Our visitors, we’ve been going through Revelation 1, one verse at a time. That’ll be our series as we end with verse 20 in a few weeks. We come to the end though of the description of Jesus Christ as John saw him there on the Isle of Patmos. Jeff backed up and read that full description to us from verse 13 through verse 16.
Let me read 16 again. He had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth when a sharp two-edged sword. His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. John says in verse 17, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.
He laid his right hand upon me. We’ll look at that verse next week, a reaction that we all ought to have in our worship before this Son of God as we see him as he did. I want you to hold your place there and find Matthew chapter 17, if you will. It’s an interesting passage in 17, and if you kind of know your Gospels, maybe you know by now we’re turning to what’s called the Transfiguration. When Jesus took Peter, James, and John and went up onto the mountain and was transfigured before them. We have an interesting parallel here in chapter 17 of Matthew. After six days, Jesus take Peter, James, and John as brother and bring them up into a mountain, a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them.
You might remember that word is from metamorpho, which means to change completely, have a metamorphosis. So Jesus standing in his fleshly body, of course, that body is changed as it would be with a resurrected body. And yet you see the glory that comes to him rightfully from the right hand of God even then. And so he was transfigured before them and his face did shine as the Son, which is what our text in Revelation says also.
And his raiment was white as the light, which our text also says. Behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with them, not that they were transfigured because their bodies are still in the ground and their spirits are appearing as God allows them to. And it just says they were there.
They appeared, that is, they were there. But Jesus in his flesh even is transfigured into what John will later see. And interesting, as they see that, of course, in verse 6 they have the same reaction. Peter, James, and John, they fall down also on their face when they see Jesus in such a way. So this is, by the way, if you look back in chapter 16 in the last verse, Jesus said, there shall be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. Here is a precursor, if you will, a foreshadowing of what the kingdom of God will be like. And this is what Jesus will appear like when he comes in his kingdom. And of course, John gets to see this twice before he dies.
Here on the Mount of Transfiguration and later on the Isle of Patmos, this small glimpse of what the kingdom of God will be like. Of course, I like verse 9 that tells you that it’s a sin to watch television because Jesus said television to no man. But keeping with our proper exegesis here. Interesting, in Luke chapter 9, when Luke records this same event, he says, behold, there talked with him two men which were Moses and Elias. It’s our English word, Exodus from.
Here are Moses and Elijah talking to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration about his exit out of the world and back into glory. How long will it be? How will you suffer?
How will you go through this? All of heaven is encouraging. All of heaven is wondering about such a miracle. And they spoke to him about his exodus. I think what’s interesting is that then when John sees him again on the Isle of Patmos, he has entered, I guess, rather than exit.
He’s come back from that side, come back from glory, and now shows himself to them. And I tell you, John never forgot it, nor Peter, nor James, nor did Paul, when he was taken up to the third heaven and saw the throne room of God, or Isaiah, or Ezekiel. When they saw these things, you could not have persuaded them of any other theology, could you? You wouldn’t have been able to persuade them that there was no hell. Don’t worry about it.
When you die, there’s no eternal place. You go, no, once this happened to them, they knew. They were confident. And they were willing, if need be, to die themselves. And all that would happen to them is to exit this world, to go from here into the next.
And that’s what Jesus meant when he said that he that believeth him, he shall never die. And so thinking of those things, let me ask you this. What is it then to fear God? As we walk in this world, and we’re on this side of that exodus, we’re here waiting to go to the other world, we say that we fear God. What is it to walk by faith and not by sight then? Since we don’t see these things, but we know that they are there and they’re given to us an infallible record, what is it to be heavenly minded? As we think about it, and spiritually minded as we walk in this earth, what is it to be filled with the Spirit?
