Looking this morning in our continuing
study of the Revelation, Revelation 1, and I'm taking the title from
the first part of verse 5. Jesus Christ who is the faithful
witness. Everything I can think of about
describing the Lord Jesus Christ, He's the faithful Savior, He's
the faithful Mediator, He's the faithful Redeemer, He's faithful
to the Father, faithful to His covenant people, great is Thy
faithfulness. So the title of the message is
Jesus Christ, the faithful witness. He's the faithful prophet, preacher
of the gospel. I like that word faithful. It
describes our Lord who's faithful to His Father, faithful to His
people, our salvation. Now think about this. Our salvation,
the total of our salvation, He is the omega, He is the Alpha
and the Omega, the beginning, the ending, the first and the
last of all of our salvation. All of our salvation is based
upon His faithfulness. Think about it. His faithfulness,
not ours. Now, I want to be faithful. I
want to be faithful. Thank God our salvation is not
based upon our personal obedience, but rather upon Christ, His faithfulness,
His faithfulness. We read this scripture, Galatians
2, let me just read it to you. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. The faithfulness of Jesus Christ.
Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ. That's good news. The faithfulness
of Christ, not by the works of the law. For by the works of
the law shall no flesh be justified. Again, repeating from what I
said last week, this book we know as the Revelation, is a
revelation as it says in verse 1, Revelation 1.1, it's a revelation
of Jesus Christ. The revelation of Jesus Christ.
The whole record of Scripture, the book we call the Bible, begins
with Genesis, ends in the Revelation, but it's all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the Alpha and Omega of
all Scripture. And all Scripture. It's all about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Beginning at Moses and all the
Scripture, He expounded unto them in all things concerning
Himself. as our Lord said to those two
men on the road to Emmaus. Now let's go back to verse 4. John was a chosen apostle. John was a sinner saved by the
grace of God. And John writes this revelation
of Jesus Christ that God gives him. He gives it to the seven
churches. The seven churches. The complete
church. He's writing to all who have
ever believed the gospel. He mentioned these seven churches
in verse 11, and we'll look at that at some point. But the point
I would make here, that number seven is the completeness of
God. The Lord Jesus Christ sends the
letter of the Word of God to His complete whole body called
His church. The word church simply means
called out. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is made up of sinners called out of darkness into His
marvelous light. The seven churches which were
residing in that time, these local congregations in Asia,
and then he said grace. Grace comes from God. Grace doesn't
come from John the Apostle. Grace comes from God. Of His
fullness have we all received grace for grace. Grace comes
from God in peace. Grace and peace from Him which
is. God is love. God is gracious. God is because
He is. He is the eternal, ever-present
God, never changing. He said, I am the Lord, I change
not. The God that is. that always has been, from everlasting
to everlasting, thou art God, which was eternity past, which
is to come, eternity future. He was, He is, and He is to come.
That covers everything, doesn't it? He is the eternal, unchanging
God from the seven spirits, that is, God the Holy Spirit, the
complete, powerful, almighty Holy Spirit, the seven spirits
before the throne, the throne of God. Now, gospel blessings
flow from the sovereign throne of the everlasting triune God
unto His people. That word thrown, as I said earlier,
is given to us 31 times. just like the number 7 is given
unto us 31 times. And these blessings flow from
God the Father who chose us in that eternal covenant of grace.
