and dirt about the path through the golden dirt. His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his teeth like under fine grass as if they burned in a sun, and his point as the sound of many water. And he had on his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two-eighth sword, and his countenance was as the sun shining in his skin. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as good. You laid his right hand upon me, said unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last, I am who that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death. Write those things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. The history of the seven stars which thou shalt in my right hand, and the seven golden temple-stitch. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven temples which thou shalt are the seven churches. Now the revelation, the unveiling of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is a thrilling book that always brings blessing to those who read it. There are difficult portions because it's only a fair fulfill. We'll perhaps say become very clear to it. But the great thing is to look for Christ in this book. He's everywhere. And to step into the future and see the future of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, is always thrilling to our hearts. So... We've got in our home down in Jamaica an old scrapbook with all the family tips. At any time, I can grab this old scrapbook and turn over its pages, and I can say, well, look, that's my father and mother, and that's my wife's father and mother. And I can even go back to old Victorian days and see, my word, how they dressed in those days. They've gone to the extremes today in many years, but in those days it was all round the ankles, bustling skirts with great big frills and lace and bonnets. I tell you, sometimes I look at those good old-day pictures and wonder how they lived in such place. Well, anyhow, I love turning the pages of this old book at times, and there are pictures there of children, little children, and later on. young people, and then married, and then out in life with their own children, and you can see the developments of life. John, I wonder if you've noticed me, that John here in this chapter gives us the only picture that I know of of the risen, glorified man Christ Jesus. So John, the beloved apostle, was one of three. They seem to be picked out from the other disciples for the very intimate things like watching the Lord raising the dead, the Mount of Transfiguration, the deaths of our Lord's Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. And John has now lived on and he's seen James die that has caused Peter, obviously has died, maybe in Rome, I don't know where. And this old man is still alive, beloved John. He must have been in his nineties. And he was in the church of Ephesus, and he loved that church, and he was greatly loved there. The old stories of how John was carried into the church of Ephesus on his couch in his old age. And he used to lift up his hand as he looked into the face of Christians and say, Love is of God, love one another, and he would just beam the love of Christ to others. But John in this chapter is in the Isle of Patmos. I remember flying over those islands. They came in a plane over Greece, and we were making over toward Italy, and looking down, you could see those islands off the coast, the radiant sea. And I tell you, quite frankly, if I looked down, I thought to myself, John had no easy time there. No electric lights in those days, knowing the condition of it was very hot, no warming of the home, no prison, the rocky home of John, a prison, put there, exiled out of the sea. And he found away from all his loved ones, those of a dear to him, and the days are passing. And it comes to the first day of the week. I want you to look at that first day. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. Now, I'm well aware of the fact, and I have a deep respect for those who believe this, that many believe, that it's speaking of the day of the Lord, the day of Christ. The day of his triumph. And that he in the street was moving into the day of Christ, the day of the Lord, the future. And he's going to give us a picture of it. That's why. But there's some evidence that the word Lord's day is the Lord's leader. And just like the Lord's supper, the lordly supper, the supper that belongs to the Lord, so it's speaking of the day that belongs to the Lord. And the first day of the week was a treasured day amongst our early disciples. They believed, they honestly believed, that it was the day that brought the resurrection. Christ was rich. And they gathered together on the first day of the week, the Lord's day to rich the rich. we have done this morning around this spread case, and they treasure. Now here is a man who is far away from his loved home church, and the first day of the week has come, and he wakes. Maybe he wakes. I could hardly think to a chain, but to possibly cold or extreme heat in rugged surroundings on this island. You can almost imagine the situation. And he finds himself in the city. In other words, under the gracious control of the Holy Spirit. Now, don't think that this is anything special about the Lord's day. No, no. Here is a man who Monday, right through Friday and Saturday, was walking in the Spirit. Somehow the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit of God, possessed that precious old life. Somehow it produced in joy of the Lord, the peace of the Lord, the love of the Lord is flowing in this life. And as he waits in the spirit on the Lord's day, which way do you think the eyes of his face looked? Well, I'm going to come right down to nineteen seventy at Park of the Palms. When you woke this morning, many of you, not all of you, but many of you, found yourself wending your way past past nine here. And you gathered round this table, and on the table I noticed the word in remembrance of me, this too. And on the table there was bread and wine with simple emblems, and after