May we have a word of prayer?
Heavenly Father, as we gather here in the name of Thy beloved Son, we do praise and thank Thee, knowing that Thou art here with us.
Our prayer is, Lord, that Thou will remove any veil that may be upon our hearts. We want to see Thee.
We do commit this time into Thy hands, trusting in Thy sovereign mercy, knowing that it is Thy will to reveal Thy Son in us. For this we are thankful.
May Thou be exalted and glorified. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
God is the greatest mystery in the universe. No one can know Him except by revelation.
Our Lord Jesus said in Luke 10:22:
All things have been delivered unto Me of My Father: and no one knoweth who the Son is, save the Father; and who the Father is, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him.
So, brothers and sisters, God cannot be known other than through revelation. This is a basic principle that we have to accept.
Anything that we know of God, anything that we think we possess, anything that pertains to God, anything that is spiritual—it has to come by revelation.
We need to measure what we think we have, or what we think we know, by this one thing: does it come to us by revelation, or does it come to us otherwise?
If anything that we know and have does not come from revelation from above, nor is it necessary to be revealed, then, brothers and sisters, it is very clear that what we know and what we have is not of God. It is unreal. It is a substitute. It is a deception.
I wonder, if we use this to measure ourselves, how much of our spiritual life is real? How much is just substitute?
As we consider ourselves, we may find that through the years we have accumulated a lot of information about God, about our Lord Jesus, and about spiritual things. We gather these things either by hearing and listening to messages, or by reading books after books.
We gather a lot, good brothers and sisters. But if we measure what we have gathered by this principle of revelation, how much will remain?
Probably what we have is more of religion, more of Christianity, more of tradition, more of letter instead of Spirit. Because of this, we find that we cannot pass the testing.
We may have a form of godliness, but without the power of it.
Anything in our lives, in our Christian lives, that does not come from revelation or does not need revelation—dear brothers and sisters, I have to say to myself and to you: we live in an unreal world of religion.
What is revelation? By revelation, we do not mean original revelation—that is, what God originally revealed to His people.
We believe that all God wants to reveal to His people has been revealed, and it is recorded in the Word of God. There can be no original revelation anymore.
In Deuteronomy 29:29, it says:
The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
We do believe that there are many hidden things of God that we will never know. But thank God, He has revealed Himself to us—things that He wants us to know and to keep.
We do not believe that outside of the Word of God you can have new revelation. Anyone who professes to have new revelation apart from the written Word of God is a heretic. It is an error.
But, brothers and sisters, even so, we do believe that though God has revealed to us what He wants to reveal to us, and it is all recorded in the Word of God—the faith once delivered to the saints—yet we need revelation.
By revelation, it simply means that the Holy Spirit will touch afresh upon the written Word and speak to our renewed spirit.
In other words, God has spoken once, but He will speak twice. In Psalm 62:11, it says:
God hath spoken once;
Twice have I heard this,
That power belongeth unto God.
Dear brothers and sisters, God has spoken once by His Spirit, and it is recorded in the Word of God. Now we need God to speak again to each one of us individually, personally, and intimately.
To put it another way, the Word of God needs to be quickened in our spirit. The Word of God is logos, the truth. Now the truth needs to be quickened into rhema. God is speaking afresh—the same Word, but He speaks to you individually and directly in your spirit.
So, brothers and sisters, if we have any knowledge of God, if there is anything that is spiritual, it has to come by revelation.
The letter alone kills; it is the Spirit that quickens.
You know, brothers and sisters, it is as if today we are in the age of the church of Laodicea.
There you find the Laodicean saints in the church of Laodicea at the end of the first century. Listen to what they say: “We are rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing.”
In a sense, it is true, because the church in Laodicea, spiritually speaking, is the full-grown church of Philadelphia. How rich was the church in Philadelphia! There is life, there is truth, there is revelation, there is the presence of God, and there is the blessing of God—full of spiritual riches.
But when these riches, which came by firsthand experience of the Lord, are handed down to the second or third generation, you find that they say, “Well, we are rich. We have inherited so much. We are lacking nothing.”
But the Lord said, “Thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”
In other words, what they have is tradition. They live in the glorious past; they do not live in the living present. There is not that intimate relationship with the Lord.
They receive everything with their minds, but their heart is cold. Their heart is dead. They have a rich tradition, but it is not living reality.
Brothers and sisters, can it be that our own spiritual situation is alike the church in Laodicea?
