Gooding, David: 1 - Introduction

Thank you, Mr. Heartburn, for those very kindly words of welcome. It gives me great pleasure to be with you here again in Siem Harbor, and I thank you warmly for your invitation. And I trust, as we read God's word together and study it this week, that the Lord himself will draw near to us and speak to our hearts and make himself known. So pray for these meetings, and come if you can, and bring others with you, so that we might together experience the presence of the Lord and learn some of these important things from his word that will show us where our world is pointed and where it is fast going. As you have heard, we are to study together this week the book of the Revelation, the last book in the New Testament. Let us begin, therefore, by reading in chapter one of that book, the book of the Revelation, chapter one, and the first three verses. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show unto his servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John, who bear witness of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. These introductory verses to this book of the Revelation are exceedingly interesting. They remind us that in the early Christian churches, there were always many in the congregation who could not read. And therefore, when a book written by an inspired apostle like this came to the church, the majority of the congregation would not have been able to read it for themselves. So one man would stand up in the assembled congregation, and he would read the book in loud and resonant terms. This tells us here that the Lord's special blessing would fall upon the man who read the words of this wonderful prophecy in public. Blessed is he that readeth, meaning here the public reading of God's holy word. And I have begun to do that we- that this week, and God will fulfill his promise and bless me. But then it says, blessed are those who hear the words of this prophecy. And that tonight is you, of course. As you shall hear the words of this prophecy tonight, and we trust in ensuing nights, there is a blessing upon your head for actually hearing this prophecy read. But little use there would be in reading it, wouldn't it? Or even in hearing it, if we did not fulfill the third thing that is here said, blessed not only is he that readeth and those who hear, but those who keep the things that are written in this prophecy. You see, we shall find, I trust we shall find, that the details of this wonderful book are exceedingly interesting, absorbingly so, and our minds will be interested and informed. But then God's word is meant to do more than that. Here is a book that is exceedingly practical. Here we shall learn things that are meant to be kept, to observe them and to do them, so that we shall have to be careful in this ensuing week, not just to get absorbed in the colorful detail, but always to ask ourselves, now, what was there in that tonight for me? What was God saying to me? What, according to this passage, am I meant to be doing, and have I done it? And shall I remember it in the coming days and keep it in my heart? Thus shall we reap the blessing intended. Supreme among the blessings of this book, may I remind you at its outset, is that it tells us not only of the great and eternal city of God, whether all of us hope one day to come, where there is no more crying, nor curse, nor pain, nor sorrow, but all those things are done away, and that forever. Not only does it tell us of that glorious eternal city, more marvelously still, it tells us what we must do to enter that city, saying, blessed are those that have washed their robe in the blood of the Lamb, that they may have right to come into the city and to the tree of life. We shall be asking ourselves this week, if that is the way into that eternal city, then have we kept this word, and have we done what it says? Blessed are they who wash their robes, that is, in the redeeming blood of Christ. I trust before this week of studies is over, we shall be able, all of us, without any uncertainty or hesitation, to say, yes, thank God. Whatever else I have or have not understood, I know what that means. Blessed are they that have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Thank God I have done so. Should tomorrow summon me from this temporary world into the eternal, by God's grace, I am ready and prepared to go. That said, I should have to admit to you forthwith that the book of the Revelation is an exceedingly solemn book. I think there is no denying it. For in these pages we shall read of the judgments of God that must eventually fall on this ungodly world. Who knows how soon they shall begin to fall. As we read the verses and visualize the scenes that John depicts in this book, we shall see the Lamb of God, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Son of God, Son of the Father, approach the divine throne and receive from the divine hand the mandate to free this world of sin and iniquity, of lawlessness, and of sinners. And as he proceeds in his task, his awesome task, we shall see and hear of the judgments of God that must inevitably follow. This book, then, is a very solemn book. It tells of coming judgment. Some people react to that by leaving it closed and saying to themselves, if that is what it is about, I prefer not to hear. Not us, of course, tonight, surely. We're more adult than that. If the judgments of God must come, it would be foolish of us, would it not, to put our heads in the sand and pretend it is not so. But of course, even as I say that, I should not forget, should I, that to some people in the course of history, the prospect that one day God will rise up and judge this world has not been thought a gloomy thing at all. It has filled them with joy and gladness and filled their mouths with hallelujahs of divine praise. Read your psalms, if you care, and hear the psalmist bursting his lungs and saying, tell the nations at large, the Lord at last has taken to himself his divine power and has set up his kingdom. For the Lord comes to judge, and he will judge this world in righteousness. Yes, to many a generation, this has been not a gloomy, but a glorious and a joyful message. I think it might even be to us if we thought a moment, wouldn't it? For who of us hasn't, from time to time, experienced the injustices of this world? It doesn't matter all that much, I suppose, whether it's the grocer who cheated you and gave you less weight of your butter than you deserve for your money, or whether it's the stock exchange