Thanksgiving and remembrance, we broke the bread and drank of the wine and proclaimed the Lord's death. Tell it about. Now, which way will your eyes turn? Now, I think I might be suggesting that you turn your eyes back. Very interestingly, back. That word, look, we, drawn to tell, using as we sing. And here it appeared, old man, thinking of the loved ones at Ephesus, thinking of the ascendant Christians in that big city where he was so loved and treasured as an old saint of God. He said, well, I'm alone here, but I can still remember. I can still turn myself back to Calvary. I can still follow the whole scenes of that dreadful night when they led him out to the cross. And he's looking backward, backward, backward. When all of a sudden he says, I heard behind me a voice. And it instinctively is the curve. Shaking backward like this. And he says, the voice behind me. The curve. And he turns to say, the risen Lord. Turn into the boss, look to Calvary. He's looking in the face of the risen Lord. I saw him, he says, the one who was speaking and revealing himself. He said, I am Alpha and Omega, the first of all. I've got a task for you. First trail, I turned to see the voice that escaped with me, and he turned. I saw the seven golden lampstands, and walking midst the lampstands is this risen son of God. The Lamb of God, who still bears the mark, the calvary of accomplished redemption in his hands and feet inside. The risen glorified man, I speak with reverence, the man who was gone to escape. America has put some splendid men on the moon. They've actually stepped on that little cinder pile that guides our nights, reflects the sunshine toward us. An amazing thing for a man to walk at footsteps on the moon. But God took his son who had died out of death. And after forty days, he took him back to the glory. Right up through the aerial heavens, right up through the starry heavens, far beyond our Milky Way, somewhere right there on the sides of the north. And he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, the risen Christ. John looked at his head, and he begins to look right. Now, you just look at this description. It's just a photograph. It's the most wonderful photograph, and as far as I know, the only photograph of the written Lord in detail. He said, I turned the scene verse twelve, the voice that stayed with me. I saw the seven lampstands. I saw in the midst the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the breath with a golden girt. In other words, he saw his... bottom cover with this wonderful robe, and the robe is bound to part around the breast with a golden girdle. Now John had been looking back, back to the cross, and as he looked back to the cross, he had seen, he had actually seen it with his eyes, that one who had no big wardrobe of clothing as he moved up and down the country working his miracles and preaching his gospel. He had seen him taken and led like a lamb to the slaughter, and he had seen John in the crowd somewhere, and seen it. He had seen the Lord Jesus strip naked. They had taken that one piece, garment off his body, and because they couldn't split it up, they gambled it away amongst the soldiers. And he said, I saw, my Lord, in all the shame of it, whipped, bruised, beaten, nailed to the cross. He said, as I turned from the crowd, backward look we drawn to Calvary. He turned, and she was the little child. He begins to describe his garment, clothes with a garment down to the foot, dirt about the breasts with a golden girl. Somehow it reminds us of the high priest, the... The high priest of the old economy. You can see him laying aside its glorious garments. You can see him clad in spotless white. You can see him going through the holy place and on the day of atonement into the presence of God. Well, we have a high priest. We have an advocate. We have a living glorified man who bears the marks of carols with the finished work. He's on the throne. And the vision of Christ as the high priest advocate of the Christ to minister to your name. Oh, I tell you, I'm sorry to have to say this to you. I think we come to the throne of grace so often, not as a moment-by-moment habit in our life, but lastly in the extremities of life. Oh, I must go and get grace and strength and return to the throne of grace. Instead of dwelling there in the realm of the Spirit, occupied with the written Lord, in touch with him, finding the flow of his life, his grace, his wisdom, his strength, his all-sufficiency by the Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives. Then it goes on to describe this wonderful person, he says, verse fourteen, his head and his hair were white like wool, the whitest snow. Oh, it's that Sunday morning, that Lord's day morning, that first day of the week, that lordly day he had been looking back, he had seen that head so full of bruises. That head that men had actually said he's only worth thirty pieces of silver, and they paid the plight out to Judas to come and push that head and reveal him. That head... The thirty-three years of age, in all probability, still the hair dark, and matted with blood and perspiration and sweat. John had been looking back to the cross, and remembering the Son of God, going to win his redemption on that cross, and now he turns to see him, and he says, "'The shed! The shed! What bright wood! The white of snow, the ancient of days!' Sometimes when Christ is pictured in the Bible, its hair black as a raven, eternal youth. Sometimes it's white like snow, as Daniel saw it, one who is the everlasting one, the eternal one. All wisdom wrapped up in that glorious person. When he finishes the verse, here he says, I looked into his eyes, and his eyes, verse fourteen, were as a flame of fire. Looking back at the cross, I have no doubt that John stood there, possibly with the weeping Mary by his side, waiting the entrustment thy son, thy mother takes care of her from the cross. And if he gazed out, he sees those eyes, those lovely eyes that he had learned to look into and trust. John saw them bloodshot with weeping. changing