SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD
Revelation 5.: 4-10
We were speaking of Joseph in the reading. There are three interpretations of his name; He was the Saviour of the world, the Sustainer of Life and, if you read the footnote in Genesis 41: 45, the Hebrew means the Revealer of secrets. These are some of the glories of Christ that we could well dwell upon.
The Saviour of the world—what a Man He is! Is He your Saviour? The fact that the world needs a saviour was never more manifest than in the present day. Job longed for “an umpire ... who should lay his hand upon us both”, Job 9: 33. Have you ever had those feelings? The need of a Saviour—someone to take the load. That is what Joseph did. The whole scene was lying in death, with famine all around. They were all soon to perish, but Joseph was raised up as saviour of the world. The Saviour of the world can be your Saviour. It has been so beautifully said that if all the souls in the universe came to God tonight in repentance, the blood of Jesus would be enough for every one. That is a stupendous fact. There will be new heavens and a new earth founded on the blood of Jesus. It will be sustained in the power of His life. But we begin with the question—do you know Him, the Saviour of the world?
There is no hope for the world; that is very evident. Jesus did not come in to change the world. In the world apostacy is rising, things are getting worse and worse, but in the midst of all the darkness a Saviour has appeared. He will help you through the world, He will help you with matters at school, with the matters of your life and your circumstances. But finally He will take you into another world. Peter tells us that the present heavens and the earth are all going to be removed, but there is another world to be brought in of which Christ is the glorious and blessed Centre. Oh beloved: get to know the Saviour, get Him into your heart. He is a Man to fill your affections. John says about Him that He is the propitiation for our sins, but not for ours alone. The work that He did in shedding His blood and in being buried and rising again, has laid the foundation for God to bring in a whole new universe. The new heavens and new earth are not going to be empty; they are going to be peopled with the redeemed. Will you be among them, will you find your place there through being drawn to this blessed Man, the Saviour of the world? If you have not yet come to Jesus in the faith of your soul, come to know Him as your Saviour. Lift up your heart to Him today and say, “Lord be merciful to me the sinner”. In simple faith draw near to Jesus, just where you are.
But He is much more than a Saviour! I did not mean to say much more about that. I wanted to speak about how the apostles in their lifetime, looked down to this very day we are in and they saw that things were going to be broken. They saw the breakdown and the apostacy. But what did the apostles do? Did they give up? Did they say, ‘Well if things are going to go like that, need I suffer, need I go through these exercises?’. Paul had the light that things were going to break down. Corruption was going to come in. But was that all he saw? No, beloved, he saw that there was something going to go through go through in glory. The Lord is the Sustainer of Life—He is greater than the breakdown. He is greater than all that will ever come into the history of time. He is greater than all that the devil will introduce, even into what bears the name of Christ. He is the Sustainer of Life.
I want to speak about Peter and John in that regard. Although they saw the breakdown and the ruin, they left the saints with an impression of Christ that would see them through until the rapture. Indeed they speak of things far beyond that time. They look right on to there being a new heavens and new earth where God will dwell eternally with men, based on the work and the glory of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Peter speaks about His majesty. I would like to convey some impression about the humanity and the deity of Jesus. Peter is speaking about His humanity. There are few, if any, who speak about Jesus like Peter. I think he knew Him better than most, and, as he reflected on that Man that he knew day by day in the circumstances of Galilee and Palestine he says, “who did no sin”—was that enough? No, it says, “neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Pet 2: 22)—what a Man He was!
I love to think of Peter going over those days of Jesus reflectively. How He was reviled—Peter goes on to say, He “reviled not again; when suffering, threatened not”. Then, this is perhaps the most beautiful of all, He “gave himself over into the hands of him who judges righteously”, 1 Pet 2: 23. There is the humanity of Jesus; a Man with confidence in His Father. Could He not have answered for Himself; He who calmed the troubled waters, who fed the five thousand yet answered, not when falsely accused in Pilate’s judgment hall? He reviled not again, but gave Himself over—oh what a Man! What a Saviour!
