Well, it's good to see you out
this morning. Remember those who requested prayer. Fred's not doing well.
He's having a hard time. He's awful weak. And chemo's
giving him a little chemo brain. So remember him in your prayers.
He's set for another chemo treatment tomorrow. I don't know whether
he'll be able to make it or not. So remember him and Arlene in your
prayers. Also, Loretta called me this morning. She's been in
the hospital. Her breast cancer evidently has probably returned. And she goes for a workup on Friday. Is that right,
Crow? Going Friday to Asheville for
a workup at an oncologist. So remember her in your prayers.
This is a recurrence of what she had some time ago. But do
remember her in your prayers. Seek the Lord's help for her. And see, also, next Sunday is
the last Sunday of the month. It's coming on the 24th, because
only 30 days past September. And so we'll have the Lord's
table and no afternoon service next week. So you remember that,
if you will. Okay, let's begin our worship
service with the hymn number 128, Wounded For Me. There on the cross He was wounded
for me. Now in His blessing and now I
am free. All because Jesus was wounded
for me. Dying for me. dying for me there
on the cross he was dying for me now in his death my redemption
i see all because jesus was dying ? Risen for me ? Risen for me ?
Up from the grave he has risen for me ? Now evermore from this
thing I am free ? All because Jesus has risen for me ? Up in the sky she's living for
me ? ? Daily he's pleading and praying for me ? ? All because
Jesus is living for me ? ? Coming for me, coming for me ? ? With what joy his dear face I
shall see ? Oh, how I praise him, he's coming for me After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 70. Holy, holy, holy. Revelation chapter 22. We're going to verse of scripture.
The title of my message is The Lord's Names. Verse 16, Revelation 22. I, Jesus, have sent my angel
to testify unto you these things to the churches. I am the root
and the offspring of David. and the bright and morning star.
Let us pray. Our Father, we come to you today. Our hearts are heavy with the
sickness of our brothers and sisters. We ask, Lord, you'd
be with Fred as he's endeavored to recover from this cancer.
Be with those doctors they minister to him, give him strength so
he can take the treatments. Pray for our sister Loretta.
Our hearts are broken that this cancer's returned. We pray you'd
be with her, minister to her. Be with those doctors that they
can find out what the situation is. Be with Sylvester and the
rest of her family as they minister to her also. Help us, Lord, to
be confident and trust in you. For sometimes trials and tribulations
that come our way give us a hard time, break us down. We know,
Father, that you are in charge. Help us believe it and rest in
it and have confidence in it. Pray for the others who are sick
and those who can't attend. Ask the Lord to watch over them.
Help us this day, by your grace, to preach the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Help us to hear and to heed that
which is spoken. Cause me to say right things
concerning thee. Don't leave me here by myself.
Help me, Lord, to preach the gospel. Help us to worship you. We know that our inclinations
are always elsewhere. We pray you'd fix our minds and
set all things aside that may hinder us from truly looking
to Christ in all things. Help us now, bow us down, we
pray in Christ's name. Amen. Hymn number 70, Holy, Holy,
Holy. ? Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty
? ? Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee ? ? Holy,
holy, holy, merciful Lord God Almighty ? God in three persons, blessed
Trinity. ? All the saints adore thee ? Casting
down their golden crowns ? Around the glassy sea ? Jerobim and
Seraphim ? Falling down before thee ? And evermore shall be ? ? Holy,
holy, holy ? ? Though the darkness hide thee ? ? Though the eye
of sinful men thy glory may not see ? Holy, there is none beside Thee. Perfect in power, in love and
purity. ? God Almighty ? All thy works
shall praise thy name ? In earth and sky and sea ? Holy, holy,
holy ? Merciful and mighty God in three persons, blessed Trinity. I ask Stan and Malcolm to receive
the office this morning, please. Let us pray. Father, again, we
approach in the name of Jesus Christ, our merciful and great
Savior, who died in the womb instead of his people and secured
their salvation. You have given him to your people
and freely with him given them all things that pertain to godliness
and life, and we praise you for it. As we return unto thee that
which you have freely given us, let us do so with joy and thanksgiving. In Christ's name, amen. invite your attention back to
revelation twenty-two verse sixteen our lord speaks of himself in
this category and names himself with four names the names of
jesus and the word of god each one has been the subject of volumes
of literature for it's each and every name of the lord jesus
christ there's a thousand messages and teach us about who He is
and what He's done and why He came and where He is now. The
name of our Lord Jesus Christ is the key of knowledge. It's
how we know who He is. We pray in that name. We bow
and worship Him in that name. We go into the world and preach
