Ron James is in the hospital.
He had a gallbladder surgery, but there's been some complications.
I've had him go back in, so remember him in your prayers. Is that
Adam Parker? Adam Parker, about a 40-year-old
man, lost his wife yesterday? Not two days ago, so remember
that family. And Kathy Robinson is going to
have part of her liver taken out on the 8th. I think at the
age of April. They couldn't find any cancer
except for one spot on one lobe of the liver, so they're gonna
take that part out, which you can survive quite well without.
And also Rain French, his leg's swollen up and he's having to
go back to the hospital. Rain's got serious diabetes.
Remember him in your prayers. Seek the Lord's help for him.
And we'll observe the Lord's table after morning worship service. uh... net i can't think of any
announcements sam did a really good job last morning he preached
i wish i could have been here to worship with you it was a
sweet time so i appreciate it thank you very much for filling
in for me while i'm gone there'll be no afternoon bible study let's
begin our worship service this morning with hymn number two
hundred and forty two two forty two jesus i come Out of my bondage of sorrow and
night, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come. freedom, gladness, and light. Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of my sickness into Thy help. Out of my want and into Thy will. Out of my sin and into thyself,
Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my shame, all failure,
and loss, Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come. Into the glorious gain of thy
cross, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of earth's sorrows into thy
balm, out of life's storms and into thy calm. His dress to jubilate song. Jesus, I come to Thee Out of
unrest and arrogant pride Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come Into Thy
blessed will to abide Jesus, I come to Thee Out of myself
to dwell in Thy love Out of despair into raptures above Upward for I, on wings like a
dove, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of the fear and dread of
the tomb, Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come into the joy and
light of thy home. Jesus, I come to thee out of
the depths of ruin. After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 258. If you have your Bibles turn
with me to the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ chapter 1. Read verses 4 through 6. John to the seven churches which
are in Asia. Grace be unto you and peace from
him which is and which was and which is to come. and from the
seven spirits who were before the throne, and from Jesus Christ,
who is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead,
the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us
and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made
us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory
and dominion for ever and ever. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
most glorious Lord, King of kings, ruler of this universe, he who
had dominion over all things, you who do your will in the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, not one of your
creatures can stay your hand, nor even ask what you're doing.
We know that your thoughts are higher than our thoughts, your
ways are far above our ways. We need not as mortal, finite,
foolish creatures assume to figure out you. Can a man by searching
find out God? We know that he can't. But we
know also what we have of you is what you have revealed to
us in your word. We thank you that we have that.
for in it contains the truth about us, and the truth about
you, and the truth about how you save sinners. Father, I thank
you for mercy and grace through Jesus Christ. For those who've
been added to the prayer list, we ask, Lord, your special help
for them, for those who are going through trials and tribulations
this hour, hearts broken, we pray you'll undergird them with
your strength, comfort them in Jesus Christ, for we know that
when all is said and done, And as this old world passes away,
what we have is him who sits on my throne, ever living to
make intercession for us. For those who are going to be
operated on, we pray, Lord, you'd be with the doctors and give
them great skill, understanding of the human body. They might
be able to help strengthen those who are sick, those who've lost
loved ones. We pray you'd comfort them as
only you can. We pray for ourselves this hour, Father, that You might
cause us in our hearts to be bowed down to the throne of grace,
to bow down to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, in thanksgiving
and praise for what He's done for us. We thank You that You
have revealed Him to us. For we know we would have been
left in darkness had You not. Help us now, we pray in Christ's
name, amen. hymn number 258, He Hideth Myself. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock Where rivers of pleasure I see He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock That shadows a dry, thirsty land He hideth
my life in the depths of His love, and covers me there with
His hand, and covers me there with His hand. Wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord. He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life
in the depths of His love and covers me there with His hand. With numberless blessings each
moment He crowns And filled with His fullness divine I sing my
rapture of glory to God For such a Redeemer as I am He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love and covers me and covers me there with His
hand. When clothed in His brightness,
transported I rise to meet Him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, His wonderful
love, I'll shout with the millions on high. He hideth my soul in
the cleft of the rock. The dry, thirsty, He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. Steve, you can stand and receive
the audience, please. Let us pray. Father, again we
approach in the name of Jesus Christ, the matchless name of
Jesus Christ, who is the gift that you have freely given to
all your people, and with him have freely given them all things.
