God, made this statement. He said, if the Tiber reaches
the walls, If the Nile does not reach the fields, if the sky
doesn't move or if the earth does, if there's famine or if
there's a plague, the immediate cry is Christians to the lions
because they're to blame. They're to blame. These were
the everyday experiences of God's people in John's day. In this
hostile, hostile world at the end of the first century, persecution
was rapid. Now John wrote his book of Revelation,
this revelation of Jesus Christ against the backdrop of these
circumstances, of these things. Open your Bibles now if you will
to Revelation 1 verse 9. In verses 9, 10, and 11, just hold
your Bibles open here. The apostle tells us about himself,
about the circumstances in which he was writing and the message
God gave him. He says in verse 9, 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. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's
day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying,
I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. And what you see,
write in a book and send it unto the seven churches which are
in Asia, unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and
unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto
Laodicea. He who is the Alpha and the Omega,
The first and the last, the beginning and the ending of all things,
shall be triumphant over all things at last, so go tell my
people about it. That's the message he gives us.
All right, let's look at three things in these three verses.
I want to talk to you about the Lord's Servant. And because verse
9 takes up the bulk of our text, it will take up the bulk of the
message. But let's look carefully at the Lord's Servant, and then
the Lord's Day in verse 10, and then finally the Lord's Message.
First in verse 9, the Lord's Servant. John, who was the only
surviving apostle, the only one left, His brethren had all since
then been taken out of this world, if history is accurate, and it
probably is, they had all suffered because of the faith of the gospel
and been put to death. John is now probably 90 years
old or more. He was one of the inner circle
of the apostles, that disciple whom Jesus loved is how he referred
to himself in his writings in the gospel of John. He was one
of those with the Lord in the mouth of transfiguration, Peter,
James, and John, the inner circle. But now John speaks of himself,
and as he does, he describes himself simply as our brother. What a word. You see, God's servants
are averse to taking titles to themselves. Preachers talk about
themselves and refer to themselves and one another as Reverend so-and-so,
father, this, or... not God's servants, not God's
servants. God's servants don't seek titles
for themselves. They don't seek recognition.
They don't seek promotion. They don't seek honor. They genuinely
counted an honor to be counted among God's elect as one of the
brethren. John says, I'm your brother,
your brother. You see, God's servants are not
men who are impressed with themselves. They're impressed with God. And
any man who's impressed with God is not impressed with himself.
There are men, first and foremost, who are brethren. God's servants
are brethren. We are not in competition with
one another. My preacher brethren are my brethren. And we promote
and serve and help one another as brethren. But first and foremost,
we are brethren in the kingdom of God. Brethren, you see, have
common interests. Brethren care for one another.
Brethren look after one another. If we are Christ, if Bob Duff
and Don Fortner and Lindsay Campbell are Christ, if we're His, if
our wives are His, we are brethren. We are brethren in Christ. That
means we belong to the same family. We've been adopted by the same
father in covenant grace. We have been redeemed by the
same blood, the blood of Jesus Christ. We have the same spirit
in us and we have been made to live in the same spirit. Jesus
Christ is our elder brother. We are brethren of the household
of God and of the household of faith. We live together then
as brethren. Let us behold our brethren continually
in love, in care, and in tenderness. Turn to Ephesians 4, if you will.
Ephesians chapter 4. Hold your hands here in Revelation
1. John constantly promoted this
spirit of brotherhood among God's people. Now it is false, it's
fake, it's phony. To talk about all men as brethren,
we're not. We are in Adam. But those brothers
don't care much for each other. We have a blood kinship of mutual
animosity in Adam. It is false. It's fake. It's
phony. To talk about men in various
religious groups as all being brethren, we're not. We're not.
But in Christ's kingdom, God's people are brethren. We're brethren.
We ought to strive to do everything we can for the good of the brotherhood. Look at Ephesians chapter 4 verse
1. I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you
walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. What vocation?
Brethren, companions in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.
With all loneliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing
one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit
in the bond of peace. There is one body, one spirit,
even as you're called in one hope of your calling, one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above
all and through all and in you all. And then it says in verse
30, after giving us numerous exhortations to maintaining this
unity, he says, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. whereby you're
sealed unto the day of redemption and then in verse 32 he said
be kind one to another brethren brethren that's the language
of the family that's it's the language of a man who has a household
and he's his children are squabbling they're having a difficulty and
he gets them together he said now listen listen we're one family
And this is the way it's going to be. We're going to remain
one family. So whatever it is causing you
problems, push it aside. It ain't worth it. It ain't worth
it. Children of God, walk together as brethren in this world for
the glory of God. Caring for one another with common
interest. Promoting one another's welfare.