the awful curving of the clouds. Now he did I turn from the backward look to the cross, into the face of the risen Christ, eyes, as a flame of fire, all seeing eyes. Yes, you can't turn the light out, say I'm alone. You can't shut the door and say, Well, no one will see me. If you know the Lord Jesus, you know that that one who said, In all my written power, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you, so that we can boldly say the Lord is my helper, is the friend and guide and companion to every Christian. And it's pure neglect, neglect of faith, that allows us to go through the day thinking I'm walking my own path. He's watching over me, he tells me. He's with you. It's all seen eyes, watch the books you read, the television shows you look at. It's all seen eyes, watch every act you know every word. The Lord is a candy. He's always candy. He never reads you, never forsakes you. Look, I look into his eyes. I look for you. In the next verse, he says, I looked at his feet. His feet were like unto fine grass, as if they burned in a furnace. You know, John had watched those feet treading the highways. He had seen those feet weary of sight as well. Yes, he knew that those feet of the Lord Jesus at last chained with that great big stake to the cross, with, as it were, perhaps. All the weight of the body is falling upon those feet, as that great stake pierced those feet on Calvary. But yes, I know those blessed feet. The prod the pottery is down here. Look into his face and he looks down at those feet. And he says, Feet. Yes, feet. And I come to find grass, burn sprout in the fire. Those seats never go to have now. Those seats move over the hills of glory now. Those seats rush up in all their way ahead of a new race, going to lift and bring many sons to glory. I tell you the triumph of Christ when he says to his father, father, you simply thought into the world. You knew the reason why I was coming, because there were men and women in the world you were going to give me out of that world. Your eternal plan was to change them into my likeness. And I will be the head of a new race, and I will bring many sons to glory in the future of every child of God is, to delight him and with him and walk with him in the great future. God is so absolutely charmed with Jesus Christ in manhood that he allows him to retain his manhood glorified. And he's going to fill up heaven with millions more like him. And if you're a Christian, you'll be one conformed to the image of God's Son and changed into his likeness. They ask it in a little word to some of my folks who feel so tired, and perhaps the old legs are giving out, and the ankle bones are not as active as they used to be. Very, very soon, and we shall look at it this week. You are going to be skipping the hills of glory in the likeness of your glorious Lord. He's never felt the slightest ache or pain in those lovely feet of his, the one who was really excited well, as he walked the glory land. You're going to share this future with him. This is the wonder of being a Christian, the wonder of it all. Then he comes to his voice in verse fifteen, who says, His voice was the sound of many waters. No one can speak like the Lord Jesus. It's a lovely phrase, you know, water makes sounds. There's the trickle of the tap. There's the laughing of the waves on the lakeside. The great big crash of the ocean rollers on the beach. There's the thunder of Niagara Falls. No one can speak like the Lord Jesus. It can be a still small voice. It can be a voice of... If it's your Lord, John for three years walked and talked with him, and this is that voice preaching to the multitude, that voice raising the dead, that voice seeking comfort to the heart. He said, Yes, I turned and his voice was of the sound of many mortals. He turns to his right hand, his hand. The hands of it looked back on, on the cross, pinned to the cross with cruel nails. And he said, I looked and I saw his hand. He was holding them. He was actually holding the stars. And we are told the stars were the elders. I'm sorry, the angels of the church. People are puzzled. The little things people are. But I can say to you, my dear friend, that you're the servant of the Lord. You're an angel of the church. You're held in his hand. The angels of the church is the angels, the ministering spirit, sent forth the minister unto the heirs of salvation. And I tell you, you look around any of the churches today, and you will see the angels of the churches very quickly. If you've got any eyes, spiritual eyes, you'll spot them at once. Those that minister to the people of God. I don't say in the word of God altogether, but they're ministers amongst God's people, true deacons and overseers and underbishop. They're serving the Lord in his way, if you've won his hell in his hand. Many believe that dear John saw from the seven churches seven picked out men who came across the old waves and they landed on the rocky islands and they came to him, came to comfort him, came to bring gifts to him, sustenance to him. And it was at this time the great revelation was given and he was told to write and send to those seven churches the messages each church a different message. because each church is different in its personality and makeup. Then comes the revelation of Jesus Christ in those unfolding, glorious chapters. The copies of these went back in the hands of these men to the same churches, and each one held his own letter to his own church, and to the angel, the ministering servant of God at the church of Ephesus, carried back this great revelation, and read to them the special letter to the church. No, John, beloved John, sees the right hand holding the seven stars. You must rest there, my brother. Sometimes you feel like living up your ministry, and sometimes you feel, oh, it's all over. I can't do much more. Rest back. Believe that that hand that holds you can hold you to do his service and minister in his name. Then the next thing is his mouth. Out of his mouth went a sharp, two-edged sword. No one can speak the word