Well, it's good to see you all
out this morning. I remember those who requested prayer. I just
heard that Patsy Ledford's not doing that well. She had to go
to the hospital last night, so I remember her. I continue to
remember the family of Aniah Sampson, the family of Ruger
Arch, Cindy West's family, and Jasper Queen's family. These
have been added to the prayer list, so seek the Lord's help
for them. I can't think of any announcements
we have. Let's begin our worship service with hymn number 442,
Praise Him, Praise Him, Jesus, Our Blessed Redeemer. Praise Him, Praise Him, Jesus,
Our Blessed Redeemer. His wonderful love proclaim. Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels
in glory. Strength and honor give to His
holy name. Jesus will guard his children
in his arms. He carries him all day long. Praise him. Praise him. Tell of his excellent greatness. Praise him. Praise him. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and
bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal
salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the
Lord. His praises, Jesus who bore our
sorrows, love unbounded, wonderful, deep, and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joy Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Heav'nly portals loud with hosannas
ring. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever
and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, prophet
and preacher. over the world victorious, power
and glory unto the Lord belong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful After scripture reading and prayer,
we're going to see hymn number 185. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to
the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 22, the last chapter
of the book of the Bible. We're going to read one verse
of scripture. The title of my message this morning is His Wonderful
Names. Revelation 22 and verse 16. Our Lord says, I, Jesus, sent
mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.
I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning
star. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
we bless you and thank you for your word, which is a lamp unto
our feet, a light unto our path, the entrance of which gives understanding
to the simple. We thank you, Father, that Your
word sets forth the glories of the person and the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ from Genesis to Revelation. We're thankful
that we can look in this book and see the mysteries unfold,
the joy of it, the wonder of it. Father, we thank you for
the salvation wrought by Jesus Christ for your people, that
perfect offering made unto you, whereby he perfected forever
them that are sanctified, whereas it written you written you wrote
their law your laws and their hearts and minds and your their
sins and iniquities you will remember no more because remission
is made there is no more offering for sin we are thankful father
for the full and complete salvation wrought accomplished and applied by the father son and spirit
to everyone for whom Christ died We pray, Father, this day that
you'd be pleased to meet with us in the presence of your spirit,
to take the things of Christ and reveal them unto us. We are
indeed thankful that we can come into your throne boldly to make
our petitions known. We know that you know what we
ought to pray before we pray it, before the words are upon
our tongue. We pray, Lord, your help for us. We pray for those
who are sick. I pray especially for Patsy Ledford.
She's struggling with this sickness. We ask, Lord, you'd be with her,
be with those families that have lost loved ones. Pray for our
shut-ins. We ask, Lord, you'd be with them,
strengthen them. Help us now, Lord, to worship
you in song and through the preaching of the gospel. Bow your people
down before you. Shut our mouths and open our
hearts. Cause us, Lord, to see who's
altogether worthy, altogether lovely. Indeed, the root of David
and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star. We thank you, Father. Such description
is given to us. It enlightens our heart and makes
us full of joy. Help us now, we pray in Christ's
name. Hymn number 185, Glorious Things
of Thee are Spoken. ? Glorious things of thee are spoken
? ? Cyan city of our God ? ? Thee whose word cannot be broken ?
? Form Thee for His own abode ? ? On the rock of ages founded
? ? What can shake Thy sure repose ? ? With salvation's walls surrounded
? ? Thou mayst smile at all Thy foes ? See the streams of living
waters, springing from eternal love. Well supply thy sons and
daughters, and all fear of want remove. Who can faint such a
ring? ? But close their thirst to swage
? ? Grace which like the Lord the giver ? ? Never fails from
age to age ? ? Round each habitation hovering ? ? See the cloud and
fire appear ? ? A glory and a covering ? Showing that the Lord is near
? Glorious things of Thee are spoken ? Zion, city of our God
? Thee whose word cannot be broken for me, for his own abode. Let's pray. Father, again we approach in
the name of Jesus Christ, our great King, our King of kings
and Lord of lords, who rules with absolute sway in this universe,
moving and manipulating all his creatures to do exactly as he
has pleased for it to be done. We thank you that you have given
him to your people the unspeakable gift and will he freely with
him given us all things. Let us return to thee that which
you've given to us and let us do so with joy. We pray in Christ's
name. Amen. You. I invite your attention back
to Revelation 22. Revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ is a book of great interest to most people. Many people look
at it only for it's what they believe to be eschatological,
the doctrine of the last days. And they like to look at the
different beasts with the different horns and the different countries
and try to figure out what's happening when all they really
need to do is what the Lord is doing, is read the newspaper
and whatever's happening, that's what was done that day in His
sovereign purpose. The book of Revelation is a letter
written by John on the Isle of Patamos. He was in exile for
preaching the gospel. He wrote it to seven churches
in Asia Minor. And the book of Revelation is
that. The word Revelation is Apocalypse
in the original, and it means this is Jesus Christ revealed. That's what it's about. It's
the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ to these seven churches.
