THE SALUTATION
Revelation 3:14, "These things saith the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the Creation of God."
My, isn't that the most wonderful description of the attributes of our lovely Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? These words just make me want to shout. They bring such a spirit of reality into my heart. Just reading them without even waiting for a thorough revelation of the Spirit upon them thrills me.
Jesus is giving us this description of Himself in relation to the last age. The days of grace are winding up. He has looked from the first century right through to the twentieth, and told us all things concerning these ages. Before He reveals the characteristics of the last age to us, He gives us one final look at His own gracious and supreme Deity. This is the caagsone revelation of Himself.
Thus saith the "AMEN". Jesus is the Amen of God. Jesus is the "So Let It Be" of God. Amen stands for finality. It stands for approval. It stands for prevailing promise. It stands for unchanging promise. It stands for the seal of God.
I want you to watch this carefully now and see something really sweet and beautiful. I said this is His end-time revelation of Himself. When the day of grace closes, then the millennium comes very shortly thereafter, doesn't it? Well, read with me Isaiah 65:16-19. "That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from Mine eyes. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in My people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying." This is about New Jerusalem. This is the millennium. But as we go into the millennium, hear what He says about being a certain kind of God, Verse 16, "That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth." Yes, that is true, but the real translation is not "God of truth". It is "God of the AMEN". So we read it, "shall bless himself in the God of the AMEN, and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of the AMEN; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from My eyes. For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create, for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her; nor the voice of crying," Hallelujah. Here is Jehovah of the Old Testament, "the God of the Amen". Here is Jesus of the New Testament, "the God of the Amen". Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord thy God is ONE God. There it is again, the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New. "Hear, Oh, Israel the Lord thy God is ONE God." The New Testament does not reveal ANOTHER God, it is a further revelation of the ONE AND SAME GOD. Christ did not come down to make Himself known. He did not come to reveal the Son. He came to reveal and make known the Father. He never talked about two Gods; He talked about ONE God. And now in this last age, we have come back to the caagsone revelation, the most important revelation of Godhead in the whole Bible, that is, JESUS IS GOD, HE AND THE FATHER ARE ONE: THERE IS ONE GOD, AND HIS NAME IS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.
He is the God of the Amen. He never changes. What He does never changes. He says it, and it stands fast. He does it, and it is done forever. None can take from what He says or add to it. So let it be. Amen. So let it be. Aren't you glad that you serve that kind of a God? You can know exactly where you are with Him at any time and all the time. He is the AMEN God and won't change.
"These things saith the AMEN." I like that. It means that whatever He said is final. It means that whatever He said to the first age and to the second and to all ages about His own true church and about the false vine is exactly right and it won't change. It means that what He started out with in Genesis, He will finish in Revelation. He has to for He is the Amen, SO LET IT BE. Now we can see again why the devil hates the Books of Genesis and Revelation. He hates the truth. He knows the truth will prevail. He knows what his end will be. How he fights that. But we are on the winning side. We (I mean the believers of His Word, only) are on the Amen side.
"These things saith the Faithful and True Witness." Now I want to show you what I find in the thought of "faithful". You know we often talk about a great unchanging God, Whose Word does not change. And when we speak of Him after that manner we often get a view of Him that makes Him seem very impersonal. It is as though God made the whole universe and all the laws that pertain to it and then stood back and became a great impersonal God. It is as though God made a way of salvation for lost mankind, that way being the cross, and then when the death of Christ has atoned for our sins, and His resurrection gave us an open door to Him, God just folded His arms and stood back. It is as if we majored in believing in a great Creator, Who having created, lost personal interest in His creation. Now I say that is how too many people are apt to think. But that is wrong thinking, for God is GOVERNING IN THE AFFAIRS OF MEN RIGHT NOW. HE IS BOTH CREATOR AND SUSTAINER. Colossians 1:16-17. "For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." He is a Sovereign God. By His own counsel He purposed the plan of the salvation of His own elect which He foreknew. The Son died upon the cross to establish the means of Salvation and the Holy Spirit carefully executes the will of the Father. He is working all things at this moment according to the purpose of His own will. He is right in the midst of it all. He is in the midst of His church. This great Creator, Saviour-God is faithfully working amongst His own right now as the great Shepherd of the sheep. His very existence is for His own. He loves them and cares for them. His eye is ever upon them. When the Word says that "your lives are hid with Christ in God" it means exactly what it says. Oh, I am so glad that my God abides faithful. He is true to Himself, He won't lie. He is true to the Word, He will back it up. He is true to us, He will lose none of us, but raise us up in the last day. I am glad that I am resting in His faithfulness. Philippians 1:6. "Being confident of this very thing, that He Which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the Day of Jesus Christ."
"He is the True Witness." Now this word, true, is the same word we saw back there in Revelation 3:7. You recall that it does not mean 'true' as in contrast with 'false.' It has a richer, deeper meaning by far. It expresses perfect realization in contrast to partial realization. Now back in the Philadelphian Age, the coming of the Lord was drawing nigh. What great love that age manifested for Him. It reminds me of those beautiful words of I Peter 1:8, "Whom having not seen ye love, in Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." With them we rejoice also. We haven't seen Him, but we have felt Him. We know Him now as much as our limiting senses can let us. But one day it will be face to face. That is for this age. He is coming at the end of this age. Partial realization will be made PERFECT REALIZATION, COMPLETED REALIZATION. Hallelujah! We have been looking through a glass darkly, but soon it will be face to face. We have been going from glory to glory, but soon it will be right in the glory; and in HIS GLORY WE'LL SHINE. WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM, WONDROUSLY LIKE HIM, JESUS OUR SAVIOUR DIVINE! Isn't that wonderful? We are complete in Him. That is true. He would not lie to us about that. But one day we will be changed in the atoms. We will put on immortality. We will be all swallowed up in life. Then we will REALIZE REALIZATION.
"He is the Faithful and True Witness." Now we think of that word, 'witness.' Well, that word is the one we get the word 'martyr' from. The Bible speaks of Stephen and Antipas and others as martyrs. They were martyrs; they were also witnesses. Jesus was a faithful martyr. The Holy Ghost is the witness to that. The Spirit bears record of that. The world hated Jesus. It killed Him. But God loved Him and He went to the Father. The proof that He went to the Father is that the Holy Ghost came. If Jesus had not been received of the Father, the Spirit would not have come. Read it in John 16:7-11. "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on Me: Of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." The presence of the Holy Spirit in this world instead of Jesus being here, proves that Jesus was righteous and went to the Father. But it also says in John 14:18. "I will not leave you COMFORTLESS, I will come to you." He sent the Comforter. He WAS THE COMFORTER. He came back in SPIRIT upon the true church. He is the faithful and true WITNESS in the midst of the church. But one day He is going to come back in flesh again. He will prove then Who is the only wise potentate, - it is He, Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory.
Faithful and True Witness, Creator and Sustainer, Perfect Realization, the Amen of God.
Oh, how I love Him, how I adore Him, Jesus the Son of God.
I want to close my thoughts on this part of the salutation with these words of II Corinthians 1:18-22. "But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, Who was preached among you by us, even by me and Sylvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in Him was yea. For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now He Which establisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."
"The Beginning Of The Creation Of God." That is Who the Lord Jesus says He is. But those words don't mean exactly as they sound to us. Just taking them the way they sound has made some people (in fact multitudes of people) get the idea that Jesus was the first creation of God, making Him lower than Godhead. Then this first creation created all the rest of the universe and whatsoever it contains. But that is not right. You know that doesn't line up with the rest of the Bible. The words are, "He is the BEGINNER or AUTHOR of the creation of God." Now we know for a surety that Jesus is God, very God. He is the Creator. John 1:3 "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made." He is the One of Whom it is said, Gen. 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth". Also it says in Ex. 20:11, "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day." See, there is no doubt that He is the Creator. He was the Creator of a FINISHED PHYSICAL CREATION.
Surely we can see what these words mean now. To have any other interpretation would mean that God created God. How could God be created when He, Himself, is the Creator?
But now He is standing in the midst of the Church. As He stands there revealing Who He is in this last age, He calls Himself the "Author of the creation of God". This is ANOTHER CREATION. This has to do with the church. This is a special designation of Himself. He is the CREATOR of that church. The heavenly Bridegroom created his own bride. As the Spirit of God, He came down and created in the virgin Mary the cells from which His body was born. I want to repeat that. He created the very cells in the womb of Mary for that body. It was not enough for the Holy Spirit to simply give life to a human ovum supplied by Mary. That would have been sinful mankind producing a body. That would not have produced the "Last Adam". Of Him it was said "Lo a body hast Thou (Father) prepared for Me." God (not Mary) provided that body. Mary was the human incubator and she carried that Holy Child and brought Him to birth. It was a God-man. He was the Son of God. He was of the NEW creation. Man and God met and joined; He was the first of this new race. He is the head of this new race. Colossians 1:18, "And He is the head of the body, the church: Who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things He might have the pre-eminence." II Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold all things are become new." There you can see that though man was of the OLD ORDER or creation, now in UNION WITH CHRIST, he has become the NEW CREATION of God. Ephesians 2:10, "For we are His workmanship CREATED IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS unto good works." Ephesians 4:24, "And that ye put on the NEW MAN which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." This New Creation is not the old creation made over, or it could not be called a new creation. This is exactly what it says it is, "NEW CREATION". It is another creation, distinct from the old one. No longer is He dealing by ways of the flesh. That was how He dealt with Israel. He chose Abraham, and of Abraham's issue through the godly Isaac line. But now out of every kindred, tribe and nation He has purposed a new creation. He is the first of that creation. He was God created in the form of man. Now by His Spirit He is creating many Sons unto Himself. God the creator, creating Himself a part of His creation. This is the true revelation of God. This was His purpose. This purpose took form through election. That is why He could look right down to the last age when all would be over and see Himself still in the midst of the church, as author of this New Creation of God. His Sovereign power brought it to pass. By His own decree He elected the members of this New Creation. He predestinated them to the adoption of children according to the good pleasure of His will. By His omniscience and omnipotence He brought it to pass. How else could He know that He would be standing in the midst of the church receiving glory from His brethren if He did not make sure? All things He knew, and all things He worked out according to what He knew in order that His purpose and good pleasure be brought to pass. Ephesians 2:11 "In Whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." Hallelujah! Aren't you glad that you belong to Him! 7ch047.htm
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