The book of Revelation is the only New Testament book dedicated to prophecy and reveals God's ultimate plan for all of creation, presenting Jesus Christ as he is today in heaven. The sermon outlines the book's structure, focusing on the Lamb of God, with chapters covering his person, the churches, his worship, his wrath, his marriage, and his reign. It clarifies that the book is the "revelation of Jesus Christ," not of a saint, and emphasizes that understanding Christ is the key to grasping the book's central message, even if specific details remain mysterious. The sermon concludes by highlighting the beatitude found at the beginning of Revelation, "Blessed is he that readeth," underscoring that blessing comes from engaging with the text, regardless of complete comprehension.
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Well, what he said to me, he said, I enjoy every one of your messages better than the next one. And I didn't, you know, still don't know what he meant by that. But let's open up Bible, shall we, to Revelation chapter one. We just gave a little introduction last night, and we'll review that very rapidly this morning. We said that this is a tremendously important book in our Bible. All the Bible is given by inspiration of God, and all of the Bible is profitable for every phase of Christian living. But there are certain books that have a certain message to us. And we said that this is tremendously important for many reasons. First of all, because it's the only book of prophecy that we have in the New Testament. Old Testament, a lot of them, but only one in the New Testament.
Holy given over to the subject of prophecy. Then it's tremendously important because it's the book of destiny. And it tells us what God is going to do with everything and everybody. It's also the answer to a prayer that's prayed, I dare say, hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of times this very day. You know, in the Roman Catholic Rosary, every tenth bead, they pray this prayer. And they pray, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And then that first petition in that prayer, thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth like thy will is now being done in heaven. And then it's also a tremendously important book because it presents Christ as he is today, not as he was in the four Gospels, but as he is today, a glorified man in heaven.
And he's the one we worship, and he's the one we serve, and he's the one we look for. And he is the one we preach when we preach the gospel. And we invite people to come to the one that God has accepted. And last night I gave you a little outline of the book, and I'm going to go through it because I hope that you'll all be able to remember this. This will outline. It's the simplest one I think that I've ever heard. And we said it's the book of the Lamb. And the word Lamb is found twenty-eight times in this book. You can already figure out that's four times seven. And seven is the number that's stamped on this book all the way through it. And we said in chapter one, you have the person of the Lamb. Twenty-six things are spoken of in the first chapter about his person.
Then chapters two and three, the churches of the Lamb. He's the one that owns the churches. They're his churches. They're not our churches. They're his. Then chapters four and five, you have the worship of the Lamb. And before everything is finished, you're going to hear every voice in heaven, earth, and hell worshiping the Lamb. God has already fixed that. He's already decided that, that every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And then from chapter six to eighteen, you have the wrath of the Lamb. The great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? I believe that in these chapters you have a commentary on the second sermon on the Mount, the one that was given on Mount of Olives, Matthew twenty-four and twenty-five.
That's a commentary that you have on that sermon that he gave there on the Mount of Olives. Then chapter nineteen you have the marriage of the Lamb. The bride has made herself ready, and you hear the wedding bells ringing. And then from chapter twenty to twenty-two, you have the rain. R-E-I-G-N. I thought I might spell that. We have young people here. Probably can't spell. R-E-I-G-N. I think that's right, I hope. And the rule of the Lamb. Now, let's go on a little bit further. I'd like to say, and J.B. mentioned this yesterday morning in his talk, even though he wasn't speaking on Revelation, he was on Hebrews. Yet he said, this is not the revelation of St.
John the Divine. and how true I suppose there are some Bibles here this morning especially if you have some older Bibles and we'll have up the top the revelation of Saint John the Divine now one thing I know that John never had anything to do with that because he would never put ST period before his name if by doing that it would separate him from other believers he never would you know Christian religion has no saints on earth have you ever noticed that christian religion only has saints in heaven but they don't have any saints on earth but god never has and god never will ever make anybody a saint in heaven the only place god ever makes people saints are here on earth and i'm sure that john would never have put that before his name as i say if by doing that he would distinguish himself from other believers I like what he had to say about himself.