Now, why were these things set forth? Because these seven churches
represent THE church in the world, the Lord's church. And these
seven things are trials and tribulations that they will most surely face
in the days that were at present when this book was written and
the days to come. And this is a story of Jesus
Christ supporting and sustaining and keeping His Church throughout
every trial and tribulation to the glory of the Father. And
the central theme is the theme that is seen throughout scripture
from Genesis to Revelation, that is, the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, the Lamb upon the throne, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the perfect sacrifice in the salvation of His elect and the
destruction of all who oppose Him. That principle is set forth.
In fact, there is no salvation This is not some offering, something
on the commodity shelf of religious things that you can go and pluck.
Salvation means something. It means somebody is delivered
from a situation in which they cannot deliver themselves. That's
what salvation is. I know religion has brought it
down to almost nothing for you to walk down an aisle or to say
a sinner's prayer or some foolish notion like that. But if you've
ever been lost, you know what a wonder it is to be saved! There
are two kinds of lost in Scripture. There are those who are lost
and don't know it. They will walk through this world
being lost, happy as a hog in mud, and having no interest whatsoever
in God, and then there are those who are lost whom God has graciously
made to know it. And when they know it, they cry
for mercy and cry for help. Remember the story Scott Richardson
told many years ago of going hunting. I think it was bear
hunting maybe or deer hunting. They went hunting and they went
out to the woods of West Virginia. And West Virginia is kind of
like Cherokee, kind of like the mountains of Smoky Mountain,
North Carolina. The valleys are a lot more narrow. They call
them hollers up there and the mountains shoot straight up in
the air. They went deer hunting, three or four guys. They weren't
people who hunted in deer stands. They went stalking. They went
out stalking. And they separated and went their
different ways. Scott said him and the other
three guys met up and they were talking. They heard something.
There was one guy that wasn't with them. They heard something
way off in the distance. Just a sound, sounded like a cry.
Da da da, da da da, da da da. What in the heck was that? So
they started moving toward the sound and they got to the, to
where the sound was coming from. It was the fourth person. He
had got lost. He had got lost and he was crying,
where's the car? Where's the car? He was scared
to death, he was gonna die. He knew he was lost, what'd he
do? He cried for help. If a person's not crying for
help, they don't know they're lost. They don't know they're
lost. Because if you ever get lost,
you will cry for help. And the one you'll cry for help
from is this one right here, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is
the book of His revelation, His story. And here in the last chapter
of this book, we have Him speaking to the church. And he says in
verse 16, I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you
the things in the churches, not the things that's going to happen,
the things in the churches that are happening at this time. I
am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning
star. In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. is the key of knowledge to His
people. We pray in that name. We bow
and worship in that name. We preach in that name. Our God
has declared that there is no other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. These names, many of which
are titles from a catalog of confidence, comfort, and consolation
to the believer. He has titles, and these titles
that he has earned and has been given are a supreme source of
assurance to his people. They are all titles that belong
to one who has done something, one who has accomplished something
or accomplished that which is necessary to merit being given
that title. If he did not accomplish what
was necessary to attain that title, he cannot wear that title
rightfully. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
given these titles in hope of accomplishment. They are descriptive
titles declaring that what He has done and who He is is worthy
of our attention. He is the Savior. Now, what does
that mean? If that is the title, that means
He has accomplished something that causes him to merit that
title. He is not a Savior of unsaved
men. He is a Savior because He has
saved His people from their sins. So He has earned the right to
wear that title. He bears that title because He
saved His people. He is LORD He is the Lord, Lord
Jehovah, Jehovah the Sovereign Lord. He rules over all. Now,
He is Lord intrinsically because He is God. He's always been Lord. People don't make Him Lord. I
know people like to talk silliness like that. Won't you make Jesus
your Lord? He's already your Lord. You just
might not know it. You might not know that you are
being manipulated and moved and pushed and shoved and gathered
and driven into the corral like doggies by God Almighty, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's Lord. How did he earn that? He earned the right as a human
being, God manifesting in flesh, to be the Lord over all. Romans 14 9 says, For to this
end he died, rose, and revived, that he might be the Lord of
the living and of the dead. Somebody says that means spiritually
dead or actually dead. It means both. He's the Lord. Now, I might lie to you, as some
preachers do, and tell you God loves you. He don't love everybody.
