Isaiah 65 verse 13. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry. Behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty. Behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed. Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and wail for grief of spirit, You shall leave your name as a curse to my chosen, for the Lord God will slay you and call his servants by another name. So that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth. And he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth. because the former troubles are forgotten and because they are hidden from my eyes. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create, for behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people. The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Turn now to the book of Revelation, chapter 19. This evening we will actually be surveying a constellation of passages in John's Apocalypse where the language of faithful and true witness, faithful and true words are expressed. But our study will culminate in Revelation 19, 11 to 16, which we will read now. Now I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who sat on him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except himself. He was clothed. with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses. Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should strike the nations, and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron, He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The grass withers, flower fades. Word of God stands forever. Amen. You may be seated. At the beginning of this series, we observed that for good or ill, words are powerful. Words are powerful. Proverbs 18, 21, death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Words are powerful which is why faithful words, faithful sayings are like water in the desert to a dying man. Faithful are the wounds and by extension we can say the words of a friend. And this is especially acute for us because we live in an age marked by AI manipulation, fake news, misinformation, and biased fact-checking. We live in a spiritual war where the enemies of Christ's church often resort to deception as their chief weapon. In a world of lies, hype, and spin, you desperately need to hear, to heed, and to speak faithful words. And so, in God's providence, we surveyed the five occasions where the Holy Spirit moved the Apostle Paul to write, this is a faithful saying. In Greek, pistos halagos, literally, this is a faithful word. We saw the faithful word concerning the chief of sinners. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief, which Greg Babb highlighted in the Sunday school hour this morning, taken from 1 Timothy 1.15, the position of a bishop. in 1 Timothy 3.1, the prophets of godliness in 1 Timothy 4.9, the God who cannot deny himself in 2 Timothy 2.11, and then the relationship between grace and works in Titus 3.8. Each of these, a spirit-inspired, faithful saying. And last week was supposed to be the final sermon. But one of you, who will remain nameless, drew my attention to the fact that this kind of language shows up once again in the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. It's the climax of prophecy, and it's also the climax of all faithful sayings. And what is electrifying about the book of Revelation is there the language of faithful saying is not only applied to propositional truth statements, but interestingly it's applied to a person, to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. congregation, the Lord Jesus not only speaks faithful words, He is the faithful word. And so tonight, A little bit different than our usual mode of operation. Instead of just looking at one verse, we're gonna survey the faithful sayings of the book of Revelation, and then see how they find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ himself. Looking first at propositions, and then second, at a person. First, this language is used of propositional truth statements, very similar to Paul's usage in his letters. And there's two places in particular in the book of Revelation where John writes something similar. Look, first, you don't have to turn there unless you would like to, but Revelation 21.5. Then he who sat on the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, write, for these words are true and faithful. These words are true and faithful. It's a common refrain in the book of Revelation for John to be instructed by angels or by God himself to write things down. John is a learner. He is a disciple at the feet of Jesus, and he's being led along by angelic tutors who tell him at various points, just write this down. dictate it verbatim, word for word. And in this case, we have God's declaration of a new creation, new heavens and a new earth, not annihilation. but resurrection. God is not going to throw this cosmic order into the trash heap. Rather, he is going to raise it anew. It's not that Jesus is going to create all new things. Rather, he's going to make all things new, and he includes a reason for John to write this down. Four, these words are true and faithful. The theme of new creation. A new creation inaugurated by Christ's resurrection from the dead and consummated at his second coming in glory. This should be prominent in our pulpits and in our conversations. It is a subject for meditation and reflection. It is eminently encouraging that God will one day wipe away every tear from our eyes. that there will be no more sorrow, no more pain, no more death, but rather He will make all things new. For these words are true and faithful. There's a similar idea in just one chapter over in Revelation 22.6. We're after