the gospel in the name and under the authority of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now God has declared that there is no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. The titles
that he has earned and has given are supreme source of comfort
and solace to his people. They are titles that belong to
one who has accomplished that which is necessary to merit the
title The titles aren't given willy-nilly. When he has a title,
it's because he has accomplished what it takes to merit that title. They are not titles given in
hopes of anything or in hopes of some man's will. They are
titles that declare a solid and complete accomplishment of something. They are not titles given in
hope. They are descriptive titles. declaring what Jesus Christ has
done. He is our Lord. He is the Lord of all humanity. He is the Lord over all. He bears
that title because he's earned it as a human being. Now as Lord
God and creator, he already had that title in the heavenly sense,
but he earned that title by doing something. Scripture says in
Romans 14 9 for this cause or unto this end Jesus Christ both
died rose revived and resurrected that he might be Lord of the
living and the dead that's everybody that's the naturally living and
dead and the spiritually living and dead he's the Lord of the
living and the dead he is our Redeemer he is our Redeemer He
wears that title because He has redeemed His people. He has redeemed
His people. He's redeemed them by His blood
and by His death. He is our King. He is the King
of Kings and Lord of Lords and He wears that title of King because
He's in charge and He reigns in absolute sovereignty over
all things, every title. Every name is designed to bring
the child of God to his knees in thanksgiving and praise for
what God has done. That's what the gospel is. It's
the good news of something that has been done. And that something that has been
done is God has glorified Himself in the salvation of His elect
by the blood of Jesus Christ. That's a done thing. The Gospel
is not a category of things to come. It
is a category of things that have been done. It is good news. If it is news that has already
happened, all that is left is to report it. And in this last
book of the Bible, The Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
final and glorious revelation of our Lord, He is set forth
as the great conqueror. He is set forth as a magnificent
hero. He speaks and describes himself here by four names in
the last book of the Bible. These are his words to the churches,
where he said this is the testimony to give to the churches, to testify
by his angel, that is generally speaking of the preacher of the
gospel, and the gravity of the words that have been thus far
testified are backed up in authority by his name, by the blessedness
of his name. Our Lord has described Himself
in this very book as the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and
the End, the Firstborn from the Dead, the Lamb of God, the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, the Almighty, and
the King of Kings and the Omnipotent Lord. The Word of God and many
other titles. He is now at the end of the story.
This is the final book. If you want to know how the story
ends, this is how it ends. As the rest of this book is designed
to, these names are a comfort to his people. He first reveals himself in the
name of his humiliation, of his condescension to come down in
humanity to this world. It's the name that binds him
to his people and his people to him. Though he is exalted
as he speaks these words, sitting on the right hand of God, having
purged our sins, He says, I, Jesus. I, Jesus. And what this means to the believer
is grace upon grace. For that name was given him for
the purpose to teach us what he would do when he came to this
world. The angels had given him the
name Jesus for he shall, in Matthew 121, save his people from their sins. Now that is
pretty precise, pretty narrow. He shall save His people from
their sins. He is not going to save all men
from all sins, but He is going to save His people from their
sins. This verse teaches three things
basically. First, it teaches when our Savior
was named He already had a people. he had a people that were made
his people before the foundation of the world in divine election.
They are they who are given to him in electing grace before
the world began. All that the father giveth me
shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will know what
is cast out. My sheep hear my voice and they follow me and
I give them eternal life. My father which gave them me
is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of
my father's hand. He came into this world to save his people
from their sins. He was given authority over all
flesh to give eternal life to as many as God has given him.
That's the language he uses all through John 17. He said, I pray
not for the world. I pray for them that thou hast
given me, for they are thine. They are thine. He came to this
world, entered into humanity for his beloved elected people.
That's why Jesus came. to save them from their sins,
and He didn't come for nobody else. He did not come to provide
or make salvation possible for all men. He came to save His
people. That's the language of Scripture.
Over and over again, that truth is set forth in the Word of God.