We know that what we have, this side of what we have earned,
which is perdition and hell, is all of mercy and all of grace. Let us rejoice. to return unto
you what you have given us. In Christ's name, amen. you. budget inspection revelation
chapter one verses i just read to you or
kind of a syllabus or synopsis or summation of all that is written
for us in this book called the revelation of the lord jesus
christ at all rest on the premise that is set forth in these few
verses here This book written by John on
the Isle of Patmos while he was in exile was addressed to the
seven churches that were in Asia. These seven churches that existed
at the time of this writing are representative of the church
in general, representative of the age in which we live called
the Gospel Age. These words are for us from Chapter
1 through Chapter 22. They do not represent seven different
ages or dispensations, but rather they are a summation of the joys
and the troubles that attend every church as they function
respectively with Christ in their midst, no matter where they are
in history. Our Lord is described here as
who He is. It's also spoken of why He came. what he did and where he is now.
One man said if you can answer those four questions correctly
you might know something about the Bible. Who is Jesus Christ?
Why did he come? What did he do? And where is
he now? Who is he? Who is he? Now that would seem to be a foolish
question considering that his name is everywhere in the world.
businesses and nations preface their names with the word Christian. The two most celebrated holidays
in the USA and for the most part around the world, at least in
the Western world, have his name attached to them, Christmas and
Easter, the day of the resurrection, which is today, by the way, if
you're keeping it on the calendar. Churches that operate in his
name dot the landscape from every city and every town in this nation. Every village in Jerkwater and
Whistlestop has a church somewhere in it. I believe at last count
there were 13 Baptist churches on the reservation alone. There's
about 12 too many, but nonetheless, there's 13 of them. Who is he? That should be obvious. The fact is, however, that the
single thing that most men and women, especially in the hallowed
corridors of religion, are ignorant of is who Jesus Christ is. John declares that he is the
faithful witness. The faithful witness. That's
how he's described in verse 5. The faithful witness. What does
that mean? Well, it means that he always
told the truth to start with But it means that he was faithful
to the witness of the book that he would write and that he would
inspire men to pen. This basically declares that
he is the prophet. The prophet. The one promised
in Deuteronomy 18 and quoted in Acts chapter 3 by Peter. In Deuteronomy 18 it says, I
will raise them up a prophet. Capital P. Deuteronomy 18, 18.
from among their brethren, like unto thee, will put my words
in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command
him. It come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words
which he shall speak in my name, I will require it." I will require
it of him. There are many prophets of old. We have a book full of them in
the Old Testament after Deuteronomy is written. But they all held the office
by derivation or by appointment. And they were all just types
and shadows of him who was to come. You read the Gospels several
times and the Gospels people ask, is he that prophet? That prophet that was prophesied
in the Old Testament? Jesus Christ is that prophet,
and being such, you will know nothing of God, and will hear
not hear from God, and will not understand anything about God,
unless this prophet declares and explains it to you. It's
that simple. On the road to Emmaus, our Lord
took the disciples and taught them what the Scriptures meant
over in Luke, Chapter 24. These fellas had the scriptures.
They were Jewish, probably, more than likely. I don't think there
was but one Gentile in the whole bunch. But they had the scriptures,
and they'd studied the scriptures, and he had taught them from the
scriptures who he was. But they still didn't understand
that the scriptures had a central meaning and a central subject
that would be addressed from Genesis all the way to Revelation.
The time that this book was written or the time recorded in this
book, they only had the Old Testament. Most of the Gospels were written
around A.D. 100. They were written after
many of the epistles were written. But in Luke 24, our Lord speaks
to these disciples from Emmaus, and He says in verse 44, And
He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto
you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled
which are written in the Law of Moses," that's the first five
books of the Bible, and in the Prophets, that's all the Prophets
in the Bible, and in the Psalms, the words of David and Moses
and Solomon. Then, having said that, He opened
up their understanding. He opened their minds that they
might understand the Scriptures. and said unto them thus it is
written and thus it behoove Christ to suffer and to rise from the
dead on the third day they didn't understand the scripture and
you can't either without this prophet this one who is the faithful
witness to the lord he is the word the word made flesh that
dwelt among us we beheld his glory as the only begotten of
the father full of grace and truth in the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same
was in the beginning with God. In Him dwelleth the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, this prophet. Men may call themselves prophets,
and today I see men do it on TV and hear them on the radio,
but they are self-deluded. They are self-deluded, and they
are the spirit of Antichrist according to 1 John chapter 4.