What is it for the Word of God to dwell in us richly? Isn’t it to understand that this life is only a vestibule to the next life? We’re only in the waiting room, we’re only in the small entry room, and we will go into that place where Jesus exited out of this small waiting room and into the real room. And that’s the life that waits for us. This is a warm up, folks. We sing our songs and we try to do some parts, you know, and we try to sound like the angelic choruses, and it’s pretty tough. But you know what? We’re just warming up.
That’s alright. All of this is just a warm up for when we get to the real place and the real worship service. You know, in a few weeks schools will begin what they call commencement.
College, high schools, other schools will have commencement. And you remember that word that is kind of backwards, isn’t it? You go through school, you think it will never end for some of you.
It didn’t. You think, you know, you think, I’ll never get out of this. And finally when you get to the end of it, what do they call it?
Commencement. It ought to be the exodus, right? And that’s what they ought to call it. That’s Biblical word. This is the exodus. I’m out of here. No, this is a commencement.
Why? Because we understand that school was the warm up for the rest of life. All of that time that you put in that degree was really not the real thing. It’s to get you ready for the real thing. And in the same way, death to the Christian is commencement. It’s graduation.
Let us go on to better things. Now, you may carry a picture in your wallet too, right? And maybe you carry a picture of someone that you love in your wallet. Maybe a favorite place that you like to go.
And why do you carry that so that that person or that place or whatever is fresh in your memory? And you can pull that out. You can look at that picture. Maybe you travel and you have pictures of your family and you put it there where you go or something like that. Well, what we are looking at in Revelation chapter one is a photograph, a picture. We pull it out and we look at this. And we look at these other passages of the Word of God that describe to us the place where we’re going to go. Describe to us our Savior when finally we will see Him. Now, tonight we will take the Lord’s Supper and we’ll look back. That will be a picture of looking back at what Jesus did for us on the cross, His broken body and His shed blood. And yet in these pictures we get to look forward too and we get to see what it will be like. There’s that old song that says there’s a land that’s fairer than day and by faith we can see it afar, right?
And we can’t wait to get there. That’s why John wrote in 1 John 3 1, Behold what manner of love when we are filled with the Spirit, the world doesn’t know us that way. It’s not their life and yet it’s what we’re called to. But it doesn’t know us because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, right?
We know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. This is our snapshot of those things. Now back in our text then, as we look at this verse, it’s got a good Baptist outline, three points and an illustration.
You know, what else do you need for an outline? But here are three further descriptions and the three last descriptions of what we see of Christ. And so His right hand, His mouth and His face as we look at the Lord.
First, His right hand is a place of security as it is often a place of honor, right? To be at the Lord’s right hand. Can I remind you of where Jesus is right now and where He even was before He appeared to John on Patmos? Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. And upholding all things by the word of His power when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
No wonder His face shines. This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool until you and I get to be there too and see that kingdom of God. And so Paul wrote to the Colossians, if you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, be heavenly minded, walk in the Spirit, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. It’s what we’re commanded to seek after.
It’s what we’re commanded to be like, like this, even though we are still here in this flesh for a while. The psalmist says it this way, they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arms save them, but thy right hand and thine arm and the light of thy countenance, because thou hast a favor upon them. Or thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation and the right hand, thy right hand, holdeth me up and thy gentleness have made me great. This is what it is to be at the Lord’s right hand. And so we look at Christ and his right hand is singled out.
But we notice that at his right hand are seven stars. Interesting little historical note here, something we know now through archaeology and other means as we have found these things. Domitian became the emperor in 83 and he will be until 96, so he is the Roman emperor now while John is the Isle of Patmos. In 83 he minted a coin and put the image of his son on the coin.
Why is it that people who seek power always want to control the economy? I don’t know, but Caesar’s did it and modern day Caesar’s do it, I guess. But Caesar, when he minted this coin with his own son’s picture on it, his son was sitting upon the earth and in his right hand were seven stars.