a vivid description of the new creation, the new Jerusalem, both as a city and then later as a bride. and then the river of life flowing through it for the healing of the nations. At the end of this, John records the words of the Lord to him. Then he said to me, these words are faithful and true. And again, in the Greek, faithful and words, this is the same terminology that Paul uses in his letters. These words are faithful and true, and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show his servants the things which must shortly take place. Now G.K. Beal and his mammoth 1,000 page commentary, argues that this divine assessment, faithful and true, applies not only to the preceding vision of the new creation, but really to the entire book of Revelation. This is a book that is chock full of faithful and true words, and I think by extension we can say that this, Divine evaluation can be applied to the entire Bible. When you pick up the Bible, you can say these words are faithful and true, utterly trustworthy. How many times have you read something online and thought, I don't know if I can believe that? I don't know if that's true. Or even Think about the fact that you could have an old, dear, entrusted friend who got something wrong, and they shared it with you, only to later say, you know, through no malice of my own, I try to be careful with the truth, but I made a mistake, and I told you something that was inaccurate. Please forgive me. If that can happen with an old, dear, entrusted friend, how much more does it happen on the internet and on social media today. And here, congregation, we have an oasis in the desert. Here we have a treasure, a diamond in the midst of a barren land. Here we have, we have a paradise. in the midst of wilderness and wild waste, we have an utterly trustworthy canon of holy scripture. I've said this before, but to quote Vodie Bauckham, I believe the Bible is God's word because it is a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses who could check and verify or do the opposite of what I have said. They report supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies, and they claim that their writings are divine rather than human in origin. That's what this book is. Over the course of 1,600 years, God used about 40 men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to write in various genres a perfect library of books that is also a singular book with one author and one major theme, like a beautiful symphony of truth and goodness and beauty. Eyewitnesses in the lifetime of other eyewitnesses and it has proven faithful and true every single time. Cultivate a confidence in the scriptures. Derive comfort from the scriptures. Here we find no competition between theological transcendence, literary beauty, historical accuracy, and propositional truth. The Bible is a mini-splendored thing. These words are faithful and true. And that's the first two examples we have. Again, much like the Apostle Paul, whether he's talking about the prophet of godliness, or the reason Jesus came into the world, or God's inability to deny himself the perfection of God. In both of these cases, we have a propositional truth statement. But it's not only used of propositions in the apocalypse. Second, this language is also used of a person. It gets personal. It gets personal. Namely, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Just think for a moment about the imminent fittingness of taking the language of faithful saying, or literally faithful word, and applying it to Jesus. Again, the language in Greek is pistos halagos. Halagos. Lagos. Who's the lagos? In the beginning was the word. and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. In the beginning was the logos, And the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. And do you see what that means, congregation? It means that Jesus Christ not only speaks faithful words, and heeds faithful words, and in his incarnation, he sought the ear of the learned to hear faithful words, but congregation, he is the faithful word. He is the very Word of God. And John's revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ bears witness to this reality in three places. First, Revelation 1, verses four and five. We're learning a song in the morning, all praise to Christ, that is a setting of this scripture. In fact, this morning I used it for the apostolic salutation, the greeting, as we enter God's courts. But I'll read it again. John, to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. Here John calls Jesus the faithful witness. We've already looked at the word faithful, faithful sayings, but here it's the faithful witness. The word translated witness is where we get the word martyr. As a true prophet, Jesus speaks faithful words, and as a faithful martyr, Jesus sealed his witness in blood. God's people had a way of killing all the prophets who had come to them, from Abel to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, shedding the blood of the innocent martyrs. And then Jesus comes at the climax of history, and he is obedient unto death, even the martyr's death of the cross. And he, like Abel, being dead, yet speaks. Jesus, no longer dead. yet speaks, his blood speaks better things than that of Abel. And there is here an implied encouragement to follow in Jesus' train as the greatest of all martyrs who came back to life. Jesus Christ is the ultimate witness. I heard just a few moments before the service, this past week, 70 Christians were beheaded in the Congo. for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a living, breathing reality as God's people participate in the sufferings of Jesus. Not because his cross work