There are no prophets today. except for false prophets. Jesus
Christ is the faithful witness. He is the revealer and the revelation
of God. And thus no other word than this
word is needed. He is the true and faithful witness. Who is He? It is said He is the
first begotten of the dead. The first begotten of the dead. That's what churches will gather
today and celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, though
most of them don't know what it means, they all celebrate
it anyway. I was from Winston-Salem, North
Carolina, and it's a big Moravian town, and they have this place
called God's Little Acre, which is where a whole bunch of Moravians
are buried, and Moravians had brass bands, and they are really
good on their instruments. And then Sunrise, of course,
the worship of Baal on Sunday morning, because that's what
Sunrise service is, they would gather on two sides of that graveyard. And as soon as the sun broke
the horizon, one brass band would play He is Risen, the first stanza,
and they would waft across that whole graveyard. It's a beautiful
place. And on the other side was the other brass band. They
would play the second stanza and it would go back and forth.
It was quite an impressive service celebrating what they believed
to be the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This speaks
of his resurrection here. He's the first begotten of the
dead. He's the one who came forth from
the grave as our high priest giving his people access to God
and entrance into the very holy of holies according to Hebrew
chapter 2 by his resurrection. This phrase means three things.
First of all, it means Christ was the first to be raised from
the dead to immortality. There were others raised from
the dead. The widow of Nain's son, the little girl Talitha,
was raised from the dead. Lazarus was raised from the dead.
But they went on to die. They went on to die again. Jesus
Christ was raised to immortality. He brought immortality to light
in the gospel. Christ was the first to be raised
from the dead by his own power. He said, I have the power to
raise myself from the dead. John chapter 10 and verse 18.
I have the power. God's granted me the power that
while my body is dead, I can raise myself up from the dead.
He's the first begotten of the dead. Christ was raised from
the dead as the first fruits of the resurrection. What does
that mean? All who were in him will be raised from the dead.
And in fact, according to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 5-6, we were
already quickened with Him when He rose from the dead. I don't
fully understand what that means, but I believe it because the
Word says it. Who is He? It says He's the Prince of the
kings of the earth. This is the result of His resurrection
as our substitute. He's been highly exalted and
dominates the entire universe as our Lord over all, expressed
for the salvation and welfare of His elect. for to this end, he both died,
rose, and revived, it says in Romans 14, 9, that he might be
the Lord of the living and the dead. He was obedient even to
the death of the cross, wherefore God has highly exalted him and
given him a name above every name. In Isaiah 53, it says,
he shall see of his soul and shall be satisfied, for by his
skills shall my righteous servant justify many. He's the Prince of the Kings
of the Earth. That simply means He's Lord.
And this is not a stinger for some religious jingle. He is
Lord and not in the sense that He is an available pool of blessing
and power to be gained by invoking His name. He is Lord and that
means what? He is in control. Oh, for the
Spirit of God in me to believe that continually. I gripe and
moan about so much what's going on. I do. I get angry, get upset. I want to choke some people. I've even wanted to shoot some
people, you know. I forget. And whatever's happening
in this world right now is according to purpose and plan. Why? Because Jesus Christ is Lord. He's the prince of the kings
of this world. It means he's in control. It
means he's outside the control of any human being. It means
he does as he pleases, when he pleases, with whom he pleases,
and no one can halt him or discourage him. or affect the fulfillment
of His ordained purpose or the outcome that He has predestinated. Why? Because He is the Prince
of the Kings of the Earth. He is the Lord over all. Why
did He come to Earth? John gives the simplest and sweetest
explanations unto Him that loved us. Man may speak of universal love,
but they neither practice it nor do they believe it. They
use it as a manner of cloaking their own perverted love of self,
man. When you think of the love of
God, stop thinking of your love. Just stop doing that. Don't think
of love as you know it in the human realm. Ain't like it at
all. We love as we are loved in the
human realm. You know that's true. you know
that's true. But the love of God is absolutely
unconditional. It's not universal. He loved
his own and he loved them to the end, saith the scripture.
But this says to the church, the seven churches in Asia and
the church at Sequoia, up here in the big cove of Cherokee,
he loved us. He loved us. Man has an ego, and man is ethnocentric,
and man is the sum and substance of his own idea of destiny, and he's the
sun in his own galaxy. And man, whether they want to
admit it or not, really believes that the world revolves around
them. And when men speak of univeral
love, Universal love is the most impotent placebo administered
by the timorous preachers that are physicians of no value in
this world today. John declares to the church,
he loved us. He loved us. The love we're with,
he loved us, scripture says. These words, the salvation of
the elect is an absolute sure thing. Whom he loves, he saves. He said in Jeremiah 31, which
is that great chapter setting forth the glorious covenant of
grace as the new covenant that God promised him, starts out
with these words, He loved us. He hath loved us with an everlasting
love because He loved us. he drew us god is shed abroad
his love in our hearts while we were yes christ that also
the glaciers loved us and gave himself for god so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son and whosoever believed on
him should not perish but have everlasting life in first john
chapter three The love of God is explained as clearly as anywhere
else in scripture by its results. Our love doesn't produce results.