When you read the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, these people were people who returned from Babylonian captivity.
They returned with one reason: to rebuild the house of God, that God may have His name upon this earth. They were willing to forsake everything, brave all the dangers, and go to a ruined place for one reason—to rebuild the house of God. That is why they returned.
After they returned, they did rebuild the temple. They restored the priesthood. They did have the sacrifices and all the worship going on.
But if you read Malachi, you find that God has a controversy with this people. They had such an external, pious, godly form, but you find a constant debate going on between God and this people.
We would think that the people who remained in Babylonian captivity would have controversy with God. But these people had returned for God, living for God. Much had been restored, and yet you find them debating with God on every point.
They did not agree with what God said. God said, “I have loved you.” But they said, “Wherein hast Thou loved us?”
God said, “Where is Mine honor? Where is My fear? If I am a Father, where is Mine honor? And if I am a Master, where is My fear?” And they said, “Wherein have we not honored Thee? Wherein have we not feared Thee?”
They did sacrifice, but they gave the poor, the blind, and the crippled to God, and kept the best for themselves. He said, “The table of the Lord is contemptible.”
They did worship, but they worshiped from afar. They did not have the spirit of true worship.
They lived a life that was contradictory to God, and yet they argued with God. God called them to return, and they said, “Wherein shall we return? We are already there. We have never gone away.”
They robbed God, and yet they said, “We have not done that.” Their words were harsh against God.
Why? Because of this, after the last voice of Malachi, for four hundred years God was silent. May I say God was silenced by His people?
They lived on tradition—perhaps the best tradition—but there was no revelation. It was all external. Yes, unreal; it was a deception.
Brothers and sisters, we are coming to the end of this age. Those people at the time of Malachi were coming to the end of the dispensation of law. We are coming to the end of the dispensation of grace.
Can it be that we are in the same situation? We live on tradition and the past. There is no revelation, no life, no Spirit, no power.
There is no revelation. Is it because God wants to hide Himself? Is it because God does not want to reveal Himself to us? We know it is not.
God revealed Himself to Moses, and He said, “I AM THAT I AM.” He is the One who exists forever. He is the One who reveals Himself.
In Genesis 16, when Hagar fled from her mistress, God met her by a well in the wilderness. God revealed Himself to her, so she said, “Thou art a God that seeth.”
The Apostle Paul, in Galatians 1, says that it pleased God to reveal His Son in him.
If you have a son, you would like to introduce your son to everybody. It is your pride; it is your pleasure. Now God has His only begotten Son, and it pleases Him to reveal His Son. He does.
Why is it that today we do not seem to have much revelation? There does not seem to be much quickening in the spirit. As we read the Word of God, God does not speak by His Spirit personally to us in our daily life. It is as if the heavens are closed. There is no communication, no living relationship. Why is it?
Is it because we are too full? We are too rich. We are so rich in the knowledge that we have accumulated. We think we are spiritual. We are proud of our achievements. We have so much tradition—good tradition, as tradition—and it is because we think we have.
That is the reason why revelation is so rare and vision is so infrequent.
You remember our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 11 that it pleased the Father to hide these things from the wise and prudent, and to reveal them unto babes.
Is it because we are too wise? We are too prudent? Is that the reason why we do not have living revelation?
Except we be converted and become as little children, we cannot enter into the kingdom of the heavens. Who is the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens? Those who are like little children.
How we need to humble ourselves before the Lord, acknowledging how little is real, how little is truly spiritual, how much is mental, and how little is of the heart.
If we can humble ourselves before the Lord, I believe that He will readily, quickly reveal Himself to us.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
If our heart is pure to Him, if all we want is Him, then He will show Himself to us.
Seek, and ye shall find.
If we seek Him, we shall find Him.
Brothers and sisters, revelation can come either by the anointing—that is, the teaching of the anointing within us.
We have the Holy Spirit dwelling in our spirit, and He will speak in our spirit. He will teach us in all things. He will make the Word of God living, effective, and powerful to our lives.
Or it can come by outward discipline, the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will so order our circumstances, and through our circumstances He speaks to us. He makes His Word living and powerful to us.
We need to be like Job. Job had such a rich tradition. He was perfect, self-righteous; there was no one in the world like him, very godly.
And yet, at the end, he had to say:
I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;
But now mine eye seeth Thee:
Wherefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes.