Peter then goes on further than that—“who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”. That is a very beautiful touch. It brings Him very personally home to us. Are your sins still troubling you, beloved, are they still on your conscience? What a Man to trust about your sins, to entrust with your soul’s eternal welfare. Will you do it now? Your sins can be gone, gone forever through the grace of this precious glorious Saviour.
I wanted to come to the way in which that Man bears majesty. He was not only the lowly Nazarene, but Peter had another view of Him—“having been eyewitnesses of his majesty”. He was a lowly Man, no different outwardly from others; they came to take Him as a robber with swords and sticks, and He says, “I am he”, John 18: 5. There was majesty. Could they do anything; they went away backward and fell to the ground.
Well, Peter knew Him day after day during these three and a half years, but here was a day when he got a different view. The lowly Nazarene received from God the Father honour and glory. Oh how precious He was to heaven. He was disowned, His precious Manhood was set aside by the Pharisees and all around, but how precious He was to heaven. That, beloved, is the foundation of the dispensation. It is the foundation of everything that is going through—the Father’s delight in Jesus. That is how things will go through, in “my beloved Son”. Have you noticed the “I” in that verse? It is different from all the other ‘‘I’’s in the page by its emphasis—“in whom I have found my delight”. God’s delight in Jesus is the theme of this dispensation. It is what makes it so different from every other dispensation that has gone before. There is teaching about that as to fulfilled responsibility which is very instructive. The dispensations before failed, but there is something in this dispensation that is going through to eternity, because of a Man in whom the Father has found His eternal delight and the presence of the Holy Spirit here. The breakdown shows the kind of material we are as in flesh but the character of the dispensation, the triumph of what is going through, is dependent on and upheld by this Man, and the Father’s delight in His Son.
Well Peter got a view that day that he never had before, a view that remained in his soul for the rest of his life. Jesus was the revealer of secrets. You need to have a secret. You will never get through this life, with all its exercises, without a secret in your soul. You get these secrets through being in the presence of Him who reveals them. Peter was taken up into a high mountain apart and he comes into the secret of the Father’s delight in Jesus. The voice from the excellent glory—“This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. What stability was brought into his soul. There was a very important remark made in the first reading today. ‘The only point of stability today is a Man at the right hand of God’. What will happen to your career, what will happen to your plans? There is nothing secure, but there is a point of stability presented to you today, and that is in a Man at the right hand of God. It was a secret that Peter came into here. He “received from God the Father honour and glory”. That has filled out this dispensation. I love to think of this dispensation beginning with three thousand souls converted in one preaching. What was that—it was the Father’s delight in Jesus. The floodgates of heaven were opened, and a rush of grace and mercy flowed out that day upon a guilty city which had just crucified the Lord of glory. But the Father’s delight in Jesus was so great that He says, ‘I will flood the whole city with my mercy’.
It says that they were eyewitnesses of His majesty. It is fine to hear from an eyewitness, and that is what the apostles were. There has been nothing added since the time of the apostles. Jude refers to that. What came out in the apostles was enough to see the dispensation through. The Spirit’s grace has been with us, and we have had it opened out to us, but there has been nothing additional to what came out through the apostle. Indeed beloved, anything different from what the apostles said is false. Get back to that; what came in so early in the dispensation in the apostles’ ministry is enough. What men they were—eyewitnesses.
Peter is saying that he was about to depart, he did not expect apostolic succession, nor persons to claim they were succeeding his line of things and his authority. He is really saying, ‘After my departure, you will have this, that I was an eyewitness of His majesty’. The lowly Nazarene, blessed lowly Man. But the veil was drawn aside; He was God’s glorious Son,—“over all, God blessed forever”, Rom 9: 5. My friends, never read the gospels without a spirit of worship. He came so low, but that never detracted from His greatness, it enhanced it.