Scripture says He hates the workers of iniquity. Scripture says,
Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. Now, He might love
you. I don't know. But I know this, if He loves
you, you're going to be saved. Because everybody He loves, He
saves. He makes that clear in 1 John 3, verses 16 through 18. I may tell you that Christ died
for you, but I might not be telling you the truth. Cause he didn't
die for everybody, he laid down, he said, I laid down my life
for my sheep. My father's given me the power
to do this. Who are his sheep? They are those who hear his voice
and follow him. Not all are his sheep, for he
says that word to some folks, the verse before that, he says,
you don't believe me because you're not of my sheep. My sheep
hear my voice and they follow me. He's Lord. And that's the
truth. Now that's true of every one
of you today. You may not be a recipient of God's grace in
salvation. You may perish in your sins.
But I'm telling you this, you're going to perish at the hand of
the Lord. At the hand of the Lord. Every knee
shall bow and every tongue confess that He's Lord to the glory of
the Father. He is Lord over all. And He said He wears the title
of Redeemer. Redeemer. He wears that title
because He has redeemed His people by His blood. That's what the
Scripture says. There is no application of any
of the adjectives of possibility or probability ever attached
to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in salvation and redemption.
Nowhere in Scripture Are those terms used in reference
to Him? Nowhere in Scripture is Christ said to be an offering
to anyone but God the Father. Nowhere in Scripture. Every title,
every name is designed to bring the child of God to His knees
in thanksgiving and praise for what God has done and full assurance
of faith and hope and knowledge because of He who did the work. In this last chapter of the last
book of the Bible, the final glorious revelation of our Lord,
as the great conqueror, our magnificent hero, he speaks and he describes
himself in four ways or by four names in this passage. These
are words to the churches, testified by his angel, and the gravity
of the words that have been thus far testified are backed up by
the authority of this blessed description. Though our Lord
has described himself as Alpha and Omega, the First and the
Last, the Beginning and the End, the Firstborn from the Dead,
the Slain Lamb of God, the Almighty, the King of Kings, the Word of
God, the Lord God Omnipotent, the King of Kings, Emmanuel,
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Messenger of the Covenant, and many other titles. He now,
at the end of the story, reveals himself by these names. As the
rest of his book is designed to do, these names are a comfort
to his people who are shown time and time again that no matter
how hard the situation, no matter how great the trial, their Lord
is conqueror, conquering now and still to conquer. He first
reveals himself in the name of his humiliation. We don't know. We cannot imagine
what it was. For Jesus Christ, who is the
Creator, the Sustainer, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
all, to lay aside his glory, leave the ever-present praise
of the six-winged beast singing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts, and come down to this world and dwell among the wretched
masses of humanity. What condescension we can never
imagine! He knew no sin. He walked through
this earth all his life and never once did anything wrong. Never. His name of humiliation, Jesus. I, Jesus. That binds him to his
people and his people to him as bone of his bone and flesh
of his flesh. Though he is exalted above measure
and speaks as the king all glorious, he speaks as I, Jesus. What this
means to the believer is full of glory and excites praise and
thanksgiving. For when he was born into this
world, the angel told Joseph to give him a name. It was an
Old Testament name translated into the Greek language. The
Old Testament name was Joshua. The New Testament Greek translation
of the name Joshua is Jesus. Also, call his name Jesus. Why in the world would you call
him Jesus? Why not call him Zachariah or
Isaiah or some Abraham maybe, some biblical, strong biblical? Well, Joshua's in the Bible,
you know, it's a whole book. And it's about the redemption
of the salvation of the people. Actually taking the people from
the wilderness to the promised land was the job of Joshua. I, Jesus, thou shalt name him
Jesus, call his name Jesus, because he shall save his people from
their sin. That's why you call him that.