is not finished. It is definitively finished. But we have the privilege of following in the train of our Lord. of even being willing to lay down our lives for Christ, to be a great martyr harvest for the kingdom of God, where our blood is thrown upon the earth as a judgment, a bowl of judgment poured out upon the earth. bringing up the avenger of blood for the judgment of God's enemies and the vindication of God's people. Jesus, when we suffer, when you even suffer much short of shedding blood, realize if you suffer for Christ's sake, if you are receiving opposition because of your stance in Jesus, then you are following in the train of the faithful witness whose blood speaks better things than that of Abel. There's a similar expression in Revelation 3.14. This is in the letters to the various churches. And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, these things says the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. He's called the faithful witness in chapter one. Now he's called the amen, the faithful and true witness in chapter three. Here, John adds true to faithful witness. Not just a faithful witness, but a true witness. Again, that same language. These words are faithful and true. He also refers to Jesus as the amen. Amen's an interesting word. It's one of the only words that gets transliterated, not translated. into everybody's Bibles. Amen is a Hebrew word that means true, or truly. But whether you go to Japan, or Nicaragua, or the Congo, or France, or wherever, it doesn't get translated typically, it gets transliterated. It's like hallelujah. Those are Hebrew words, but if you ask what's hallelujah in Russian, it's hallelujah. It just comes over direct. and we pick it up and try to figure out what it means. Well, here, the same is true of amen, and Jesus is called the amen. In the Gospels, this is one place where it does get translated, Jesus often prefaces his statements with the word amen. Verily, verily, I say unto you, truly, truly, I say unto you, amen, amen, I say it. In the Bible, God's people often respond to his word by saying amen. In fact, we encourage you, even in the bulletins, after prayers, after certain readings, after the pronouncement of a blessing, it's appropriate for God's people to respond corporately with a loud amen. as a corporate act of saying, yes, we agree with God. As our Shorter Catechism says, in testimony of our desire and assurance to be heard, we say, amen. And I encourage you, during the worship services, don't be timid with your amens. Say it loudly, gustily, with fervor in your hearts, because it's true. Amen. And 2 Corinthians 1.20 says, all the promises of God in him, that is Jesus, are yes, and in him, amen, to the glory of God through us. And then John takes it even further. He says, he is the amen. Jesus is the amen, which means that he is God's own seal of confirmation on the truth. He is the stamp of approval. He is God's own amen to the truth, and he is the way, the truth, the life. Also in Revelation 3.14, we get echoes of John 1, which I've already quoted. In the beginning was the word. Well, here it says the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. Jesus is the firstborn over all creation, for all things were created by him as the word of God. Here there's a clue to us. If he's the beginning of the creation of God, if he's the firstborn over all creation, if he's the one through whom all things were made, then to use John's language elsewhere, he is the very word of God. Now interestingly, Revelation 3.14 doesn't spell that out. All the pieces are there, but the picture doesn't come into full focus until we get to the end of the book and our last example of this language. You've already read it, I'm gonna read it again. Revelation 19. Revelation 19 verse 11. Now I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who sat on him was called faithful and true. Notice not words, but a person. He who sat on him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no one knew except himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word. of God. And the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses. Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, and with it he should strike the nations, and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Here, again, not just propositional truth statements, but a person. Jesus is called faithful and true. Out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, but what is that sword? The word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, and that sword is coming out of Christ's mouth. We get the repetition of the word name, Verse 12, he had a name written that no one knew except himself. Verse 16, and he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And then in between in verse 13, everything clicks into place. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood. And his name is called the Word of God. As we followed this theme all the way to the end, you realize that Jesus not only speaks faithful words, though he does, but he does that, and our words have significance and meaning and value because he is faithful. the word of God. He is the faithful word in himself, and we are called to follow him. The text says, in the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses. You are in the midst of a spiritual war, where your enemies Resort to lies, hype, and spin. Deception and great wickedness. And in this spiritual war, this war of words, truth is your greatest weapon. And Christ is your ultimate captain. And so looking unto Jesus, who is the faithful word, let us hear heed and speak faithful words in our own generation for Jesus' sake. Amen. Let us pray.