of the Lord. Thus kept the Lord like Jesus. And the one who again regained ministry, as he looked backward over those precious years, the one who cried out from the cross his last message, is still the one who is ministering the word of God. And as you will see in Revelation, the judgments of God. Then he said his countenance was as the sun shining in its breath. If he looked backward to the cross, he saw the matted, blood-stained face, marred more than any man, brutally treated by men, covered with blood and spit. But as he looked into that face, he said it shone about the brightness of the liquid sun. This is your law. And all he could do was to fall at his feet as dead, and the loving hand said, Fear not, I am the first and the last, the one that liveth and was dead. I am alive forevermore. I have got the future. And so he's got the keys for you and me. Every one of us, I want to say to you, if you're not a Christian, if you've never come to Jesus Christ, you are doing the silliest, the foolish, most foolish thing I ever think a man could dream of doing. You are actually keeping out of your life someone who's loved you as nobody else has loved you. You're actually avoiding the claims of one who is the eternal Son of God, who died for you, who wants to possess that life and make it useful to the glory of God now. If you're not saved, I'm going to ask you as I bow in prayer. Close this meeting, just where you sit. Look into his face with a great big thank you. And say, Lord Jesus, I've passed by your cross, and I've taken no heed. I've known about it, but I've done nothing about it. But I will stop by Jesus' death and say thank you for that. Kneel to that written Christ. Know him as my very own. Show me about it. Lord Jesus. We have already this morning many of us been thanking you for going to the cross of shame to meet our needs, to win our salvation. If the testimonies were given one after another, there are men and women who in this audience bowed before they would look back over the year, the long year, and they would say, Oh, happy day when I came just as I am to the Savior. And so about never failed a sin. We've failed thee, we've grieved thee, we've let thee down, we've disappointed thee, and yet in thy patient love thou hast borne with us, and thou art still leading us on. And we ask thee, that each one of us may consecrate our lives afresh to thee. O risen Lord, let us look into thy face and bowing before thee, let thy hand afresh in claiming power take us and make us and use us. For some soul bowed before thee, who just now would like to say a great big thank you. Why not, Lord? Why not, Lord Jesus, in this quiet moment? Thank you, Lord Jesus, for going to the cross to meet my need, for dying to win my salvation. Into this hardened life, I ask you to come to be my Savior. Now, may there be a quiet house, just we listen to the music and quietly separate. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The love of God, our Father, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit abide with us all. Amen. Thank you. I'm sure you'll all agree that was a great little hymn you were singing. Look to the Lamb of God. I want to speak to you about the Lamb of God tonight. And if there's one here who's not yet rejoicing in that wonderful salvation, you say, well, I don't know a thing about it. It's never come to me. Well, look to the Lamb of God. This is the key to the great gospel message. You see, someone loved you enough to die for you. She said, for me, yes, for you, if there was no one else in this world, he loved you enough to die. And yet you've been treating him rather shabbily, you know. You've been going through life without thinking much about him or bothering much about him. And the shadows are lengthening. And it's just possible that even tonight, you could look into the face of the Lamb of God. And there's life for a look. Now, most of you, I believe, can say, well, I love the Lamb of God, and it will be a message for your hearts, too. Now, just before we read the scripture, I'd like to give you some little line about this week. I didn't know when I arrived here, just walked a line of scripture to open up as these days go by, but it's been drawing upon me today that in the mornings it would be lovely if we could study some of the great... mighty men of David, who surrounded him. He was used of God to make these men what they were. Well, you say you're going to talk just about the men. Oh, no, no. You'll find that all these mighty men had wives, and just wonderful how Mrs. So-and-so is just as able to serve the Lord, David's greater son, as their husband. In fact, I think we have got to face facts that it's the ladies that largely beat the men in service for God throughout the assemblies, the churches. You haven't far to look to see them working on every hand in a diversity of work. And these are the women, says Paul, who labored with me in the gospel. Then as we turn to the evenings, Monday through Friday, feel constrained to talk about the coming back of the Lord Jesus. You know, just before the six-day war broke out in Israel, I had the joy of going with my wife and two very dear friends to spend two or three weeks in and around the land of Palestine. And we knew something was brewing, but we little realized that as we left, it would only be a matter of days when that war broke out. And I came back to Jamaica determined to study the Old Testament prophets. those great old Jewish prophets that saw the dispersion of their people and then the re-gathering of that people to face that hour of trial. And somehow those books began to live in a new way. And I believe that this is something that's so up-to-date, it's so fascinating, that we ought to spend time going over these great facts. In fact, only the other day, as I was coming up here, and I told you there was a strike in Miami, the National couldn't fly, And I had to stand by on a united to get to Jacksonville. And when at last I got on board, I found myself sitting with a very fine, tall, lovely gentleman. And