It says, “His majesty”. He is upholding the whole scene and if there is a King then there is a kingdom. Peter is attracting these scattered brethren into this everlasting kingdom. It says, “use diligence to make your calling and election sure”. Do not have doubts about things; as Christ is enthroned in your heart, doubts fly away. What can He not do, what can He not compass? He is greater than the difficulties, greater than the exercises that may come in. How real they are, but you can have Christ enthroned in your heart. Any kingdom takes its colour and its character from the king, and He is giving character to His kingdom.
Peter is exhorting the brethren to make our calling and election sure. You may say, ‘Is it not sure if I have put my trust in Christ?’ It is; every blood-bought saint who has put his or her faith in the work of Jesus will be in glory with Him for eternity. But what about time? What about the present time? Is the joy of the kingdom not to be known now? Peter’s choice of language is so beautiful. He was a lowly fisherman, uneducated in the language of the day, I suppose, but he uses the choicest language as he writes. When he is speaking about the kingdom, he says the “everlasting kingdom”. It is no ordinary kingdom you come into. Think of coming into an everlasting kingdom now, amidst all the confusion, amidst all the disorder there is; think of being attracted into an everlasting kingdom! You may ask, ‘Is it not going to break up?’ No, it is going on, it will go on until we are with Him in glory. He speaks of more than the everlasting kingdom; he could well have said, the kingdom of our Lord, or the kingdom of Jesus, but when Peter speaks about Christ or about divine things, he uses superlatives. He says, “The everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be richly furnished unto you”.
Well, beloved, the way to make our calling sure, the way to stability, is to come to appreciate His majesty. The majesty of the Man who was once lowly, despised and rejected, as we sang in our hymn, but crowned with glory. Does your heart not go out to Him? Is He crowned in your affections? Does He have a place there that could be enlarged as we speak about Him? Peter’s appreciation of Christ grew. We are tested about that; is your appreciation of Jesus growing? Perhaps we are more familiar with a historical Jesus than a glorified Jesus; is He historical to you? Is it just a matter of history that some time ago, maybe long-ago, you came to know a Saviour who dealt with your sins? Is He alive in your affections today as a Man in the glory, who will see you through, ready to reveal secrets? As Revealer of secrets you have to be near to Him. A secret is usually whispered, it is not broadcast. It is something that you will get on your knees with Christ, that He is enough, He has majesty. So Peter is saying to these dispersed people that Christ will see them through, bringing them into an everlasting kingdom. Peter is bringing out the compensations of coming under the rule and the influence of Jesus.
There is nobody higher than Jesus in His majesty. One of His names when He came in in Luke’s gospel was “Son of the highest”. Peter is saying to these poor suffering saints, ‘there is nobody higher, nobody greater, His majesty will never break down’. There can be no question of it being passed to another; there is not another able to bear it, but this lowly Man bears the majesty. He received from God the Father honour and glory, never to be transmitted to any other. He is the Man who is seeing the dispensation through, in His majesty. May we have our hearts filled with reverence for Christ, may we be the more drawn under His influence, under His guidance.
Peter is telling them that the secret that he is passing on is enough, until the day dawn and the morning star arise in their hearts. It has risen, beloved; has the morning star risen in your heart? The morning star is a name of Jesus which He uses Himself. He says, ‘‘I am ... the bright and morning star”. Is He in your heart as the Morning Star? We said already that most of the dispensation is past. Not that there will not be testing times, but if the morning star is there, it is easier to see your way through. It is a point of reference. The Christian is never left without a point of reference. The children of Israel were never left without a point of reference; dark the days may have been, with sand all around them, but there was always a cloud and a pillar of fire, and the cloud was ever ready to guide them. The godly Israelite, in his tent, might wonder what he would do. He might say, ‘Is this all I have come to—this vast howling wilderness?’ But he would look at the cloud and he would say, ‘There is something fine here, something to guide us’. The cloud moved on and they moved on; the cloud was more ready to move to Canaan than they were. The cloud tarried, it was detained because of the state of the people. In patient, suffering love and grace, the cloud tarried and it is tarrying today. There is always a point of reference. Get on your knees and look to the Lord in His majesty. Men may oppress you—what powers they assume. It may not be so much known today, but it is not very long ago that they put people out of work. Some men in this very area were persecuted about their employment, but the Lord came in in His majesty and gave them a way through. There was suffering, but there were tributes to His majesty. The government of the day would have compelled persons to be in unions, denying them the right to work, but the Lord exercised His right in His majesty and He saw them through.