John chapter 6, Hebrews chapter 10, all these set forth that
blessed truth. The third thing taught here is
that He saved His people. We do not worship a savior who's
trying to get something done. We do not worship a savior who
is applying for that job. He's a savior because he has
saved his people. When he died on Calvary's tree,
their salvation was absolutely and surely secured. Now they
won't find out about it. It's already a done deal. But
when the gospel is preached, that's what they find out. They
believe after they heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation. You've been saved if you're a
child of God, whether you know it yet or not. You will know
it before time ends, before you pass this world and shed this
mortal coil and go to the next world. You will know because
God will send you a preacher to tell you that. No one for
whom Christ died will ever face the judgment of God. No one for
whom Christ died will ever die the second death. No one for
whom Christ died will ever perish in hell. he saved his people
from their sins. They are saved to the uttermost,
them that come to God by him. The second name by which he describes
himself is the Root of David. The Root of David. This declares
that he was before David was. So he didn't come into years
after David. No, he became a human being or took on human flesh
after David was long in his grave, but he was the root of David.
What does that mean? That means he's the preexistent
one. Jesus Christ is God and always
did exist. His preeminence and his eternal
deity is declared as the root of David. He's not the product
or in the genealogy of David. He is the cause of David. He
is the cause of David's existence and David's life and the cause
of David's exaltation. David is in glory. Why is David
in glory? Because he was a special man.
David was a man after God's own heart. But David was a sinner.
He said that after he was caught in his sin with Bathsheba and
having Uriah killed and getting her pregnant and finally marrying
her. When Nathan came to him and told him the story about
the man who had one little lamb and the rich man took his lamb
and slew it for a feast, David said, that man ought to pay fourfold.
He said, you're the man. You took Bathsheba. You had any
woman in this nation you wanted. You're the king. You took another
man's wife. You're the man. And David said,
I've sinned. And Nathan said, the Lord's forgiven thee. The
Lord has put away thy sin. Why is David in heaven? Because
he is the king of Israel. No, there are some kings in Israel.
Most of them are in hell. Why is he in heaven? He is in
heaven because Christ saved him by his grace. But he preceded
David. He preceded David. He suited
David for heaven. The king of kings is the kingmaker. He is the king of kings. the king, of kings. His regal
estate is exactly the same of every sinner, saved by grace,
David's is. He was saved by grace. He'll be one of those who stand
with those in Revelation 5 and say, Worthy is the Lamb that
is slain, that has redeemed us by His blood out of every nation,
tongue, and people, and made us kings and priests unto our
God. Christ is the root of David. Our Lord is the first cause of
all that is. He is the true King and the true
King of creation, providence and salvation. He is King because
He is God. He is King because He is God.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. The
same was in the beginning with God. That is Jesus Christ the
Lord. In Him we have the fullness of
the Godhead and a body. in a human frame. The fullness
of the Godhead in a human frame and you being in Him have need
of nothing. You're complete. Before God you
got everything you ever needed. Everything. The third description
He gives of Himself declares His absolute uniqueness in the
world. He is David's Son but He is David's Lord. This was
what messed with the Pharisees who came to question Jesus in
Matthew 22 and our Lord said, well, I have a question to ask
you. Jesus Christ, is he David's son or is he David's Lord? And they couldn't answer it because
he was quoting from Psalm 10 where the Lord said to my Lord,
this day have I begotten thee. And he was both David's son. in the lineage of David, and
David's Lord is the creator of David. This speaks of Christ,
this great mystery only perceivable by God-given faith, because it
makes absolutely no sense to any human being who walks upon
this earth naturally. God in human flesh. It's easy
for us and joyful for us to speak of Christ and His deity. to tell
me and if Christ ain't God, there ain't no man saved. He's God. He's the true and living God,
the Creator, Sustainer and Consummator of all things. But sometimes
we have difficulty with this humanity. Because He was really
a human being. Tested in all points like we
are. Yet without sin. Suffered everything we ever suffered
and more. Yet He never sinned. And here
he is, God Almighty, condescending to become a human being, to be
born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that are
under the law. A human being. The reason we have difficulty
is that because we're human beings. And we know that in us there
ain't nothing. But we're looking through the
wrong end of the telescope. We take the big end and put it
up to our eye and say, look at Jesus and say, He can't be a
human being. It's too little. Human beings
are too little. We need to turn it around and
look at Him through the right end of the telescope. He is majestic.