Not that he's going to try or make it possible. He's actually
going to save his people from their sins. That's Matthew 121.
And that verse teaches us four things. When our Savior was named
as a child, as a baby, as just proceeding out of the mother's
womb, He already had a people. Thou shalt save thy people. He
was given that name because He had a people. They also travel
under many titles, these people, the church, bride, the sheep,
the children given to Him, the many sons that He's going to
bring to glory, His beloved, His children, His elect, His
chosen, His saints, His severed, many names they go under. For
they are they who are given to Him in electing grace before
the world began. Our Lord prayed in John chapter
17 just before He went to the cross. He lifted His eyes and
spoke to the Lord. He said, Thou hast given Me authority
over all flesh that I might give eternal life to as many as Thou
hast given Me. as many as thou hast given me.
He came into this world, entered into humanity for this beloved
elected people. This is the second thing taught.
He came to save His people and no one else. He came to save
His people. He did not come to provide or
make salvation possible for all men. He came to save His people. That's the language. And the
times when those who opposed him and didn't believe him, it
didn't bother him whatsoever. There were those in John chapter
6 who said, We don't believe you. He said, I know you don't
believe me, but all that the Father giveth me shall come to
me. And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out, for
I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will
of him that sent me. And this is my Father's will,
which has sent me, that all he's given me I should lose nothing,
but raise it up again in the last day. Raise it up again in
the last day. The third thing taught in Matthew
1.21 is that He came to save His people from their sins. From
their sins. To put away their sins by the
sacrifice of Himself. He came because God had given
Him a people before He was even born. God had given the Son of
people. He came for those people. He
came to save those people. He saved those people. he saved
them from their sins he was numbered with the transgressors it says
in isaiah 53 and he bore the sins of many he bore the sins
of many and he made intercession for the transgressors bore the
sins of many the fourth thing is this he saved his people he
saved all of them he saved all of them No one for whom Christ
died will ever face judgment because he bore the judgment
of God for his people. That's what happened when he
made himself an offering for sin. God poured out his wrath
upon the Lord Jesus Christ, punished the sins of his people in the
Lord Jesus Christ. and therefore they will never
be punished. They will never stand before
the judgment of God. When the books are opened in
the Revelation, verse 20, the books are opened that charge
men with sin, the people of God aren't in that book, they're
in another book, Ziso, and he opened another book. And what's
the names in those books? The names in those books are
those in the Lamb's Book of Life, those whose names were written
in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world.
Those who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world. You know what's gonna happen?
We used to sing a song, when the roll is called up yonder,
I'll be there, you know? Well, if you're His, you will
be there. And that's what that book is.
It's not a book about all the things you've done and rehearsed
in your life. Those things, God has forgotten those things. He
remembers them no more. What is it? It's a roll call. Some books are going to be open
and men are going to be judged for their sins and put into everlasting
punishment. But then God opens this other
book and says, Jim Poe, here, present, and accounted for. He saved his people. No one for whom the price of
sin was paid shall ever have to pay it. The old poet said
judgment cannot twice demand payment at my bleeding surety's
hand and then again at mine. Then again at mine. The second
name he describes himself is the Root of David. This declares
his pre-existence, his pre-eminence, and his eternal deity. He is
not the product of David. He is the cause of David's life
and existence and exaltation. David is in glory because the
Lord saved him and fit him for heaven. The king of kings is
the kingmaker, and though David carries the weight of the greatest
of earthly kings, his regal estate is exactly the same as every
other sinner saved by grace. David was a sinner. David was
a sinner. God saved him by his grace. He'll
be among those, the kings around the throne, who will sing, worthy
is the lamb that was slain, that has redeemed us by his blood
out of every kindred, nation, tongue, and people, and made
us kings and priests under our God. He'll be among those. Christ is the root of David.
Our Lord is the first cause of all that is. He's the root of
everything. He is the true King, the King of creation, providence,
and salvation. He is the King because He is
God. 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. And that one is the light of
the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Colossians chapter 2 and verse
9 it says, in him that is in Christ dwelleth the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in him.
The third description he gives of himself declares his absolute
uniqueness in this world. He is David's Lord and he is
David's son. He is son of man and son of God.
He tripped up the Pharisees that had in Matthew chapter 22. They
were asking him questions about who's a woman married to after
all the brothers dies, you know, who's her husband in heaven.
