number of USEFUL LESSONS which the Book of Revelation is
3. The third and last thing which I now wish to consider is, the number of USEFUL LESSONS which the Book of Revelation is calculated to teach. I am anxious to impress this point on your attention. I want you to establish it in your mind as a settled thing, that the Book of Revelation is an eminently profitable book for every reader of the Bible to study. It is a fountain to which the poorest and most unlearned shall never go in vain.
I say, then, that there are many blessed and comfortable truths scattered up and down, all over the Book of Revelation, which are intelligible to the simplest comprehension — and yet full of food for the most spiritual mind. God has mercifully so ordered the composition of the book, that there is hardly a chapter from which a man may not draw some striking and edifying thought. He may be unskilled in the interpretation of visions. He may have no idea of the meaning of seals, or trumpets, or vials, of the two witnesses, of the woman fleeing into the wilderness, of the first or second beasts. But still, if he perseveres in humble, prayerful study of the whole book — he shall find in almost every page, verses which shall richly repay his pains. They shall shine out on him like stars in the dark vault of Heaven in a moonless night. They shall refresh him like an oasis in the wilderness and make it impossible for him to say, "All is barren." They shall sparkle like precious stones on the shore as he walks by the deep waters of the mysterious book, and make him feel that his journey in search of treasure is not in vain.
"It is true, many things in the Book of Revelation are obscure, and it is likely that the full clearing of them is not to be expected until God in some singular way shall open them up. Yet there are many clear, edifying, and comfortable passages of God's mind in it, the Holy Spirit mixing them in to be fed upon, to sweeten those passages that are more obscure, and to encourage the reader to search for the meaning of them." — Durham on Revelation. 1658.
Let me select a few examples in order to show what I mean.
There is much about the Lord Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation. There are names, and titles, and expressions about Him there, which we find nowhere else. There is new light thrown on His offices, His power, His care for His people. Surely this alone is no small matter. To know Jesus, is life eternal. To abide in Jesus, is to be fruitful. If we are indeed born of the Spirit — we can never hear too much about our Savior, our Shepherd, our High Priest and Physician! If our hearts are right in the sight of God — we can never hear too much about our Savior-King! Like snow in summer and good news from a far country, so are any fresh tidings about Christ.
There is much about the desperate corruption of human nature in the book of Revelation. There is evidence on this subject in the Epistles to the Seven Churches, and the repeated accounts of the incorrigibleness and impenitence of the nations of the earth under judgments, which we shall all do well to lay to heart. We can never be too well acquainted with our own sinfulness and weakness. The spring of all humility, thankfulness, grateful love to Christ, and close walk with God — is real, thorough, scriptural knowledge of the wickedness of our own hearts. None will ever build high — who does not begin low. The soul that loves much — is the soul that feels its debt is great, and that much has been forgiven.
"When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them." Luke 7:37-38. "Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven — for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." Luke 7:47
There is much about Hell in the book of Revelation. There are many fearful expressions which show its reality, its misery, its eternity, its certainty. How deeply important is it to have clear views on this solemn subject in the present day! A disposition appears in some
quarters, to shrink from asserting the eternality of punishment. A flood of that miserable heresy, universalism, seems coming in upon us. Amiable and well-meaning enthusiasts are speaking smooth things about the love of God being lower than Hell, and the mercy of God excluding the exercise of all His other attributes of justice and holiness. Tender-hearted women and intellectual men are catching at the theory that, after all, there is hope in the far distance for everybody, and that the devil's old delusion deserves credit, "You shall not surely die!" Oh, reader, beware of this damning delusion! Be not wise above that which is written. Believe me, it is a great thing to believe in the reality of Hell. Study the Apocalyptic visions well and you will find it hard to disbelieve it.
There is much about Heaven in the book of Revelation. I speak of Heaven in the common acceptance of the word. I mean the future abode of the people of God. And I say that no book in God's Word tells us so much about Heaven as the Apocalypse. If there was nothing else to be learned from the book beside this, we ought to be most thankful.