He blessed us according as He had chosen us in Him before the
foundation of the world, as we read a moment ago in Ephesians
chapter 1. It's God the Father who had chosen
us, and then it's God the Son who has redeemed us. God the
Son who has redeemed us from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness
who has redeemed us, He purchased us with His own blood. We read
a moment ago from Ephesians 1 verse 7, in whom we are accepted in
the blood of it, in whom we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches of His grace. The Son of God purchased us,
redeemed us with His own blood, and God the Holy Spirit makes
application to our soul in regenerating grace. You happy quickened who
were dead in trespasses and in sin. When the Lord was teaching
Nicodemus about the necessity of the new birth, He said, Not
an option. You must be born again to see
the kingdom of God, to enter into the kingdom of God. He said
you must. And he said it's the spirit that
quickeneth. The flesh, nothing. It profits nothing. You have
the quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sin. Now, I love this statement that's
given here, which is to come, which is, which was, and is to
come. Look down at verse 8, it says
it again. He said, I am Alpha, the Omega, the Beginning, the
Ending. He's the Beginning and Ending
of everything. Everything! The first cause and
last end is all of God. The Beginning, the Ending, the
Alpha, the Omega said to the Lord, which is, which was, and
He's to come. He says it again down here in
verse 11. saying, I am Alpha, Omega, the first and the last. What you see, write it down and
send it in this book. Thank God we have His Word. What
a privilege, what a blessing God gives to us. He's the Almighty. The last part of verse 8, the
Alpha, the Omega, beginning, the ending, say it to the Lord,
which is, which was, and is to come, the Almighty. The Almighty. Lord God Almighty. We read a moment ago. Don't turn
them and read it to you again. Revelation 4, verse 8. Holy,
holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, which is, and is to
come. The Lord is coming back. We wait.
We look for the coming. of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am that I am. Almighty God,
he said, beside me there is no other. When he appeared to Abraham
of old, he said, I am Almighty God. Now, just saying that he
is God, that's good and that's true. But I like this word, Almighty. Almighty. Not just mighty. Almighty. He has all power in heaven and
in earth, and He exercises all power in heaven and in earth
according to His infinite wisdom. He never makes a mistake. All
power. He said to Moses, I am that I
am. We read in Isaiah 57 that God
inhabits eternity. Was eternity past? is to come, eternity future,
and right now present. God is unchanging in His character. The Lord Jesus Christ, we read,
is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Saying the same
thing. The Almighty God, ever-present
God, all-knowing God, never changes. He is the one who rules and controls
all things. He's beginning. He's the end
of all things. And everything in between. everything
in between. And then from this one who is
almighty, who is all-knowing, who is all-powerful, who is everywhere
present, he said, grace to you and peace. Now this is the one
who is almighty who said grace to you. Now if God said gracious
to you, mark it down, he is gracious. He will be gracious to whom He
will be gracious. That's sovereign grace, but He
will be gracious. We believe through the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. Grace and peace
come from our great God. Now we can't overemphasize this,
can we? Salvation is all of God's grace. Grace to you. Grace comes from
God the Father. Peter said, we believe through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved. Romans 11
tells us there's a remnant according to the election of grace. 1 Peter
5 describes the grace of God as from the God of all grace.
The God of all grace who has called us unto His eternal glory
by Jesus Christ. Make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, settle you. To Him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. He's the God of all grace. For
by grace are ye saved through faith, and that, neither self,
it is a gift of God. This grace comes from the Almighty
God, who was, and is, and is to come. That means His grace
is eternal. That means His grace is eternal
as God is eternal. And then he mentions this word
peace. Peace. Peace from Him, the Almighty
God. Peace is always the result of God's sovereign grace. It's
always grace, then peace follows. Those who know the grace of God
enjoy the peace of God in their hearts. Romans 5 once said, being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. How is this peace made? How are
sinners who have enmity against God by nature, how are we reconciled
unto God? How is peace made? Our Lord made
peace for us with His own blood. That's the good news of the Gospel. He's not only the God of all
grace, in Romans 15 and 11, He's called the God of peace. The
God of peace. The God of peace shall bruise
Satan under your feet shortly. In Ephesians 2, verse 14, He's
called our peace. In 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 16,
He's called the Lord of peace. Hebrews 7, verse 2 says He's
the King of peace. Isaiah 9, 6, He's called the
Prince of peace. He is our peace before God. We have grace because of Him,
now the God of peace. Hebrews 13, the God of peace
that brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ, that great
shepherd of the sheep to the blood of the everlasting covenant.
He's a God of all grace, the God of all peace, and then, not
given here but in other places, He's called the Father of mercies.
Now what do sinners need? They need grace, they need peace,
and they need mercy. I will have mercy upon whom I
will have mercy. He's called the Father of Mercy.