He said, I, John, who also am your brother. You know, anybody can be a reverend. It takes a new breath to make a brother. They asked Charles Spurgeon, you know, if he had the doctor of divinity. He said, I didn't even know God was sick. And they wanted to ordain him. He said, what good would it do for you to lay your empty hands on my empty head? But there is a DD that I'd like to have. And our DD, I think we all ought to try to get. It's the one that Daniel had. He had a DD. It said about Daniel, he was a dissolver of doubts. And I think that would be a good D for us to all covet. And I'll try to see that we get one of those. But anyway, God has never made anybody a saint in heaven.
Another thing we usually say, you know, we say we hear it. I suppose everybody here has said it at some time or another. We look at some wonderful neighbor that we have. I remember one we had, and she was really a wonderful neighbor. And we used to say, if there is such a thing as a saint on earth, Mrs. Woodworth is that person. Because she was such a good person, and such a good neighbor, and such a good woman. But you know, God never makes good people saints, does He? God doesn't look around until He finds a good person and then make them a saint. The way God does, God scratches around and he scrounges around until he can find somebody who's rotten and undone and ungodly and far off and without a true God and without a Messiah and undone and not even a person as far as God's concern.
And then by the merits of the shed blood of Christ and on the principle of the grace of God, he takes that person and he makes him an enemy into a friend. And he takes one who is far off, and he brings him nigh. And he takes that one who is a sinner and makes him a saint. Now, you've heard of all kind of saints. You've heard of St. Peter and St. John and St. Aloysius and St. Andrew and St. Vincent. I don't know that you've ever heard of St. Roy before. You have a twenty-four-carat AKC pedigree, registered, genuine thoroughbred saint here as one of your speakers this week. And if anybody wants to come up after the meeting and kiss my toe, I'll be glad to let you have that privilege.
But I'm a real one. I don't look like one. I don't act like one, but I am one. You know, you can be a real saint and not be too saintly. I don't think you're too many here. Your halo is slipping back there a little bit. Just straighten that up a little bit. But you can be a real saint. But this book, I say, is not the revelation of St. John the Divine. But this is spoken of as being the revelation. And I like that. I like the first five words. And the key, I believe, to the whole book of this book of Revelation, it happens to be the first five words. The revelation of Jesus Christ.
Now that will unlock the whole book to you. I mentioned in passing last night. that you may read this book through and you may not understand all about the seals talking to J.B. last night and he said, I don't know what I'm going to do in the afternoon. I said, well, you can tell the people how many hairs there are on the horse's tail of Revelation chapter six. Maybe you can explain that or what the little toe of the right foot of Daniel's image may mean or something like that. Well, you may not understand those horses and you may not understand all the seals and the vials and All of these strange creatures you read in Revelation. But you know, if you go through and you see Christ, and he is in every chapter, he's all the way through the book, and you get him and you see him, you are going to receive the central message of this book.
Because this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. And to everyone here, and I know the majority, if not all, love our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not important that you should always put that thermometer down to see how warm you are and your affection toward him and see how's my how do I feel today but I believe as best we know we do have a group of people here that love him and so when I say we have one book in the Bible that's wholly given over to revealing him to us it ought to make us slide forward in our chair a little bit further I don't know whether you ever heard of Max Wertheimer or not Max Wertheim was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi And he was approached by a friend to come and join the lodge.
Now, don't ask me which lodge it was, because I'm not going to tell you. It could be the one you're thinking about, but I'm not going to tell you which one it was. He said, oh, no, I couldn't join your lodge. He said, why not? He said, you talk about Jesus Christ down there. And he said, I'm an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and that would be embarrassing to me to come down there, and you're talking about Jesus Christ. No, I'll not join. He said, no, sir. There's no Jesus Christ in our lodge. Oh, he said, a fellow may cuss and swear once in a while down there, but that's the only time he's ever mentioned. Name is ever mentioned. He said, Max Wertheimer said, you mean you don't talk about Jesus Christ down there? He said, no, sir. He said, all right, I'll join.