As Lindsay said a little bit ago, give and give and give and
give and give and give. Give up your rights. Give up
your prejudices. Give up your wants. Give up your
desires. Surrender to one another. Just
let him have it. It doesn't matter. You go ahead. That's all right. That's the
attitude of brethren because nothing, nothing, nothing is
worth causing the strife and division that so often comes
And it always comes as a result of pride, self-will, and self-serving. Always. Always. If anything divides
Dodd-Fortner and Lynch-Campbell, if anything does, it will be
because one of us is serving ourselves and not the other.
That's exactly right. So two people have to take responsibility,
not necessarily. Not necessarily. If Lindsay's
serving me and I'm serving myself, it's not his fault. If Lindsay's
endeavoring to behave toward me with kindness and generosity
and thoughtfulness, and I'm behaving toward him with self-centeredness
and pride and arrogance, that's not his fault, it's my fault.
Brethren, dwell together in unity. Then John speaks of himself back
here in Revelation 1 as our companion. That's a good term for brethren.
We're companions. Companions in joy and companions
in sorrow. Companions when we're laughing
and companions when we're weeping. Companions when we're having
a good time and companions when we're in great pain. Companions in tribulation and
in the kingdom and in the patience of Jesus Christ. We are companions
in tribulation. We must through much tribulation
enter into the kingdom of God. And brethren going through tribulation
together feel it. Brethren going through difficulties
together share one another's burden. How can I say what I want to
say and not sing what I don't want to sing? Merle and Charlotte Hart endure
difficulty, pain. I hurt for Merle and Charlotte
Hart. They're my brethren. I hurt for them. And when they get some good news,
just puts a beam on their face, my face sparkles with them. How
come? We're brethren. We're brethren. Companions in tribulation. Companions in heartache. Companions in trouble. Companions
in trial. Oh, that makes the trial bearable. We got some companions. Companions. See our children, I suspect,
I haven't talked to Lindsey and Diane much about it, I suspect
y'all struggled about it as much as we did when we first got married.
Shelby and I got married and we were so poor we thought everybody
was poor. I tell folks we'd eat dried beans for breakfast, drink
water for lunch, and swell up for supper. We didn't have anything.
And we'd watch Faith and Doug, same with Bill and Michelle,
they don't need anything. You know, not really, not really.
And you're thankful they don't need anything. But they miss
something. I promise you, you're going to
miss something. You're going to miss something that no amount
of instruction can give you. You miss the struggle. The struggle that knits your
hearts together. Understand what I'm talking about?
our brethren, our companions in tribulation. And the tribulation
through which we carry one another binds our hearts together. Ah,
John speaks to these troubled, tempted, tried, persecuted believers
and he says, I John, your brother, your companion in tribulation. And then he says, I'm your companion
in the kingdom. Now don't forget, we're going
through trouble. We're doing some heartache. We're going through some tough
times. But we're brethren and companions in a kingdom whose
king is the Lord Christ. He's the king. We're his kingdom. And he's ruling everything all
right. He's ruling everything well. So in the midst of difficulty
and trial, remember, he's the king. We're his people. We're
his servants. His will is our law. His word is our rule. And companions
in the patience of Christ. This word translated patience
here would really be better translated perseverance. And yet, perseverance
involves patience. The word really means to remain under. And this is
exactly John's point in this passage. He's writing to tried,
tempted, persecuted believers. And he's urging them to persevere. Under the load, and under the
weight, and under the opposition, and under the trial. Persevere! Stay with it. Remain faithful
to Christ your King. Our Lord said, I send you forth
as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be wise as serpents, harmless
as doves. He said the time is going to
come when folks will put you out of the synagogue and deliver
you up to be put to death and think they're doing God's service.
And some of them will be your own family. and you'll be hated
of all men for my name's sake, and this is what it says, if
you last you're mine, he that endureth to the end shall be
saved. You see believers are men and
women who must have Christ, they must have him, and they will
allow nothing to take them from him or him from them. They hold
him. They hold him. We've seen a lot come and go.
Oh, we've seen a lot come and go. If something can get you, now
listen to me, if something can get you, realize it's lost interest,
if something can get you, You don't know what I've been
through, I know what this fellow went through. If something can get you, if
somebody can get you, you never knew him. He that endures to
the end shall be saved. And then John describes the circumstances
in which he endured. He says I'm your brother and
companion in tribulation and then the kingdom and patience
of Jesus Christ and by the way you can find me in the isle that's
called Patmos for the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ because
of the word of God and the testimony of Christ. Now Patmos was not
an exotic Greek island to which the old man went for vacation.