Where is there a believer in the Lord Jesus who does not frequently think on the world to come and the resurrection state? Who that has lost a dear friend or relative, who died in the Lord — can abstain from meditating on the life of glory and the place of meeting? Who among the people of God does not frequently reach forward in imagination into that unknown and unvisited abode and strive to picture to his mind's eye, the manner of the place and its employments? It is mysterious, no doubt. But nowhere is the veil so much lifted up, as it is in the book of Revelation.
There is much about the prospects of the Church of Christ in the book of Revelation. When I speak of the Church, I mean the Church of the elect, the living body of Christ, whose members are all holy. The pages of the Apocalypse show plainly that the triumphs, and rest, and ease, and peace of that Church, are not in this world.
Its members must make up their minds to battles and fightings, to trial and persecution, to cross and affliction. They must be content to be a little flock, a poor and despised people, until the advent of Christ. Their good things are yet to come.
Well would it be for believers if they would learn from Revelation, to moderate their expectations from missions, schools, and all other ecclesiastical machinery. Then would we not hear, as we now often do, of disappointments and despondency and depression among true Christians, and especially among ministers. We live in the time when God is taking out a people. These are the days of election — but not of universal conversion. We are yet in the wilderness. The bridegroom is not yet with us. The days of absence and mourning and separation are not yet past and gone.
There is much in Revelation to show the folly of depending entirely on the powers of this world, for the advancement of true religion. There is much to show that believers should not look to kings, and princes, and rich men, and great men — for the bringing in and support of the kingdom of Christ. The times are not yet come when kings shall literally be "the nursing fathers" of the Churches.
It is striking to observe how often the Apocalypse speaks of them as the enemies of God's cause, and not the friends. We need this lesson here in England. With a settled conviction that the principle of an Established Church is scriptural and sound, I still feel we need reminding that alliance with the powers that be, has its disadvantages as well as its advantages to the visible Church of Christ. It is apt to engender indolence, apathy, and formality among professing Christians. I firmly believe that the Church of England would have exerted itself more and done more for the world, if its members had been more familiar with the Book of Revelation, and learned from it to expect little from the State.
There is much in the book of Revelation to show the painful childishness of the vast majority of true Christians all over the world.
Here we are, the greater part of us, scrambling and wrangling about the merest trifles, contending about forms, and ceremonies, and outward matters of man's devising — as if they were the essentials of Christianity — while millions of heathen are perishing for lack of knowledge, and myriads of our countrymen are dying around our own doors, as ignorant as the heathen! And all this time the eternal purposes of God are rolling on to fulfillment — the kingdoms of this world are on the brink of dissolution — the day of judgment is at hand, and an hour draws near when Episcopacy, Presbyterianism, Congregationalism, Establishments, and voluntary Churches — shall be clean swept out of the way, and nothing but grace, faith, and heart-holiness shall abide and stand the fire!
Never, never do I, for one, read the Apocalypse without feeling the excessive littleness of Christians. We are like children busy with our little houses of sand, at low water by the seaside. The tide is rising. Our houses will soon be gone. Happy shall we be if we ourselves escape with our lives!
There is much, in the last place, in the book of Revelation to show the safety of all true believers in Christ, whatever may come upon the world. Awful as are the woes of which the Apocalypse speaks, there is not a syllable to show that a hair shall fall from the head of any one of God's children.
Hidden, like Noah, in the ark; plucked, like Lot, from the fiery judgment; withdrawn, like Elijah, from the reach of their enemies; rescued, like Rahab, from the ruin of all around — they at least may read the Revelation without being afraid.
The book that looks dark and threatening to the world — speaks no terrors to true believers. Like the wondrous pillar of cloud (Exodus 14), it may fill the mind of an ungodly man with gloom — but, like the same cloud, it shall give light by night to the people of God.