2 Corinthians 1, chapter 1, verse 3 rather. Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Mercy and
the God of all comfort. He is the one who is our Savior,
Redeemer. It's not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. We
read a moment ago, I read to you from Lamentations 3, it is
of the Lord's mercies that were not consumed, great is our faithfulness. Oh God, my Father. Now, look
at verse 5 and 6. And I believe this is one of
the most comprehensive statements declaring unto us the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the faithful witness. The witness is someone who has
seen something, knows something, and is able to describe something
truthfully. He is the faithful prophet of
God. And he's the first begotten from
the dead. God raised him from the dead. He's the prince of
peace, but he's the prince of kings. He's king of kings and
lord of lords. Unto him, this is unto him that
loved us. It's unto Him that washed us
from our sins in His own blood. You see, it's everything that
He has done in His faithfulness. He loved us. He washed us. And then in verse 6, He made
us. Now, you can't take that Scripture And no matter how hard
you try to turn it, or twist it, or stand it on its head,
you cannot make that say that salvation is by what you do. Can you? I mean, if you do, you've
twisted the Scripture to your own condemnation. It's unto Him
that loved us and washed us from our sin, and He did it in His
own blood. He made us new creatures in Christ
Jesus. He made us who were lowly beggars. He made us kings. You're looking
at a king. I'm looking at some kings. And
He's made us kings and priests unto God and His Father. Now,
who gets the glory for all this? Now, what does it say there?
Unto Him be glory and dominion. Dominion is His power and authority
forever and ever, which was and is and is to come. Almighty God. Now we see in verse 5 and 6 who
Jesus Christ is, we see what He has done, and we see what
are the results of His work. Those three things. Who He is,
what He's done, and the results. Who is Jesus Christ? Well, ask
somebody over in town, and you might get a dozen different answers
from a dozen different people. Many have varied opinions of
who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Our Lord said one time to his
disciples, whom do men say that I am? Well, they said, some say
you're John the Baptist, come back from the dead. Some say
you're Jeremiah. Some say you're Isaiah or another
prophet. Our Lord turned and said to them,
whom do you say that I am? And Peter said, oh, you're the
Christ of God. You're the Christ of God, the
Christ of the living God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is Lord, not by what we do. God made Him both Lord and Christ.
You remember Peter said in Acts chapter 2, God hath made that
same Jesus whom you crucified, God hath made Him both Lord and
Christ. For to this end and to this purpose
Christ died and rose and revived that He might be Lord. Romans
14, 9. So He is the Christ of God. He
is the Lord. And that name Jesus, what does
that mean? Savior. He is what he's called. Call his name Jesus. He shall
save his people from their sin. And he's the Christ. That means
he's the Messiah, the anointed Messiah. He's the Christ of God. He's the anointed mediator, the
surety, the substitute, the advocate, the intercessor, the redeemer,
and deliverer of his people who cannot fail. who cannot fail. He is the Christ of God. He is
both the Son of God and the Son of Man in one blessed person. That is who the Lord Jesus Christ
is. And then it says there, He's
a faithful witness, verse 5. He's a faithful witness. He is
God's prophet that was promised to Moses that God would raise
up and reveal unto us the way of salvation. Now the prophet
said of God, who's going to reveal us the way of salvation, he tells
us what that way is. Remember? John 14, 6. I am the
way, he said. I'm the truth. I'm the life. No man comes to the Father but
by and through me. He is the faithful witness who
declares himself the way of salvation. Neither is there salvation in
any other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, it says,
it describes Him not only as the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful prophet of God, priest and king, son of God,
the faithful witness of the way of salvation and righteousness
established in Christ Jesus, and He is the first begotten
from the dead. Now look at Revelation chapter
1 verse 18. You see, He died for our sin.
