Mar 19
24
THE BOOK ON THE HAND OF GOD – Rev 5:1
In (rather, on) the right hand of the eternal God, John saw a book, a book written within and without, bound shut, and sealed with seven seals (vv. 1- 4). This book is the book of God’s eternal decrees. It represents God’s eternal plan and purpose of grace, his purpose of predestination, which includes all things. It is to this book that our great Surety referred when he said, ‘Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God’ (Ps. 40:7-8; Heb. 10:5-10). William Hendriksen said of this book, ‘It symbolizes God’s purpose with respect to the entire universe throughout history, and concerning all creatures in all ages and unto all eternity.’ Our God is a God of purpose, eternal, unalterable purpose (Isa. 46:9-11). God’s purpose of predestination includes all things (Eph. 1:11). The object of God’s eternal purpose of predestination is the salvation of his elect (Rom. 8:28-30). Everything that comes to pass in time was purposed by God in eternity (Rom. 11:36). And the object of God in all that he does is the effectual accomplishment of the everlasting salvation of his elect. In election, God chose a people whom he would save. In predestination, he sovereignly ordained all things that come to pass to secure the salvation of his chosen. And in providence, he accomplishes in time what he purposed from eternity. As John saw it, the book of God was closed, a mystery sealed with seven seals. These seven seals do not represent an imaginary ‘seven dispensations’ of time. The writing within and on the back and the seven seals simply mean that God’s purpose is full, complete, perfect, and unalterable. Nothing can be added to it. Nothing can be taken from it. The seven seals also tell us that God’s purpose of grace is unknown, unrevealed, a secret known only to God, until Christ revealed it. He revealed it at first in the types, shadows, and prophecies of the Old Testament. Then, in these last days, he has revealed it to us more fully in the gospel. And in the last day, when the restitution of all things is made, our Lord will perfectly reveal God’s purpose in all things. The closed book indicated that God’s plan was both unrevealed and unexecuted. If the book should remain closed, God’s eternal purpose would not be realized. His plan would not be executed. The thought of God’s purpose being shut up, unrevealed, and unfulfilled, caused John great lamentation and grief. And he began to weep. If God’s book is opened, if the seals are broken, then the universe is ruled and governed in the interest of God’s elect, according to the purpose of his grace. Then God’s glorious purpose of redemption would be accomplished. But if it is not opened and fulfilled, then the purpose of God himself would be thwarted. The grace of God would be frustrated. The plan of God would go unfulfilled. God himself would lose his glory. But there is no cause to weep! (Rev5:5-7)
Don Fortner, “Discovering Christ In Revelation”
FALSE CHRISTS
“If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it
not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall
shew great signs and wonders” Matthew24:23,24
The vast majority of so-called ‘Christian’ religion in the world today
is actually proclaiming ‘false Christs’. It is not that they proclaim
and interact with the true Christ in a wrong way; their ‘Christ’ is
actually false, exactly as the Lord Jesus Christ warned his disciples in
Matthew 24. The question you should always ask of the those who try to
persuade you to follow their ‘Christ’ is whether he is the Christ of the
Bible. For example, is he a Christ who offers salvation to all without
exception in the hope that they will exercise faith and believe him?
That is a false Christ, an utterly impotent Christ when it comes to
securing the eternal salvation of even one hell-deserving sinner. The
Christ of scripture is the one who came to save his people from their
sins (Matt1:21); they are the people, the elect of God, that the Father
gave to Christ before the foundation of the world. He redeemed them
alone, a multitude which no man can number and he accomplished his
mission completely leaving nothing to the whim of human will.
Then ask if the ‘Christ’ they point to is one who is trying his best to
make this world a better place if only people will learn to cooperate
with each other. If he is, then he too is a false ‘Christ’ because the
word of God declares clearly that God’s purpose is to bring this present
evil world to an end in judgment for sin and to bring in his glorious
and unrivalled kingdom, the Kingdom of God, in which violated divine law
and justice has been completely satisfied in the doing and dying of the
Son of God as Substitute for God’s elect; hence true believers are
called to pray sincerely, “Thy Kingdom come!”.
Look at their methods, their programmes, their social objectives and ask
whether these reflect the truth of scripture concerning the Christ of
God. The salvation he has accomplished is certain; it depends in no way
on human gimmicks to get people to ‘follow’ it. All that God requires of
his true people is faithfully to declare what he has revealed of
salvation accomplished for it is ‘by the foolishness of preaching that
it pleased God to save those who believe’. He, in sovereign grace, gives
each and every one of the multitude he loved with ‘everlasting love’ a
new nature and a new will to trust Christ and the salvation he has
finished for them.
God calls his people simply to preach the Christ of scripture as
faithfully as we can to the text of the Bible as we have it and leave
the quickening, the calling, the regeneration of dead sinners to God’s
Holy Spirit.
Pastor Allan Jellett
THE FIRST FOUR SEALS OF REVELATION 6
The most bizarre nonsense is peddled concerning the book of Revelation but this book is God telling his people that he is in complete control of all things as we see them in the age in which we live. As our Lord Jesus Christ came preaching the Kingdom of God, this book tells us that God’s glorious Kingdom will prove to be unrivalled in the end. It is a kingdom whose citizens, in the wisdom and eternal purpose of God, are justified sinners whom he chose in Christ before the foundation of the world (2Tim1:9). Sin must merit God’s condemnation and earn its due wages which is death (Romans 6:23), eternal death, the second death, but the Lion of the Tribe of Judah who is the Lamb of God took the sin of his people upon himself, being made sin. Being found guilty of it he bore its punishment in his own body on the cursed tree of Calvary’s cross so that his people, sinners, would be cleared of their sin debt, him having paid it in full himself on their behalf, so that his people would be made the righteousness of God in Christ, all the righteousness that God requires for citizenship of his glorious Kingdom of righteousness and peace.
