kicked in on that chemotherapy
took. He's swelling when his neck is going down and his leg.
And he's awfully tired. He's feeling a little better.
He had a rough time with it, chemotherapy. This time he had to be hospitalized
for a couple of days. But he's doing better. That's what Cynthia
says. We're thankful for that. We have
the little rascal here tonight. uh... i can't think of him ever
do it okay uh... i don't think i don't think i
know how's rain pretty good okay is he doing okay all right let's
begin our worship service with uh... him number one hundred
forty one lucky saints the site is glorious What did I say? That's what I
said. Oh, I'm sorry. 466. Got things
out of order. First mistake I ever made. Yeah,
that was a different time. 466. What's far from God and dead
in sin, no light my heart could see. But in God's word, the light
I found. Now Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that
Christ As rays of light from yonder
sun, the flowers of earth set free. So life and light and love
came forth from Christ living in me. Christ liveth in me. ? What a salvation is that Christ
liveth in me ? As lives a flower within a seed ? As in the combed-off
tree ? So praise the God of truth Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that
Christ liveth in me. may be. As on the wondrous salt I dwell,
that Christ What a salvation this, that Christ
liveth in me. After scripture and prayer, we'll
sing hymn number 141, as previously announced. Revelation chapter
1, we'll read verses 4 through 6. Part of my message is the
Savior and His work. 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 and the first begotten of the dead and 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. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father,
we are thankful that we can read such words that honor and glorify
and magnify our Lord Jesus Christ for what He's done for His people
how he saved them by his blood, washed them, cleansed them, made
them kings and priests, set them before thee as righteous and
holy because of the fact that he put away our sin by the sacrifice
of himself. We thank you, Father, for your
word. Thank you that you did not leave yourself without a
witness, but you left this grand and glorious tomb for us to glean
and to read and to study and to meditate upon as we live in
this world that cares nothing for thee. Help us, Lord, to desire
to worship you. You're worthy of worship and
honor and glory, all of it. Pray for those who are sick.
I'm thankful for the news on Brother Fred that these medications
seem to be working. I ask, Lord, that you continue
to minister to him and to Arlene Pray also for Loretta with her
situation. We pray you'd intervene there
and they could find out exactly what the situation is. We pray
for the others who requested prayer. Ask the Lord your help
for them. Pray for our shut-ins, that you'll
be with them and comfort them in Jesus Christ. And pray for
ourselves this hour. that you would bow us down into
the dust and let us take up our headquarters there where we belong.
And then if it would please you to lift our eyes to see Him who
is altogether loving and worthy of all praise and honor, even
our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask these things in His name.
Amen. Hymn number 141. Look, ye saints, the sight is
glorious. See the man of sorrows now. From the fight return victorious. Every knee to him shall bow. Crown him, crown him, crowned
become ? Crown the Savior, angels crown
Him ? ? Rich the trophies Jesus brings ? ? In the seat of power
enthrone Him ? ? While the altar of heaven rings ? ? Crown Him,
crown Him, crown the Savior, angels crown Him ? Sinners in derision, crown Him,
marking thus the Savior's claim. Saints and angels crowd around
Him, own His title, praise His name. Crown Him, crown Him, ? Hark those bursts of acclamation
? ? Hark the loud triumphant chords ? ? Jesus takes the highest
station ? ? Oh, what joy the sight affords ? ? Crown Him,
crown Him, King of glory ? Let us pray, Father, again we
approach in the name of Christ. For it is by his mercy that we
come into your presence by your grace. We know, Father, that
what we have, we have received. Let us not boast as if we not
received it. And because we received it at
the goodness of your hands, cause us to have delight in returning
it unto thee. We pray in Christ's name. I invite your attention back
to the first chapter of the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. These
verses that I just read to you are a synopsis and a summation
of all that is written for us in this book of the Revelation. The entire Revelation of the
Lord Jesus Christ is about what is spoken of in these four verses. It is addressed to the seven
churches of Asia, or Asia Minor, And these seven churches that
existed at the time of this writing are representative of the church
in general in which we live today, the age in which we live called
the Gospel Age. So these words are not only for
the seven churches of Asia, but they're also for Sequoia, Sovereign
Grace Baptist Church here in Cherokee. They do not represent
seven different ages, as some would have you believe, or seven
different dispensations. but rather they are a summation
of the good and the bad things that go in every church as they
function respectively with Christ in their midst no matter where
or what time they reside in history. These four verses that I just
read to you answer four important questions, possibly some of the
most important questions you'll ever encounter as you live upon
this earth They concern Jesus Christ. And the question first is who
is He? Who is He? Secondly, why did
He come? Thirdly, what did He do when
He came? And fourthly, where He is now?