And so we know that even as they passed coinage around in the Roman Empire, there was this image of a right hand with seven stars in it. But Domitian wasn’t the first. In Greek mythology we’re told that Zeus, the mythological character Zeus, was born on the island of Crete. This is in mythology. So this is true that in the first century Cretan coins, when they minted their coins, had a picture of Zeus on their coin sitting on the earth with seven stars in his right hand.
So this wasn’t the first time that this image was seen. But what is it that Jesus wants John to understand here and what is it we have to understand? That we are in Zeus’s right hand or something?
No, far from it. Rather in verse 20 we know what is in his right hand, the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand. Now the seven golden candlesticks, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. That is the pastors of the churches. We’ll look at that verse more when we come down to it. Here in the Lord’s right hand are the seven pastors of these seven churches that he is going to write seven letters to in the right hand of the Lord.
You know, that’s an awesome place to be. The Bible says, for example, we beseech you brethren to know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. But James says, my brethren, be not many masters. Don’t strive to this position knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. So the writer of Hebrews says, obey them that have the rule over you that lead you. Submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account.
That they may do it with joy and not with grief, for this is unprofitable to you. Don’t seek to this position of a pastor of a church unless you want to be held accountable in a special way before God who will keep you in his right hand if you will keep yourself there. Sadly to say, and I know I’m speaking of my own calling and my own ministry and I try not folks in this church or other places to curse my own team. I mean, I try not to speak evil any more than is necessary of ministers and those who I think are walking away from the Lord because many times to the untrained ear, it’s an indictment on all. And when a minister fails the Lord morally or fiscally or some other way, then it gives the enemies of the Lord cause to blaspheme.
But the scripture puts it this way, if you remember, Demas had forsaken me having loved this present world. Here was a minister that ministered with Paul. He should have been a star in the Lord’s right hand. He should have, and he forsook Paul, having loved this present world noon I own this now age.
Folks, we have a now age that people love. We have a world that is easy to forsake the calling of God and go to and restar in the king’s hand in the president’s hand in the mayor’s hand or somebody else rather than a star in the Lord’s hand himself. Peter had to warn in the very first century and second Peter there were false prophets also among the people even as there shall be false teachers among you who privately shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction and many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of and through covetousness they shall with feigned words make merchandise of you. What a shame it is for a minister of the gospel who should be a star in the Lord’s hand and hanging tightly onto that hand as he holds us up with his hand to make merchandise of the ministry for your own gain but in the end days there will be those and many of them whose judgment now of a long time lingered not and their damnation slumber not having he goes on later in the chapter having eyes full of adultery again a friend of mine in the ministry fell to a sin like this and what a broken heart I have for him and that church and even that community eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin beguiling unstable souls a heart they have exercised with covetous practices cursed children what does this do to the second generation in these things the second generation always suffers which have forsaken the right way and are gone astray following the way of Balaam the son of Bozar who loved the wages of unrighteousness and folks were I should say that I’m glad to tell you that these things are few and far between of all the great men preaching the gospel here and around the world in churches that are being faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ these are a few specs these follow because we’re all men with feet of clay like anyone else but let’s pray for our ministers and pray for our missionaries and pray for those who are ministering in hard places that these things don’t happen to them a minister ought to want to be in God’s right hand right this is where we ought to want to be Paul said I am appointed a preacher an apostle a teacher of the Gentiles for the which cause I also suffer these things nevertheless I am not ashamed I know whom I have believed and I’m persuaded that he is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day what an assurance to know that you are in the Lord’s right hand you are too as a believer no man can pluck you out of my father’s hand he puts you there and you are there eternally secure what a wonderful promise that is and yet here at the at the Lord’s right hand is where David wanted to be do you remember that David sinned against the Lord laid in his ministry not talking about Bathsheba I’m talking about when he numbered Israel and even Joab who wasn’t any saint by any stretch went to David and said David why do you want to do this thing and sin against the Lord kind of puff yourself up number Israel see how big you’ve gotten see how important you are now and even Joab said oh David don’t do this thing but David said you go do it so Job followed or Joab followed orders and went and did it and then God brings the prophet Gad to David and says David you have sinned and caused the enemies of God to blaspheme so I’m going to chastise you I’m going to punish you and here are your three choices remember I can bring famine upon you you can suffer by the the hand of this earth in the worst ways or I will bring your enemies upon you and you’ll suffer at the hand of human enemies or I will bring pestilence upon you that is something that the Lord like in Egypt he could do and undo at a moment and so David said unto Gad I am in a great straight let us fall now into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great and let me not fall into the hand of the Lord. of man. And I think maybe the Lord is saying to His ministers and really to all of us, keep yourself in the right hand of the Savior and not the right hand of this world, not the right hand of the Zeus’s of this world and the Domitians of this world and those who would lead us away into covetous practices.