Sin demands a payment. We could not pay it. The Lord
Jesus Christ paid our sin debt. And He died for our sin according
to Scripture, but He lives. Look at verse 18. Revelation
1 verse 18. I am He that liveth. Oh, I was
dead. Our sin demanded death. The guilty
must die. The Lord died because He was
guilty of our sin. Behold, He said, I am alive.
forevermore, delivered for our offenses and raised again for
our justification. He's alive forevermore. What
do you say to that? Amen. Amen. And he says, I have
the keys of hell and death. If you have the keys to something,
I have the keys in my pocket to a brown Ford truck right out
there. And I have the keys to it because
I own it. I bought it. I chose it. I bought
it. I paid for it. It's mine. I'm
going to drive it home. The Lord Jesus Christ has the
keys of hell and death. He has the keys of the grave.
That's what hell there means. He has the keys of the grave.
How are you going to get out of the grave? I mean, one of
these days, you're going to take me, this body, and I'm going
to take your body, and we're going to dig a hole, and we're
going to put your body in a hole. How you going to get out of that
hole? Do you have a key? Do you have
authority? I can't go to your grave and
unlock it. I can't dig you up and make your bones live. He
has the keys of hell and death. He has the right and the authority,
and by his grace, he's going to call his people out of the
grave in that resurrection morning. He has the keys of hell and death.
He's the first begotten from the dead, and he ever lived to
intercede for us. That was the message as we studied
through the book of Acts. Through the book of Acts, the
message of the early church was, you killed him. You crucified
the prince of life. God raised him from the dead.
God raised him from the dead. His resurrection is a guarantee
of ours. He said, because I live, you're
going to live. You're going to live. Now, and
he says furthermore, he says, the prince of the kings of the
earth. In Revelation 19, he describes
himself as king of kings and lord of lords. No matter where
the king reigns in any earthly kingdom, The Lord Jesus Christ
is the King and Lord of that man. And He's in the hands of
the Lord. And the Lord manipulates and
turns them according to His own sovereign will. The King's heart
is in the hands of the Lord. He's the Prince of the kings
of the earth. He's Lord of heaven and earth.
Now, this one who is a faithful witness, this One who defeated
death, hell, and the grave, this One who is the King of kings
and Lord of lords, is the One who has loved us and washed us
from our sins. Now, He is the Almighty Savior. It's unto Him who loved us. We
only love Him because He first loved us. Jeremiah said he's
loved us with an everlasting love, therefore with love and
kindness. He said, I draw you to myself. He has loved us. He loved us in that eternal covenant
of grace. His love is sovereign love. Jacob
have I loved. Esau I loved less. That's not
what it says. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. He will have mercy on whom He
will, and He'll love whom He will. His love is not only sovereign
love, His love is sacrificial love unto Him who loved us and
washed us. Here in His love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the sacrifice
for our sins. He loved us, and He loved us
so much that He gave Himself for our sins. He purchased and
bought us with His own blood. We are redeemed. He obtained
for us eternal redemption with His own blood. The blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all our sin. He loved us. And still does. He washed us
so thoroughly, so completely, so totally that God said their
sin and their iniquity, I don't remember anymore. As far as the
East is from the West, I've separated you from your sin. This is all
that he has done for us. This redemption was accomplished
at Calvary. and applied to our heart by regenerating
grace. Being confident of this very
thing, God who has begun a good work in you, He'll finish it.
There's that alpha, the omega, the beginning. God who has begun
a good work in you will do what? Finish it. Finish it. Finish
it. And then He says He's made us,
He's made us kings. Now by nature we're poor. beggarly
sinners. He's made us kings under our
God. For you know the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake
He became poor, that you through His poverty might be made rich. We're kings and priests under
God. He's made us a priest. We have
full access to the throne of grace. He said, come boldly unto
the throne of grace. Back under the law, who had access
to the holy of holies on the day of atonement? Only the high
priest. That veil has been rent in two. He said, come boldly to the throne
of grace as I've made you a priest of God. Oh, have made us kings and priests
unto God and His Father. Now who gets the glory? To Him be glory. God forbid,
Paul said I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In His glory and dominion, power and dominion, forever and
ever, He saves us with an everlasting salvation. Now what do you say
to that? I say what it says right there. Amen! I say amen. Here we clearly see again that
salvation is all of the Lord. All of the Lord. To Him be all
the honor and glory both now and forever. Worthy is the Lamb
that was slain to receive all honor and glory, blessing and
power both now and forever. Now look at verse 7. Behold, behold. Now stop and
take a good look at this. Behold, He, that is the Lord
Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first begotten from the dead,
the one who is King of kings and Lord of lords, behold, He
cometh. Behold, the King cometh. He comes
with clouds, clouds of glory, and every eye shall see Him.
