Revelations of God - Part 3 — David Adams

I don't know whether to preach on Jonah or Peter, but I think I'll stick to the book of the Bible. For those of you who are here in chapter one, but nevertheless we shall see. There from someone, he said, you needn't say that after the nights that are past.

We know what you will do. Well, that's what my wife tells me all the time. It's very difficult to live with people that know ahead of time what you're going to do. Last evening we were looking down at the salutation beginning in verse four, which consists of a trilogy.

The Trilogy of Grace and Peace in Revelation's Salutation

The first one is, Grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which was, which is to come. That's the first part of it. The second part of it is from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth.

And then the middle section of that trilogy is from the seven spirits, which are before his throne. And then perhaps you notice that within the trilogy there are two trilogies. The first one we looked at briefly, from him which is and which was and which is to come.

And then the second one is from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first point, the second, the first begotten of the dead, and the third point, the prince of the kings of the earth. And then I did what was, I don't know what you call it, poetical license or expositional license or whatever, I jumped down to verse 7, partly at any rate, but I want to come back tonight to the rest of verse 5 and on through verse 6.

So, the doxology following that trilogy of the salutation. Unto him that loved us, that's the middle of verse 5 as you will see, 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.

Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him, even so, Amen. Another trilogy in verse 7. Now, going back to the doxology, unto him that loved us.

Some of your versions will have the tense of this participle changed, and you will be reading, unto him that loveth us, or that loves us. I think the NIV does that. Someone informed me recently that there's the New Irish Version.

I thought it was the New International Version, but I was informed otherwise. You're always learning, you know. By the way, someone wanted to know what happened, or what I did for my Jewish visitor that was intrigued and somewhat confused by the spakes and the spokes, do you recall?

Well, I'm not necessarily an enthusiastic supporter of the NIV, though I use it for reference purposes, but I decided that the best way to solve that problem was to send him away with the New Testament in the NIV, which I did, so he got rid of all his spakes and spokes.

The Everlasting Love of Christ

Now, unto him that loved us. If you wish to leave it as the Textus Receptus does, then it is perfectly correct. He did love us. If you wish to take it with the Westcott and Hort text, then it's to him that loveth us, and it is the present continuous tense.

The first thing that we read about the Master here in the doxology is that he loved. Loves never will love us. That's the thing that thrills the heart of the Christian. This is what produces the doxology.

This is what brings out our songs of praise and thanksgiving, especially when we consider his majesty, the glory of his person. We were noticing a little bit last night. This is the one who created all things, who was the beginning and who is the ending.

This is the one out of whom, through whom, and unto whom is everything. This is he who loves us. As Jeremiah says in the thirty-first chapter, God spoke to Israel and said, I have loved you with an everlasting love.

How marvelous to know that there is nothing which changes the love of the changeless one. The Christ who showed constantly that inimitable and indisputable love of his is the one who loves us still. We've been hearing in the songs from our brother this evening about the constancy of his love, the faithfulness of his care, the profundity of his interest, and how he still always does and will love us.

There are things at times which cross our pathway which tend to obscure the reality of this conviction, and while clouds come and clouds go, and doubts arise at times within us, nothing changes God's affections.

Nothing changes the love of the Master, for God is love. And if there were a million demons set against us, and if there had been and could possibly be a million of the covering cherubim who had fallen, it would never change who God is.

He could never be anything but who he is, and God is love. We know by the emergencies, the exigencies, the vicissitudes, the problems, the trials, the dangers that beset the pathway of the Master, all the things that were against him at times in his weakness never could change who he was.

Nothing ever can or ever will change who he is, for he is the one who loves us. That love, while, as I say, at times we doubt it, we don't feel its warmth, we don't feel its power, because other things come and affect our appreciation of that love, that love will be our glorious constant experience for all the ages to come.

Then with nothing to hinder it, nothing to bar it, nothing to impede it, the love of our Lord will flood our hearts forever. He is the one who loves us. And then he goes on to say, he washed us, and your version probably says, if you have another, he loosed us, or he freed us from our sins in his own blood.

Cleansing from Sin Through Christ's Blood

Well, regardless of which you wish to choose, both are certainly correct, for he did wash us. We have that cleansing brought out, if you remember, in the first chapter of John's first epistle. We have it given to us in a two-fold manner, chapter 1, verse 7, and chapter 1, verse 9.

For he has cleansed us, he has washed us from the defilement. Sin is a defiling thing, whether it be mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, sin defiles. It leaves its stamp, it's impressed upon us constantly.

