Would you and I have the presence of mind to tell a Muslim? That his Allah and His Muhammad did not die for them. But wants you to die for them. He didn't die for you. But he insists that you die for him.
That's one-sided. That's a double standard. At least our Savior died for us. and may call upon us to die for him, which we would be eager to do. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston.
Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Revelation. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio, specifically, how you can get a free copy of this teaching. The Faithful Witness is the title of Pastor Rick's message, and today he'll continue teaching in Revelation chapter 1. Grace to you and peace.
From him who is and who was and who is to come.
Well, that is the eternal Son of God. Can you apply that to any one of the Godhead? Sure. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. These words will be applied or claimed by Jesus in verse 8.
Him who is.
Well Our suffering does not mean that God has lost control. Remember, overall, these persecution is looming, if not active, in the Areas of these churches. And there is comfort coming to them in the introduction. And this, the one who is, God is present. The four J's in Scripture may help you when you feel like.
God is not there. That the scripture's not working, that you're suffering alone, and the four J's are Job, Joseph, Jeremiah, Jesus. You just look at their lives and you really understand God was with those men. In their suffering, before their sufferings, and after their sufferings. And where are they now?
These are lessons for Christians to scoop up and apply.
Well, I want to be a good Bible teacher. But more importantly, I want to be a good Christian. I want to do the things that I preach. Him who was, he says.
Well, Christ suffered on the cross. in full control. Looking at the past, Him who is to come.
Well His delay is a controlled delay. There's no evil force keeping him back, slowing him down. He is in control of his return. And so, as this revelation thoroughly points out, Psalm 24, verse 1. The earth is Yahweh's.
and all its fullness. the world and those who dwell therein. These these are wonderful Versus that are in the Old Testament that can apply to the Revelation. But there's a significance here, a grand significance. The present time is listed first.
Him who is, you would think it would be in order. The one who was and is and is to come. But it's not that way. It's the one who is and was and is to come.
Well, the Christians knew. God controlled the past, that's established by the Old Testament. These Christians, under pressure, They want concerned about the past. They knew God controlled the future. That's why they're Christians going to heaven.
They look forward. To a new kingdom, the heaven that awaits them. But Were they certain about Their present time. During increasing persecution?
Well, let me put it this way. You come to church, you sing songs, you want to serve the Lord, you read your Bible, you have your devotion, and then you get hit with something big in life.
Someone double-crosses you.
Something, some sickness comes. A loved one, whatever it is. Is he still Every bit of who he was before that event took place, or has he somehow been demoted? This is the fight of faith. And so, yes, it is significant.
The one who is right here, right now, no matter what's happening in your life, no matter what you've lost or gained, he's here. God's ability is also for today. Not yesterday and tomorrow only. Persecutors seem in control. Tribulation that Jesus promised, by the way, in the world you will have.
Much tribulation. But be of good cheer.
Well, Lord, that's easy for you to say. And then he says, Yes, it is, easy for me to say, and you're going to have it anyway.
So you might as well put together a plan. Not of defense, but of attack. Faith must not be hobbled by seams. Persecutors seem to be in trol and control. Troubles in my life seem to block out the Lord's love.
So I say it again. Faith must not be hobbled by seems, things that seem to be. Incidentally, Christ his garment had no seams. Had no seem singular. And no seems plural.
Seems to me. That uh There's a lesson in all this. Hebrews chapter 13.
Okay, all this comes down to this. You're going to believe the scripture or you're not. It's always going to come down to that. And the parts that get hurt and confuse us, well, we have to. machete our way through them by faith.
These all died in faith, Hebrews 11, 13, not having received the promises.
So did they say, wait a minute, God made all these bodacious promises and they're not happening in my life. He's fired. No continues but having seen them are far off. Were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. See they're they're Their view was eternal.
They knew this was messed up, this cursed world. And they served as they were supposed to serve. How do we know that?
Well, it's Hebrews 11. We all know that's the hall of fame when it comes to faith, the hall of faith. And all their lives that are mentioned, they're recorded for us. We know that they went through hard times. But they Hell to the Lord.