So he did. He joined the lodge. Shortly after he had joined, he was wonderfully saved. He really came in to what the old-time Methodist used to say. He was well saved. He really came to good salvation. He went to his friend and he said, well, I've been to my last lodge meeting. He said, what do you mean? He said, I'm quitting. He said, why not? Why are you quitting? He said, I'm quitting for the same reason I joined. You don't talk about Jesus Christ down there. And he said, I don't want to be anywhere where you don't talk about Jesus Christ. And I don't feel at home anywhere where I can't feel free to talk about him. Do you? No. You want to feel free to talk about him.
And so think of it. We have this book, and it's spoken of as the revelation. Now, R-E-V-E-L-A-T-I-O-N. Revelation. This book is not a puzzle picture. This book is a revelation. This book is not a dark saying. This book is a revelation. This book is not an enigma. This book is a revelation. Not a book concealed in mystery, but a book which is revealed and will one day be fulfilled in history. Now, you recall that the Apostle Paul had a special revelation given to him. I'm going to Ephesians.
I hope J.B. won't mind if I read Ephesians a little bit. But... I want to just start in chapter three and read about this for a second. Verse two, if ye have heard of the stewardship, really the dispensation of the stewardship of the grace of God which is given to me toward you, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote before, in a few words. I think we know what the mystery is now. The cat is out of the bag. The secret is out. something that Adam never knew. No, he didn't. Moses knew a lot, but Moses knew nothing about this mystery, about this secret.
Dear old Abraham was the first one in the Bible called the Friend of God. But Abraham knew nothing about this. David knew nothing about this. John the Baptist knew nothing about it. It's a prophesied in the Gospels, but never explained. Peter knew nothing about it, even on the day of Pentecost. But here was a revelation that was given to the Apostle Paul concerning the church. Not the mystery hidden in the Old Testament, but the mystery hidden God. The church, which is the body of Christ. A church which is the body of Christ, the church which is not Jewish in character, it is not Gentile in character.
Joe Blanco used to call it the Society of the Redeemed. I like that view, the Society of the Redeemed. It's a fellowship. It's a new fellowship of life. It's a fellowship of light. It's a fellowship of love, made up of saved Jews and saved Gentiles, but there is not a Jew or a Gentile in the church. You say, what did you say? I say it's made up of saved Jews and saved Gentiles, but there is not a Jew and there is not a Gentile in the church. Every now and then someone comes to me and says, you know, he is a Hebrew Christian. I say, what? There's no such thing. I never speak about myself as being a Swedish Christian.
My father gave me, not that I'm particularly proud of that, but God doesn't have any hyphenated children. He doesn't have any hyphenated ones. He just has his children. The greatest thing God ever does for you is to make you his child and to justify you. And the church is over here. We have the Jew, we have the Gentile, and then the church over here. The body of Christ. It is likened unto a building. It is likened unto a bride and spoken of as being the body of Christ. Now this was a revelation that was given to the Apostle Paul. This revelation that was given to him was unknown to the prophets. The revelation that was given to John that we're reading this week, if we ever get to it, was well known to the prophets.
They knew all about this. Paul's revelation was peculiar to the age in which we live right now, and that's the only excuse for this age. You can't think of any other excuse for the last nineteen hundred years, except that God is visiting for the first time primarily the Gentile nations to call out of them a people for his name. And when this body of Christ is complete, and today could be the day that will be completed, this age will have served its purpose. And our Lord Jesus will come to receive the church unto himself. However, John's revelation does not have to do with this dispensation.
The revelation that was given to John has to do with the consummation. When this age is over and the consummation of all ages, Now, let's just take a peek, shall we? If I can find that first chapter of Revelation, there it is. John, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass, and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John, who bore witness of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw. Now, I know that you've read this many, many times.
I dare say hundreds of times, some of you. Have you ever noticed that there is no other book in the Bible that has come to us like this one? God the Father gave this to God the Son. God the Son gave this to an angel. An angel gave it to John, and John has written it down in a book for us. No other book in the Bible ever came like this one. I say, God the Father gave it to the Son, and the Son gave it to an angel. Now, don't ask me which angel this is. I was trying to teach this book years ago, and somebody raised the hand, and I say, I'm not against women, but a woman raised the hand, and she said, what angel do you think this was?