Because, as Paul said, I am carnal, sold under sin, we are assailed by it day by day, and it has a defiling effect upon us. How sometimes we are startled to discover just exactly what it means to have sin within us, for in us is sin.

That defilement, thank God, has been forever satisfied by the penancing efficacy of the Savior's blood. John says, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.

That's verse 7, isn't it, of 1 John 1. And then he goes on to say in verse 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. For if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, I judge that these two passages in the first chapter of John are not the same, they're not synonymous.

The cleansing isn't the same, because it seems to me that the first time he says, we would like you to have fellowship with us, because our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ, and this is the one who says God is light.

Now, if we walk in light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. I don't believe, my brethren, that this is a conditional conduct that he's talking about.

If I walk in the light, do you mean today, or do you mean tomorrow? Or if something happens to me, some dark thought crosses my mind, and then I feel myself suddenly surrounded by darkness, now, is that what he's speaking about?

If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. Is he talking about living in the light? May I suggest to you that he's talking about being in the light.

It is the kingdom of light. God is light, and this is his kingdom, and if we are his, we are in that kingdom of light, and we are retained and kept in that kingdom of light, because the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us constantly from all sin, and it is not possible for us to step out of this light into the darkness.

God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all, and he has brought us into his kingdom. He has brought us into the light of his grace, the light of his favor, the light of reconciliation. We are in the light.

Because we are in the light, we are constantly kept in the light, with no fear of falling out of the light, because of the constant efficacy and cleansing power of the blood of Christ. That's what keeps us in the light.

But then, when you go down to verse 8, he says, If we say we have no sin or have not sin, we deceive ourselves, but if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Now, I consider that these are two distinct things.

If we walk in the light, that's the kingdom to which we belong, and if we are in that kingdom, we are in the light, and we have fellowship with God and his Son, Jesus Christ. We are kept in that fellowship and in that light because of the retaining power of the blood of Christ.

But, in our daily walk and experience, there are times when we do sin, we fall into sin, we commit sin, even at times willfully, and he says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us.

But, this isn't cleansing for admittance into the kingdom of light, this is the cleansing, the daily need for cleansing, because we are so often guilty of sin. We confess those sins, and then we have this fellowship renewed or enjoyed, but we have not been taken out of the light.

We have not been taken out of the kingdom, for we are in that kingdom of light. We shall always be in that kingdom of light due to the power, the cleansing power of the blood of Christ. But, then our joy is affected, isn't it?

And the light is gone from our hearts and our spirits, and we walk in darkness, we walk in gloom, and we walk seemingly separated from the Lord because of sin. We confess our sins, and he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So, he says here, to him who loved us and he washed us from our sins in his own blood, and if you prefer to use the word freed or loosed us, as some texts read, then it is equally true, because sin that only defiles, it enslaves, it binds, and he has loosed us.

Freedom from Sin and Bondage to Righteousness

Isn't that the theme of Romans chapter 6? You were the slaves of sin, and three times over in Romans 6, Paul speaks about having been freed from sin, and he says that stirring word, that encouraging word, that dogmatic statement, sin shall not have dominion over you, because you have been freed from its enslaving power.

It cannot hold you, it does not have the power and the control to hold you, because we've been made free from it, and having been freed from sin, we've become the bond-slaves to righteousness. So, it is equally true, if we wish to read the passage that way.

Not only has he cleansed us, not only has he loved us, not only has he cleansed us, but he has freed us, he has loosed us as well, he has set us at liberty. And then he goes on to say, after that, he has made us.

He didn't wash us and leave us, he didn't love us and leave us, he didn't loose us and leave us, he loved us, he cleansed us, and he made us. For his work, as he himself says, his work is complete. And what has he made us?

Kings and Priests Unto God

Kings and priests, unto God and his Father. I wish to consider this with you for a few moments. He has made us, not only has he loved us and loves us still, not only has he cleansed us and continually cleanses us, not only has he liberated us and constantly frees us from the entrapment and the power of sin, but he has made us.

Now, this is determinative, this is definitive, this is something that is done, it is completed. He has made us kings and priests. Quite simply, I think my text reads, he has made us a kingdom, priests unto God and his Father.

It matters not how you wish to take it, the thought is the same, and I think we could prove from the subsequent chapters of the book of the Revelation that you may read it kings and priests, unto God and his Father.

The dual office of the king-priest, as you know, belongs specifically and initially to the Lord himself. Zechariah tells us about these two offices. He shows us the lampstand and he shows us the two olive trees, one on either side, pouring out their oil into the lamp so that the light of the testimony might be well balanced.

And he says on the one hand you have Joshua the high priest and on the other hand, represented by the olive tree, the other olive tree you have Zerubbabel the civil governor. And it is required of these two that the testimony be balanced, and that was Israel's failure, and that's often our failure too, isn't it?

