Christ our life and salvation (Quality: Average)

[0:00] In words I will venture to try and make a few remarks from, as the Lord may be pleased to help me, you will find in the first chapter of Revelation, the 17th and a part of the 18th verse.

[0:16] The 17th and a part of the 18th verses of the first chapter of Revelation. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.

[0:32] And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead.

[0:48] And behold, I live forevermore. Amen. Amen. How wonderfully God in his love and compassion to dear John in the Isle of Patmos, revealed unto him those things that are contained in the Revelation, that are too deep, for reasons lying to sound, or to fathom those things that are contained therein.

[1:32] We shall need more than mere notional knowledge. We shall want more than the thoughts of men.

[1:48] We shall need the inshine of the Holy Spirit to lead us into the depths that are contained in his word.

[2:10] I always feel somewhat apprehensive when I take a text or am led, I hope, to a text in Revelation.

[2:22] And yet there are times when we feel persuaded that God leadeth even to those things which human thought can never fathom nor understand.

[2:47] While God visited his servant in the Isle of Patmos. He was there for the word of God.

[3:01] He was there rejected of men. And I am sure that there are times when, even in our little experiences, which are very minute, to those things in God's word, and yet great, if God hath bestowed them upon us.

[3:34] But it hath been in our deepest trials and troubles that God in his love and compassion hath visited us.

[3:47] Indeed, I feel that trouble, tribulation, and sorrow is often a prelude to the sweet visits of God's mercy and love to our souls.

[4:08] Well, John then, he was in the Isle of Patmos when he received from God the revelation that he was commanded to write.

[4:26] And I believe that future generations might read. And also that there may be those who shall ask at God's hand that he would be pleased to reveal those things which they themselves cannot fathom or understand.

[4:57] well, I believe God's people are led to know a little of what he said here. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.

[5:16] if you, by precious faith, have a Christ revealed to you, there will be, I believe, falling before him.

[5:36] and I believe as one dead or as dead, rather, as it speaks here.

[5:51] So then, it implies, I feel, that we are brought into a fainting condition before him and it will be in and through and by the infact witness of our sinnership and our unworthiness that he should condescend to reveal himself to us to the eye of our faith.

[6:32] Well, there is a seeing him by faith. Have you, my dear friends, any of you, seen him by faith?

[6:46] As he in his love and compassion came here on earth that he might redeem your soul from the bottomless pit that he might redeem you from eternal and everlasting ruin.

[7:08] Have your eyes of your faith looked beyond your present condition your far-off state the every burden that may lay upon you and have had a face view of him who is able to do far more for you than you can ever begin to think.

[7:40] work. Well, if you have a face view of him, this will bring you to his feet. It will indeed. Oh, what a mercy to be brought to his dear feet.

[7:56] I wish I could get there. surely there are times when we come into a pathway where we can no more get to his feet than we can do any one thing for ourselves savingly.

[8:15] God he brings us there by his compassion and love brings us to his dear sacred field there to mourn because of our sins there endeavoring how to repent.

[8:39] I've been trying this the last few days to repent repent. But you can't, you know. It's not so easy as all that. God alone can bring us to repentance and he will.

[8:56] But it may be in a way that the flesh doesn't like. But he will bring us to repentance. And then when we see him, we shall fall at his feet as dead.

[9:17] Humble there before him as penitent sinners. But all must come here. There's no getting round repentance and expect to get to heaven.

[9:32] All must be brought to repentance and acknowledge their sins before God. and to feel their condition before him.

[9:48] There is no such thing as entering into heaven any other way. But through that path of godly sorrow, poor sin and repentance toward God, what an unspeakable mercy if you and I have been compelled to cry out at a sheer necessity unto God that he would be merciful unto us, that he would cleanse us from our iniquity and our sin and our vile house.

[10:33] The more and longer I live, some might not understand this quite perhaps what I'm going to say here, but I myself, I feel more violent, more filthy and more far off from God than ever before.

[10:55] Isn't that strange? That we should have to come into those paths. Then it is in this condition we need him to come.

[11:08] Oh, that thou wouldst revive us again. Oh, that thou wouldst come and renew unto us thy former loving kindnesses, that thou wouldst come unto me once more, as in the days of my first espousalance, when I went after thee in the wilderness, when thou was under me altogether above me, the chiefest among ten thousand, and now I'm in a cold and lifeless condition, far off from thee, feeling to have no religion, and feeling too, in this same condition, that should a moment come of my departure, I should be destitute.

[12:02] Well, my friend, this is a path I believe God brings his people in because they see in them they may be getting somewhat sleepy in their religion, in a leek, lukewarm state it may be, and a measure of indifference.

[12:29] Well, it's your mercy and mine he comes, in his love and compassion, stirs up the old nest, that we do not settle down with any satisfaction short of his return, or are you crying sinner, return unto my soul once more, though I have been the means of causing thee, to eye thy near face from me for the season, thou art merciful and long-suffering, condescend to hear my cry, come once more, is that your cry unto him, even as you walk this path?