Dear brothers and sisters, does this happen to you? Are we today in this situation? Can we say, “I see”? Not only, “I hear,” but, “I see.”
And if I do, I will repent in dust and ashes.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we strongly feel that as we are living toward the very end, the Lord is coming back. We cannot live in an unreal world anymore.
It is just condition; it will be burned. But if it is revelation, it will remain to eternity.
So the burden is that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.
God willing, we will have four sessions on this matter of revelation. We would like to consider together, first, the revelation given to John the Baptist; secondly, the revelation given to Peter the apostle; thirdly, the revelation given to Paul the apostle; and finally, the revelation given to John the apostle.
We believe that all these things recorded in the Word of God are for our encouragement and admonition. In other words, what God has revealed to them is for us, that we may see what they have seen.
God gave such revelations to them for us today. So this evening we will begin with the first one. Will you please turn to the Gospel according to John, John 1?
John 1:29:
On the morrow he seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!
This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a man who is become before me: for He was before me.
Verse 31:
And I knew Him not; but that He should be made manifest to Israel, for this cause came I baptizing in water.
And John bare witness, saying, I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven; and it abode upon Him.
Verse 33:
And I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize in water, He said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon Him, the same is He that baptizeth in the Holy Spirit.
And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.
John 3:25:
There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification.
And they came unto John, and said to him, Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond the Jordan, to whom thou hast borne witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to Him.
John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it have been given him from heaven.
Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but, that I am sent before Him.
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, that standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is made full.
He must increase, but I must decrease.
After a silence of four hundred years—not because the people had changed, but because God is merciful, as if He could not stand it any further—to Him the fullness of time had come.
So He sent a messenger to the children of Israel: John the Baptist.
Even when John was in his mother’s womb, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. He was sent by God as a forerunner of the Messiah, of Christ.
God sent him to prepare the way of the Lord. He came to manifest Christ to the world, and for this reason he preached repentance and performed baptism with water.
Many came to him. It was a voice from God; it was a voice in the wilderness. God spoke again.
People came to him and began to wonder whether he was the promised Messiah. They questioned him, and he frankly, openly said, “I am not the Christ.”
“Well,” they said, “if you are not the Christ, then you must be the prophet. You must be Elijah, who will come before the Lord.” He said, “No, I am not Elijah.”
They said, “Why do you perform such a drastic ceremony? No one should demand baptism. That is very humiliating—in order to be resurrected. Why so drastic, if you are not the Christ, if you are not Elijah?”
John the Baptist said, “Indeed, I baptize you with water, but there is One among you. He will come after me, but He is before me, because He was before me. I am not even fit to unloose the latchet of His shoes. He is here, and you do not know Him. I come to manifest Him, to prepare His way. I am that voice in the wilderness.”
Well, Jesus came and was baptized by John.
Physically speaking, John should know Jesus. They were cousins. He was born six months ahead. Even though he grew up in the wilderness, he must have heard of his wonderful cousin.
Morally, he was impressed by Christ Jesus. When Jesus came to be baptized by him, somehow he felt that this Jesus, his cousin, was so holy. “How could He come to be baptized by me? I need to be baptized by Him.”
So he dared not baptize Jesus until Jesus said, “Let us fulfill all righteousness.” Morally, he saw the holiness of Jesus. But he said, “I knew Him not.”
In John 1, it says, “On the morrow.” Actually, timewise, our Lord Jesus had already been baptized by John. Our Lord Jesus had been in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights, being tempted, and He overcame.
Then He came back. After He came back, on the morrow, it was as if Jesus was coming through John. He came out of the wilderness, He came to John, and John said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.”
“I did not know Him before, but now I know. Why? Because when I baptized Him, God told me, ‘The One upon whom the Holy Spirit will descend and abide, that Person is the Son of God, the Messiah.’”
When Jesus was baptized, the heavens were opened.
Brothers and sisters, heaven was closed to mankind because of sin. But now heaven was opened. Why? Because here is a Man who came out of heaven. Even though He is on earth, He is still in heaven.
He never left heaven. Heaven is His home, His dwelling place. There is no separation between Him and heaven. While on earth, He is in heaven. He carries heaven with Him; that is His dwelling.
And the Holy Spirit came upon Him. He and the Holy Spirit are one; They have never been separated. The Father gave the Holy Spirit to Him without measure.
In the Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit did come upon people and enabled them to do things that they could not do. But never, never did the Holy Spirit come down and abide, making His home in a person. Never.