These things are very real and very practical; expressions of the majesty of Christ. There is no authority above Him—He has been given a name that is above every name. Oh, get in touch with Him! Get to know the secret of His love. It is not a majesty that is official; what Peter is speaking about is the Man that bears the crown and there is no authority greater than His! John speaks of that same Person. Perhaps he is affected for the moment by the weakness of the position. He says, “And I wept much because no one had been found worthy to open the book”. Had he forgotten about Christ? You may think that there is nobody able for the difficulties, for your situation, but He is not only worthy, He is also able! That is what John comes to see. It is fine for someone to draw near to you in your problems, your difficulties, your exercises, and remind you about Christ—He has been through them all; tempted of the devil forty days and forty nights, but the devil left Him. What a Man in whom to have our trust—a well-tried, well-known Christ. This is what the apostles passed on.
So John speaks of things even beyond our dispensation, happenings in the world after the church has gone. Do you know the point of reference in Revelation? It was not any place on earth, it was in heaven. John was looking on the earth, he looked round about and saw how terrible things were going to be. He wondered how things could continue. The voice says to him “Come up here”, Rev 4: 1. The point of reference is always heaven, because it is where Jesus is. He has been crowned there with glory and honour, awaiting the time of His public rule and public display. There is only One able to handle the affairs of the nations, the affairs of the universe. He will handle it, but for faith it is already settled. So John is brought to see something of His deity. He is brought to see the suffering love of Christ in the Lamb standing as slain. the Man, who was here in lowly grace, has been exalted as a Man in heaven; in His Person He is “God over all blessed forever”.
I say again, we should never think about Christ without a spirit of worship in our hearts. An elder now speaks to John about the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David. There is more about Christ than we have ever seen, more than will ever be expressed. But the sense of His greatness adorns what has been displayed. The Man in whom grace has been displayed is the root of David. It brings out His deity, and there are no happenings in heaven or on earth outside the control of Christ, nor will there be.
This refers to a day yet to come, when it will be seen that only Christ will be able to meet the needs of the universe, and deal with them all, that in the end God may have His dwelling eternally with men in a new heavens and a new earth. But John is brought to apprehend His greatness, that the One who suffered once must reign! “One of the elders said to me—do not weep”. The breakdown is very severe indeed, but there is what is going through under the influence and rule of Christ, and there are persons going though in whose hearts these secrets are enshrined.
So John hears this new song. What a triumph it is as Christ fills your heart, what a tone it gives to the singing. Not now just singing by the banks of the Red Sea, but singing a new song, a fresh impression of Christ finding spiritual poetic expression, so they sing “Thou art worthy”. You may say that has been said before, but oh, it will be forever new.
Hark! Ten thousand voices crying
“Lamb of God!” with one accord;
Thousand thousand saints replying—
Wake at once the echoing chord. (Hymn 14)
That poem of Mr Darby’s, ‘The Endless Song’, is beautiful. “To him who loves us!”, Rev 1: 5. What a song the new song will be; the echo will be taken up through the whole vast creation—‘Praise the Lamb’.
These persons, in singing this song, speak of the Redeemer, who has “redeemed to God”. Oh what a price He has paid, but what a purchase He has made. The summation of it all is seen at the end of the book in the bride, the heavenly city. Think of John having that view. Despite all the confusion, he finished with a view of that heavenly city, the Lamb’s wife, the bride. May we never lose sight of that precious view. May we be brought to see that things are never out of control, that things are in good hands!