And I said, isn't that the way we get in a difficulty in the Bible? It's not the things you read in the Bible that cause you your trouble. It's usually the things you read into the Bible that cause you your difficulty. Now, when God speaks, we're going to speak. When God is silent, we should be silent. This could be one of the presence angels. There are angels, seven angels, that stand in the presence of God. We read about that a little bit later on. This could be, of course, Gabriel comes, you remember, and he was an announcing angel. I don't know who the angel was. But I do know that the angel that came was not like the one possibly you have in your Sunday school pageant. You know, at Christmas time, they usually pick out a little girl about four years old, and she's usually a blonde, a little blonde girl, and the mother barbecues the hair or whatever they do to it.
And then they put a little white dress on with a little tinsel around the sleeves and around the collar and around the skirt. Then they get a coat hanger and run it up the back and have a little halo around here. I say a little wings pinned on here and she has a little wand. But that's not the kind of an angel that God has. God doesn't have any angels like that. I read of angels that excel in strength. I read of one angel. Think of it. One angel that killed a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in Sennacherib's army in one night. That's a pretty good-sized angel. They could do that. And when the Lord Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, and Simon Peter whipped out that sword, and he clipped off that ear of the servant of the high priest, you know, there are a lot of preachers that cut people's ears off.
You ever heard them? Things they say, and people go out and say, I'm not going back and listening to him anymore. I mean, you're rough. I suppose I'm one of them. Now, I'm not going to listen to him anymore, and clipping people's ears off. And it takes sometimes months and years to get them to the place where they're going to listen to the Word of God. Be careful how you yield the sword of the Spirit. Well, if that Simon Peter was clipping that ear off, and the Lord said, listen, there are seven, don't look now, but there are seventy-two thousand angels right here. Don't look. You won't see them, but they're here. And if one angel could kill a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in one night, Seventy-two thousand of them could have taken care of the whole Roman Empire. Now, let me say this.
You should love angels. I didn't say worship them. But you should love angels. Do you love angels? You should love angels this morning because angels love Jesus Christ. And when our Lord was raised from the dead, when he was resurrected and God the Father took him back to heaven, he got all of the angelic hosts around, and he said, do you see him? you see him all of you worship him and in Hebrews chapter two and verse two and you remember those words so well the word spoken by angels was steadfast you can trust an angel what did angels say unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord the word spoken by angels is steadfast he is not here he is risen The word spoken by angels is steadfast.
You can trust an angel. This same Jesus whom you've seen go into heaven shall so come in like manner as you've seen him go. The word spoken by angels was steadfast. And we ought to love angels because angels love Jesus Christ. And you read all the... I'm so glad that Mr. Graham wrote that book on angels. I'm sure most of you have it. Because there's very little that you read of the literature on the subject of angels. And I'm so glad that that book is available to people. And I don't know whether you believe in angelic ministry even today. I know some Bible teachers believe that angels have nothing to do with us. But I don't believe that. I have a friend. He's Chinese. His name is David Lamb.
Little fella. But my, what a happy believer he is. He felt that God would have him to go to Calcutta to the Chinese people that were there. Because, well, if you've ever been to Calcutta, you know, Calcutta is the very, very bottom of the earth. There's nothing lower than Calcutta, named after the goddess Kali. And you go to the Kali temple, and every morning, from six until noon, there is blood sacrifice. And I've been there. See him sacrifice the goats and the water buffalo. And here's this terrible goddess with the forearms outstretched and the head of her husband in one hand and a big knife in the other. And around her neck, necklaces and around her wrists, bracelets. of the skulls of human babies who were sacrificed to her.