making fat upon their millions by corrupt practice and robbing widows of the value of their shares. Whether it's the colossal injustices, the rape, the disease that follows deliberate sin, the child abuse, the theft and the burglary, the violence, or on colossal scales, the gassing of six million Jews. The unfairness of men that hoards their resources in one part of our globe and leaves other parts to starve. Who of us hasn't felt from time to time the injustice of this world? And our hearts, that sense of right and wrong buried in our hearts, has risen up and protested something we say ought to be done. One day, friend, of course, it shall be done. That conscience in your heart that protests against injustice, listen to it, pray listen to it. It is God's outpost in your heart. He put it there, and one day the God who put that conscience in your heart shall honor it. Something will be done about this world's injustice. Living in this advanced age as we do, we know enough history, do we not, to see quite clearly that the hopes that men and women had in generations past, that by their own effort, men could put this world right, have proved elusive and disappointing. In my youth, I used to hear the social reformers declare that if only enough education were spread abroad in the country, that would end all our wrongs. It was a little bit late for men to have that idea. The great Greek philosopher Socrates, living four hundred years before Christ, had the idea in his head that if only you could show people that this thing is evil, they would stop doing it. He said, you know, no man willingly does wrong, no man knowingly he does wrong. When he does wrong, he does wrong because he thinks it's right. If you could show him that it is indeed wrong, why, surely he would stop doing it. And I think I see you smile, if not smirk. We'll say Socrates didn't know much about the human heart, nor my heart either. Ah, yes. How many times have we, respectable citizens that we are, how many times have we known a thing to be wrong and go on doing it? The man that is smoking his lungs away with cancer knows it's wrong, does it still. Why is that kind of thing? Let God's word tell us. We come of a fallen race, the whole bunch of us. Not by our own efforts, nor by the efforts of all mankind combined, shall the evil in our world be put right. Then how shall it be put right? This very book that we are about to study will show us. What a glorious prospect it is. For the Lord himself shall come and put this world right. And of course, all of us have got the common sense to see, haven't we? That unless it is put right, there never will be a paradise of bliss on this world. Contrive how men will. How would you build a paradise on greed and selfishness and cruelty and iniquity and lies and aggressiveness? It cannot be done. As we read sometimes the lovely visions of the Old Testament prophets, and we hear of a time when the nations shall learn war no more. They shall beat their swords into pruning hooks. We say, yes, that's, that's the only sensible way to live. Then we don't look like doing it just now, do we? Unless it is done, we have no hope of paradise on this earth. And so, surely, it is a sense, with a sense of joy in our hearts, an expectation that we shall hear the sure and certain promises of this holy book. God himself speaking and assuring our hearts he has not forgotten this planet. He shall rise up and deal with evil and put it down. And there shall come the glorious reign of Christ. I suspect if I asked you, most of you would confess at one time or another, and some of you regularly, that you have often prayed in the words that our Lord first framed, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven. Friend, who have not prayed in vain, it shall come, and God's will shall be done. But of course, while we think of that, and the half of us responds with joy and gladness to the message, many people find that the other half of them is rather more slow in warming to the prospect. That for one simple reason. We say to ourselves, if God were to rise up tonight and begin his judgments on the wicked, where would he stop? At my next door neighbor, is it, that has sinned. Not merely the nation across the North Sea that has sinned. I too have sinned. For as the Bible says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So then let me remind you, if that be so, that in this wonderful book, not only are we told of the judgments of God that must fall upon this earth, and who knows how soon. But we are told certain other very delightful and encouraging things, and I would like now briefly to point them out to you. In that sheaf of notes that you were given, have them with my compliments, please. On the second page, you will find I have given you a skeleton outline. It is very much a skeleton outline, bare bones, I confess at once, but a skeleton outline of some of the major topics of this book. And as our chairman said, if you come back other nights, please bring your copies with you, because it will help me, and therefore it will help you, to follow just where we are in the book of the Revelation. Many people find the book so detailed that it is difficult at any one time to know exactly where they are. Treat then this outline on page two as a kind of map of the contents of this book, and we shall be able the more easily to find our way. You will see that I suggest to you here that this book, like a great work of music, falls into six major movements of thought. In a way, each of them is self-contained, and yet, of course, they are related together to form the whole symphony of the work. In column one, you see, we have the initial vision of the Son of Man surrounded by seven golden lampstands that represent seven of the early Christian churches. He dictates a letter to each of those churches, and the record of it fills the first three chapters of the book. It is easy to see that that forms one major movement of thought, and to it we shall return this evening. Look immediately now, if you will, at the other columns. And you will notice first that they are all marked at the beginning of each movement by a singular and interesting fact. Heaven is open, or something is opened in heaven. In chapter four, verse one, column two, says John, I saw a door opened in heaven. Then in eight verse one, column three, he tells us that the seventh seal, after some interval, the seventh seal was opened, and there followed silence in heaven. In column four, at eleven nineteen, John says that