Those four questions are very important to know the answer
to. The first question is who is He? That would seem to be
a foolish question, considering that his name is everywhere in
the world today. Businesses and nations preface
their names with the word Christian. America is called a Christian
nation, but that is a real loose definition of the term. I remember
when I was in the meat cutting business years ago, and it was
years ago. They had a so-called Christian
radio station. I forget the call letter's name.
I believe it was WPGD. We Preach God's Deliverance is
what they said, and I interpreted it to be We Preach God's Deficiency
because that's the God they preached all the time. They came to my
shop one day and said we would like to get you to advertise on our station
because we've heard that you're a Christian man." I said, well,
I don't advertise that. I said, I advertise myself as
a businessman and I try to prove people right. I said, but most
of the people that put the name Christian before them are crooks
and they steal from people and they rob people and they do it
in the name of Christ. The two most celebrated holidays
in the world and in the USA have this name attached to him, Christmas
and Easter, the resurrection. Churches that operate in his
name dot the landscape in every city and town. I think there's
15 churches, 15 Baptist churches on the reservation here. Who is he? Seems to be obvious. Seems like everybody knows. The
fact is, however, that the single thing that most men and women,
especially in the corridors of religion, are ignorant of is
who Jesus Christ is. John declares Him to be the faithful
witness. This declares that He is that
prophet promised in Deuteronomy 18, that if you don't hear His
words, God will deal with you. that Peter used Deuteronomy 18
and 18 to preach Acts Chapter 2 and verses 22 and 23. There
were many prophets of old, but they all held the office by derivation. God appointed them to be prophets.
They were types and shadows of this one prophet who was Jesus
Christ, who is prophet, priest, and king. Being such, you will
know nothing of God, you will not hear from God, you will not
understand anything ABOUT God until you hear FROM God, and
that is in the person of this prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the KEY of knowledge, the KEY of knowledge. That is what
it said around the Resurrection time when they saw the empty
grave, they said they had taken away the KEY of knowledge. The
KEY of knowledge is the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, He IS
the Word! He is the LIVING Word that is
expressed in the WRITTEN Word, and it says in Luke Chapter 24,
and I read this on Wednesday night when He was talking to
the disciples on the road to Emmaus, now these were His disciples,
they believed in Him, they walked with Him for three years, they
were disappointed that He hadn't set up a Kingdom because they
didn't fully understand the things that would be revealed later. So He showed them what the Scriptures
were about. He told them in Luke 24 verse
44, He said, These are the words which I spake unto you for the
last three and a half years, 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, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
and Deuteronomy, and in the Prophets, all the Prophets and in the Psalms
concerning me. This is what the book concerns.
After that, something wondrous happened. They began to understand. Why? Because then opened he their
understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. So
there is no understanding of the Scriptures until you see
them as REVEALING the Lord Jesus Christ, which John talks about
in this last book, the REVELATION of the Lord Jesus Christ. In John chapter 6 and verse 63,
he said, My words they are SPIRIT and they are LIFE. In God dwelleth
the fullness of the God, or in Christ dwelleth the fullness
of the God head bodily. Men may call themselves prophets
in this day, I hear them saying that, prophets and prophetesses,
but they are self-deluded and operate in the spirit of Antichrist,
according to 1 John, where they try their spirits to find that
they are of God or not. He, Christ, is the faithful witness,
the faithful witness. He is the revealer and the revelation
of God And there is no other word needed than to know Him
who is the Living Word. Who is He? It says, He is the
first begotten of the dead. He is the resurrected 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 by His
flesh. This phrase means three things.