Keep yourself in the right hand of God. We see little boys and little girls walking around here, don’t we? And what do they do when Daddy’s near or, and I kind of like it when Grandpa’s near, up goes that hand, you know? And the big hand goes down and the little hand comes up and they lock and say, come on, let’s go this way. So you see Daddy’s walking off where there’s cars and where it would be danger, but the little boy’s got his hand in Daddy’s or Grandpa’s hand. Or walking down, you know, the hallway, Matthew’s afraid of all you big guys, you know, and he looks up there, but if he’s got a hold of Grandpa’s hand, oh, everything’s just fine, you know? As a matter of fact, he’s got this little expression where he says, come on, come on.
You know, now he can say that, come on, come on. So he’s leading me instead of, you know, so I got to train him in a few things, but that’s all right. God’s got to train me in a few things too. You know, I get ahead of him and say, come on, come on, but we’re supposed to follow and that’s the way it ought to be and the way God intends it.
So here is the right hand and here are his ministers in the right hand and the place where we all ought to be, a place of security and honor. Secondly, his mouth. His mouth is a source of judgment or comfort depending on which side you’re on. I’ve always thought it strange, and it really is when you think of a human image of some kind, to see that out of his mouth went a sharp two edge sword. Out of his mouth went a sharp sword. Now we have the picture of a two edge sword, Romans 4-12 gives us that and we know it well, but here is this picture. As a matter of fact, look with me at chapter 2 and verse 12 when he says to the angel, the church at Pergamos, write, these things sayeth he which hath the sharp sword with two edges, skip down to verse 16, repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Or listen to chapter 19 when Jesus will come back in glory and he’s riding upon a white horse and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword out of his mouth, that with it he should smite the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Verse 21, the remnant that were slain with the sword of him that set upon the horse which sword proceedeth out of his mouth and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. Interesting picture isn’t it? How we can see that in our mind.
But let me give you a little note about this that will help a little bit. There were two kinds of swords basically in the old world, a small sword and a large sword and usually the two edge sword is a makaira. As a matter of fact, the makaira which is not our word here in our text is the word in Hebrews 412, the word of God is quick and powerful. You can see this little dagger type of sword sharper than any two edge dagger usually as long as 18 inches on down and these makaira were used for quick work you might say. I mean these were used for execution. Joab took care of his enemies this way. You remember Aiglon who was an e-hud and how e-hud was a left-handed man and these little daggers you would keep on your opposite side. If you were right-handed you had a fat man and so he went up to him and I saw a sermon one time that said this is the day that lefty let fatty have it.
You know so lefty goes up to him and puts his right hand on his shoulder and when that happens you think I’m safe because but he drew from his left side and he took an 18 inch makaira and ran it clear through him and out the other side. This was the kind of sword it was. It was feared in battle because the larger sword was sometimes clumsy. Usually we look around and we see the large sword don’t we?