Now they sacrifice animals and the blood flows every morning. And Calcutta is named after Kali. Well, David Lamb was living in Hong Kong. And he felt that God would have him go to Calcutta because of the Chinese population that was there. When he arrived in Calcutta, David Lamb didn't have a rupee. He didn't know where to go. But a man walked to, somebody walked up to him. and held his hand out and he put a big wad of money in his hand and he told him where to go he had never seen that man before and he has never seen him since and you may think I'm a little bit off base but I have an idea that could have been an angel ministering to that man and for thirty years now David Lamb and his wife have had a tremendous ministry in the city of Calcutta and I'm sure when it's all over and we're on the other side and we'll look back over the life that we've lived we're going to find out how much angels ministered to us who are the heirs of salvation every day possibly and so we ought to love angels but don't worship angels so this revelation was given by God the Father to God the Son and the Son gave it to an angel and the angel gave
it to John now there are different men in the Bible aren't they in the New Testament with that name John I know it wasn't John the baptizer. He was that Baptist preacher that went to a dance and lost his head. You remember him. So I'm quite sure that it wasn't he. He's not the one. And then we read of John Mark. Then we read of another one, one of the apostles. Have you ever noticed that the number five seems to be stamped on his name? John. John, we call him John the Beloved, the one that the Lord loves. This man writes five books in the New Testament.
Occupy about one-fifth of the space, about one-fifth of the number of the books in the New Testament were written by him, and his name only occurs five times in all of his writings. And all five times they are found in the fifth book. His name is never found in the Gospel, which bears his name. His name is never found in first, second, third epistles of John, but in Revelation we have his name five times. And so this book has been given by our Lord to an angel, and the angel gave it to this man, John, and John has written it down in the book for us.
And he was on the Isle of Patmos. Some of you have probably been to that Isle of Patmos, and he didn't have a very easy time, I can tell you that. That was one of the places where the Romans... government used to banish their special prisoners and he was on that big rock born out of volcanic activity that sticks right out of the Aegean Sea and he was there he was there as a prisoner for the Romans as far as they fought but he said I'm on this rock and I'm on this island for the Word of God and he gives us this revelation of Jesus Christ about I guess it was three weeks ago in Hong Kong I heard a fellow and he was teaching I heard him and he was teaching from this book on the church of Laodicea, and I couldn't believe my ears.
He said the reason the language is so funny in Revelation is that John was trying to confuse the Romans with all of this language. I don't know where in the world he ever got that idea, but this was what he said anyway. But no, the language is not. It is not, as I say, a mystery wrapped in an enigma. It's in great simplicity. And I believe you can understand this book as easy as you can any book that there is in the New Testament. But John gives us this. And he calls it. He said he bore witness of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw. He said he gives his testimony and tells what he knows about Jesus Christ.
You have that several times here. He speaks about the witness that he bore, the testimony that he bore. You know, no preaching is worth much, is it? And no teaching is worth very much. Unless there is woven all the way through it, your personal testimony. And I hear these who have been saved out of the wilderness in a life of sin, and God uses them in such a mighty way, but I find out through all of it that telling what God has done for them. And what the Lord does for him, when Peter stood up there in the day of Pentecost, he told what he knew about Jesus Christ. Not what he thought about him, or what he read about him, or he heard somebody tell about him, but he told what he knew when he knew about the Lord. And you read that Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit in those days.
And when you find out what happened to him, when he was filled with the Holy Spirit, you'll find out that his mouth was full of Jesus Christ. We're living, oh, I suppose every day... All days have been strange days, and every age has them. And it isn't anything new that we have these days, but of course it springs up in about every generation. And many, many are very sincere believers. But they come and they have a lot to say about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Maybe it's our fault. Maybe we've neglected this. Mr. Schofield said that for every great truth that has been neglected... by the church of Jesus Christ we have had to pay for it with a cult or era he said we've neglected the Lord's Day we've had to pay part in Seventh-day Adventism we have neglected the subject to prophecy we've had to pay part with Jehovah's Witnesses we have neglected healing and answered a prayer we've had to pay part with Christian science and he said with just about every great truth that we have neglected in teaching we've had to pay for it well The day in which we live.