at a certain stage, the temple of God in heaven was open. And in column five, at five fifteen, the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was open. And finally, at the beginning of movement six, nineteen eleven, John saw the stupendous sight as the heaven was opened, and there came forth a rider on a white horse, symbolizing our blessed coming Lord. Seven, uh, six, therefore, movements, and five of them concerned with the opening of God's heaven. Now let us notice another interesting thing, particularly in movements two to five. When heaven is opened, we are told that John saw various pieces of heavenly furniture, so to speak. In movement two, when heaven is opened, John is be- is given to see the throne of the Creator. In movement three, he is given to see the big altar, and then in turn the altar of incense in the divine presence. In movement four, it is the Ark of the Covenant that he beholds. Whereas in movement five, he sees seven angels with seven bowls of the holy ministry of the temple, and as they prepare to minister, smoke comes out from the glory of the Lord. Why is he shown these things? Let us relax for a moment and think. We've been talking of the fact that inevitably judgments of God must one day fall on this world. But before they do, God in his superlative grace, and if I may say so, reasonableness, allows us through his prophet to see into the very heaven of God. To see things from God's point of view, as God looks down upon our world. And as we do so, God will take us by the hand, so to speak, and say to us, now, my good sir, may I not tell you why my judgments must fall? Wise parents, when they have to discipline their children, so I'm told, on times find it, uh, a good thing to do, to explain to the child that father isn't acting as some giant that has lost his temper, but is doing it deliberately, of course, because it must be done. And a parent might well think it advisable to tell the child why it must be done. And here in this amazing book, before the judgments of God fall upon this world, God will invite you and me and take us by the hand and through the eyes of the apostle, show us his own very heaven and the sacred vessels in that heaven, and explain to us why it is inevitable that the judgments of God must come. God is no tyrant, you know. He doesn't lose his temper. When his judgments fall, it will be not be a question of God lashing out in blind almighty fury. His judgments are the other side of his character of eternal love. He condescends to our moral judgment to explain to us why those judgments must fall. Even so, it might still be gloomy, were it not for another thing in this same book. I wonder if you'll take your notes in hand again and look at the bottom of the columns. Once more, we leave column one. But now will you notice that all the other movements of thought are ended by some comment or other. The end of movement two, there is a comment, and one evening, God willing, we shall be considering it. A comment by one of the elders occupying one of the twenty four thrones in the very throne room of God. And as he comments, we shall discover that he is pointing out the wonderful salvation of God and the principles on which it works. So in all the paragraphs that follow in the movements of thought, whether it is the comment in movement three, or the song of praise that ends movement four, or the great response of hallelujahs in movement five, or the final comment by the angel and by our Lord Jesus himself in comment six, six. All of them together have this task. They will outline for us the principles of God's great salvation. Let me briefly sketch into you what I mean by that. Tomorrow, God willing, as we come to movement two, we shall be surveying the throne of the Almighty Creator in heaven. We shall hear the massed choirs of heaven constantly, day and night, praising their Creator and saying, Thou art worthy to receive the honor and the power, for thou hast made all things, and for thy will they were and were created. As we listen to the mass choirs of heaven, we shall discover why, of course, in the end, judgments must come. This world was made by the Creator, and it was made to do his will. The chaos of our world has arisen from the fact that we, his creatures, instead of serving his will, we have gone our own way. We have not necessarily in- engaged in unnatural vice, but we have gone our own way. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and forgetting and sometimes defying the will of our almighty creator. We have gone our own foolish, selfish way. God cannot wait forever. One day he shall rise up and claim that this world must at length be brought, if not by desire, then by force, to do the purpose for which he made it. We shall see how when the Lamb of God rises up to set loose the judgments of God that shall bring this world back to serve the will of its creator. There will be some men and women, and they, as they see the very throne of God in the heavens, and the heavens begin to depart, shall cry to the rocks to fall on them, and save them and hide them from the face of him that sits on the throne. Men and women, alas, that have lived out their lives in indifference to God and gone their own way and are found utterly unprepared when the judgments of the Creator fall. If that were the only prospect, it would be gloomy indeed. But even as John looks at it, we shall find tomorrow night one of the elders comes and accosting John says, John, see that great host over there. Yes, says John. Who are they, says the elder? Says John, to be sure, I wouldn't know. You tell me. The reply comes, these are they that have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white. In other words, they have found forgiveness through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And says the elder, therefore are they before the throne, for they found the only ground upon which a creature can stand if he is to stand accepted before God. Whatever age in the history of this earth we live in, we shall learn tomorrow there is but one basis of salvation. The rock of redemption ground. As it is in that movement too, so it shall prove all through the other movements. Against the background of God's coming judgments, will God in his mercy outline for us through this group of people or that, never mind who for the moment, he will outline to us the principles of his great salvation. And we can all see why he does it, can we not? He wants us to, in our day and generation, to find that salvation ourselves.