Welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. This will be study #40 of Revelation, chapter 1, and we will be reading from Revelation 1:14:

His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

As you know, if you have been following along with our Bible study in the Book of Revelation, we are continuing to go verse by verse through this glorious Book of the Bible, the climax of God's revelation to mankind. We have seen, as we have been doing our study, that the Lord has visited the Apostle John on the island of Patmos in order to give him this divine communication from Himself, in order that mankind would receive it, that the elect people of God would receive the completion of God's word for man.

John was on Patmos in the Lord's day, the day that belongs to God, and he heard behind him a great voice, who was the "Alpha and Omega," and when he turned to see the voice that spake to him, it was "one like unto the Son of man." There is no doubt that this is picturing the Lord Jesus Christ, and when John turned to see Him "in the midst of the seven candlesticks," this could only be a reference to the "seven churches," as the Spirit of Christ was in the church during the period of the church age and dwelling in the congregations; His Spirit was with the churches.

And then we are given an image of "one like unto the Son of man." His clothing, we understood to be related to priestly garments, as the Lord Jesus was, and is, the High Priest of His people, as he offered up Himself. He is the great High Priest that offered up Himself, once, for the sins the elect people of God, and this offering was accomplished before the foundation of the world.

Then the Lord goes on to give us a description of Christ: "his head and his hairs were white like wool." As we discussed in a previous study, the color white points to the purity, the holiness, and absolute perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact that his hair was "white like wool" indicates that He is the spotless Lamb of God. He is "the Lamb of God," as John the Baptist declared, "that taketh away the sin of the world," the one who bore the sins of His elect people, the one who was laden with all of their iniquity, but not forever, not presently.

Christ did bear those sins, but He also made payment for those sins, and the Law of God was satisfied with that payment, which was the death of Christ. So, Jesus died for the sins of His people; all of their great transgressions---the incredible number of them---were paid for and, therefore, when He rose from the dead (also before the foundation of the world), then He rose spotless and pure, no longer bearing any sin. He never did have sin of His own, but, now, He is no longer bearing the sin of the elect. The elect are also likened to wearing "white robes" to indicate their purity, holiness and perfection.

Christ has his hair "like wool," as white as snow, as God emphasizes and drives home the point that the Lord Jesus has made the more than sufficient payment for sin, and no sin remains, no blemish or mark of any kind upon Him---He is as white as snow. So, God, again, is indicating that the wrath, the fury, the anger of God upon sin has been meted out, and the judgment on Christ, on behalf of the elect, was more than satisfactory. It was all that the Law required; the Law no longer has anything against Christ, as He bore those sins, or against any of those that Christ died for before the world began.

I know I say that a lot---that Christ died before the world began---and that is because the Bible points to that a lot. The Bible insists that this is the case, that Jesus was not bearing sins in 33 A.D. He was just living out a tableau, demonstrating what He had already done. No, the Bible insists (and we learned this only relatively recently, as God opened up the Scripture at the time of the end and took the seals off the Bible, and opened our understanding to this truth and others) that Christ did die---that one instance when He made payment for sin---from the foundation of the world. So we have to keep mentioning it. We have to keep reminding ourselves about it, or we could quickly forget.

There are many that do not understand this. The typical historical and traditional teaching is that Christ died (only) in 33 A.D. There were some that seemingly understood this in the days before judgment day on May 21, 2011. And when that date came, and it was not as they expected, now they are losing sight of other truths, too, that they once held to and professed to believe. But, now, they are going back to church or to other doctrines. And, you know, that is not a small matter. God tells us that we are to be guardians or stewards of the mystery of the Gospel. It says in 1Corinthians 4:1:

Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.

Now, here, the Lord is telling us (and this is speaking to you, to me, and to anyone that is a child of God) that we are "stewards of the mysteries of God." Stewards of the Bible, yes, but the world is full of Bibles; and the churches have Bibles, and sometimes the churches take very good care of their Bibles, of their physical copies; they are very well protected. And, yet, it is not being "stewards of the mysteries of God" just to keep the Bible well protected.

It is the teachings of the Bible, and in particular, the hidden teachings of the Bible, that God likens to *mysteries*. A *mystery* is the parabolic statements of Christ and, of course, Christ is the Word and the whole Bible, really, is a *mystery*. And it is only the true believers that are given to know the *mysteries* of the kingdom of heaven. Christ Himself said that to his apostles and disciples when they asked why He spoke in parables, and He said, "Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given."

And, so, we know today the church age is over---it was not given to them to know the *mysteries* that God had opened up, so they did not understand the end of the church age; they did not understand judgment day occurring on May 21, 2011, and many other things that God had hidden and now revealed. It was all so mysterious to them that they were never able to comprehend them, so how could they be *stewards of the mysteries of God*?

But to God's people (who today are all found outside of the churches and congregations; there are none remaining in the church, as God has already separated the wheat and the tares in that regard) this information was received, but many other people professed to receive it: "Oh, yes, I understand these things. The church age is over. I understand that Christ was slain from the foundation of the world. I understand annihilation. I understand May 21, 2011 will be judgment day."

