I've entitled this message, Write
It Down. Now, I'm so thankful for the
written Word of God, aren't you? All Scripture, Old Testament,
New Testament, Prophets, Moses, no matter who's writing, all
Scripture is given by inspiration of God. cannot prove that do i need to prove it i feel
no need god's word speaks for itself all scripture is given
by inspiration of god turn with me to second peter chapter one
for a moment I love preaching something that
I don't need to prove. There it is. It's the Word of
God. Not my word behind it, but God's
Word. Peter says in 2 Peter 1, verse
16, For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when
we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For he received
from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a
voice to him from that excellent glory. This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. And this voice, which came from
heaven, we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount."
Now, can you imagine experiencing this? They were brought into
the Mount of Transfiguration. They saw the Lord transformed
before them, transfigured before them. They saw his face shine
above the brightness of the sun. The light burst through his clothing. They heard the voice come from
heaven. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. They experienced this. Now, he
says in verse 19, we also have a more sure word of prophecy.
This is more sure than this experience we had. Isn't that wonderful? You have something right now
in your hands that's more sure than that experience that Peter
and James and John had. Don't be jealous of their experience.
You've got something better. We have also a more sure word
of prophecy, wherein to you also do well. that you take heed as
unto a light that shineth in a dark place unto the day dawn,
and the day star arise in your hearts, knowing this first. This is what is of primary importance,
that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man,
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. What a mercy. You and I are not
dependent upon a fallible, sinful, fickle man for the truth. God has recorded it in this book. This is God's revelation of Himself. He said in Isaiah 8, 20, to the
law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this
word, there's no light in them, and I want you And I challenge
you to examine everything I say by the Word of God. I don't want
you to believe it because I say it. I want you to believe it
because this is what God's Word declares. Be like those noble
Bereans who search the Scriptures daily whether these things be
so. I don't want you to just listen
to me. What good would that do you? See if what I'm saying is
according to the Word of God. Now John was inspired by the
Spirit of God to write the book of Revelation. And every word
is inspired. He said, the things that you
hear and see, write in a book. And every word in this book is
directly inspired by God. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God. And look at the warning against
anybody who would change anything that was written. Look in Revelation
22. Verse 18, For I testify unto every man
that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any
man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues
that are written in this book. All you've got to do is add your
own thoughts, your own words, add something to the revelation,
and God will add the plagues written in this book. And if
any man shall take away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life
and out of the holy city and from the things which are written
in this book. You see the judgment pronounced
against that one who will add to or take from this book. Now, John, as I said, was inspired
to write every word in this book, but on three different occasions
in the book of Revelation, he was told, write it down, to show us the importance of
what was being said. Now, God told him, write it all
down, but three times in this book, the Lord Jesus says to
John, write it down. The first is found in Revelation
14. Would you turn with me there? Verse 13. And I heard a voice from heaven
saying unto me, write. Right. Blessed are the dead. Which die. in the Lord. From henceforth, yea, saith the
Spirit, that they may have rest from their labors, and their
works do follow them." Write that down. Turn to Revelation
19, verse 9. And He saith unto me, Blessed are they which are called
unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He saith unto me, These
are the true sayings of God. Now you write that down. Blessed
are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And then in Revelation 21, verse
5, And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write. For these words are true and
faithful. I make all things new. Write it down. Now let's consider
these three scriptures one at a time. They're obviously very
important. He said, write it down so as
nobody can make a mistake about this. So nobody can change it. Write this down. First, write
down, blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Revelation 14,
verse 13. Now, you and I are going to die. You know that. But would to God
that He would bring this home to our hearts. We're going to
die. All the things that you're concerned
about right now, when you stand before God in judgment, you'll
see just how unimportant they were. You're going to die. And after that, you're going
to spend eternity. Our life is described in Scripture
as a vapor that appeareth for a little while. Like when you
go out in the cold and breathe and that vapor comes out of your
mouth, it's gone just like that, isn't it? And that's how our
life is compared. And after that, there is eternity. Paul said we must all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ and receive from Him the things done
in the body, whether it be good or bad. Now, what in the world
does that mean? That means that there will be
evidence in our works whether or not we really believe the
gospel. That's exactly what that means.
It doesn't mean there's going to be a higher reward for one
and a lower reward for another. It means in our bodies there
will be evidence as to whether or not we really believed the
gospel. Now, blessed are the days. That's not what we naturally
think, is it? Blessed are the dead. Not blessed are all the
dead. No, all the dead are not blessed. Those outside of Christ
are not blessed. They're under the judgment and curse of God.
But blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. You see, to a believer, death
is gain. Paul said to die is Now I want
you to chew on that for just a moment. To die is gain. It's a promotion. It's a privilege. We lose a broken body and gain
eternal health. We lose sin and gain perfect
conformity to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. We lose weakness
and we gain strength. We lose shame and we gain eternal
glory. We lose bondage and burdens and
gain freedom. To die is gain. There was a little girl that
found a bird's nest in a bush with those beautiful blue eggs.
You've found that when you're a kid at some time and just been
enamored with it, seeing those little blue eggs. And this little
girl would go up to that bush and look at those eggs in that
nest every single day and it just thrilled her. And one day
she came to that nest and the eggs were gone. There was a broken
shell down at the bottom of the nest, and she was very upset.
She started crying, and she picked those shells up, the broken shell,
and she brought it to her mother, crying, and she said, look what
happened. And her mother said, honey, don't cry over those broken
shells. Those little birds are now free.
They've been born. They live. And that's the truth
regarding our death. That's when we will begin to
live. When a believer dies, it's the
greatest event of their existence. The best day you're going to
have, you know, we always say, have a good day, have a good
day. You know, if we're saying to a believer, we say, I hope
you die today, it would be the best thing we'd say when we say, have
a good day. the best day of your life if
you're a believer is the day that you dot you're set free
you are with the lord jesus christ now blessed in the day of the
die in the lord now what is it that makes us afraid of death well somebody says the fear of
the unknown well that's part of it but not really uh... what
makes us afraid of death issues that's what makes us afraid sin. If I have no sin, I have nothing
to fear. Now, blessed are the dead that
die in the Lord. This is such an important phrase.
They die in the Lord. Of Him, Paul said, are you in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. That means in Christ, I have
the very wisdom of God. God can have fellowship with
me. I'm wise enough for fellowship with the eternal God in the Lord
Jesus Christ. I have perfect righteousness. God can embrace me and not that's
me. I have sanctification. I have
holiness. I have redemption. I have nothing
to fear. Blessed are the dead that die
in the Lord. Now look what it says next. Verse
13, I heard a voice from heaven singing to me, right? Blessed
are the dead, which die in the Lord. From henceforth, yea, sayeth
the Spirit, that they may have rest from their labors. Now what
in the world is that talking about? Now, in the past, I've
looked at that verse of Scripture, and I've thought, well, that's
talking about somebody who's laboring so much for Christ,
and now they don't have to labor anymore. Now, I'd know better
than that. That makes it sound like you're
wanting to get out of the labors you're doing for Christ. That's
really not what that means at all. The labors spoken of is
toil, is turmoil, is conflict. All that's brought about by sin
in this existence. You think of the troubles your
sin causes you. You think of the troubles your
sin causes others. Oh, the trouble brought on by
sin. You know, there's nothing bad
that happens that you can separate from sin. Heartache, disappointment. Conflict. Man that's born of
woman is born to trouble, the scripture says, as the sparks
fly upward. No more troubles when I die. No more trouble. No more heartache. Scripture says God will wipe
away every tear from our eye. No more troubles. Now, that's
a reason to look forward to death. I mean, that might not be the
best reason, but it's a good reason, isn't it? I mean, it's a better
reason to look forward to being with Christ. But I look forward to
not having any trouble. Not dealing with my sin. Not
dealing with my unbelief. Rest from all of our toil. and labor. Now look what it says
next in verse 13. Write, blessed are the dead which
die in the Lord from henceforth, yea, saith the Spirit, that they
may have rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. Their works do follow them. Now
notice, their works don't come out in front as the cause of
their salvation. Their works don't come on the
side even as a contributing factor. but they come from behind as
evidence that God has done something for me. They come from behind. And I think of what our Lord
said on, turn with me, hold your finger there and turn to Matthew
chapter 25. Now, as soon as I start talking
about works being an evidence, somebody's going to start looking
to see if they have any evidence of the works. Now, if you can find
an evidence that you're saved by the things that you do, you're
not saved. Understand that. Somebody that gains assurance
by their works, they've missed the gospel altogether, and they've
got an awful high opinion of their works in the first place.
Do you really have that high opinion of your works that you
think that gives you evidence that you're saved? That being said, when
I walk into glory, I won't know about these works. But there
will be works that prove that I really believe the gospel.
And that's true of every single one of God's children. There
will be evidence. Evidence. Look in Matthew chapter 25. Here
it is. Verse 31. When the Son of Man shall come
in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He
sit upon the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered
all nations, and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divided the sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall the king
say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. See, this was given to the elect.