John had been exiled, banished to this isle of Patmos by Domitian
during times of persecution. This horrid Roman emperor put
many to death, and others he banished to exile. Patmos was
really just a volcanic island covered with volcanic rock, and
the fellow who was sent here usually didn't come home. Labor was hard, and this 90-year-old
man sleeping on the ground with no comfort, no consolation, with
no companion except a Roman guard who had a ready whip to use on
him at any time he took an ocean. This man is in the isle of Patmos
because he would not acknowledge one God among many and say Jesus
is one of them. He would not acknowledge that
Caesar is Lord. He would not surrender the claims
of Christ. He would not mix the worship
of God. He would not compromise the things
of God. And when the emperor's thugs
came after him, he said that's the way it's going to be. And
so he was shipped off to Patmos. John did apparently find relief,
at least for a while, from his imprisonment, his bondage at
Patmos. But he was there on the Isle
of Patmos when he writes this letter, or at least when the
vision was given to him. And he speaks of the incident
almost incidentally. Isn't it amazing? Now, believe
me, Skip, if I had been on that island, because I preach what
I do, and the world turned against me and everybody was opposed
to me and I was accused of horrible crimes. Man, when I wrote to
you, you'd know what I was going through. I'd tell you about it.
I'd tell you about it. But John Wright put his thing
almost as though it doesn't really mean anything. It doesn't really
mean anything. How come? Because it doesn't
really mean anything. Our light afflictions, Paul said,
are just for a moment. And they're not worthy to be
compared with the eternal weight of glory awaiting us. Doesn't
mean anything. In the full scale of things,
whatever difficulty and trial we endure here, doesn't really
mean anything. Doesn't really mean anything.
John says, I was in the Isle of Patmos, because you see, I'm
the servant of him who is the king. And I was in that allopatmos
for the word of God. Now the word of God he speaks
of here is Christ the living eternal word of God whom he declared.
Not the written word because the written word had not been
finished yet. The written word was not yet compiled. He's talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ who is God the eternal word by whom
we have eternal life as the only revelation of God. The only way
to God. The only acceptance with God
is Jesus Christ the word. And because I gave this testimony
In the midst of this heathen society, here I am. You see,
the Romans, as I said earlier, you remember when Paul was at
Mars Hill, he saw their little, they had nooks and crannies,
little coves everywhere. I recall the first time I was
in Louisiana, I was in an old house, and I saw a little box
in the wall of the living room. I thought it was a telephone
box, where you set telephones. The fellow said, no, that's the
idol box. All those folks down there were Catholics, and they
had their statues of Mary sitting in them. Just as you walked through
the door, see? Well, Paul went into Mars Hill, he says, as I
came into town, I saw all of your little sanctuaries, all
of your little idol boxes, all of your little places where you
put your gods, and then this one place, just in case you missed
one, we'll worship the unknown God. We've got to find out who
he is one of these days, but just in case we missed him, we'll
put him right here with us. And Paul said, no, the unknown
God, he's the one who is God. And all these other things out
here, they're nothing but idols, nothing else. And John said,
I'm in this isle of Patmos because in this world where everybody
says everything you imagine is God is God, I say no! Jesus Christ is God, and you
won't know God but by Him. and you won't come to God but
by him and you can't find acceptance with God but by him God will
not speak to you nor allow you to speak to him except through
Jesus Christ he said for that I'm here in this isle of Patmos
and then in verse 10 he says I was in the spirit on the Lord's
day what's he mean by that? Certainly when he says he was
in the Spirit, he's talking about the same thing that Ezekiel experienced,
that Peter experienced when he was about to go down to preach
to Cornelius, the same thing Paul experienced and he described
in 2 Corinthians 12 when he says he didn't know whether in the
body or out of the body. Certainly John is about to receive a special
revelation from God and so when he says I was in the Spirit,
he's talking about an experience outside the realm of normal human
thinking and normal human experience. An experience beyond what he
could really describe, so certainly beyond what I can describe. And
yet he was not, and I must hasten to say because of the religious
idiocy of this charismatic age, he was not talking about some
kind of a worked up emotional religious frenzy. That's not
what he's talking about. He was seized. by the Holy Spirit and given
a revelation of Jesus Christ. But certainly there is a sense
in which this is applicable to you and I as well. You see, there's
a sense in which this is not unusual at all, because all believers
are men and women who are in the Spirit. Paul said we don't
live after the flesh to fulfill the lust of the flesh, we live
after the Spirit. He said Christ is our everlasting life and we're
free from condemnation in Him who walk not after the flesh
but after the Spirit. Believers are men and women who
have been translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son made
to live in the realm of the Spirit. So that now we walk before God
continually in the Spirit, worshipping Him, worshipping Him. John says
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. Now, Shelby can tell you
I spent a good portion of Friday night and all day yesterday studying
this, reading everything I could and I'd get up and walk around
a little bit and try to figure out what fellows were saying.