There's a lot of erroneous teaching. But when you go and find out in the book of Acts what happened to a man when he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and you'll say, what happened to Simon Peter? You're going to find out that his mouth was absolutely full of the Lord Jesus. Now, here is a little statement that's worth remembering. Our person who is spirit-filled will never be spirit-conscious. He'll be Christ-conscious. He always will be. He will be Christ conscious if he is filled with the Holy Spirit. Because he said he would not talk. The Lord said he would not talk about himself, but he'd talk about me. Now he said that he writes this book and he gives his testimony concerning Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw.
And then verse three. Verse three here. Blessed is he that readeth. And they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it, for the time is at hand. But before I comment on that, I know that some of you probably are concerned about a word in verse one, and that was that word, the things which must shortly come to pass. Now, the Bible is its own best explainer. There is nothing that takes the place of saturating yourself with the Scriptures, the knowledge of the Scriptures, because you'll find that as you saturate yourself with the message of the Bible, And I believe the best way to study the Bible is to read the Bible.
You'll find that the Bible will explain itself. And back in Luke chapter eighteen and verse eight, we have the same word that's translated here as shortly in the word speedily. So when this book is fulfilled, that is the main portion of this book, it's going to be fulfilled in a very short period of time and it'll go. Well, we usually use the expression, make your head swim. and is going to be fulfilled very, very rapidly. Now, John begins this book with what? What do you call a verse in the Bible that begins with the word blessed? You know, you have a lot of them in Matthew five, blessed are the poor in the spirit and blessed are the pure in heart. And then you have, of course, others in the first psalm, blessed is the man.
What do you call a verse like that? It begins with the word blessed. You call that a beatitude, don't you? There are seven of them in Revelation. There are seven beatitudes. I'll give them to you in a minute. But here at the very beginning of the book, you have a beatitude. In the very last verse of the last chapter of this last book, you have these words. And what do you call this? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. You know, that's the most important part of the church service. You wait for that. The preacher gets to the end and he says, the grace of our Lord be with you all. And then you make that hundred yard dash to the door into the cafeteria. What do you call that?
You call that the benediction. What a lovely book then, isn't it? It's bounded by the message of beatitude at the beginning and benediction at the end. No other book is like that. You've always thought of this as being a terrible book of judgment. Of course it is, the judgment on the wicked living and the judgment on the wicked dead. But here is a book that has a beatitude at the beginning and it has, of course, I say it has the benediction at the end. Would you like these beatitudes? Turn with me to chapter fourteen and verse thirteen. That's the next one in line. I can find it. Chapter fourteen and verse thirteen.
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works to follow them. The next one is in chapter sixteen. and verse fifteen, where you read, Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And the next one is in chapter nineteen and verse nine, Blessed are they who are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And then chapter twenty and verse six, Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Then in chapter twenty-two and verse seven, where we read, Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book, and then the last one of the Beatitudes is found in verse fourteen. Blessed are they, that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city, and if that beatitude is right, there's not a person here that'll ever be saved. If those words are true, there's not one person here that'll ever be in heaven. Blessed are they that keep his commandments. Anybody that's kept them, please stand. We'd like to have a look at you. We'll come right up here.
We'd like to have a good look at you. But that's not exactly the way that should be read, is it? In verse fourteen, Blessed are they that washed their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city. We're going to be there, not because we've kept the commandments, because there had never been a commandment that could give life. Paul said that to the Galatians. I had been to a hospital and I was home. My wife and children had gone on to the meeting, and I was home that Sunday, because I just got out the day before, and the doorbell rang, and so I went, and there was a fellow there with some literature. They come to your door, and they'll be there again.
He said, now I've done a little missionary work today, sir, and if you'd like to take our literature and give us a little offering, we'd appreciate it. I said, I think I know who you are. And he gave me a long name, National, International, Interplanetary, Outer Space, Bible Society, and all the rest of it. I say, you have seven-day Advent. I said, yeah. I said, I'd like to talk to you. I'm sorry, I just get out of hospital. Don't get alarmed. I'm not going to give you an organ recital, but I just get out. And I said, I'd like to talk to you. I said, do you know anybody, anybody in the Bible or out of the Bible that ever received eternal life or ever went to heaven because he kept the Sabbath? Now, you're dead right.