we soon entered into conversation, and I found out that he was the father of the mayor of Jacksonville. I don't know who the mayor of Jacksonville is, you may, but I don't. But he was the father of very proud of his son, whose mayor of the city of Jacksonville. And we got talking and soon found out that we disagreed. She didn't believe in foreign missions at all. Why should we go and trouble people with our religion and bother them at all? Leave them alone. They've got their own religion. It's just as good for them as anything we have here. And I said, well, of course, the only difference is this, that the Christian has a Lord who's alive. And in resurrection alive he gave his command, going to all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Lo, I am with you all the days, even to the end of the age. And I said, his commission stands, and if we are Christians and we are going to be disciples, we've still got to spread the good news he entrusted to. He said, well, are people like it or not? It's our task until the master comes back again. And then we got onto the second coming. And do you know he looked into my face and he said, do you know? He said, I'm convinced of this. He said, the Bible's coming through today. Did you think so? And soon we were talking about prophecy. Talking about these thousands of years old scriptures that spoke of The people of Israel brought out of Egypt and planted in the land to be a light to the nations, and how they failed. God said, I've got to punish you and judge you and scatter you amongst the nations, and the nations couldn't digest them. And I traveled in, well, forty-odd countries preaching the gospel, but wherever I go, I find the Jewish community. We've got fifteen hundred Jews in Jamaica, a little tight. well-off community with their synagogue and their rabbi, influential people, and if you go from island to island and country to country, you'll find them everywhere. And this book says that after two thousand five hundred odd years, the times of Gentile dominion will lift and they will go back to their land to face their trial. And today they're right back in the land, whether you like it or not, they're there, twenty-one or twenty-two years old. And they are surrounded by a sea of Muslim, Arabic people who want to annihilate them, push them into the sea, get rid of them, exterminate them. And they're facing their trial. Coming up on them fast, they're in four days of bad, sad days of history. And then one day their Messiah is coming back to be their savior, the savior of that nation. You know their eyes are going to be open to the fact that their Messiah is none other than Jesus, who came the first time and they rejected him and said, We will not have this man to reign over us and nailed him on a cross outside the city gate. And he's alive. He's coming back. And they'll look upon the one that they pierced and with deep mourning and tremendous repentance, acknowledge Jesus, Messiah came. And he's coming to rage. Did you know this? He's going to reign over all the world. Jesus. Not just over Palestine. Over Great Britain. America. China. Congo. Brazilian forest. For a thousand years, every knee will bow and own Jesus' law. The one day. Pass on and say, we won't have it. God said, all right. Run your world without him. Take care. The only solution to world problems is the return of Jesus Christ. So, night by night, we're going to take this subject up if you've got some friends around. If you're lovely from Eastern Heights or around, they could come in with you. If you could bring them up, fight them along. We'll just spend an hour around the Word of God studying the prophecies and getting the thrill of this blessed hope of the Lord's return. I know for the Christians, it will be a purifying, strengthening hope. We're all about the challenging hope. And I feel we must keep this subject right to the front in these momentous, wonderful, these are wonderful days to live in. Don't you think so? Aren't you glad you've lived long enough to see these days? The Seventies, the Sixties saw a man on the moon. The Seventies may see the man from the glory coming back again. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Now for Scripture reading, shall we take our Bibles and turn again to the last book, Revelation chapter five, A lovely chapter so often read in the assemblies of the Lord's people. A chapter that gives us four visions that John the Beloved saw. And if you look for them in verses one and two and six and eleven, you will find the words I saw, I beheld. And you ask yourself as I read this chapter, what did John really see? Chapter five, verse one. And I John saw, in the right hand of him that sat on the throne, a book, written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I John saw, a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. Nijon leapt much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders said unto me, Weep not, behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereon. Nijon saw... And lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb, and it had been slain. Having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fell down before the lamb. having every one of them hearts and golden piles full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. They sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the fields thereof, for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard, the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times, ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, staying with a loud voice. Worthy is the land that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature which was in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them heard I saying, Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. The four living Gretos said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders held down and worshipped him that live it forever and ever. God will bless to our hearts the reading together of Holy Scripture. Now, just before our parochial...