Because we sometimes are all one-sided with priestly service and no governance. So we have Joshua the high priest on this side, but we've forgotten we have Zerubbabel the high priest, or rather the governor, on the other side.

Or it may be we swing this way and we have one olive tree who is Zerubbabel the governor, the civil governor, the representative of governance. And we either have all government and legislation, or we have all priestly ministry and service.

But that would not be a balanced light. The light of testimony in Israel, as the light of an assembly in our day, must be a balanced light. It must be that which burns evenly, not priestly ministry without government, and not government without priestly ministry.

And isn't that often true about ourselves individually? And you have known people, and I have known people, and they are very impressive when they engage in priestly service in the congregation. The tone of their voice, the attitude of their person as they conduct some kind of ministry, public or otherwise, in priestly service.

And yet, the man can't control his own temper when he's home. He can't control his own spirit. But he can't control his own house. So, it's all the one olive tree without the other. Yes, he sounds very impressive and very spiritual when he engages in that kind of priestly service.

But there is no self-government, which is one of the aspects, as you remember, of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter 5. So, in order for the testimony of an individual to be even, to be balanced, he must have the supply of the light from both sides.

Now, that's what the Lord is giving to us here. And you remember that Zechariah is the one who tells us, too, that the office of the priest and the office of the king is only to be fulfilled in him whose name is the branch.

He is the one who is going to build the temple of the Lord. He is the one who is going to bring peace in, because he is the priestly king. But here's what affects us tonight. He has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father.

Only if you wish it, he has made us a kingdom priest. But you cannot do away with the idea of government and rule when you mention the word kingdom. And though you want to say and put the emphasis on the fact that it's a priestly kingdom, it is a kingdom nevertheless.

When we look at the subsequent passages in the book of the Revelation, we discover that this is not amiss. The text is receptive. When you read, he has made us kings and priests. The kingly office represents government, represents authority, represents rule.

Let's move over in our memories to chapter 2. The Lord, you remember, presents himself in keeping with the description of himself as we have in the last part of chapter 1 to the varied churches in keeping with their condition.

His own presentation of himself is directly commensurate with the internal condition of the church, of the assembly. And have you noticed, too, that when the conditions are poor, when the day is very dark, when declension has set in and lamentable is the state of the church, the promise to the overcomer is also in keeping.

So, you come to the church at Thyatira where Jezebel rules. Remember what the Lord says to him that overcometh and keepeth my works? He said, to him will I give authority over the nations. Now, he's talking to a member of the church, the overcomer in the church at Thyatira, and he says he will give him authority over the nations.

He shall rule them with a rod of iron. So that they shall be broken in pieces, even as I received of my father. And he's going back to the second Psalm. I will declare the decree Jehovah said unto me.

Ask me, I'll give you the nations for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron. As a potter's vessel shall they be broken to shivers.

So was the promise made by the father in connection with his king, whom he said, I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Why? Because the kings of the earth and the rulers took counsel together and said, let us break his bands asunder and cast off his cords from us.

He that sits in heaven shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in division. Yet shall he speak unto them and say, yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Then he goes on to speak about the inheritance he's going to give to them.

Now, the Lord says to the overcomer at Thyatira in chapter 2, I will give him authority over the nation, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, even as I receive of my father. That's kingly rule, my brethren, and that's promised to the member of the church.

Or, when you come to Laodicea, how far has the church at Laodicea come? How low has it got? How desperate is its situation? The lower they are, the higher is the promise to the overcomer. What does he say now?

To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and have sat down with my father in his throne. Think of that for a minute. A man rises out of the dead, passes through the assembled hosts of heaven, strips them off from him, as Colossians chapter 2 tells us, acclaimed and saluted as he goes to the right hand of the throne of the majesty on high.

And a man in the physical body, visible, tangible, palpable body, a man sits down with the father in his throne in absolute, visible equality with deity. Yes, he's a man. Now he says, to him that overcometh will I grant him to sit with me in my throne, not the father's throne, but the throne of the son of man, the throne of government, the throne of universal rule.

I will let him sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and have sat down with my father in his throne. He has made us kings and priests. Move on to chapter 4, the 4 and 20 elders. John sees them sitting in the heavens on 24 thrones.

Go to chapter 5, and what are they doing? They're singing a new song. What does the song say? It's unto him that loved us and washed us from our sin in his own blood. To him be glory and dominion and power and might forever and forever.

He has redeemed us out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and he has made us king and priest. Again, you have the very same thing. Go over to chapter 11, when the kingdoms of this world of seven trumpet sounds and the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ.