It was always theirs. It wasn't given to them because
of their works. It was given to them because it was prepared
for them from the very foundation of the world. But look at these
evidence he gives. He says in verse 35, I was a
hungry, you gave me meat, I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
I was a stranger and you took me in, naked and you clothed
me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came
to me. Then shall the righteous answer him saying, Lord, when? We didn't know it. When did we
ever see you hungry or sick or naked? We didn't know anything
about this. And you know, you go on reading when he says to
the wicked, you didn't do any of these things. They thought
they did. They thought they did. But you can be sure, this is
true regarding every believer, there will be evidence in your
life. Not that you see, but that God
will bring up that shows the reality of the work of His grace. That's the teaching of Scripture.
Okay, let's go to the next one. Revelation chapter 19. Their
works do follow them. While you're turning there, I
want to ask a question. Are you ready to die right now? Are you ready to die? And I don't mean, of course,
there's things here, right? But particularly you young people,
you think, no, I'm not ready to die. I want to live. I want
to experience all these kind of things. One of these days
you won't talk so strongly like that. A little bit of experience
will make it to where you won't feel quite that strong about
that. I guarantee you. I guarantee you. But are you
ready to die in the sense, can God accept you? are you ready
to die? You know, one time, Charlie Payne,
he was a member of the 13th Street Baptist Church, it was time for
him to go. He was dying. And he was taking an operation,
I don't know if I'm getting the story right, some of you might
remember him, he's preached over on American Avenue, went several
times. He died in 1988, but before he
was going on to this surgery that he thought he might die
on, Brother Mahan asked him, he said, Charlie, are you ready
to die? He said, if you told me the truth,
I am. If the gospel's true, yes, I'm
ready to die. Now, Revelation chapter 19, verse
9, And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called
unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. Now, let's go back to verse 6. And I heard, as it were, the
voice of a great multitude, as the voice of many waters, and
as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord
God Omnipotent reigneth. Now, a couple of weeks ago, we
saw the Messiah. and you're familiar with the
hallelujah chorus hallelujah the lord god omnipotent reigneth
i think it's it's probably you can't beat it you can't beat
it sounds so beautiful but i guarantee what we heard won't sound anything
like this this is hundreds of millions of people saying hallelujah
for the lord god omnipotent reigneth does that get a hallelujah from
you i'm not talking about emotionalism. I'm talking about the fact that
the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. He is an absolute sovereign control
of everything. Sovereign. Hallelujah. He says
in verse 7, let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him
for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife had made
herself ready. And here's how she made herself
ready. To her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine
linen, clean and white. This is for this glorious wedding.
She's given fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen
is the righteousness of saints. Now, in the original, the word
righteousness is in the plural. It's literally righteousness
says. And because of that, for instance,
in the New International Version, it says for the fine linen is
the righteous deeds of the saints. You got any deeds that would
fit that bill? The righteous deeds of the saints,
the fine linen, clean and white. The reason it's in the plural
is it's talking about the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
righteousness of the saints. Now, I have not done anything
wrong. That's half my righteousness.
You can say that about a rock, though. I've not done anything
wrong. But not only have I not done
anything wrong, I have always done that which is pleasing to
God. I have both a negative righteousness
and I have a positive righteousness. That is the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ as my righteousness before God. Now, understand this.
The righteousness of the saints and the righteousness of Jesus
Christ is one and the same. This is the righteousness of
the saints. And this is this wedding garment
that makes me ready for this glorious marriage. Now, let's
go on reading. And to her was granted, graciously
bestowed, That she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean
and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
And he saith unto me, Right, blessed are they which are called
unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These
are the true sayings of God. Now, I suppose that for everybody,
their wedding day is about the most exciting day of their life.
Now, On that day, everybody that gets married pretty much, I realize
there's some people probably who get married when they didn't
want to get married. It wasn't that way, but for the most part, when people
get married, they're thinking, this is great. I'm going to spend
the rest of my life with this person. It's an exciting, wonderful
day. And that pales. That's nothing
in comparison to the eternal wedding day, the eternal wedding
feast of the believer. Oh, blessed are they that are
called to the wedding. Not everybody's called. Not everybody's
called. If you've been called to this,
how blessed by God you are! He's done something for you that
He hasn't done for everybody. And oh, how blessed you are to
spend eternity in this relationship as the wife of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, how blessed! Could anything be more blessed
than this? to be the Lamb's wife, the Son of God? Oh, how blessed! Chapter 21, blessed are the dead that die
in the Lord. Well, I can say amen to that.
Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Oh, I've got no reason to fear
death. I've got every reason to look forward to it. Blessed
are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Write this down in here in Revelation chapter 41, verse 5. And he that sat upon the throne
The Lord Jesus Christ said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write. These words, I make all things
new. They're true. and they're faithful. Now, the word new does not mean
new in respect to time, but new in quality or nature, as contrasted
with that which is old. That's what we're speaking of
when we're speaking of the New Testament, as opposed to the
old. It's altogether different. Now,
the New Testament is a whole lot older than the Old Testament.
I know we call it the New Testament, but it's actually the old Old
Testament that's ever new. But it's a lot older. This is
the Testament that was made before the foundation of the world.
And it's completely different from the Old Testament. The Old
Testament is salvation conditioned upon something you do. Salvation
depended upon something you do. Salvation contingent upon something
you do. There's something you need to
do to make God's salvation work. That's salvation by works. That's
the Old Covenant. But the New Covenant is completely
different. It's salvation by grace. It's
salvation by what Christ has done only. It's the New Testament. Oh, how new, how glorious, how
different it is. There's a big difference between
being saved by grace and being saved by works, isn't there?
There's an infinite difference. And I love being saved by the
grace of God. I love the New Testament. I love
God choosing who'd be saved. Don't you love that? I love election. I love Christ's effectual atonement
for his elect. It was made way back before the
foundation of the world when he was called the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. I love God's irresistible and
invincible grace. It can't be resisted. It's invincible. I love sovereign grace. I do. Save me. Save me. The New Testament. The
New Covenant. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5 for just a moment. I love the gospel of God's grace.
I really do. Thank God for the freeness of
His grace. Look here in 2 Corinthians 5,
verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
there's the important part, being in Christ. Being in Christ is
like being in the ark. There's salvation in the ark,
outside of the ark. There was no salvation. Being
in the house with the blood over the door, being in the Lord Jesus
Christ. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creation. all things are passed away and
behold all things become new i'm going to offer to the prison
and uh... uh... preacher got up before
me the chaplain of the prison and he quoted that passage of
scripture he looked at those fellas he said i used to uh...
what simple things i used to like to drink and i used to like
all the named all these things is but no more no more and i
just wanted to say you lot you're not telling the truth and that's
not what that passage of scripture talking about how about saying
I'm not okaying those things, but I'm saying somebody says,
I never think about it. Nobody believes that. I sure
didn't. And if I would have had any guts, I probably would have
gone and said, you're a liar, buddy, right in front of everybody. But I
guess maybe I couldn't have done that. I don't know. But maybe
I should have. I should have. I should have. At any rate, if any man be in
Christ, he's a new creation. He's got a new standing before
God's law. He's gone from being guilty to
not guilty, perfect before God's law. He's got a new heart, one
that was not there before. I tell you this, I've got a new
heart that I didn't have, and I know that in my experience.
There was a time when I didn't have any love for God. Didn't understand
what it meant to believe the gospel. I couldn't grasp it. I'd try to believe. I spent so
much time trying to believe, and I never could come up with
the goods. And God gave me a new heart, I believe. I've got a new love for Lord
Jesus Christ. I've got a new motive, His glory. I've got a new desire. My desire
is not my will, but Thine be done. And that really is my desire.
I want His will to be done. Eradicate mine. Take my will
and make it Thine. It shall be no longer mine. Take my heart, it is Thy own.
It shall be. thy royal throne." A new man,
Ephesians 4, 24, speaks of a new man created in righteousness
and true holiness. We have a new song. They sang
a new song, worthy is the lamb that was slain. That's a new,
fresh, glorious song. You know, that song never gets
old. You know, any other song you can sing, you get tired of
singing it, but not this one. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. We have a new name. There in
Revelation 2 it says, I'll give you a new name. My name's not
Todd and Albert. My name is Jehovah Tsidkenu.
This is the name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our
righteousness. We have a new commandment, love
to one another. And we have a new Jerusalem waiting
on us. Let's look at Revelation 21 once
again. Revelation 21. Verse 1, And I saw a new heaven
and a new earth. For the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. There
was no more separation is what that's a reference to. No more
separation. You look at a sea, you wonder
what's on the other side. Every time I go to the ocean,
I look at the sea and I think of the land that's directly over
there, and I think of the peoples, and I think there's a separation.
That's what a sea represents. But in glory, there'll be no
more separation. I'm brought nigh by the blood
of Christ. And I, John, saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. And God himself shall be with
them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. For the former
things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make." Isn't that salvation, what he does? I make. You didn't help in this. You didn't contribute. I make
all things new. And he said unto me, write. For
these words are true and faithful. Now write it down. Write it down
in your heart. Blessed are the dead that die
in the Lord. Write it down. Blessed are they
that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And write
it down. Behold, I make all things new. Let's pray.