It's pretty much anemic, often unrequited. But it doesn't often
get what we would wish our love could do. When Sarah was sick
with that horrible leukemia, going through all that treatment
and all that she had to go through. I loved her. Oh, man, I loved
her. Prayed for her every night. My love could do absolutely nothing
for her. It could do nothing. I would
shut up to the grace of God and shut up to His mercy. Couldn't
do anything. We love, but we can't keep our loved ones around.
Our love is paltry, but not God's love. John explained it this
way in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 16. He says, Hereby perceive
we. This is how we grasp and understand the love of God. Because He laid down His life
for us. We ought also to lay down our lives for our brethren.
Why did He lay down His life? Is it some strange martyr complex? or did he do it as some kind
of example? Did he do it as some kind of
hallmark love letter to his people? Did he do it to express the general
affection that God has for mankind? Why did Jesus Christ lay down
His life? Because nothing else would do
if we were to be saved. It had an object and it had a
result. And here's how he explains that.
But whoso hath this world's goods. Now he's talking about love between
the brethren. And he's talking about a love
that's, like I said, is not perfect, and it's weak and frail. But
he said, whosoever has this world's goods, and seeth his brother
have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him,
how dwelleth the love of God in him? How can he say that God's
love is in him? Because when God sees His people
in need, He supplies the need. When God saw His people dying
in ruin, He saved them. He did what was necessary to
save them. That's what love does. That's what God's love does.
My little children, let us not love in words. It's all right
to tell somebody you love them. I tell my wife I love her many
times a day. Let us not love in word or tongue, let us not
say it, but indeed and in truth, because that's how God loved
us, indeed and in truth, and shed his own blood. Why did he
come? Because he loved us. Such knowledge
and light of our utter unworthiness sets our hearts and tongues to
praise and thanksgiving. He loved us. He loved us. I know men say it all the time.
I hear men advertise it on TV. God loves you. God loves you.
God loves you. But then they tell them that
He's liable to put you in hell. That ain't love. That ain't love. If He loved
you, He'd save you. And if you ain't saved, and if
you die unsaved, it's because He never loved you. What did He do? says He washed
us from our sins in His own blood. The word wash carries with it
two distinct and glorious meanings. The first is washed and cleansed
or cleansed. It speaks of a divine torrent
that destroys everything sinful in its path. Christ, by His precious
blood, the precious blood of the Lamb, has propitiated God
for our sins and has cleansed us from every spot justified
us and made us unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight by
the blood of His cross. That's what it says in Colossians
1 20 through 22. This word also means loosed. Loosed. By His precious blood
He has loosed us. He set us free from the dominion
and guilt of our sin. We no longer have to answer to
our former sovereign Christ having bound the strong man and taken
his spoils, he said, Loose him and let him go. That's what he
said of Lazarus. When he went to the grave site
of Lazarus and Martha said, Surely he stinks. By now he'd been dead
for a day. They had him wrapped in his grave
clothing. They wrapped him like mummies. That's what it means. Give him a little shroud and
he was wrapped. he said he's not made sleep he
went to the gravestone had a role where the stone is it lazarus
come Lazarus and he came for a night could walk is rare to
must've floated or lord say Lucy this is what the gospel see then say loose
in and bind him with the law. It
doesn't say loose him and bind him with church regulations.
It says loose him and let him go. You are the Lord's free man. Loose him. He washed us from
our sins in his own blood. His own blood. He's loosed us,
set us free from the dominion and guilt of our sins. He washed
us from our sins. What did he do? He's made us
kings and priests unto God. People don't realize what the
Lord does for this world in sending rain and sunshine and giving
seed to grow, food to eat, air to breathe. It's not for
men who perish in their sin. It is for God's people. The rain falls on the just and
the unjust, so does the sunshine on the just and the unjust. But
it shines for the elect, and it rains for the elect. God does everything for the good
of His people. All things work together for
the good of His people. Don Fortner told a story about
planting a garden. Don was a big gardener. He loved
gardening. He always grew a pretty garden. He grew it right by a
fence that separated his yard and his neighbor's yard. When the rain came, it fell on
Don's garden and it fell on his neighbor's garden, too. When
the sun rose, it rose up on Don's garden and his neighbor's garden,
too. His neighbor wasn't a believer.