He said, I don't know marriage in heaven. That ain't there. He said, let me
ask you a question. David, is the Messiah David's son or
David's Lord? And they scratched their heads
and said, well, we don't know. Well, Psalm 110 says that the
Lord said to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, or I'll make
of thy enemies thy footstool. They knew that Jesus Christ was
David's Lord and David's son. He was deity and humanity unified. This is a great mystery and perceivable
only by God-given faith. Don't ask me to explain this
because I can't explain it. It's a wonder to me. God, whose
spirit became man and walked upon this earth and died in the
room instead of his people. Don't ask me to figure that out.
I can't figure it out. But I'll tell you what, God has given
me faith to believe it, to rest in it, to trust it. That's what
this is. God giving his people faith.
He is the offspring of David. He is David's Lord and David's
son, the root of David and the offspring of David. I Timothy 3.16 says, Great is
the mystery of godliness. God manifests in the flesh. God
manifests in the flesh. This description signifies Christ
as the legal heir of the throne of David, declaring Him to be
the Messiah. That is what Paul said in Romans
chapter 1. When he talked about the gospel, he sets forth a parenthetical
expression here, but he also, in verses 2 through 4, or verse
2, but he says in Romans chapter 1 and verse 1, Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the
gospel of God, which he had promised before by his prophets in the
Holy Scriptures. That's the parenthetical expression. This gospel is concerning
his son. Jesus Christ, our Lord, which
is made of the seed of David, according to the flesh, and declared
to be the Son of God, with power, according to the Spirit of holiness,
by the resurrection from the dead, David's Son, David's Lord,
the root of David, and the offspring of David. The Gospel declares
that Christ fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies. They were
all about Him. You see, you read the Old Testament,
And I love the Old Testament. Most of the commentaries I've
done and studies I've done have been for the Old Testament because
I love the Old Testament. Why? Because this is what Christ
had. And this is what the apostles had. This is what the disciples
had. And this is what the early church had. This is what the
church had until 50 A.D. when the first epistle was written
by Paul. 50 years, some 12 to 13 years
after our Lord went to glory, the first epistle was written,
and all they had to preach Christ and Him crucified wherever they
went was the Old Testament. That's the beauty of it. This
is Christ. This is the book of God. He fulfilled
the Old Testament prophecies. Our Lord looked at folks who
studied this book, who wrote this book down, who scribed this
book, men who wore this book on their robes. They wore these
things called phylacteries that were little boxes with Bible
verses in them, and they had memorized them, and they were
religious folks. They wore robes that hung down
to the ground, had blue ribbons around them, and the blue ribbons
signified how close they were to God, how close they were to
heaven. And what happened was the ones who got closer made
their ribbons bigger, and I expect some of them had blue all the
way up to their waist, you know, because they was really holy people.
Our Lord looked at these people, these holy people, these people
that lived a righteous, humanly righteous existence, so much
so that our Lord said, except your righteousness exceed the
righteousness of the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter heaven.
But that is not a commendation of the righteousness, it's a
condemnation of it. It's not enough. But they were
righteous, and they loved the Bible. We liked the Bible. I
read the Bible 22 times, a lady told me one time. 22 times! My
goodness, that's too many. How about one time? Take your
time. I forgot my transformer. That
happens to old people here and other things. It's sad. We may
have to come back to it, but anyway. This name of the Lord. Oh, the
prophecies, that's where I was. Okay. Our Lord looked at those
men. He says, you do study the scriptures. He didn't take that away from
them. He says, you do study the scriptures. For in them, in studying
them and paying attention to them, you think you have eternal
life. That gives you eternal life because
you like the Bible. I must be a Christian because
I like the Bible. No, you're a Christian if you know Jesus
Christ. You do study the scriptures, for in them you think you find
eternal life, but," he said, but, they, the scriptures, are
they which testify of me. And you won't come to me that
you might have life. Well, they'd come to him for
healing. They'd come to him for advice. They'd come to him for
some water to be turned to wine at a wedding feast. They'd come
to him to do good for them. But for life, which tells us
something about people who don't come to Christ. I know the modern
vernacular says, invite Jesus into your life. Let Him into
your life. Take Him into your life. Listen,
if you don't have Him, you don't have life. You're dead in trespasses
and sins. And let me tell you about your
heart. It's deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. Out
of it flow murders, blasphemies, the evil eye, adulteries, and