Jude exhorts the saints. He says, “remember the words spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ”. What God has placed in the apostles and their teaching is enough. It is no wonder that they will be in the foundations of that holy city. For nearly two thousand years, the assembly has been under attack and yet the light of it is still enjoyed and practised today. What a tribute to the Holy Spirit of God! I do not think that the dispensation will close in poverty. You speak to certain persons, and they say that we will all be together in heaven; that is true, they say that the Lord will soon come—that is very true. But the coming of the Lord is not a rescue operation! He is not coming to take us home because the path has become too difficult. No. He is coming to receive to Himself His precious bride, a tribute to what the Spirit has done through the dispensation.
I might mention in passing to the young people here that the older people are very apt to reminisce, and they speak about the earlier days as if there was something greater then. I am not sure that is true. I understand what they mean but the best days are yet to come! I think that before the rapture, before Christ comes, there will be a sweeter note in the service of God than ever there has been in the history of time. And that is happening now. Let no one say otherwise! The service of God today has a beauty about it, and fulness about it, that was not there before. Not that I can say much about earlier days, but you only need to read earlier ministry to see how much had to be corrected. The finest hour is now. Oh come and have your part in it, come and find your happy part in these closing days of the testimony.
So Jude is exhorting us to cling to what the apostles have brought in. He is speaking about the apostacy, maybe in the strongest way in which Scripture speaks about it, but he says “But ye beloved”. Amidst all the confusion, there are these beloveds. He says “But ye beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith”. It is not only faith, but it is most holy faith. The darker the day, the more precious the truth becomes, like these vessels of copper in the Old Testament; they were as precious as gold. So the faith is not only faith, it is “your most holy faith”, the link you have with God. Build on it, beloved; it is most holy, it is imperishable, it will stand the test of time and all the exercises that will come in; Build yourselves up on it, and think on these things. We are so apt to think about things that are not faith. Troubles among the saints, personal feelings that have come in, have been among the most destructive things that have happened in church history and they are not “your most holy faith”.
Jude also speaks of “praying in the Holy Spirit”; not just praying, but praying in the Holy Spirit. Would that I understood these things more, but there is a divine Person who comes into your prayers. You not only speak to God, but you have the sense of a divine Person with you in your prayers. It says that “the Spirit joins also its help to our weakness” (Rom 8: 26), but this is more; praying in the Holy Spirit gives you access into the Holiest, into the very presence of God. I think that you feel a sense of your Father’s hand upon you. He would say “I know, my son, I know”, Gen 48: 19. He would put His hand upon you as you pray in the Holy Spirit, that you may be strengthened in your spirit. Asaph of old went into the sanctuary and he says, “Then understood I their end”, Ps 73: 17. He did not understand before he went into the sanctuary. You might be troubled about how some people get a better job than you do, how they have more money, a better house and car than you do. Something like that might have troubled Asaph but he says, “I went into the sanctuary of God’’. He saw in type that he had everything in Christ, everything in that glorious Man. That is what praying in the Holy Spirit would bring us into.
Jude goes on to say, “Keep yourselves in the love of God”. That should not be difficult, it is all around you. Could you get out of it? No, but you may get out of the joy of it. The prodigal in the far country was not outside the reach of the love of God, but he was in poverty in his soul, he was outside the enjoyment of the love of his father, but he came back into the love of God—
If clouds have dimmed my sight,
When passed, eternal Lover,
Towards me, as e’er, Thou’rt bright.
(Hymn 51)
How much there is to go in for, how much there is to go on with.
I would just conclude with a further verse in Jude: “But to him who is able to keep you without stumbling”, v 24. What an end to an epistle that has taken account of the apostacy and the darkness. What a standard!—“and to set you with exultation blameless before his glory, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might and authority, from before the whole age, and now, and to all the ages”.
May we close these meetings with such a note of doxology and praise to our God. Go on in faith. I would just leave these three words: go on in faith; go on in prayer; keep yourselves in the love of God, for Christ’s Name’s sake.
GRANGEMOUTH
18th May 1991
At three-day meetings with Mr Brian M Deck