Christ was the first to be raised from the dead to immortality.
He was not the first to be raised from the dead. The widow of Nain's son was raised
from his coffin. Lazarus was raised from the tomb.
Jairus' daughter was raised from the deathbed. But Jesus Christ
was raised to immortality. Lazarus went ahead and died after
that. He lived for a while and then died. would have named son,
he lived for a while and died. Talitha, Jairus's daughter, lived
a little while and died. Jesus Christ was raised to immortality. He ever lives to make intercession
for the saints. Christ was the first to be raised
from the dead by his own power. He said that God has given me
this power. No man takes my life. I lay it down and I have power
to take it up again. Don't go try to figure that out.
That's a wondrous thing. But just as wondrous is how the
world that he who is life could actually die, could stop living,
that's what he had to do, it was a thing that he had to accomplish.
We don't accomplish death, death accomplishes us. But he accomplished
death, what does that mean? That he who is life made himself
not live anymore and then made himself live again. He is the
one raised, 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 are in Him were also
raised from the dead and will live eternally. They will not
suffer the second death. They will be raised to be with
Him eternally. He was raised as a representative
of God's elect and is the guarantee of their resurrection. We go
to the graveyard. I always say this is the site
of their resurrection because that is what it is. Who is He? He is the Prince of the Kings
of the Earth. That is how He is described.
This is the result of His Resurrection as our substitute. He has been highly exalted and
He dominates. His dominion, it says, is forever
and ever. What does that mean? He dominates
everything and everyone, the entire universe. He dominates
and He lords over it expressly, over salvation. and welfare of
the elect. He is the author and finisher
of faith. If you have faith, He's the author
of it. You're not. And if your faith
lasts until the end of time, you'll find that He's been the
finisher of it. He's the one who finished it
for you. For He died both and rose and resurrected, it says
in Romans 14 and 9, to be the LORD of the living and the dead. He's the PRINCE of the kings. of the Earth. God has highly
exalted Him and given Him a name above every name, that the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that
He is Lord to the glory of the Father. He is King of kings and
Lord of lords. He has authority over all flesh.
He has authority over your flesh and my flesh. There are no people
who walk upon the Earth who are not under the authority of Christ,
under His mediatory powers. All men do exactly as they are
SUPPOSED to do, they all have a JOB to do, they all have a
PURPOSE to fulfill, and Christ is the AUTHOR of that PURPOSE,
and they WILL DO THEIR JOB! Now, whether it be for the GLORY
of Christ in His SALVATION, or the GLORY of Christ in His WRATH
and VENGEANCE as the WRATH of the LAMB, THEY WILL DO THEIR
JOB! He is the PRINCE of the KINGS
of the EARTH! He's Lord. What does that mean? That's the one true thing I can
tell you that applies to every person that walks upon the face
of this earth. I might tell them that God loves them. I could
be lying, because He doesn't love everyone. Jacob have I loved,
and Esau have I hated? He hateth the workers of iniquity. I might lie to you if I told
you God loves you. I will tell you this, God loves His people. I told you Christ died for you.
I might be lying. He didn't die for everybody.
He died for his sheep. He died for the church. He laid down
his life for the church. But I can tell you this, and this
is true of you, of me, and of everything that writhes and walks
and wriggles upon the face of this planet. Jesus Christ, right
now, is your Lord. You say, well, I don't believe
it. It don't matter. I've not made him Lord, you ain't
made him nothing. He made you. He's the Lord. What does that
mean? He's out of control. He does exactly what he wants
to do. Anytime he wants to do it with whom he wants to do it,
whenever he wants to do it, he's God. He's the King, the Prince
of the Kings of the Earth. He is Lord, and not in the sense
that He is an available pool of blessing and power, as religion
likes to put it, to be gained by invoking His name. If you
say the name of Jesus, you'll get stuff you won't. He is Lord
in control and out of control of all humanity, and of all humanity
does as He pleases, when He pleases, with whom He pleases, and no
one can halt or discourage, effect the fulfillment of His ordained
purpose. He's the Prince of the Kings of the Earth. That's who
he is. He's not this namby-pamby nobody
who wants to save you but can't, whose hands are tied, who's setting
up on the bars of heaven wringing his hands because you won't let
him do what he wants to do for you. He's King of Lords. He's
doing exactly for you and to you exactly what he intends to. You say, well, I believe I work
on my own will. Go ahead. Will all you want to.