There's a lot of gobbledygook written about this stuff. It's
the Lord's day. Some fellows say, well that's
talking about the Sabbath day, the Christian Sabbath. That's
strange, strange, because the term's not used in the Bible.
Others say, well what John was he, he was transported out yonder
into the millennial age and he saw things where they're going
to be then in the Lord's day. No. John uses a term here that
is used nowhere else in the Bible. The Lord's day. Not used anywhere
else in the New Testament. And yet he uses it as a term
that seems to have been familiar to everyone. So that when he
wrote to them, they just presumed you'd know what he's talking
about. And we ought to. You remember our Lord Jesus was
raised from the dead on the first day of the week. 1 Corinthians
16, chapter 22, the disciples commonly met together on the
first day of the week. It was not prescribed in any
legal sense at all that it must be done on this day, but it was
the common practice of the early believers to set aside Sunday,
the first day of the week, as that day in which they would
meet together in the name of God and worship Him at His house
with His people and celebrate the ordinances that He had given.
And so it's called the Lord's Day. This is the day, John says,
when the Lord appeared to me. Now, let me see if I can make
some sense out of that. John was banished. from the house
of God. Not willingly, that would never
happen. He was banished from the assembly
of God's saints for worship. Not willingly, that would never
happen. He was banished from the gathering of God's people
so that he's out here on this isle of Patmos when God's people
are meeting. He had been pastor at Ephesus
for a long, long time, this faithful old man. Now he's out here busting
rocks. He gets up on Sunday morning and his mind is back with his
brethren at Ephesus. His heart is back with his brethren
at Ephesus. As the sun rises and he takes
his sledgehammer and follows his God out to his rock pile,
John's worshipping God. He's worshipping God. Because
though he was imprisoned and banished, he could not be imprisoned
from God. His soul could not be put in
prison, and he could not be exiled from the worship of God. But
as God's people gathered, he gathered with them around the
throne of God in heaven, in the new Jerusalem, the city of God,
the General Assembly, the Church of the Firstborn, where sits
Jesus Christ, the Mediator, the Covenant. And if we worship God
today, that's where we're going to worship Him. Read Hebrews
chapter 12. We don't worship God in this
building, we worship Him in glory. We just come together here so
we can worship all together. So we can encourage one another
together to worship Him. Worship is spiritual, Bob. It's
spiritual. It is totally spiritual. It has
absolutely nothing to do with outward activity. Worship is
in the Spirit. And if we worship God, we'll
worship him in spirit and in truth. And then John said, and
I heard a voice, the voices of a trumpet, a clear, crystal clear
voice. I heard a voice behind me. And I suspect he recognized that
voice just like that. It had been over 60 years since
he had heard him speak. But he was the last man standing
with the Savior when he died. The last man. John said, I heard
his voice. While he was in the Spirit on
the Lord's day, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, appeared
to John and spoke to him. The voice of his beloved came
skipping to him across the mountains. and he heard his voice, oh may
it be so with us. How I pray that as God brings
us together in his providence as I try to seek a message from
God, oh may he speak to me and speak through me to you. Would to God that as we come
together somebody here like that woman with an issue of blood
would reach out and touch him. If somebody here like that blind
man would cry, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me, and
I promise you, if somebody would just reach out and touch him,
somebody cries to mercy, he'll stop right here and make his
voice known. And then we see the Lord's message
in verse 11. This is what the boy said. and Omega. I'm the beginning
and the end, the first and the last, the best there is and all
there is. What on earth has that got to
do with what's being said here? What's that got to do with this
tribulation and difficulty, trial, heartache, What's that got to
do with this persecuting emperor and these persecuting people?
What's that got to do with the trouble we face? Everything. Everything. He says, I'm the
only one who is. And I'm the only one who matters.
And I'm in control. And things are going to be just
exactly the way I want them to be. Now take this message and
send it to my churches. Why? Look to me like it'd be
better to take this thing and go up to Rome and send it to
Domitian the emperor. At least take it to the senate
and take it up with him. At least do something to get
somebody to move in the direction of stopping this mad persecution.
Oh no, no, no, no. You see, God's work isn't done
through emperors and senates and legislatures. Now, don't
misunderstand me. God rules the emperors, the senators,
and the legislatures. They just don't know it. But
God's work in this world is done through his churches. And John
hears this word from the Lord. He said, you go tell my churches
in every age. I am Alpha. I'm the first and
the last. I'm the beginning and the end
of everything. All is well. In other words, he said, you
go tell them what the old janitor said. Jesus is going to win. He's going to win. Amen. All right, ladies, come listen
to him if you will.