So, this is big language here for him who is. and who was and who is to come. and from the seven spirits who are before his throne. Hmm, seven. What is that?
You know, what are these seven spirits?
Well, first, before I get to that, the preposition and is an and of along with. Peace to you from him who is, was, and is to come. including Which is the Holy Spirit. That's what the seven spirits represent. Remember, verse 1: he signified it by his angel.
Well, this is part of the signification. He's using symbols and signs to make points. Why? Because they work and they last. And the language is not vague.
It is veiled. And the righteous get to see what's behind that veil, Here goes. the revelation. of Jesus Christ. John is Pointing back to to Zechariah chapter 4, especially He's doing verse 2 and verse 10, but especially verse 10, where it tells us this is the Holy Spirit.
Is presented in a different form, but comes to the same conclusion. It is also. Part of Isaiah's messianic prophecy.
Well, pause there. Maybe you're a new Christian. Or maybe you've been a Christian a long time, but you've just not been educated in the scripture. That was on purpose. I know.
One time I said, and it blowed up, and someone thought I was serious, and they pulled me to the side afterward, and we got in a fist fight. No, we did not. We did not. Anyway. I just thought, you know, I better start telling people when I purposely butcher a word.
The other ones I don't want to hear about.
So, coming back to this, Isaiah's messianic prophecy.
So, if you're a new Christian or a non-believer, you're like, what is that? It doesn't mean much to you, except you might not know what that means.
Well You gotta be in it. to understand it. And if that is you, Uh The short answer is God before things happen told us what's going to happen concerning the coming of His Son, Jesus Christ. But these are all over Scripture, and you've got a lot of catch-up work to do, so you better get studying after the message.
So coming back to this, Isaiah. In his messianic prophecy, meaning he's talking about Jesus with the verse I'm going to read to you, which John is also referring to, the sevenfold. Ministry of the Holy Spirit. Why a sevenfold ministry?
Well, what is the number seven? completion The ministry of the Holy Spirit is not incomplete, it is complete. Why? Because He's divine. He's part of the Godhead.
Isaiah 11, speaking of Christ, applying these seven things to him. prefacing it with the word spirit. The Spirit of Yahweh It's one. Shall rest upon him. This is Messiah.
I'm reading again Isaiah 11.2. The spirit of wisdom. And understanding. Two more makes it three. The spirit of counsel and might.
Now we're at five. The spirit of knowledge and the spirit of Reverence to Yahweh, fear the Lord. Seven. And so the Bible maintains that pattern, as I mentioned, Zechariah 4, verse 2, and then verse 10, and then Isaiah 11:2. And we see this, and we go, oh, I know what the answer is.
The seven spirits is the complete wisdom of God. Given to us through the Holy Spirit, available to us.
So when the Holy Spirit ministers to me, I'm being ministered to. by a complete being. A complete Person. of the Trinity.
Well God possesses all these attributes. in superlative form. Humans can have wisdom, but they're not going to have the wisdom of God. He imparts some of it, he makes it available, but you will never reach the same level of wisdom that God has. If you can match your God, then you have A fake god.
Well, God's Spirit is the source of God's guidance and inspiration for all prophecy. And the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son, according to the New Testament, to guide, yes. And to ignite to inspire To inspire his witness to witness. You can see something, but if you don't say it, then what's the use if it comes down to that?
Well, John saw these things, and he's witnessing, and we are too. I will add You know, Christians They want inspiration, and sometimes they want it so badly they'll just pick it up from anywhere. Just put Christ's name on it, and they'll be inspired. That's a trap. We've seen the fads come one after another.
For instance, remember the blood moon incident? Oh, the moon's going to turn the blood. And then it fails to be what they all saying it was going to be. But they never come back and said, you know, I better stop doing this. I don't need these sensational things.
I've got the scripture. And if that was good enough for persecuted saints, It's good enough for me. And so I just encourage you, we all want to feel inspired, we all want to be moved. And Satan knows that.
So he sets up stumbling blocks, and it does diminish your approach to Christianity. Be strong. What happens if you don't like the music? Uh no, it's never happened here.