and they also which pierced him, and all the kingdoms of the earth
shall wail because of him, even so, even so. Amen. When is the Lord Jesus
Christ coming back? I have no idea. Behold, He cometh. He's on His way. Turn to the
last chapter. Revelation 22. The last chapter. He cometh. All the Old Testament
Scriptures They say, someone's coming. Someone's coming. The
four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they say, He
is come. And the epistles say, the Lord
Jesus Christ is coming again. Coming again. Revelation 22,
verse 20, He which testifies these things says, surely I come
quickly. Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus
Christ. He's on His way. Our Lord said
in John 14 to His disciples before He went to the cross, He said,
I go away to prepare a place for you, and if I go away, I'll
come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there
you may be also. I was looking at this verse earlier
this morning. It came to my mind. Let me just
read it to you. In Hebrews chapter 9, it says,
as it appointed unto men once to die after this judgment. So
Christ was offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that
look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto
salvation. The Lord is coming back. We have no need to know the time
when the Lord is coming back. Now why do men make endless speculations
as to when the Lord is coming back? The only reason they do
that is to draw attention to themselves. We're not looking
for a date, a time, and a place. We're looking for the Lord who
is coming back. We're looking for Him who is
coming back. We're going to study in 1 Thessalonians
5, where the Apostle said of the times and seasons, brethren,
you have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know
perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in
the night. So, you don't need to know. I
don't need to know. because we're only looking for
Him who is coming. Looking for the blessed hope
and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. We're waiting for the Son who
is coming back to receive us unto Himself. Will He come? Absolutely. You remember in Acts chapter
1 when we studied when the risen Lord departed those apostles?
And the angel appeared and said, as they saw him ascend to heaven
after 40 days in his risen body, he ascended to heaven. And those
messengers said, this same Jesus, whom you see go away, will come
again in like manner as you see him go. He's coming back. He's coming back, and every eye
shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all kindred
of the earth shall wail because of Him. The wrath of God will
abide upon every unbeliever, and they'll have to face the
God of judgment without a substitute, Jesus Christ. His second coming
will not be any secret thing. A lot of people talking about
a secret rapture. The Bible doesn't know anything
about that. It says here, every eye shall see Him when He comes
back the second time. His enemies will wail because
of Him. As a matter of fact, in that
day, if you want to read with me, you can. In that day, when
the Lord comes back, when heaven departed as a scroll, chapter
6, verse 14 and following, Every mountain and isle will be moved
out of their place, and the kings of the earth, and the great men,
and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men,
and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the
dens and rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and
rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth
on the throne from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day
of his wrath is come. Who shall be able to stand? What
a strange prayer meeting. They'll call out to the rocks
and the mountains to hide us from Him that is coming. They
don't cry out unto the Lord for mercy and grace to help in time
of need. Well, in closing, let me give
you this. Verse 8. Again, he repeats his statement. I am Alpha and Omega. He's the
beginning, the ending, sayeth the Lord, which is, which was,
and is to come, the almighty God. The almighty God. Now think
about this statement for just a moment. Alpha is the A, omega
is the Z, the whole alphabet. The Lord Jesus Christ in our
salvation, he is the beginning, he's the end. The alpha, the
omega. of all of our salvation. All
the scripture, he's the beginning of it, he's the end of it. The
law of God, he's the beginning of it, he's the law giver. He's
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. In
creation, he created all things and one day he will end it when
he makes a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. He's the alpha and omega of all
things. of Him and through Him and to
Him are all things, to whom be glory both now and forever. And
the next word says, Amen. So be it. So be it. Well, we'll
pick up there next time with verse 9.