[13:30] Well, the day will come if you are thus in that same condition, when he will come and show himself again, reveal himself again unto you, and I'm sure that you will fall at his feet as dead, as you will have no life in you.

[13:57] You may be like one whose bones are scattered to the graves mowers, even as when one cleaveth would. You may be like one, as is described in the valley of the dry bones, as they lay in the open valley, though I know that's applicable unto the soul being brought forth in the darkness and the light, but there is also an experience of it, that we lay in this valley here below, which we are passing through, each one of us.

[14:41] But you know the time will come again, I believe, when there will be a shaking among these bones, and there will be indeed again that the knowledge, that bone come into his bone, and flesh upon it, and skin upon it, and then that blessed breath, that breeze and the water, the breath of life under God in heaven, how we may have some evidence, as the word says there, son of man, these are the whole house of Israel.

[15:23] Oh, what a mercy if you and I are among them, through the divine witness of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that by his covenant mercy and blessing, he's placed us as poor, destitute sinners, far off by wicked works, into that place where we breathe even a different air to what we once did.

[15:52] and when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid his right hand upon me, so that God in his love and compassion stretches forth his right hand and laid it upon us, that same arm, that mighty arm, that was stretched forth to snatch us as a brain from hell, the same strong arm which knows no change, that saved us in our made career, which brought us to feel and come before him, even at his feet is dead, put forth that right hand upon us again, and holds us fast that we cannot stray beyond the limits of his love and compassion toward us.

[17:07] well, I'm sure if God left us, we should indeed stray beyond all limits, but he does in his love and compassion come and edge up our way and brings again those things to bear upon us, that we are brought to acknowledge our sins and our condition before him.

[17:41] Well, and he laid his right hand upon me. Well, there is a strength, a strength of his hand that holds us, holds us fast, that we are held up in every trying dispensation, in every trouble, that were he not for his love in holding us up, we should sink where hope and mercy could never come.

[18:19] He laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, fear not. It's the part I wish to try and come to here, fear not.

[18:35] You know, there are many, I feel, that have a religion, that have no doubts or fears. Well, we know there are thousands in religion today that have no doubts or fears.

[18:54] Well, what a mercy that we have preserved from that path. we have nothing to gloat over. We have nothing in our souls whatsoever that we've been made to differ.

[19:10] And this will not bring animosity in our hearts against any, God forbid. But I'll tell you what it will do. It will make us amazed that ever God, in his love compassion, opened our blind eyes to see that there is but one way and that God's people are a fearing people.

[19:40] That's very definite in God's word. For God has spoken so many fear nots and one fear not is very comforting if it be but applied.

[19:55] It will be that vacation of it. But nevertheless it's in God's word, fear not, little flock, it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

[20:09] and so it is a little flock. It's a mercy to be one of them, isn't it? One of those that have heard his voice.

[20:23] My sheep hear my voice and so they hear it. I believe not only in calling them by grace but they hear his voice in every trial, every trouble, every difficulty, every trying dispensation is voice.

[20:51] Oh, what a mercy to know it and to hear it and to move and act accordingly when we hear it. Oh, I have, I hope, tried to come away from many things of land.

[21:11] For I know that the time is shortly coming when we shall need something more than a sandy foundation to stand upon. And how I have tried to flee this and flee the other.

[21:28] But oh, my friends, we have to mourn, do we not, of our wretched descendants. The more I strove against sin's power, says the poet, I sinned and stumbled yet the more.

[21:48] I wish I could hear the other, till late I heard my savior say, come hither so, I am the one. Oh, I wish I could know more of the second part of that for us.

[22:01] But you know, the more we strive sometimes to live unto God and to do those things that are rightly saved, we find our besetments are such that more than a match for us.

[22:22] Well, they are a part of our old flesh and the old man of sin. But you know, we are not to look at it in that way to make an excuse before God.

[22:35] Our first parents attempted that, to make an excuse before God that they might receive his favor. Sin must be punished, sinner.

[22:47] I say again, sin must be punished. And may we have some humble hope that our dear savior on our behalf was punished for our sin.

[23:06] I say that reverently and rightly. If he hasn't, we shall be punished forever and ever in a never-ending hell. That's certain. What a mercy then if we can look beyond our present condition death.

[23:24] As we may feel the burden and weight of our heart departures, our forgiveness of him, and also the many vile things that transpire in our wretched hearts.

[23:44] hearts. I'm sure that this particular path is not always known to the same extent in others, though they're God's people, but some of us find we've got a violent heart, a filthy heart.

[24:08] May I just say here at this particular point, when I try to meditate this morning, it seems to be my path often, Satan seems an enemy to me in that way, the more I try to meditate upon God's word this morning, before I left my bedroom, oh how the vileness of hell itself seemed to have all its weight upon me.

[24:36] I don't speak about these things you know around me, but I say it seems as though all the floodgates of hell were brought out against me, to infuse into my poor mind many things that were not according unto one's desires.

[24:58] Well, you know, it's not an easy thing to have to have a Sabbath before us to speak God's word in that condition. Well, we need him to come with a fear not.

[25:14] We need him to come with a fear not to overthrow these things that we do not fear them, that we may commit our old case into his hand, all our affairs, all that concerns us, so that we may know something of that love of is in preserving us and keeping us from those things which are within us.

[25:44] Sure mercy in mind if they are kept within us and not break forth in all our heinousness, fear not them.

[25:55] if there's one here full of fear, wondering as to their condition, well, then God in his love and compassion bid you fear not.

[26:13] when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead and he laid his right hand upon me saying unto me fear not.

[26:33] You see when he says fear not to our hearts how then how we are able to look unto him for his health and for his deliverance indeed.

[26:51] I am the first and the last. He is the first then and the last in all things. He was the first as he lay in the bosom of the father co-equal and co-eternal with the father before all worlds.

[27:14] He was indeed he was first and he is the last and so then he will be that one that will be the last when he comes again in all his greatness and his glory when the world shall come to an end and he in his love and mercy will gather his elect unto himself and that to be forever and ever with him in eternity.

[27:47] well he's not only the first and the last in that sense but he's the first and the last in our religion.

[28:04] It must be him who begins our religion to bring us into the knowledge of our condition before him and he will be the last in that time when he delivers us ultimately from the power of death and receive us unto himself.

[28:36] Now the verse here the 18th is what I wanted to try and come to. I am he that liveth I am he that liveth O what a mercy it is that he liveth that while you and I may feel much death in our souls while we may feel far off from him yet he ever lives he liveth above where unto we may come unto him in prayer he ever lives to make intercession for his people he lives above that you and I may come pour out our cries before him oh how we cry unto him that he would have mercy upon us that he would deliver us from all our iniquity and all our sin that he would once more come and renew unto us his four beloved kindnesses and deliver us from the shackles that hold us fast and when we feel under that bondage held fast by him then how we need him to come again and grant us that we may know that he lives by the power of the spirit in our hearts and he causes us to cry out again and again from with a lamentable cry not just with the lift but from the heart

[30:41] God be merciful to a mere sinner sinners can say and only they how precious is the saviour well I wish I would feel he was precious as I have done in the past sometimes you know he does bring that to bear upon us the heavens are as brass and the earth iron sometimes he seems to encase us as it were in the iron bars and with brazen gates peace I wish I could come forth but you know we are in God's hands and he alone can bring us forth in this condition oh may we plead with him as a dear poet even in that prayer which we read in one of our hymns wrestling prayer can wonders do bring relief in deeper straits prayer can force a passage through iron bars and brazen gates oh then that he would come and once more liberate the stammering tongue that he would once more come and break us under the iron bars and cause the brazen gates to fly open before him oh that he would come and let us feel once more the blessed freedom there is in the knowledge of him that he is that one that ever liveth well he says

[32:47] I am he that liveth and withstand so that I feel here Christ is God is speaking with regards to the death of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ well you know he died the just for the unjust he entered into that path that you and I might receive a full atonement for sin oh that we might have faith to penetrate into the depths of the agonies of our dear Saviour as he died upon the cross to save the vilest that we could enter into that blessed truth that he bowed his dear sacred hand in sorrow that you and I might lift up our heads in peace before him how then that he died how that sinners might live he offered up himself then a living sacrifice unto the father and in offering up offering up offering up himself he did present the whole church as being saved by his atonement before the father so as he died then for sin he was dead for three days and three nights nights you know how when he was here on earth how they desired a sign for men he said oh wicked and adulterous generation no signs to be given save the sign of jones jones jones jones the prophet who was three days and three nights in the fish's belly so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the bowels of the earth so our dear saviour in his love and compassion entered into the tomb according unto his own word there he might bear our sins away into the sepulchre to be buried there forever and ever can you and

[35:48] I have any humble hope that your sin and mine were buried in the sepulchre that the father remembers them no more and yet one might say well why is it that they seem to hang over me now as a heavy weight well can it be that this made more of a weight to you as you view him as your suffering lord and as the one who died the just and the unjust and ended into the tomb when we think too on the resurrection more when dear

[36:52] Mary was first of the sepulcher you've heard me say this before but I often think of it and I think it will bear repeating why do you think she was there first because she loved most that's why the father the father did love and mercy upheld him he did indeed and when you know on the cross he cried out at his finish and gave up the ghost so it was a prelude to that final conquering when he rose triumphant and there too revealed himself unto his dear disciples in that upper room oh

[39:24] I would desire that before his days he might come to us and reveal himself out to us I never knew a day when I needed it more I am he that lived and was dead well then he lives just going back here for a moment he lives then forever above having wisdom triumphant over sin ascended up on high led captivity captive received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also and hath entered into the presence of his father there to present his church as complete and holy and without sport forever and ever

[40:36] I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live forever more well my friends I've only touched on the fringe of these things I feel I must give over may the Lord be pleased that his blessing amen