He didn't care anything for the gospel. And Don said, I think
you ought to thank me. God sent a rain for me. For me. Made us kings and priests unto
God our Father. Right now I'm looking out at
a bunch of kings and priests in Cherokee. Right now. You're robed in royal finery.
Even the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You wear the crown of
life and the crown of righteousness on your head. You dine at the
king's table. You subsist on the treasury of
sufficient grace, and your attendants, your household staff, are the
angels of heaven, you kings and priests of Cherokee. Soon your
blessed Lord will return to you and gather you to himself You
will sit as kings, as the kings that you are, with Christ on
His throne. He's made us priests. What need we have of an earthly
priest? We, by our high priest, have
access to God. We, by our high priest, offer
up acceptable gifts to God by Jesus Christ, according to 1
Peter 2, verse 5. What has He done? He's made us
kings and priests. Where is He now? He's in glory. He's not on a cross. He's not
on a cross. That's history. 2,000 years ago. There's where he done the business
with God for our sin, but he sits at the right hand of the
Father in glory, having earned the right to occupy the throne
of dominion. He sits in respite till every enemy may be made
his footstool. He's that young lion from the
prey. He's that old lion, and who shall
rouse him up? He's earned the glory of his
exalted estate by his blood and his death and his resurrection.
He finished the work of salvation, honored God with every breath
he took, especially the last one he took on Calvary Street.
And to him be glory forever and ever. Amen. Amen. John, to the seven churches
which are in Asia, grace be unto you and peace from him which
is and which was and which is to come. and from the seven spirits
which are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, the prince
of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests
unto God the Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and
ever. The people of God received the
Lord's table for a singular reason, to exalt Him in the glory of
His death, that He died in the womb instead of His people. He's
washed us, we read this morning, from our sins in His own blood,
cleansed us, and set us loose. And we celebrate that with the
preaching of the gospel, with the baptism of believers, baptism,
and the taking of what is called the Lord's table. The elements
at the table are the unleavened bread, the Passover feast, and
the new wine. These two elements were used
by our Lord to teach his disciples about what he was about to do
in a few hours, in a few days, when he was going to die in the
womb instead of his people. So he took the unleavened bread
and passed it to his disciples and said, this is my body broken
for you. He was saying, this is symbolic
of my body broken for you. And he handed it to his disciples
and said, my body will continue. And he took the wine, the cup,
and he passed it around. They only used one cup back then,
not little cups. He passed it around. He said,
this wine is the new covenant. The new covenant? Yeah. The old
covenant's passed away. The new covenant in my blood. As often as you eat this bread
and drink this wine, you'll be sure to go to my death until
I come again. Do this and then submit." And when Paul was talking
about this table at the Corinthian church, he said, let every man
examine himself. And so let him eat and drink.
He doesn't say let him examine himself and keep himself from
eating and drinking. Or does a person examine himself
only? That he understands what these elements mean. and he's
able to discern the body and the blood of Jesus Christ, symbolizing
these elements that the body and blood of Jesus Christ was
actually what saved his soul. So we take this table to show
forth his death until he comes to his senses. Let's ask the
Lord's blessing upon the elements. Father, just this time together,
as we take this table in recognition and remembering and commemorating
that great day when you finished the work of salvation on Calvary
Street, that day when you glorified the Father fully in your bed
and wiped away the sin of your people forever. Help us, Lord,
now to worship you in this manner, as we partake at this table in
Christ's name. Amen. On the night our Lord was betrayed,
He took the unleavened bread of the Passover feast and broke
it. He gave it in peace to each of His disciples. He said, Take
ye, this is my body broken for you, as often as you do it. On the same night, He took the cup.
He said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. as often
as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, and do so forth to
my bed, until I come again, do this in the name of Jesus. And it is recorded that they
sang a hymn, and our Lord went out to be betrayed by Judas'
kiss. Let's stand together. Would you be free from your burden
of sin? There's fire in our blood, fire
in our blood. Would your evil victory win? There is wonderful power in the
blood. There is power, power, wonder-working
power in the blood of the lamb. There is power, power, wonder-working
power in the precious blood of the lamb. Well, I love you. in love for
one another in this dark world. Show some light. God bless you.