Because the Holy Spirit can only rest in holy ground.
You remember the story of Noah after the flood. When the water began to subside, Noah opened the window and let out a dove. But the dove could not find a resting place, and it returned. Not until all the water had dried from the new earth did the dove not return.
Dear brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit may come upon a person, empower him, and use him. The Holy Spirit can even come upon an ass and cause an ass to speak. But He cannot dwell; He cannot make His abode; He cannot rest in anything that is not perfectly holy.
For the first time, the Holy Spirit found a resting place in Jesus.
The silence of God was broken, and the voice came:
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Brothers and sisters, when this happened, John saw it. Only two persons—Jesus and John. All the rest did not see anything.
This revelation was given to John. John came to prepare the way of the Lord. He told people One was coming, but he did not know who that One was. Not until that moment were his eyes opened: “This is He.” And he testified, “This is the Son of God.”
Brothers and sisters, can you look at any man and say, “He is the Son of God”? Especially, can you look at your relatives and say, “Well, he is the Son of God”? Never.
The more you know a person, the more he is unlike God. Even John, in a sense, saw the holiness of his cousin. But for him to say, “Well, my cousin, He is the Son of God”—no, he could not say that.
No flesh and blood can tell you. It is the Father who reveals it to you.
So, brothers and sisters, here you find John the Baptist. He came to prepare the way of the Lord, but he did not know the Lord. Now he knows: this is not just a holy Man. This is the Son of God. The Son of God came into this world.
What is the revelation of Jesus as the Son of God?
To see that He is one with the Father, one with the Spirit. He is none other than God Himself.
To see Him as the Son of God is to see the purpose of God. God’s purpose is centered upon His Son.
He has given all things to His Son. His Son is the heir of all things. It is His desire that His Son should have the first place in all things—the preeminence of Christ Jesus.
Oh, the pleasure, the delight of the Father, is in His Son. To see the Son is to see that this is the One who is in the bosom of the Father and who declares God to us.
No one has ever seen God, but the Lord Jesus said to Philip, “Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know Me? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.”
Brothers and sisters, our knowledge of God comes through the Son. The glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ. It is in the Son that we see the Father. It is by knowing the Son that we know the Father.
We know the Father’s love.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.
God has manifested His love to us by sending His Son into this world, that we might live through Him. Dear brothers and sisters, we see the Father’s love. The Son’s coming is the Father’s coming.
This revelation takes us back to eternity past. From eternity, He is God, one with God, the Son of God, the beloved of the Father, the delight of the Father, the purpose of the Father—the Word, the expression, the manifestation, the declaration of the Father.
That is revelation. Do we have this revelation?
This Son of God is the Lamb of God.
Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!
Numberless lambs had been slaughtered. Blood had been shed. Sin was only covered, never taken away. It awaited the Lamb of God.
God prepared a Lamb, and that Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world. The Lamb of God is none other than the Son of God.
Brothers and sisters, why is it that one Person dies on the cross to take away the sin of the world? Why is it that He alone, one Person, can redeem all of us?
It is because that one Person who died in our stead is the Son of God. The worth of the Son of God is much, much, much, much more than the whole world.
That is the reason why He, the Lamb of God, when He was on the cross, bore upon His own body all the sin of the world and took it away.
This speaks of His work while He was on earth. He came as the Lamb of God, and He came to be crucified, that He might redeem us.
But then John the Baptist saw something more. He said, “I baptize you with water, but the One who is coming after me, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Baptism with water is for repentance, as a preparation. Baptism with the Holy Spirit is the real substance.
When did our Lord Jesus baptize with the Holy Spirit? He did not do that while He was on earth. While He was on earth, He was the Lamb of God, ready to be offered.
But, dear brothers and sisters, after He had offered Himself as the Lamb of God, He died, He was buried, but on the third day He was raised from the dead. After forty days, He ascended up on high.
Seated at the right hand of God His Father, God His Father anointed Him and made Him Lord and Christ.
Ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, one hundred and twenty believers gathered in that upper room. Suddenly there was a mighty rushing wind. God breathed into that room. The Holy Spirit filled that room.
In one Spirit, the one hundred and twenty people were baptized into one body.
Brothers and sisters, the risen, ascended Lord is the Baptizer. He baptized His church. He baptized His people into one body, His own body.
In 1 Corinthians 12:13:
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters, the work of our Lord in saving us, forgiving our sins, remitting our sins, taking away our sins, is just the beginning.