If you want to know what humanity is, don't look around you. We're
fallen. We're mutated. We're warped.
We're sick. We're ruined. We're sinners.
We're depraved by nature. Ain't none of us good. All of
us are frauds by nature. All of us are liars. Every one
of us. There ain't a good man on earth
that doeth good and sinneth not, that done righteous. No, not
one. Not one. But don't look at Jesus in comparison
to us. Look at us in comparison to Him.
He's true humanity. This is what humanity should
be. He is the man. The man Christ Jesus. true humanity. What is that? Never did anything
for himself. Well, that disqualifies us immediately,
doesn't it? Everything he did, he did for
the glory of God. We don't do that. He loved his
neighbor as himself. We don't do that. We don't do
that. He did. He was entirely a selfless
human being. He pleased not himself, it says
twice in the Word of God. He pleased not himself. As a
human being, he didn't do anything for himself. Everything he did,
he did for someone else to better their lives, to give them more
abundant life. Even those who didn't love him,
he fed them with fishes when they was hungry. That's what humanity is supposed
to be. Don't look at Ourselves and compare Christ to that and
say can't be human look at him as humanity and say we can't
be Christ We can't be human beings. We're not really We're mutated
things That writhe and wriggle upon the face of the earth He's
the son of God and the son of man The son of man great is the
mystery of godliness Paul said that is a mystery God manifest
in the flesh human being. What condescension was required
for God Almighty to lay aside His glory and come down here
in the form of human flesh, in the likeness of sinful flesh,
in the likeness of it, but not sinful? How far did He condescend
to do that? For man to be united with God
in one person. This description signifies Christ
as the legal heir to the throne of David. declaring Him to be
the Messiah, for the gospel is written concerning Him. The gospel
declares that Christ fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies,
all of them concerning the Messiah. God and man are uniquely and
eternally united in the person of Jesus Christ. It is a wonder,
and there is no really explaining it. As hard as we try, it still
remains a great mystery. But herein lies our hope. This
is what gives us hope. We sinned. So a man must die if he sins.
God can't die. God can't die. Yet only God can
satisfy his own justice and accomplish salvation. Only one person who
ever lived upon the face of the earth meets that quota, meets
that criteria. He's divine and he's human and
he's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the root and the offspring
of David. Christ alone. Only he is touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. Only he can touch the face of
God and touch our face. There is a man in glory, a man,
and he's seated at the right hand of God in the throne of
glory, a man. Fear not to approach unto him. Whatever you need. I found myself
praying a lot more these days. It seems the older I get, the
more I think I need to. troubles come our way. We experience
some troubles in this congregation right now. Some of our brethren,
those whom God loves are sick and it hurts us. We weep. We grapple with what's going
on. Our heart is failing. He's already felt that. He's
already been touched by that and approaching Talk to him. Speak to him. He's a man. He'll understand. He'll understand. He's not looking for great flowery
words of wisdom. Or great spiritual significant
words. Sometimes it's just a groan.
An ache. It can't even be uttered. But
he's a man. And he'll hear you. He's our
advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. And
the final description He gives of Himself, the final name is
the bright and morning star. The bright and morning star.
We're not seeing the morning star today because it's so cloudy
and it's raining. But it's there or it would be
in darkness even. It's light makes its way through
the clouds and lights up the earth. This reveals that He is
the light of the world. he's the light of the world.
That's what it says of him in John chapter one. When it talks
about being the word and being God, it says he's the light of
the world. John came to declare that light.
He's the light that lighteth all men that are in the world.
If we walk in the light and see in the light, we can worship
God. But nobody walks in darkness.
He's the light of the world. He's the sun. That's what the
day star is. The sun. Revelation 21 in verse
23 says, And the city hath no need of the sun, that place out
yonder in the future, neither of the moon to shine in, for
the glory of God will lighten, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
Oh, what a phrase we ought to put on our wall or in our mind
when we study in Scripture. The Lamb is the light thereof. If you ain't seeing the scripture
in the Lamb, who is the light thereof, you're not seeing it
aright. He's the bright and morning star.