I mean pictures of old times with the knights and all and they had these big long swords. This was a ramfaya and that is our word here. It’s only used seven times and six of those in the book of Revelation. A ramfaya then is that large sword. You see it you know many times it was only one sided and it was huge and had a big handle and often they would wheel it with two hands and boy once you’ve got that thing moving you better get out of the way because anything you know the enemy gets in the way horses trees anything you know you don’t stop those big swords but that sword is usually having to do with judgment whereas the makaira is execution. As a matter of fact chapter 13 when the Antichrist begins beheading people and executing them for not receiving the mark of the beast it is with the makaira. Sharp quick slicing action but the ramfaya is for judgment and so here John sees the ramfaya from the mouth of the muscle. Messiah. It speaks of this judgment. It speaks of, as a matter of fact, in the Old Testament, a flashing sword in Nahum, the oppressing sword in Jeremiah 46, the devouring sword in 2 Samuel 18, the sword which drinks its fill of blood in Isaiah 34, the sword of the Lord that executes judgment in Jeremiah and Ezekiel both.
That is this Ramphia. Now, what’s unique about our passages that it also is sharp and too edged. It isn’t always that way, but when it was, it made it even more awesome.
It can cut both ways. It is huge. It is big.
If you get in its way, you are going to be stricken down. Usually that’s for the Makairah, but when it’s of the Ramphia, it means power and might. You remember when David, after he became king and he was running from Saul, and he came to the high priest and he lost his armor in battle, and he comes to the high priest and he says, is there a sword here at all that I can use? And of course, there’s usually not a sword around the tabernacle.
They have no need for swords. He said, no, but there is the sword of Goliath here, like a weaver’s beam. And David says, there’s no sword like it.
It was a Ramphia. It is the Old Testament word for this type of a sword. And so David took that big sword and you had to be a Goliath type of strength to wield that sword, but he did and he fought his battles with that sword. Now, let me say that we should not miss, of course, the fact that the Word of God is a sharp, too edged sword, though it’s the Makairah. The Word of God to us is precious. It is quick and powerful, living and energetic, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.
You see how this quick, small sword can pierce soul and spirit, joints and marrow, is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, the smallest places. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open under the eyes of with whom we have to do. The Word of God is God’s eyes. This word goes into your soul and into your thoughts and into your life as if God were standing right there piercing into you, doesn’t it? And you read these words and it convicts your heart as it should, and it’s God speaking and God seeing where you are.
It’s living, it’s energetic, it’s surgical, it’s even God’s eyes. You remember also Ephesians, take the helmet of salvation and the sword, the Makairah of the Spirit, it is the Word of God. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds. But the large sword that comes out of the Lord’s mouth is a promise of judgment or of comfort.
And what’s the difference between those? Well, when we read Revelation 19 and he’s coming back out of heaven on a white horse and there’s a myriad of saints with him, those who have been raptured before the tribulation in heaven, having gone to the beam of seed of Christ, married to the Lamb, receiving their white robes and now coming back with him on white horses out of heaven, they all come with him and they’re glad that the sword is proceeding out of his mouth. You know why? Because they’re on his side. If you’re on the right side of the Son of God, then you are glad for this large sword of judgment.
If you’re an unbeliever, then you avoided it all costs. You know, you like it when the big guy’s on your side. I was thinking of this yesterday and the name Sandy Johnson came to my mind. You don’t know him, but when I was in junior high, I went to a small junior high and the larger junior high in town, we played ball against each other. Sandy Johnson was the biggest kid in town. And in junior high, whatever team Sandy was on was going to win. I don’t care what the game was, you know?
So we would play, you know, junior high, seventh grade basketball. Sandy, you know, had been shaving for three or four years by then. You know, I think he drove or his wife drove one of the two, I wasn’t sure. You know, just this big kid shouldn’t have, didn’t seem like he ought to be in junior high. We played basketball and it was over. He’s taller than everybody, bigger than everybody. You know, and you just dreaded, you know, playing a team that had Sandy on it because he’s just this big kid in junior high. But after junior high, we all went to the same high school. And now I’m on freshman teams and Sandy’s on my team.