So I don't know. No, of course, I remember being in churches and people saying, Well, I'm not going to get there until after the music. This is years ago. It's like, man, you know why? 'Cause you you are depending on them to inspire you, and if it doesn't happen, Alright, I'm going down a rabbit trail.
I don't want to go any more of this.
So there's five distinct titles for Christ.
Now, if you say, you know, I'm guilty of this, I don't like you saying it.
Well, if you are guilty of it, then you should be thanking me for saying it, because now you are reminded to fix that flat.
Well, coming back to this. We're in verse 5. and from Jesus Christ. The faithful witness, the firstborn. from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth, To him who loved us and washed us from from our sins in his own blood.
Well, again, he does this, and Jesus Christ, and the seven spirits, and Jesus Christ, which leads some commentators to say, well, verse 4 is talking about the Father, because they want the Trinity to be, you don't have to put the Trinity there, it will be there on its own. I'm not going to split hairs on that one today. But coming back here, verse where he says and He's not saying, oh, oh, that's right, and Jesus. He is saying, including Jesus on the same level.
So, and from Jesus Christ. This is coming from the Godhead, what we're getting here in verses 4 and 5. Again, where would we be without this introductory chapter?
So There are behaviours that are exclusive to God. We call them divine attributes. Leads us to identifying who's divine, is Christ, you know, is there a such thing as the deity of Christ? Is he equal with the God? We know he is.
through this process. And this is what's being shown here. For example, Attributes to God applied to Jesus in the Holy Spirit.
Well, you cannot blaspheme someone who's not divine. You can slander them. You can criticize them, you can attack them. But that doesn't mean they're divine. But if you do any of those things to God, Now it's blasphemy.
And that's why in the scripture we see Jesus blasphemed. And we see the Holy Spirit blaspheme. Why does that mean something to us? Because it's God saying, The Holy Spirit is equal with the Godhead. And so is the sun.
And we cannot ever lose sight of that. Because then you'll end up siding with someone like the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons or some other group. Here we have five descriptive titles for Christ. Jesus, Messiah. He's the Christ.
Now he's open to the Gentile world, but he's the one that's been prophesied of, so that's a very big deal. Faithful witness. You can trust everything Jesus has said. Firstborn from the dead. They're glorified in that sense.
We'll come back to that. Ruler over the kings of the earth. and total control, sovereign. Him who loved us and washed us From our sins in His own blood.
Well, that's a pretty big deal.
So, we do have to be careful because it's easy to preach that God loves sinners and forget that He loves you. even while you're sharing that with sinners. Jesus Christ, the faithful witness.
So, this is the battle for the mind. Fought over the identity of Christ. Jesus asked his disciples in Matthew sixteen. Who do you say that I am? Who do people say that I am?
And then he isolated them and said, Who do you say that I am? Because it means everything. It is a battle for the mind, which is a battle for the soul, and Satan wants to lie to you and me any chance he gets. And we cannot honor. All that follows Revelation one, unless we get the truths out of Revelation one.
What's coming is on this foundation who Christ is. the firstborn from the dead.
Now people have been resuscitated But they've not been resurrected. receive their glorified bodies. Until Christ, He's the first one. that entered into this world In a created body under the laws of creation, we call it his humanity. Then died.
and rose again and was glorified, and came back to show it.
So there's a difference between being those who are revived or resuscitated, they have to die again. Not Christ. and the ruler over the kings of the earth.
Well, Satan has been granted limited authority over the rulers of the earth, and he exercises this authority by influencing their fallen nature. He's so good at this. that he was able to influence two people who did not have a fallen nature to to fall. Adam and Eve.
So he is a big deal. And when he is locked away for a thousand years, the earth is going to notice it. It's going to be a lot different. But he has no power without permission. And we read the book of Job, those early chapters, and we scratch our head about it, but we have to come to grips with it.
Romans 13, Paul says, there's no authority except from God. And the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
Well, he's talking about human authority, but it. Equally applies, because he says it elsewhere too, to the spiritual realm also. That's why we're going to come across Apollion, one of the demon creatures in the scripture who's locked away and then released during the Great Tribulation period.