Saturday is the Sabbath. If you're going to keep a Sabbath, that's the day to keep. But do you know anybody in the Bible or out of the Bible that ever went to heaven because he kept the Sabbath? He's the long hand. I can't think of anybody. I said, he said, offhand. I can't say the long hand. You couldn't either. Because there'd never been a commandment given that could ever give life. No, the reason we're going, the reason we're saved, is because of the grace of God and the blood that was shed and not because we gave the commandments then you know there are very few Christian people even that know why God ever gave the Ten Commandments God gave the Ten Commandments and shut men's mouths that every that no man may boast in his presence you read that in Romans chapter three when the Apostle Paul brings a tremendous indictment against the human race And he tells about them, and he said, the mouth is full of crushing and bitterness, and all the rest, no fear of God before their eyes.
And, you know, that's a true picture of the human heart. You can make any old skunk look good with words. I heard about a fellow that was getting up a pictorial album of his family. And I want to tell you, that's a pretty risky thing to do. Had a little picture of all the relatives, and then a little thumbnail sketch about him. And he was doing... quite well in his research until he came across one fellow that died in the electric chair. He said, oh, me. If I put his picture in the book, it's going to wreck the book. But if I leave it out, sooner or later, somebody's going to find out, and they'll know why I left that thing out, and it's not an accurate, you know, record of our family. But a lawyer came along, and as you know, there's nothing a lawyer can't fix.
And this lawyer said, if you'll pay me two hundred and fifty dollars, I'll do a little research on this fellow. and I'll make him look as good as anybody else in the book well he'd done so far in his research he didn't want to back off so he paid the lawyer the two hundred fifty dollars and when the book came out on the page with a picture of the fellow that died the electric chair with these words and for a very brief period of time in one of our outstanding state institutions he occupied the chair of applied electricity well made him look pretty good. But the fact is he died in the electric chair.
I say with words, you can make anybody look good. So when it says, here, blessed are they that keep his commandments, you have never done that. Blessed are they that have washed their robes that they may have right to the tree of life. But let's come back to that first chapter. Blessed is he that read it. I say, there comes the blessing. He doesn't say, blessed is he that understand it. You probably won't. You're not going to understand everything in this book, but the blessing comes in reading it. Mr. Ironside said that the man that he knew who understood the scriptures and could minister the scriptures better than any man he ever knew was one maybe some of you heard of.
I never did. I never had the prayer. A man by the name of Andrew Frazier. And Mr. Ironside went to see him when he was on his deathbed. And he said, Brother Frazier, where did you learn the Word of God? And Andrew Frazier looked up, and he said, what little I know about the Bible. I learned on my knees on a dirt floor under a thatched roof in the north of Ireland. I have friends like that over the world. I have an Arab friend in Beirut. He's never been a day to Bible school. I could stand here all morning and tell you about Sammy Dagger. I hope you pray for Sammy.
Sammy Dagger. He's been kidnapped twice this year. But each time gave a bold witness for Christ, and he's there today. He knows the Scriptures. He lives in the Scriptures. When I can take you to other young fellow out of Vietnam, the mountains of Vietnam, a boy by the Mahajimi, I don't know of any young man that I know of today who has such a workable knowledge of the Bible as Mahajimi. He was from the mountain yards. His father, if you've read the bamboo cross, that was his father. It was killed by the Viet Cong. But how Jimmy is from the mountain yards. It speaks several languages. We were together on the South China Sea looking for the boat people, the refugees, and how he loved them. They stole everything that he had. And he said to me, but I love them. I love them. And he knows the scriptures.
Now, blessed is he that read it, to hear the words of this prophecy, and will keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand. Well, our time is at hand, too. And so let's have a good day together. And any word from you, Brother Dick? No words of wisdom. All right. Let's stand, shall we? Our Heavenly Father, we thank thee for allowing us to read thy word this morning. And we pray that thou will give us relaxation and rest, as we have our fun time, as we have our relaxation and games and fellowship with one another, and then I will prepare the hearts of thy people for the message tonight from thy servant, and thy blessing of God may be upon him.
And as he comes to talk to us, may he speak as the oracle of God. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.