Hey, this is great, you know? And so now we have a freshman football team. Of course, Sandy was big enough. He played freshman JV, varsity, even, you know, in ninth grade.
He was still bigger than the seniors, I think. But it was great because now this guy’s on your side. And rather than, you know, running when Sandy was running toward you, you’re saying, go get him, man.
Run him over, you know, kill him because he’s now on your side. And so you see these poor little freshmen looking out of their football helmet through the earhole, you know, falling flat on their face. Oh, please don’t hit. But I happen to think of that because, you know, here is the Lord with this awesome sword. And someday he will tread the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and that sword will judge this world and judge men’s sin, and there will, they will be under the wrath of God.
But if you know him. If you know him as Savior, then you have this comfort that justice is coming. It’s okay to suffer for the Lord now. It’s okay not to have much in this life. Yours is coming later.
You will come out of the sky on white horses with the Lord and He will subdue this earth and sit on David’s throne and reign for a thousand years and you will reign with Him. What a great day, aren’t you glad He has the great Ramfaya coming out of His mouth to judge. That’s what we see here. Now there’s one more picture and that is His face. A reflection of glory. His right hand, His mouth, and His face is the reflection of glory. His countenance was as the Son. Forgive me for the details, but countenance is a word not exactly like face. Face is a common word in the newer Old Testament and there’s a peculiar word, a common word for face, but it’s an unusual word to have the word countenance, office, which it means a visage you might see at some times.
And as a visage, that’s the way this is. John 7.24, judge not according to the appearance. Judge not according to the way you read somebody’s face.
So not just so much the face, but the way it is, the way it looks. And in the Old Testament there’s a similar word, a parallel word to this that is not like the normal word for face, Marah. And this word, for example, when Samuel came to anoint the new king of Israel to Jesse’s home and he looked at all of the big brothers and looked at all the strong strapping guys and he said, none of those are who I’m looking for. And so they went and got David. David was the pretty boy, you know, but will turn out to be the great king of Israel.
But the youngest keeping the flock, they brought him in before Samuel and it says he sent and brought him in. Now he was Ruddy and with all a beautiful countenance. Here’s our word, a beautiful countenance and goodly to look to. Samuel said, or the Lord said to Samuel, rise and anoint him. Or remember the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And remember when they were carried off to Babylon and they were commanded to eat things that a good Jew would not eat. And so they said, well, you have to eat these because you’re going to be brought in before the king. And if he sees your face in a way that he doesn’t like your countenance in a way that he doesn’t like, then off with your head and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and Daniel said, look, let us eat these things that are in our law and you do this for 10 days and see what our countenance look like.
And Daniel 1.15 says at the end of 10 days, their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s meat. So you get the picture, I took time with that, so that when you see the countenance of the Son of God here on Patmos, shining as the Son in his strength, it is not just that you’re looking at a face that has eyes and at the right hand of God. His countenance was as the Son at noon day. You know, the Son shining in his strength means, of course, at noon. So let all thy enemies perish, Deborah said, oh Lord, but let them that love him be as the Son when it goes forth in his might.
At noon day, go outside on a sunny day when there’s no clouds. Look at the Son directly above you and that would be like the countenance of Jesus there on the Isle of Patmos. As G.K. Chesterton one time said of God, you know, you can’t look right at him, but without him you can’t look at anything else.
You know, just like the Son, you can’t look right at it, but without it you can’t see anything else. And here was the radiance, the countenance of him. God’s face, of course, when John sees in Revelation 20, I saw the great white throne in him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them.
From God’s face the heaven and earth have to flee. And so in 2 Corinthians Paul said, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, who made the original creation, hath shined in our hearts, folks, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Do you know that you are the light of the gospel? You are the light of this world. You have the radiance of God.
Even in this earthen vessel it should shine through us and it ought to do that. Manoa and his wife saw the Lord as the angel of the Lord, the parents of Samson. And they saw that his countenance was beautiful.