That's the sun. It ushers in the day. Prophecy
declared him to be the star out of Jacob in Numbers 24. Or rather,
yeah, Numbers 24 and 16 and 17. This description clears his incarnation. Star out of Jacob. Out of Jacob. Our Lord, as it were, split the
sky and burst out of the sky. When the angels declared His
birth, they were surrounded by what? Glorious light. It was
dark out there the night the shepherds were abiding with their
flocks by night. It was the beginning of marsh
javan, the rainy season, so it was probably pretty cloudy and
all of a sudden a bright and brilliant light shone in the
atmosphere. And the angels of the Lord began
to sing and tell of a great thing that had taken place. For unto
you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ
the Lord. And light shone all around about
them. They were sore afraid. They said,
Don't be afraid. The Savior has come. The Savior
has come. The angels that declared his
birth were surrounded by light. When he came into the world,
it says the world lay in darkness and the bondage of religious
night. He dispelled that darkness. His appearance was as the bright
and morning star. The bright and morning star.
Look over at Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. verse 78, through the tender
mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath
visited us. He's talking about the birth
of Christ. The day spring from on high has visited us. In the
last book of the Old Testament there was a prophecy concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ and how He was described in Malachi chapter
4. In verse 2 it says, but unto
you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness. That son, S-U-N, not S-O-N, the
son of righteousness, arise with healing in his wings, and ye
shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. The son of righteousness, to
you who believe, the son is risen. The son of righteousness has
risen. The description also declares
the experience of every believer. when we are believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ we experience that light that light over in
first Peter chapter or second Peter chapter one Peter here is talking about something
happening to him that's beyond everything and happy to believe
it's beyond everything that can be experienced, though it be
wonderful and magnificent." He said he was there on the Mount
of Transfiguration. He saw it. And it's described
wonderfully in the book. He said, Jesus Christ shone,
brightened. His robe was glistering white,
brighter than the noonday sun. Brighter than the noonday sun.
He said, I saw it with my own eyes. I seen it. I seen it. I
can witness to it. He said, I'm not telling you
some fable. There ain't some rumor that's come down the line.
I'm telling you, I was there personally. He said, but there's
something even better than that. something even better than seeing
that wonderful moment. He was so enthralled by it all
because he saw Moses and Elijah talking about Jesus, talking
to Jesus about the death he should accomplish in Jerusalem. He saw
that and maybe heard their words. He said, man, this is great.
He said, we got the prophet, we got the law, we got Elijah,
we got Moses, and we got Jesus. We need to build some temples.
We need to have something. We need to erect some statues
or something here. We need one to Moses, and one
to Elijah, and one to Jesus, because this has been a great
day. We've seen it all today. Seen it all. And a voice came
from heaven. While the words were still in
his mouth, a fog rolled over that place. We in the mountains
know what a real fog is. One that shows up and you can't
see in front of your face. fold rolled in, came a voice
out of heaven. You can discard the thought of
raising a statue to the law, Moses, and Elijah, the prophets,
because they speak of Him. This is My beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. You hear Him, because He's the
key of knowledge to everything the prophets and the law said. he's the king of kings. What's
this more sure thing we have? What's this better thing we have?
Let's read on. He says in verse 16, For we have
not followed cunningly devised fables, when we were made known
unto the power and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
were eyewitnesses of that glory. We saw it. We receive from God
the Father honor, or He received God from God the Father honor
and glory when there came such a voice to Him that from the
exalted Lord, 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 on the Holy Mount. And what's the next phrase say?
We have a more sure word of prophecy. were unto you do well that you
take heed unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day
dawn, the sun arise, and the day star, the sun, arise in your
heart. What do we have that's greater
than seeing? The more sure word of prophecy. And this is the
word, the written word, whose subject is the living word, the
Lord Jesus Christ. God who made the light to shine
out of darkness has shined in our hearts to reveal the glory
of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Until He came,
we groped in darkness, but He has light disclosed what we were
and who He is, and that brought life and immortality to what?
To light. The description also speaks of
His glorious return. In Revelation 2.28, He will give
His elect the morning star. He will give them the morning
star. In that glorious day, He will be the light of that place. The sun will be no more. He is
Jesus, our Savior, the Root of David, our God, the Offspring of David. our mediator, the man, Christ
Jesus, the bright and morning star, our revelation, Jesus, our Savior. These are the names of the Lord. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen.