We are today occupied with the resurrection side
of the cross.
This afternoon I am going to ask you
to consider with me some of the titles
of the written laws.
The resurrection titles of the Lord Jesus in
the book of Revelation, chapter 1.
And thus for John to the seven churches
which are in Asia.
Grace to you and peace from him which
is and which was and which is to
come.
And from the seven spirits which are before
his throne.
And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the
firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of
the kings of the earth.
There you have three titles of the Lord
in resurrection.
That they relate to him in resurrection is
quite clear from the context where he himself
says to John.
I am the living one, I became dead,
I am alive forevermore.
Three titles, the faithful witness, the firstborn of
the dead, the ruler of the kings of
the earth.
Now it is important to note two things
as we advance to this.
Firstly, this is the book of the revelation
or the unveiling of Jesus Christ.
So the first sentence declares.
Secondly, it is the revelation of him as
exercising authority and judgment.
Firstly, in the church.
Secondly, in the nations.
And thirdly, in the kingdom of Satan.
Those three things comprehend the whole of this
book.
This authority which he is here revealed as
exercising is itself based upon three things.
First, what he has proved himself to be
in person, in incarnation.
Secondly, what he has become in triumph over
death.
And thirdly, what he is in exaltation and
divine vindication.
At a glance you will see that those
three things are but an exposition of the
three titles.
What he has proved himself to be in
person, in incarnation, the faithful witness.
Taking him right up to the cross and
into all the experience of the cross.
What he has become in triumph over death,
the firstborn of the dead.
And what he is in exaltation by divine
vindication, the ruler of the kings of the
earth.
All his authority and judgment is based upon
those three things or upon what he has
proved himself to be in person.
We take these, as far as time will
allow, one by one.
The faithful witness.
The testimony in incarnation that is in his
person while here on the earth.
Now a witness is the embodiment of the
truth.
If he is a true witness, if he
has the right to be called a witness,
he himself should be the very embodiment of
the truth.
Jesus was that.
Jesus as the faithful witness was a, we
may say, the faithful representation of God's mind
concerning man.
What God intended man to be.
What the whole race of men had failed
to be.
Jesus became that.
A faithful representation of God's life in the
creation of man.
That is how we must look at him
while here on the earth.
Not just following his steps, noting his words
and his actions, being interested or even fascinated
with his teachings and with his mighty works.
But looking deeper, deeper into his heart, into
his mind.
His whole mentality.
His whole spirit.
Looking deeper to see what kind of a
man this is.
What comes out of the very nature of
this man.
All the reactions that he makes to all
the play of conditions and trials and sufferings
and disappointments.
All that he meets in this world.
And all that he meets in men.
All that he meets in his life circumstances.
And how he behaves.
And what spirit he shows.
What comes out from the inward man.
What kind of a man is this?
I think we can sum up the life
of the Lord Jesus here in three ways.
Perfect love.
Perfect love to God his Father.
That is not only seen in the things
that he says about it and as to
it.
But it is seen in his relationship to
the Father all the way through.
A perfect love.
And about you, if he had been other
than he was, he might have had some
questions about the Father.
Why his lot should have been what it
was.
Why this and why that from infancy to
the cross.
Why he was called upon to do this.
To endure this.
Why he was so tried with the very
men whom he said the Father had given
him.
He said, those whom thou hast given me.
Now, you might have looked at those men
if you had been other than Christ himself.
This is what you've given me.
What I've got to put up with.
These are what you've given me.
You see what I mean?
But at no point, at no time, under
no circumstance, suffering, adversity, trial, provocation, disappointment, do
you find a cloud coming over his love
for the Father.
And what shall we say about his love
for them?
It needs to be a perfect love, doesn't
it?
But here's the declaration.
Having loved his own which were in the
world, he loved them to the end.
To the end.
That's the love that never faileth, that never
gives up, that never disappears.
It might have broken down many times.
Here is perfect love.
And what about the world?
What about the world?
I mean the world of sinful, weak, evil,
persecuting mankind.
The world.
I'm not speaking about the world system which
he positively hated and repudiated.
But the world of man.
That world that God so loved.
Well, he gave himself for that world.
And in its worst representatives, its worst representatives,
who were exercising their power for his utter
destruction, to slaughter him.
No, not too strong a word.
He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter.
To slaughter the Son of God.
He said, Father, forgive them.
Perfect love.
Here's a man that God intended men to
be.
And here's the man to the likeness of
whom God will work to have all men
in his kingdom.
Perfect love.
The faithful witness.
Perfect faith.
It's quite clear that his life from its
very beginning right on through to the end
was placed deliberately by God upon a basis
of faith.
In all material and temporal matters, his was
a life of faith.
But far, far more deeply and testingly than
in the temporal, in the spiritual realm, his
was a life.
You've only got to sit down and think
for a little while about how far your
faith would carry you under the conditions of
his life.
You will discover, I'm quite sure, that you
won't go very far with him.
Your faith won't stand up to very much
what came upon him.
If we understood all that was going on
in this necessity for faith, one who had,
through past eternity, never had to live by
faith at all, never had to live by
faith, he'd had all that heaven can give,
its riches, its honor, its glory, its servants
to wait upon him to fulfill his behest
of the word, never had to live by
faith.
It was all sight, it was all possession,
and now emptied of all that.
You know, it's one thing if you've never
had anything else.
It's not so difficult if you've never had
anything else to go without.
But if you've had it all and suddenly
find yourself in a position where you just
cannot, cannot do what you did before, you
haven't got it to do with, you may
not in any case do it, you're morally
bound not to do it.
You have accepted a life and a course
and a ministry which forbid you to draw
upon those other resources and compels you to
live wholly out from another, out from God
in all things.
It's a big changeover.
And this is faith, this is faith.
His faith was a perfect faith.
And that is how God meant man to
be.
It is just at that point that the
first man broke down.
He did not implicitly trust God.
Perfect love and perfect faith and perfect
obedience.
Perfect obedience.
We need not dwell upon it.
We know how at all times and in
all things, having committed himself to the will
of his Father, he fought right through on
that, not my will, thy will, thy will,
thy will, to the end.
And through all, and fought in all it
was, Paul is right when he says he
became obedient, even unto death.
Yes, the death of the cross.
Perfect in these three things.
And that is how he was the faithful
witness Yes, to God's thought concerning man, he
was a perfect representation of God's mind.
In that way, he was a faithful witness.
Then he was a faithful witness to the
truth.
It's a word that was very often on
his mouth, on his lips.
The truth.
Faithful and true witness, he is called in
another place.
In this book of the Revelation.
Faithful witness to the truth.
There was faithfulness about his witness.
His witness as to the truth of man.
He covered up nothing.
He made no pretense that man is better
than he is.
He was faithful in his witness as to
what man is.
We might be afraid to do that.
Or we might think it not politic.
We certainly would know that it would be
unpopular to speak the truth about man.
But Jesus was faithful in this.
And the uncovering and the exposure of the
truth about man.
He was faithful to the truth about God.
He was faithful in his witness to the
truth about sin.
Sin.
And he was faithful in his witness to
the truth about Satan.
He does not hedge this matter.
He does not hesitate to uncover the devil.
He exposes him.
Drags him right out into the light.
Tells you exactly what he is.
He's a liar from the beginning.
He's a murderer.
A faithful witness to the truth.
Why?
Because he was the truth.
His nature was the truth.
And there we must stay to use more
of our time.
It is a tremendously important thing in relation
to the power of resurrection.
To authority.
To government.
To what is here revealed as to Christ
in resurrection.
It is a basic, a fundamental thing that
there shall be the truth.
The true witness.
You see, his authority, his judgment, his government,
his everything.
His right, his right to call the churches
into question.
His right to judge the nations.
His right to deal with the kingdom of
Satan.
Is based upon this one thing.
That he is the truth.
He is true.
There can be no comeback from church or
world or Satan.
Which would find some point in him that
was a flaw.
That was not true.
That would upset his whole authority, his right
to judge.
It is all resting upon the fact that
he is true.
Dear friends, you will at once pass in
mind from him to ourselves, to the church.
The weakness, failure to register.
The lack of authority, the absence of authority.
And all this terrible state of weakness.
That the world can point at the church,
point the finger.
And that the church has not the influence
and power with the world.
And that Satan can stand and hold the
ground and almost laugh at the church.
Is very largely due to the fact that
the truth is not here.
It is not true.
It is just not true.
Many of the things that you say may
be true in themselves, but they are not
true in you.
Many of the things that you profess, while
in themselves they may be correct, they are
not true of you.
There is a gap between what you profess
and say and claim and yourself.
It is just not real in your own
case.
Therefore, your whole position is given away.
You see what I am getting at?
This is a very important matter for witness,
for influence, for effectiveness.
For standing before God and standing before man,
before the world.
Standing before Satan.
What a large place God has given to
this matter of truth.
He is himself the God of truth.
He is shown in his word to be
very jealous over the truth.
He is said to desire truth in the
inward part.
He holds all lies, we are told, in
abomination.
He has confined all liars to the lake
of fire, so the word says.
He excludes from the city, the New Jerusalem,
everything that make it a lie.
It has no place within.
Jesus himself is called the truth.
He called himself the truth.
And here he is the faithful and true
witness.
While on the other side, Satan.
At the other extreme.
The whole other realm altogether is called the
liar and the father of lies.
The whole structure of creation collapsed when the
lie, the falsehood, entered in.
It was that time that all that beautiful
structure just went to pieces.
It was all because of a lie.
A lie came in.
And if there is a lie in anything,
that's what's going to happen to it.
Sooner or later it is going to mean
the collapse, the disintegration of any structure if
there's a lie in it.
The result of that lie entering at the
beginning was that man himself became a lie.
Man became a falsehood.
It's not just that there was untruth in
him.
He himself became a falsehood.
He is a deceived creature.
There's a lie in his very nature.
He is not the true thing that God
made him and intended him to be.
He is a misrepresentation of God's thought about
man.
There's a lie not only in his nature
and constitution, but there is a lie in
his life and in his work.
He hopes and he believes.
He works and he strives.
And it is all in vain.
It is all in vain.
The wise man said that he had explored
every realm of knowledge and learning.
He had sought out every secret law.
He had made it his business to go
into every realm to discover its secrets and
to make himself acquainted and familiar with all
things.
With all things.
And he said, when I've done it, and
you know, he did get quite a lot,
the Queen of the South came to see
his wisdom and the wisdom of Sovereign Solomon
is proverbial if it is not fabulous.
He got a long way in this.
And when he had done it all, made
it his life business, he said, all is
vanity.
All is vanity.
There's a lie in it all.
There's a falsehood in the whole thing.
Disappointment awaits the best that man can do.
Disappointment is his destiny.
That's the end.
Man thinks that he's free, but he is
a prisoner.
He thinks that he knows, but he's a
fool.
That's not too strong a word.
In the light of things today, you have
to say of what fools men are.
The wisest and the cleverest and the strongest
are the fools they are.
They've missed the way.
He thinks he knows.
He's a fool.
He thinks he can do and he does
a great many things.
But where does it end?
In the hydrogen bomb.
Terror.
Fear.
In all the earth.
Apprehension.
Holding of the breath.
Men at their wit's end.
What to do?
That's what he can do.
The end of his wonderful, wonderful work.
All that he can do only leads to
more problems.
Still more problems.
He builds on sand.
Not on rock.
His whole world is run by lies.
Make-believe.
Pretence.
Falsehood.
One of the rarest commodities in this world
is downright honesty.
In politics.
In industry.
In commerce.
In business.
In society.
Downright honesty.
Man can only succeed in this world if
he misrepresents or deceives or pretends.
I speak quite generally.
If he mixes things a bit.
He exaggerates a bit.
What about all our advertisements?
What a marvellous, marvellous world this would be
if a modicum of what he said in
our advertisements were really true.
Why, we should have reached utopia.
We should all have immortal bodies.
Well, the golden age would come if only
half a dozen advertisements were true.
It's true.
That's a fact, you know.
You just read them and of course you
read them and you catch it and go
off and buy this, that food or medicine
or something and you try it out and
afterward, well, it hasn't done the thing that
it was advertised to do.
But man can only run his world like
that.
He can only get on.
He can only make money.
He can only get any success by these
appearances and exaggerations.
There's a lie, you see, somewhere in the
whole creation.
And the lie has got him to religion.
The charge that our Lord laid against the
scribes and the Pharisees was, in a horrible
word, a horrible word, hypocrites.
Play actors.
Pretenders.
Those who are making beliefs.
Hypocrites.
False.
Yes, the outside of the platter, washed.
Underneath, the sepulchre painted white, but inside, rotting
bones.
The Lord saw through.
It's a horrible story, isn't it, this story
of man's deceit and lying nature.
Over against that, you see, Jesus said, I
am the truth.
I came to bear witness of the truth.
One of his last words of the cross
was a statement to Pilate that he had
come to bear witness of the truth.
Pilate was so unfamiliar with that commodity that
he said, well, what is truth?
I'm not familiar with that.
I don't know anything about that.
What is it?
What is that thing you call truth?
This world doesn't know what that is.
Truth.
The true witness.
You see, it's a great spiritual, fundamental law.
That is why I said it's so important
to note these things at the beginning, that
this is an unveiling of Jesus in authority
and in government and in just judgment, because
it rests upon this.
No one has a right to exercise authority
or judgment at all.
No one has a right to be in
a place of government unless this can be
said of them.
They are true.
Absolutely true.
Through and through.
There's no lie in them.
There's no falsehood in them.
There is no question about them.
There are no two things in them that
contradict each other.
Dear friends, that is why the Lord Jesus
came to the churches beginning.
He started there, you see.
Judgment begins at the house of God, and
he began this whole exercise of his authority
with the churches, with the seven churches, symbolic,
of course, of the whole church.
And he stands before, and he is really
saying, look here, you're weak.
You have failed.
Your testimony has broken down.
The world is not feeling the impact of
your presence.
Powers of evil are making inroads into your
life, the churches, and it is because, this
is the implication, it is because there's something
false there.
Something false there.
You notice how again and again in his
messages to the churches he raises this question
of falsehood and truth.
You have failed.
Your testimony has broken down.
The world is not feeling the impact of
your presence.
Powers of evil are making inroads into your
life, the churches, and it is because, this
is the implication, it is because there's something
false there.
Something false there.
You notice how again and again in his
messages to the churches he raises this question
of falsehood and truth.
When things are true, oh, it is important
for it to be like this about us,
that we are real, that we are real,
that we are genuine, that what we say
is true, what we pretend or profess is
true of us.
It must be like that for spiritual power
in this world, if only the church could
recover itself from the weakness resulting from a
false position.
Something that is not really true, as the
truth is in Jesus.
If our representation of God's mind were more
exactly according to that mind, what power there
would be, what power there would be.
But as I said, as the creation at
the beginning collapsed and went to pieces because
a lie entered in, it's an abiding and
abiding fact that wherever there is anything that
is questionable, doubtful, not true, not real, there
will be sooner or later spiritual collapse.
We have to be built upon the foundation
of the truth, the truth.
Now this so much explains, does it not,
the very title of the Holy Spirit that
Jesus gave him, when he, the Spirit of
Truth, is come.
The Spirit of Truth.
The Holy Spirit is that.
He is exact.
He is particular.
He sees through everything.
And if you and I walk in the
Spirit, we shall be very true, we shall
be very real.
There will be nothing that is doubtful and
false about us.
We shall be checked up on everything that
may be an exaggeration, may be an exaggeration,
it may be a pretense, a make-believe,
anything that is not true, that is false.
The Holy Spirit will check us up on
that.
Not because he delights to bring us into
judgment, but simply because it is so very
important for the building of that which is
going to stand, abide and go through and
go right through to the end and come
out triumphant at the end.
It is so important that right from the
foundation the thing should be true.
The Lord will take us down, take us
down, take us down, all to pieces and
bring us right down to the bottom in
order to begin with what is true, if
there is a superstructure that is unsafe because
it is mixed or because it is not
true.
And we ought to be thankful to the
Lord that he does that.
I am sure we would say, Lord, let
there be no falsehood in my position.
No untruth in what I profess.
There should be nothing that is not absolutely
real in what people think about me.
Very important.
You see, the Lord Jesus stands as he
does and as he may to judge and
to be the measure because he is the
true witness, the true witness.
That is, he is the embodiment of the
truth.
Now that is a stronger word.
It is a searching word.
It is not perhaps a very inspiring and
uplifting word.
But you see, after all, this is a
title of the risen Lord.
The title of the risen Lord.
Why did God raise him from the dead?
Why could he be raised from the dead?
God won't raise a lie.
God will never even resuscitate a falsehood.
He was raised because he was the true
witness.
He had, in his own person, borne a
true testament to his Father and to the
thoughts of his Father.
It is a matter of life whether there
is truth, you see.
Life can never go alongside of anything that
is not true.
Life demands the truth.
We leave that then and go to the
second of the titles.
The firstborn of the dead.
What he has become in triumph over death.
This phrase, firstborn, is used, as you probably
know, quite a number of times in the
New Testament.
In Romans 8.29 we have it that
he may be the firstborn among many brethren.
The idea is here again and again in
the New Testament, in that great resurrection chapter
of 1 Corinthians 15.
It's there again, Christ is risen, the first,
the firstborn from among the dead.
A very interesting reference to this, which impressed
me very much because I admit that I
had not noticed it.
Or it hadn't struck me, very possibly, before
in Acts chapter 26.
There is a great significance attached to it,
Acts 26 and verse 23.
Here is Paul making his defense before Festus
and the others.
And this is what he says.
How that the Christ must suffer and how
that he first, by the resurrection of the
dead, should proclaim life, both to the people
and to the Gentiles.
He first, by the resurrection of the dead,
the first witness, the first preacher, the first
one to proclaim.
It begins with resurrection.
He's the first of the long line of
preachers.
Well, I'm not going to dwell upon that
and make much of it.
I'm saying that this phrase, the firstborn again
and again, occurs in the New Testament.
Well, what does it imply?
Well, firstly, of course, quite obviously, it implies
that there is to be a succession.
And here we are back in Isaiah 53.
He shall see his seed.
He is the firstborn.
We're back again in John 12, 24.
The corn of wheat and the abundant result
of it falling into the ground and dying.
The firstborn among many brethren.
Firstborn from the dead.
Then it means that all these of which
he is the first, the many brethren, the
seed, the progeny of his resurrection, will share
the same deathless, triumphant life.
There are families who have a life which
has proved itself already in the first of
the family more than a match for death.
Great hope, great assurance, great comfort.
Wonderful, wonderful truth that if we are of
this company, of the family, of the many
brethren, he has passed on the same life
to us as he has which has so
marvellously and gloriously proved that death is not
equal to it.
O death, O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?
That comes, as you know, in the resurrection
chapter.
Now is Christ's way.
The brethren, the many brethren, sharing the same
death-conquered life.
We have it.
We have it if we are of this
company.
But it means a people of a distinctive
character, not only possessing a certain life, but
people of a distinctive character.
The Old Testament illustration of this, as you
know, is the Levites.
You remember the story of the Levites and
their inception.
When the people broke down and worshipped the
golden calf at the foot of the mountain,
Moses came down and saw what had happened.
He took the tent of meeting right outside
the camp and then standing at the door
he cried, who is on the Lord's side?
Let him come unto me.
And all the sons of Levi went to
him.
And the Levites, as you so well know,
were taken as representative and in the place
of all the firstborn of Israel.
And became the church of the firstborn ones.
Why?
Because they separated themselves from that iniquity.
They separated themselves from that sin, from all
idolatry, from all disobedience, from all corruption.
They separated themselves and went outside the realm
where that evil thing was at work.
It's a great type and illustration, but the
many brethren of whom our Lord is the
firstborn constitute this church of the firstborn so
different in character.
And so the context is vividly appropriate to
what we have here about the firstborn, you
see, unto him that loveth us and loosed
us or washed us from our sin in
his own blood.
It's a different character that is here in
the firstborn ones.
They take their character from him.
And then being the firstborn again, he is
in every sense the prototype of the family.
For he has given us the great secret
out of the heart of God from eternity
past.
And he has said to be conformed to
the image of his son.
Conformed to the image of his son.
In resurrection he is the prototype of all
the sons to be.
We hurry to the third title, the ruler
of the kings of the earth.
What he is in exaltation and vindication.
Ruler of the kings of the earth.
A stronger title still is given us in
the seventeenth chapter of this revelation.
King of kings and Lord of lords.
Now at present this is not official and
temporal.
In a sense not literal.
It is spiritual.
It is a long-term thing.
I say this because I know the problem
that arises when you say Jesus is on
the throne.
He is ruler of the kings of the
earth.
King of kings and Lord of lords.
Them, them, them.
Why?
Why these men doing what they are doing.
These rulers of the earth taking the course
that they are taking.
These kings of the nations.
Why Jesus is on the throne.
Let us remind ourselves that this is first
of all spiritual and it is a long
-term thing.
On his throne as ruler of the kings
of the earth he will over a long
term prove the utter, utter fallacy and falsehood
of all their sentence.
We, dear friends, here in this hall this
afternoon, even younger ones, have lived through a
period in which we have seen the lifting
up of certain heads of rulers of this
world.
I could mention their names.
I am not going to.
This one, that one.
Within our lifetime who have lifted up their
heads to take the government of this world.
To take the government of this world.
Their whole idea has been world dominion.
One was going to bring all the nations
under his government.
To be the dictator, not of his own
nation only, but of all the nations.
And he set himself to do it.
And another one was going to be the
final Caesar.
To gather everything under his control.
And yet another.
We have seen them rise.
We have seen them go so far and
seem to be, seem to be in the
way of doing it.
That is what has happened.
The ignominious end of these men.
The oldest of us go back to others
and did the same thing.
What an awful end these men have come
to.
Shame and dishonor.
Yes.
There is someone on the throne who says
the world dominion belongs to me.
Belongs to me.
The father has made him ruler of the
kings of the earth and no one can
take that place.
It may be a long term and painful
outworking, but there it is.
And it happened like that right through history
you see.
It happened with Babylon.
It happened with Rome.
It has happened with other empires.
And it is right up to date this.
Right up to date.
God has given the empire to his son.
He may let men go so far, but
he only will let them go so far
as he did Pharaoh in order to show
his superior might and strength over all that
man can do and can be.
That is history.
And that is still history in the making.
He is the ruler of the kings of
the earth.
I said it is spiritual in this way
that his government is on spiritual things.
I mean character.
Such a thing as truth.
You know in the truth, in the end
truth does prevail.
In the end it does prevail.
It is the only thing that stands.
Men may set out a whole regime and
system of lies, lies and oh it is
a terrible thing today to see how great
world powers are based upon lies.
Indeed they don't seem to know what the
truth is.
They are laying themselves out to get their
way by lies.
They so pass, wait and see.
Truth will prevail and the lying thing will
go to pieces.
He is ruler of the kings of the
earth.
So it is now, the day is coming.
And this book of the Revelation shows us
the day that is coming when it will
not be the long term business, not be
just the outworking of spiritual things.
He will come.
And very swiftly he will arraign the kings
of this earth and all the forces of
this world.
He will have the kingdoms before him and
he will pronounce the judgment and the verdict
for eternity upon them.
And that day is coming when it shall
be seen by all.
We read this morning, every eye shall see
him.
All shall mourn because of him and they
which pierced him.
That's a startling statement.
They're dead two thousand years.
Their dust could not be found in the
earth.
Their eyes shall see him, they who pierced
him.
They shall see him.
They.
Oh yes, you can't get away from this
one.
You can't get away from him.
Time or any other thing does not get
rid of him.
In the end you have to face him.
He is ruler of the kings of the
earth because God has exalted him and God
has vindicated him.
It's like that.
These are great things all bound up with
his resurrection.
Titles of the risen Lord.
They are titles of great comfort to the
church, of great instruction to us believers.
They are titles of great terror to the
ungodly.
The Lord give us new joy in contemplating
the greatness of our risen Lord.