As a matter of fact, he is a man of God, came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of the angel of God, very terrible when she saw the face of the angel of the Lord, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here John sees this. Interesting, isn’t it, that the church was a lamp, just a lamp stand. You and I, this little church we can shine so far and we ought to shine as far as we can, but we’re one lamp among many.
Now the pastor is a star, way out there flickering around somewhere, doesn’t give off a whole lot of light, but you see it now and then. But Christ is the Son. Christ is the light we ought to behold. He gives us what we have from His very face. Listen to Psalm 17, as for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness.” Psalm 27, when thou saidest, Seek my face. My heart said unto thee Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Hide not Thy face far from me. Put not Thy servant away in anger.
Thou has been my help. Leave me not. Forsake me not, O God of my salvation. Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant.
Save me for Thy mercy’s sake. A prayer that we all ought to pray. We ought to love that prayer. And who can forget Numbers 6, the Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make His face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace. And He surely will do it. Peter said, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and His ears are open unto their prayers.
But what? The face of the Lord is against those that do evil. The ramfaya out of His mouth will destroy them.
The face of the Lord is against them. Well, our description is finished. This is what we know of the Lord and what we get to see of Him. Even a fuller description than on the amount of transfiguration. And you say, well, show me more.
You know, I’d like to see more of it. All I can say is, you got to wait till then. Good things are coming.
The half has never been told. And when you see the Lord face to face all, let me tell you, it will be great. Fanny Crosby, the blind songwriter, wrote so many of the songs in our book.
Can you imagine someone who can’t even look at another human face and has to learn things by other senses or by hearing and learning about Him? And she wrote that great song Saved by Grace in our songbook. Someday the silver cord will break and I know more as now shall sing. But oh, the joy when I shall awake within the palace of the King and I shall see Him face to face and tell the story Saved by Grace, I shall see Him face to face and tell the story Saved by Grace. Do you know the Lord is your savior or are you under the wrath of God is his face against you by coming and placing your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. His face can be for you and His word can be a comfort to you. And if you don’t know him as savior, take this opportunity today to receive him as your savior and believer.
Are you walking with him? What an anomaly it is for a believer to be secure in Christ, to be eternally secure in Christ and yet out of fellowship with him, departing because we love this present world more than we love the hand of God. Come back into his fellowship. Be on your knees before him and confess those sins and say Lord, restore the joy of thy salvation to my heart.
Maybe you need to do that today. I invite you to stand and as we stand, we’ll prepare to pray together. Let’s stand. Now, Father in heaven, we thank you for this day in your house. We thank you for what we have learned throughout the morning. We thank you for the fellowship with one another. We thank you, Father, for songs that we can sing that lift our hearts. We thank you that we can come to you in prayer. And we’re two or three and many more are gathered in your name.
You are there with us and we thank you for that. Father, now we’ve read your word. We’ve listened for two hours of the teaching of your word.
We’ve allowed it to as a sharp two edged sword pierced even to our soul and spirit and joint and marrow and the thoughts and intents even of our heart. So Father, we ask you to do your work there. Don’t leave us as an unchastened child.
Don’t leave us as someone who is undisciplined and who refuses to put his hand in your hand. The Father, bring us to our knees. Show us our sin.
Help us to confess those things. And Father, give us strength and joy. Help us as we walk with you to be comforted and to be assured of your blessings and your future blessing upon us. Perhaps you have many things to do in the hearts of your children this morning. We pray that you would work in each of our hearts as a Holy Spirit will. We ask these things in Jesus’ name.
Amen. Page 297 in your song book will sing only trust him as our invitation song. If you want to receive Christ as your savior during this invitation song, meet me here at the front. Someone will show you from the word of God how to be saved. Maybe you just want to kneel here and pray and get some things right with God. You’re welcome to do that or anything else the Lord is leading you to do. Let’s do that. Page 297 let’s sing it together.