God’s glorious kingdom stands in complete contrast to the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of Satan. Satan and the hordes of this world aspire to a world-wide kingdom of peace and a false righteousness; they made their first attack in the fall of Genesis 3 when Adam, as king of God’s kingdom in Eden became an ally of Satan in opposition to God. After the Flood, Nimrod tried to build the Tower of Babel to assert the kingdom of Satan in this world aspiring to heaven without the need for Christ. But God confused the language of humanity, and separate-language nation states arose which warred with each other frustrating the intention of establishing a world-wide Christless kingdom of false righteousnes and peace. Even in the attempt of the kingdoms of this world to establish a form of ‘righteousnes and peace’, economic strife arose, and all the time, death continued to take away great swathes of humanity. How do you explain this?
We don’t need to explain it; God’s Word tells us why things are as they are. In Revelation 6 we see the first four seals of God’s eternal purposes opened. Christ comes preaching God’s kingdom on his white horse calling his elect by the gospel, but also causing great swathes of humanity to follow so-called ‘christian religion’; then the red horse of war goes forth bringing unspeakable strife of war between nations. When war is not frustrating Satan’s intentions, the black horse of economic strife puts the brake on his aspirations to establish a world-wide utopia. And all the time, death visits each and every one of us, believer and unbeliever in varying degrees.
Why does God so ordain things? To show us that his eternal purposes are certain to be achieved. The true Kingdom of God will triumph. Of Christ we read in Isaiah 42:4 that “He shall not fail”. Praise God! Allan Jellett
The Free Offer
Romans 10:16, 17 – But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
I would call your attention to that word “obey”. It shows, in the first place, how the Scriptures look upon the gospel of God concerning his Son. In our day it is rather in vogue to present the gospel as an offer of God, as a kind invitation. Such a presentation of the gospel rather pleases the flesh of sinful man. It rather flatters him. He likes to hear that God comes to him with an offer which he may accept or reject. And it rather pleases him to hear that it is up to him, that it depends on the choice of his own mind and will, whether he will accept or decline that kind invitation. But the text puts the gospel in a different light. For it speaks of disobedience. Now, surely, you cannot be disobedient to an invitation. No one thinks of accusing you of disobedience when you are offered something and you refuse the offer. An offer is not binding. It leaves you free. It cannot possibly oblige you to accept. When, therefore, the text speaks of disobedience to the gospel of God, it implies that it is more than an offer, more than a kind invitation: it is a demand. This stands to reason; for it is the gospel of God. And God always demands, just because he is God. And in the way of obedience to what he demands, he blesses us with life and glory. When any man, therefore, hears the sound of the gospel, this demand of God is conveyed to his consciousness. You ask: what demand? I answer: the demand to repent, to mourn over sin and sorrow after God, to turn away from unrighteousness, corruption and rebellion against the Most High, to seek righteousness, to turn back to God. That is the demand of the gospel. And to disobey the gospel is to say “No” and to act it out to the end. When the sound of the gospel, the word of the preacher, reaches your ears, enters into your natural understanding, and you disobey the gospel, you deliberately, intelligently, consciously declare thatyou above all things love sin and do not want righteousness, that you so delight in iniquity that you would rather go to hell than be delivered from it. And thus the sound of the gospel serves to bring to clear manifestation the horrible character of your sin, the damnableness of your unrighteousness; and God is justified.
On the other hand, however, the result of the “preaching that is heard” through the living and powerful Word of God is faith. Faith is out of the preaching that is heard. This is always the result. The apostle does not say that the preaching that is heard sometimes produces this fruit. No, faith is always out of the hearing, that is, out of the thing that is truly heard, when God speaks through the preaching to our soul unto salvation. That can never fail. Herman Hoeksema
AM I HEARING THE TRUTH?
When a person is looking for a church to attend and worship God, that
person should never assume that he or she is hearing the truth. Our Lord
said in Matthew 7:15 “Beware of false prophets!” They are everywhere,
telling every lie known to man! So how can I know whether I’m hearing
the truth or a lie? We all must ask ourselves two questions: Am I
hearing God’s word? and Who is getting the glory in salvation? Is
salvation up to me or did Christ finish it alone?
THE TRUTH is: Christ did it all! (Hebrews 1:3). Christ has already
finished it all! (John 19:30). And Christ gets all the glory for
salvation! (1 Corinthians 1:31). If a man is not preaching THAT, he’s
not preaching the word of God. And if he’s not preaching the word of
God, he’s a false prophet!
It’s not: THIS is what we believe… and THAT is what they believe…
THE TRUTH is not dependent on what any of us believe! The only thing
that matters is: What has God Almighty said in His word? THE TRUTH is
not an opinion about the word… THE TRUTH is THE WORD ITSELF! “let God
be true, but every man a liar!” (Romans 3:4)
—Pastor Gabe Stalnaker