What are you going to see over there? You're going to see the 4 and 20 elders sitting on thrones still, when the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of our God and his Christ. These, to whom he is directing his comment here, John the Apostle, he sees them sitting on thrones still.

Isn't that marvelous? The Lord has made us kings and priests. What did he say? We shall reign on the earth. Now, I know what some of you are going to say to me, Brother Dave, you didn't change that preposition.

No, I didn't change it. And I'm convinced I shouldn't change it, even though I remember my earlier days hearing constantly, we are going to reign over the earth. And I've had saints tell me, you know, well, I know we're coming back with the Lord, but I certainly know we're not coming back to this world.

I am done with it. When I leave it, I'll have nothing more to do with it. But the Lord is coming back here. Yes, but I will not come back. Oh, just a minute now. I heard you sing, anywhere with Jesus, I will gladly go.

Didn't you? Well, he's coming back here, and his feet are going to stand on the Mount of Olives on the east of Jerusalem. He's coming back to reign, and ten thousands of his saints are coming with him, and we shall reign on the earth.

And if you want to take that expression and go back into the Gospels and find the various numbers of times in which that very same expression is used, on the earth, you'll find it means on the earth. It doesn't mean flipping around somewhere, you know, in the ethereal world.

And you dear folks who don't want to have anything more to do with this sad world of tears and sighs, just keep a little spot in your mind, room to change. We shall reign on the earth. So when you come to chapter 11, that's what you find them doing.

You move over again to chapter 20. In John chapter 20, in verse 4, John says, Satan is bound, you remember, in the abyss for a thousand years, and as soon as he says that Satan's bound a thousand years, he says, I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and I saw the dead, those who were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, who received not the mark of the beast, nor worshipped his image, and they lived, and they reigned with Christ, with him, a thousand years.

You have some sitting on thrones, and you have some who went through the tribulation, and they were beheaded for their testimony, and they have lived. And then he goes on to say this, Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on such the second death hath no power, they shall be priests unto God and to Christ, and shall reign forever and ever.

Well, not quite. They're reigning for a thousand years. That's chapter 20. They're going to be kings, and they're going to be priests, and they're going to be reigning a thousand years. Who is going to reign a thousand years?

These who take part in the first resurrection. Are you excluded? No, no believer is excluded from that. We shall be the participants of the first resurrection, and upon us that second death shall have no power, but we shall be priests unto God and to Christ, and we shall reign with him a thousand years.

And one more passage in chapter 22, the New Jerusalem. And I know you're going to take part in the New Jerusalem, and so do you, because he promised it to the church of Philadelphia, that he would write upon them his new name, and the name of his God, and the name of the city of his God which cometh down from God out of heaven, the New Jerusalem.

And what does he say about the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem? They shall reign forever and ever. So, lifetime is training time for reigning time. He has made us kings and priests unto God and to his Father.

The New Testament Priesthood and Its Offerings

Well, how about this priestly service? We're going to reign, but we're going to be priests as well. We are made priests now, as you know. I need not tell this audience that, because I'm sure you're aware that God has made us, each and all of us, priests unto the Lord.

May I suggest to you that our priestly service today will be of a different character, or is of a different character, than our priestly service will be then, of the day of which I have mentioned, a thousand years.

Because, if you go through the priesthood, or the life of the priest in the New Testament I will not refer back to the Aaronic or Levitical order, but when you look at the priest of the New Testament, you discover that there are, well, there are at least seven distinct offerings that a New Testament priest offers to God.

You and I, each of us and all of us, by faith in Christ, having been loved and cleansed and loosed, we have been made priests unto God. And it is our high calling to act in a priestly capacity. It doesn't matter our age, it doesn't matter our sex, it doesn't matter our abilities.

Talent has nothing to do with it. The office of the priest is conferred upon us all. We're priests. He's made us. No distinction and no discrimination. He has made us whom he loved and whom he loosed.

He has made us priests unto God in his love. So, that's an interesting subject, and that's a topic I don't have time for. But, when you go through the New Testament, you will discover there are, I suggest to you, seven distinct offerings which the New Testament priest offers to the Lord.

I know that some of them come to mind immediately. We go back to Hebrews chapter 13, and we read there that, By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, which we have done in the aggregate, which the choir did tonight, which our brother Vetcher did tonight as well.

And this is the offering, the sacrifice of praise. We do it as unto him. We do it through him. And that offering is acceptable to God, the offering of praise. That's one of the seven offerings that we may make as priests, as New Testament priests unto the Lord.