you will find in the end that even if you exercise your will
to be a murderous, rapist pig, you'll find that your job in
this world was to be a murderous, rapist pig. Yes, you will. He's the Lord. You're not. Why
did He come to this earth? John gives the simplest and sweetest
of all explanations. He said, He loved us. He's talking
to the children of God. He loved us. Men may speak of
universal love, but they neither practice it nor believe it. They
use it as a manner of cloaking their own perverted love of self.
Man without Christ is his own universe. We talk about children
being egocentric. I invite you to turn to some
political channel on TV and listen to the people that are running
this world. It ain't about us. It's about
them. Man is ego and egocentric and
ethnocentric and he to himself is the sum and substance. He's
the sun in his own galaxy. Universal love is the impotent
placebo administered by the timorous preachers who are physicians
of no value. John declares to the church,
he loved us and gave himself for us. That's what happens when
you love someone, you give yourself for them. It ain't no 50-50 thing
in love. If you think that, you don't
know nothing about love. You're in love with yourself.
If I love you, if you love me, that's if you're in love with
self. If you love somebody, you'll do whatever's necessary for their
welfare. Because you love them, you can't help yourself. God
loved us. Loved us. With these words, the
salvation of the elect is sure, whom He loves, He says, that's
what He said, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore,
with the cords of love, I have drawn thee. God has blessed us,
says Scripture. He has shed His love abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost. Galatians 20, 220, He loved us
and gave Himself for us. 1 John 3, 16 through 18, here in His love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us. And He sent His Son, the propitiation
for our sin. In 1 John chapter 3, you're familiar
with this because I've preached from it probably 20 or 30 times. In 1 John chapter 3, verse 16
says, Hereby perceive we the love of God. You want to understand
the love of God? Is it some mealy-mouthed, unrequited
affection that can't get anything done? He loves you, bless his
little old pea-picking heart up there in heaven, can't get
anything done, but He loves you. Hereby perceive we the love of
God. Because He laid down His life
for us, there you go. And we ought to lay down our
life for our brethren if we love them. What does that mean? You ought to commit suicide to
show our love? No. You ought to become a martyr to show our
love? No. What does it mean? If they're in trouble, and their
life is at stake, we give our lives for them. That's what that
means. And just in case you don't understand
what he's talking about, he says, But whosoever hath 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? Say you love God and you won't take care of your brothers
and sisters in Christ? Come on! Now, little children, let us
not love in word. Oh, it's okay to say, I love
you. I tell Miss James I love her, I don't know how many times
a day, but I do. I love her and I want her to
know that. But those are words, neither in tongue, but in deed
and in truth. That's what love does. It does
the deed for the loved one. John said, He loved us. I'd say
if I've been loved by God, I'm in good shape. I got no worries. Everything's going to be all
right. Why did He come? He loved us. Such knowledge and
light of our unworthiness sets our hearts and tongues to praise
and praise and thanksgiving. He loved us. God loved us and
gave Himself for us. What did He do? John says, He
washed us from our sins in His own blood. You come on in. 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.