Well, why was he locked away? Because God is in control. not hell. To him who loved us, Now, when we lose sight of this fact, our faith is negatively impacted. And there will be things in life that are that heavy that will make us question God's love, or at the very least, tempt us to question the love of God.
Jesus says that he loves me. I believe him. And I've had some opportunities to not believe him. But I find it's a better opportunity. to overrule the temptations That would lead me from him.
And just stick to the Lord. washed us from our sins in His own blood.
Well, it costs God to forgive us. And I'll quote Acts 20 in a minute, which also says that. Neither Allah nor Muhammad nor Buddha. Let's pause on the Buddha one.
Something to do with sports to that guy's name, I'm sure of it. all that booing. But back to this. They're peaceful ones. All of them say they're peaceful, right?
As they're blowing things up. But the Buddhists now are pretty serious in Myanmar, once Burma. Persecuting And molesting The Christians and the Christian women. I thought they were peaceful. I thought that they wouldn't treat people the way that Buddha wouldn't treat them.
But they are.
Well, anyway, none of those Allah, Muhammad, or Buddha. Love the sinner enough to die for them. There's not even mention of that. It doesn't even come to their mind. Not only are they incapable, But They did not.
So, would you and I have the presence of mind to tell a Muslim? That his Allah and His Muhammad did not die for them, but wants you to die for them. He didn't die for you. But he insists that that you die for him. That's one-sided.
That's a double standard. At least our Savior died for us. and may call upon us to die for him, which we would be eager to do. And that Holy Spirit that we love so much would help us right through it. You ever say, boy, I wonder how I'll do.
Persecution.
Well, if you adhere to the Lord, He's going to do it for you. He'll take care of you through it, is what I mean.
So, Islam, for example, is a religion which Allah expects. your son to die for him. Christianity is a religion. That scent God's Son to die for you. Do they know that?
Will we get a chance to tell them that? What will they do with it? Acts 20, verse 28. Therefore, take heed. to yourselves.
And to the flock of God.
Now, he's speaking to pastors in Acts chapter 20. He's at Miletus, which Miletus accidentally is a port city. In that Asian minor world, which is only about 35 miles from Patmos, where John is writing, but he can't get there. He can't even text anybody there. He's isolated.
But that's just a side note. He says, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. to pastor The church of God which he purchased with his blood.
Now here's another point. and this one to the Jewish person perhaps. God did not purchase Israel with his blood. We have nothing in Scripture that says God purchased the nation of Israel with his blood. The church Purchased with the blood, made up of Jew and Gentile, so it's expanded, it's an expanded ministry, it has a greater spiritual reach, which is the whole problem Paul was facing.
Like, we gotta reach these Gentiles. But you can't reach them if you're going to forbid this and forbid that to have nothing to do. with what Christ did on the cross. It had everything to do to get us to this point. But now we gotta let it go.
And he didn't let everything go. He just let those things that just got us there. The tutor that led to the lesson. Anyway. If God offers salvation in Christ, then there must be an opposite condition.
If he's saying I am willing to save you. There must be a danger. But you know what the problem is with that kind of logic? It's twofold. It's irritating because it's right.
And it's frustrating and saddening because it's not enough. You can lay out logic to an unbeliever. And they nod their heads, I agree, and they and they walk off an unbeliever. What makes the difference is the power of the Holy Spirit. to convict them from the inside.
Turn the lights on. But they participate in this. They'll either respond or they won't. Does that mean we should? do away with logical Statements like that, not at all.
It just means we cannot rely on logic to save anyone. by itself. Yeah. Uh This has been Cross-Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston. This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia.
Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation, but if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand. Just visit us online at crossreferenceradio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings. While you're there, you can also find links to follow our program on your favorite podcast app, as well as links to get connected with us on Facebook and YouTube. There's also an interviews tab where you can learn more about Pastor Rick's heart for ministry.
Well, we hope you'll join us next time here on Cross Reference Radio. Yeah, hell yeah.