He has made us priests to offer this. And then, of course, you have the verse which follows, But to do good and communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Another type of the sacrifices that you and I, as priests to the Lord, are enabled to offer unto him.

He has made us priests to do this, to do these good works which, according to Ephesians 2 and 10, he has ordained for us from before the foundation of the world. Now then, that being so, how about the other five sacrifices?

You didn't want me to listen, did you? No, let me suggest one or two. While it takes a man's whole life in, it takes a Christian's whole life in, really, and then you come to Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 4, he says, I'm now ready to be offered.

That's a priestly word. Time of my departure is at hand. I'm now ready to be sacrificed. I'm ready to be offered. And so the whole man now is ready to be a priestly offering unto God in death. And in between these two points, you will discover, as you look through it, some of these other priestly sacrifices which we are enabled to offer unto the Lord today.

The Second Coming of Christ Will Command Every Eye's Attention

All right, I wish to look at one thing more before we close tonight, and that is, look at verse 7 with me. Behold, he cometh with clouds. It's an arresting word that introduces an arresting statement.

Behold. It's a call, it's a challenge to contemplate something, to study it carefully, to put all your attention into it. Listen, he's coming with clouds. He's coming with clouds. I remember just a little time back, I was going through some of the events of the last week of our Lord's life, which is a very interesting study.

I divided it up into three sections, the persons, the parables, and the prophecies of the Lord's last week. And I suppose many, if not all of you, know that the larger portion of the Gospels is dedicated to the last week of the Lord's life.

A third of one of the Gospels, and a fifth of another Gospel, and a quarter of another Gospel is dedicated to the last week of our Lord's life. And if you look at that last action-packed week of our Lord's life, you will see some very interesting things.

But, oh, the battle is hot and thick, the enemy is doing everything possible to dissuade him, to deter him, to make him to deviate. He's even going to bring the Sadducees to tell him, there's no resurrection!

You've been speaking of your death. And he has, ever since he left the far northern point in Matthew 16, right down through that eastern route on his last journey from Galilee to Judea, the Lord is repeatedly telling them what he's going to do, and what's going to happen to him.

And he adds detail upon detail, and with intensity the story grows as he gets closer to Jerusalem, and closer and under the shadow of the cross. But he's been saying now, latterly, that the third day is going to rise again.

The third day he's going to rise again. And the very last night of his life, he tells them the same thing on the upper route. But he will rise again! Long come the Sadducees in that last week, and they're going to convince him, they believe, that there's no resurrection.

And they give him this hypocritical, hypothetical case of the one with seven husbands. You remember that we have in Luke's Gospel, chapter 20. And the Lord knew their malice, he knew their hypocrisy, and he knew their wickedness.

And each three accounts of the three Gospels, the synoptic Gospels, use three different words regarding that trap that they set for him. But behind it all, do you know what it was? What were they concerned about the woman and the seven husbands?

Nothing at all. But the high priest was a Sadducee, and all those around him were Sadducees in these last days. But behind it all is the hiss of the serpent. For he is going to undermine his confidence in God.

He's going to tell him there's no resurrection. And our Lord is looking forward to the cross. He's anticipating it moment by moment, day by day, as he draws ever nearer. And now they're going to do this to him.

What impressed me was, when all this is happening, how often the Lord speaks about his coming again, about the feasts of the marriage suppers, and how he speaks about the coming glory. He's going out in weakness, in defeat.

He's going out in meekness. He's going out battered and bruised. But he talks about his coming. The Son of Man shall come in the clouds of heaven, he said, with power and great glory. When we come to this chapter, we read, behold, he's coming.

He's coming with clouds. You remember, in his lifetime, the generation that he lived in were always wanting to see signs and wonders. Except you see signs and wonders, he said, you won't believe. We're living in the days of spectacular things.

Some are true and some are false. But even in the religious world, we're constantly hearing about that which is sensational, that which is spectacular. And the Lord, he only gives four signs. There are only four signs concerning the Lord, concerning himself, in his lifetime.

The first one was given by the angels to the Judean shepherds. This shall be the sign unto you, ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And the last one, the Lord gives the other sign, but the last one, he speaks about the sign of the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven.

As the lightning flashes from the east to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. It's the sign of his vindication of his glory. It's the sign of his majesty when he's coming with clouds, as he says.

It's the sign of his regal and royal power. And then it says this, every eye shall see him. I made a brief comment to you last evening on this passage. Every eye shall see him. Individually, it is true.

But it's also true universally. For every eye, it's going to be a marvelous day. It's going to be a spectacle such as the world has never seen. It's going to happen suddenly. It's going to happen unexpectedly.