It speaks of the divine torrent that destroys everything sinful
in its path. Christ, by His precious blood,
the precious blood of the Lamb, has propitiated God, satisfied
God, for our sin has cleansed us from every spot, it says,
and every wrinkle and every such thing. He has justified us, and
He has made us unblameable and unreprovable in His sight, in
God's sight. Now, you can blame me and reprove
me and be right 99.9% of the time. You can't say enough bad things
about me, because when you do, I'm going to say you don't know
half the story. I'm a vile creature, saved by
grace. Saved by grace. The word also
means loosed, washed us, loosed us. By His precious blood, He
has loosed us, set us free from the dominion and guilt of our
sins. We no longer have to answer to our former sovereign, which
was sin. Don't think you ever run your show. Everybody's going
to serve somebody. That's what Bob Dylan said. And
you were born a servant of sin. If you were a servant of sin,
the sin was your sovereign until a greater than him set you free. Christ having bound the strong
man and taken his spoils, said, Loose him and let him go. That's
what he said. So Lazarus, come forth. take him away, burial clothes
off him, loose him and let him go. That's what every true preacher
of the gospel does. He doesn't say to his people,
you must do this, you must do that, you must do this in order
for this to happen. He says to the believer, you're
loose. Do as you please. Do what you
want to do. I'm not worried about the child
of God. I ain't going to give rules and regulations to try
to keep him in line. If God does not keep him in line, he is not
going to be kept in line. It is that simple. But if He has Christ in Him,
His line is set. His line is set. He washed us
from our sins in His own blood. What did He do? He made us kings
and priests unto God and His Father. Now the world looks at
this rag-tag bunch, this remnant this piece of sorry cloth in
this world called the Church, says there ain't nothing to them.
And if they speak about our natural abilities and worth, that's true. But before God, and in God's
economy, who are the kings of this world? Who are the priests
of this world? It ain't some joker that went
to Catholic theology school. who can sit in some booth and
offer you absolution by saying a few things and rubbing a few
beads. Who are the kings and priests of this world? Every
believer is a king, and every believer is a priest. You are
robed in royal finery, you kings of Cherokee, even the righteousness
of Christ You wear the crown and the crown of righteousness
on your head, the crown of life. You dine at the king's table.
You should subsist on the treasury of the sufficient grace and your
attendants, your household staff, are the angels of heaven who
attend your every need. Soon your blessed Lord will return
and gather you to Himself and He will set you as the kings
you are. You are already seated in heavenly
places in Christ where the King of kings and Prince of Kings
resides. He has made us priests. What
does that mean? The churches, all the body of
the church are priests. They're priests. What need have
they of some earthly priest? We by our high priest have access
to God. That's what a priest has, access
to God. We by our high priest offer acceptable gifts unto God.
a royal priesthood, a holy nation who by Christ offer acceptable
gifts to God. What is that? Worship, praise,
thanksgiving. What has He done? He's made us
kings and priests. Kings and priests unto our God.
Where is He now? He's in glory. Having earned
the right to occupy the throne of dominion, as a man. He is God, God incarnate, God
in human flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory as the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. He is that remarkable, controversial
thing God manifests in the flesh. He is a man in glory, and He
is our friend, our closest friend, our elder brother, our and he
loves us. And there he sits, the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, in resplendent respite, till
every enemy has made his footstool. He's an old lion, and who shall
rouse him up? Well, we get a whole lot of people
together to pray and hold hands. We get prayer warriors in here,
we'll get something done. He's an old lion. He's finished
his work. He sat upon his prey and bruised
his head real bad. He's had his dinner, and now
he's resting, and you ain't gonna stir 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 when he said he gave up the ghost. to him be glory
and dominion forever and ever, amen. That's the language of
scripture, to him, to the Lord Jesus Christ be glory forever
and ever, amen. In first Timothy chapter six, verse fourteen says, that thou
keep his commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the
appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his time shall
show who is the blessed and only potentate." I like that. There are some words that just
roll off your tongue real nice, and that's one of them. Potentate. The root word of that is potent. The root word of our condition
is impotent. and not important, impotent,
or impotent. He's the only potentate. He's
the King of kings and Lord of lords. Who alone hath immortality,
dwelling in the light which no man can approach, whom no man
has seen or can see, to whom be honor and power and everlasting
glory. Amen. Verse 24 and 25, I used to end
the conference with this every year. Now unto Him that is able
to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless, before
the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise
God, our Savior, be glory, and majesty, and dominion, and power,
both now and forever. Why did He come? What did He
do? Where is He now? Father, bless
this understanding. I pray in Christ's name, Amen. I can't help it. Yeah. Yeah.