He wants all those who are redeemed, forgiven, and who are His, to be His own body.
It is by the baptism with the Holy Spirit that He baptizes all of us into one body—not only those one hundred and twenty on the day of Pentecost, but on the very same day, three thousand.
And, brothers and sisters, even today, until the coming of the Lord, you find all who believe in the Lord Jesus were not only reborn, but they were baptized into one body.
Brothers and sisters, you not only have the life of Christ in you, but you are in the body of Christ. Do you know that?
He has done it. But do you know that? Are you living in that body, or do you still live as an individual?
God has made Him Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. That is a fact.
Oh, that our eyes may be opened to see this. You are not alone. You are not all by yourself. You are in the body of Christ. You are members one of another. You have a Head—Christ the Head—and the church, His body, the fullness of Him who filleth all in all.
How rich is the body? As rich as the Head.
But go on. John the Baptist saw the Lord Jesus is not only the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, but He is the Bridegroom.
You know, when there was a discussion about purification and his disciples were a little jealous for him, they said, “Look, the One to whom you bore witness—everybody goes to Him.”
They were trying to stir up some jealousy in John. But instead, John said, “I told you, I am not the Christ. I am the friend of the Bridegroom.”
In the early days, the friend of the bridegroom was the one who went between. He represented the bridegroom, went to the bride’s home, and tried to negotiate the marriage.
When the negotiation was over and the marriage happened, the bridegroom was there. He said, “When I hear the voice of the Bridegroom, I rejoice, because my work is done. I step aside. He must increase; I must decrease.”
Dear brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is not only the Son of God. God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” God gave him a helpmeet.
The church today is His body. And when that body is fully grown, then our Head will come back to receive that body as His bride. There will be an eternal union.
Oh, brothers and sisters, what a revelation. How we long for that day!
But all revelations are tested.
John the Baptist received such tremendous revelation, and you find he was severely tested.
You remember in Matthew 11:1-6, he was in prison because of righteousness. He heard what the Lord was doing, and he sent his disciples to the Lord and said, “Art Thou He that cometh, or look we for another?”
Isn’t it strange that such a question should come from John the Baptist?
Here was revelation—tremendous revelation—so real to him, so powerful. He gave such a great testimony. And now he was almost offended by the Lord.
Did he forget all his revelation? Never. But why? Why was he offended by the Lord? I wonder.
You know, John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah. You remember Elijah, how he was jealous for the Lord—zealous for the Lord. How he did such great things on Mount Carmel. He thought now the whole nation would turn back to the Lord.
Unfortunately, he had to flee for his life. He asked the Lord to take his life away. He said, “I am a failure. I am afraid. My mission failed.”
Now, can’t you see that John, who came in the spirit of Elijah, had the same problem?
He thought that God had sent him as a forerunner. Now he had done his job, but he ended in prison. Here you find the One for whom he had testified, but why did He not restore the kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of God? Why did He not do that?
You know, as a Jew, he still had that mentality: the Messiah came to restore the kingdom to Israel, to make Israel the first of the nations, to overthrow Rome.
But all that he heard was that the Lord was healing the blind, raising the dead, and preaching to the poor. “What are You doing? And You let me, Your forerunner, linger in prison? I should be Your prime minister.”
He was nearly offended.
Even with such great revelation, brothers and sisters, revelation will be severely tested.
And the Lord just sent words back to him and said:
Blessed is he, whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling in Me.
“Yes, this is what I do. I know what I am doing. Be patient. The spiritual comes first.”
Thank God, not long after that, he was beheaded. I believe he was not offended. He was faithful to the end.
So, dear brothers and sisters, oh, may God in His mercy reveal His Son more and more in us.
Yes, the enemy may severely test us, but the Lord has shown you. You may even go through situations that seem just the opposite, but the Lord knows what He is doing. He is working out His purpose.
Just be patient and be faithful to the very end.
Shall we pray?
Dear heavenly Father, we do pray that Thou will shine Thy light upon us, that we may see where we are.
We pray that we may be a people who repent in dust and ashes, acknowledging we know of Thee, but we do not know Thee.
How little is real and spiritual; how much is mental and tradition. Oh, deliver us. Make us real people.
We want to know Thee really, truly, and healthily. Oh, do reveal Thyself to us.
We pray that Thou will keep us faithful to the very end of what Thou hast revealed. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus, and for His glory. Amen.