all those things that come from the heart. Don't invite Jesus
into that mess. That's vile. It's darker than
a thousand midnights down in a cypress swamp. Don't invite
Jesus into that mess. Won't you have Jesus in your
life? Listen, if you don't have him, you don't have life. And
that's what he said. They do everything religious as dead
men walking. They wouldn't have Christ. I'll
be a good person. Go ahead. I hope you are. I hope
you stay out of the penitentiary all your life. That's not salvation. The gospel declares that Christ
fulfilled the Old Testament prophets concerning the Messiah. He's
come, you see. God and man are uniquely and eternally united
in the person of Jesus Christ. Herein lies our hope. Man sinned,
you see. Adam sinned against God, plunged
the whole human race into death and sin. For man's sin, man's
got to die. Man's got to pay the price. Jesus
Christ took upon himself the likeness of sinful flesh. In
order to satisfy his own justice and accomplish salvation, he
came into this world. Only one person meets that human
divine criteria, the root and offspring of David, Christ alone. Only he is touched with the feeling
of our infirmities and can touch the face of God as our advocate
There is a man in glory. Thank God. There's a man in glory. And that man is God. The final
description of himself here in our text, the final name is the
bright and morning star. I, Jesus, sent my angel to testify
to you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring
of David. I am the bright and morning star. Debbie and I were talking about
the bright and morning star just this morning. She sleeps and
the sun comes over that mountain just when it gets this time of
year and goes right through that little ridge there, that little
valley and hits right in her bedroom window. She says the
sun's coming up at six o'clock now. Next week we go back on
spring forward time and it's gonna come up at five o'clock.
I said, maybe we ought to hang some blankets over your window. Because the sun's going to come
up. That's the bright and morning star. Metaphorically, Jesus Christ
is the bright and morning star. This reveals him as the light
of the world. He is that light that God spoke of in Genesis
chapter 1 when he said, let there be light. That's not the sun,
moon, and stars. That came four days later. He
said, when the world was in darkness, Let there be light. And that
light was Jesus Christ. He is the light of the world. That's how he's described in
John chapter 1. Also in Revelation chapter 21.
The Lamb is the light thereof. It's the light thereof. The bright
and morning star. That's the sun. It ushers in
the day. Prophecy declared him to be the star of Jacob in Numbers
chapter 24. And this description declares
his incarnation. Our Lord, as it were, burst out
of the sky. The angels that declared his
birth were surrounded by what? By what a glorious light shone,
it said. When he came to this world, it
lay in darkness and the bondage of a religious Egyptian knight.
He dispelled that darkness. His appearance was a bright and
morning star coming suddenly into his kingdom. It said in
Malachi chapter 4 and verse 2, he is the sun, S-U-N, of righteousness
arising with healing in his wings. The psalm says, Out of Zion our
God has shined. Our God has shined. In Luke chapter
1 at his birth, in Luke chapter 1 verse 78, it
says, through the tender mercy of our
God, whereby the day spring from on high has visited us. That language is used by Peter
in first Peter when he talks about the glory of the thing
you now hold in your hand in first Peter chapter one and verse
nineteen second Peter, I'm sorry, second
Peter chapter one verse nineteen. He says this, For we have a more
sure word of prophecy. Now what he's talking about is
what he has, and it's this, is a more sure word of prophecy
than him standing on the Mount of Transfiguration and actually
seeing the Lord transfigured and his robe shining whiter than
any fuller could make it, his robe brighter than the noonday
sun. He saw two men representing the law and the prophets, Moses
and Elijah, travel across the space-time continuum and land
at the feet of Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration
and talk to him about the decease which he should accomplish at
Jerusalem. He saw that. Man, if I'd seen that, I'd have
been a believer. That don't make you a believer. What you see
don't make you a believer. If you could see it, you can't believe
in it because it's going to go away. He said, we saw that, I seen
it. He said, I ain't telling you no fables. I seen it with
my own eyes. He said, but we have a more sure
word of prophecy. More sure than seeing with your eyes. Yeah.
A more sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do well to take
heed as a light that shineth in a dark place until the day
dawn and the day star arise in your heart. A day star. God, who has commanded 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 is the light disclosed.
As the light disclosed what we were and who he is, that brought
life and immortality to light. The description also speaks of
his glorious return In Revelation 2, 28, He said
He'll give His children the morning star. 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 bright and morning star,
our Revelator, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen. All right.