But, once that day came...and, by the way, God has continued to reveal further mysteries to us, so now we understand the "revelation of the righteous judgment of God," and we have a far greater understanding of the day of judgment, and how it is going to be worked out, than we ever had before, and other teachings of the Bible as God continues to open it up; but once that day came, and since we have now entered into a severe testing, a day of the fiery trial of faith, this has resulted in some who deny May 21 was judgment day and, from there, a few others are denying the end of the church age, and others are denying the Biblical calendar of history as having any importance (or that we can know it for sure), and some are denying that Christ died before the world began, and others are denying annihilation, and so on. There is a failure taking place today to be a good steward of the mysteries of God.

Of course, God's people, the true believers, will be found faithful in this, but I am sorry to say, that certain individuals that have been going back---that had set their hands to the plow, but now are looking back from the things they learned from the word of God---were "professed" stewards of the mysteries of God, as now they are rejecting these things.

And, by the way, they are not rejecting these things based on correction from the Bible---they are simply rejecting them based on what their eyes did not see, or what their eyes are presently seeing. They are basing the rejection of judgment day of May 21 on their own reasoning and their own understanding, or a lack of it. And they are not saying, "I have done a thorough study of the Bible, and I can point out errors as to why May 21 was not judgment day, and why the church age is not over, and why Christ was not slain before the foundation of the world." They are not finding these things in the Bible. Of course, we are open to correction if anyone could present information from the Bible, but it is not coming from that direction.

The turning away from these *mysteries*, and, therefore, from these teachings of the Bible, is a going away based on what "I think happened, or did not happen, or because one thing I believed did not happen, therefore, I distrust these other things." It is based all on sight and one's own reasonings.

Of course, the true believer cannot be corrected by that. We are only corrected by what the Bible says, and God says that we are "stewards of the mysteries of God," of the Bible, and that is why we keep mentioning these things. No one else is going to hold onto these things---the church is not and the world is not. It is only the elect that are stewards. We are the caretakers and the keepers of the precious truths that the Lord Jesus Christ has opened up to us. Therefore, we must teach it, and we must declare it.

We do not try to go back from it, and we do not try to hide it, and we do not try to discuss other things that people may be more accepting of. We are obligated---and it is our duty and our responsibility---to speak "the mysteries of God."

Let us go back to the last half of Revelation 1:14:

...and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

This is referring to the eyes of the "one like unto the Son of man," the eyes of Christ, and Christ is eternal God.

What do you suppose the eyes of God see? And the answer is, everything. They are "all seeing," and there is nothing that He does not see. God see everything in the physical realm, so He sees every part of this world---every nook and cranny---in every nation, every state, every city, every town, every village, every house, every individual in the house. God not only sees all these outward things that are in the world, but He sees the "inward things" as well. He sees the thoughts of men; He know the hearts of each individual; He knows our thoughts and the things that go on in side of us.

You know, we know these things to some degree, but we do not even know it all that well---we do not know the deep-down things that go on in the heart of man. Do we know what is going on when we are sleeping? When we are lying in our beds at night? No, we do not know. We might wake up and remember a small portion of our dream, but God knows it all. He knows everything.

There is an excellent verse, and I will read a couple of verses just so we get the context,

in Hebrews 4:12:

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

There is a beautiful description of the eyes of God: "all things *are* naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." God's eyes see everything.

The world does not recognize this. The people who deny there is a God, of course, do not recognize this, but the true believer understands this. This is one of the great comforts, actually, of seeing God or having faith in God. Another way of saying *faith* is to say *see*: "I have faith in God. I see God." We see with the "eyes of faith," and the true believer knows that God is with us. We are greatly soothed and comforted, and we rest in the fact that God is with us, always, and everywhere. He is with us in our home. He is with us when we go to work. He is with us as we drive from home to work. God is with us in our present city, and if we move across country, He is with us there, too. God is with us in America, and God was with us when we went on mission trips to other countries. No matter what country we go to, God is with us everywhere.

And we know He knows our thoughts. He knows what we say out loud, and He knows our actions, and He even knows our intent. This permits us to have a very personal and close relationship with God. We do not hold anything back, because we know there is no reason to---we do not try to deceive Him because we know there is no way to do that; we know that God knows everything about us in a far more intimate way than we know ourselves. So we can pour out our hearts to Him, and, sometimes, we just go to Him and say, "Lord, you know..." and we do not even have to bother spending the time pouring out our hearts because we know He knows it anyway.

This is the wonderful and beautiful relationship between God and His people. It surpasses the love of women, or the love of a spouse, or any earthly love. It is far more intimate, far more personal, than any love the world could ever know, because in earthly relationships, there are all sorts of things that one does not know about the other, and never will know, because there is no way of knowing, and people would not even reveal it, if they could---there is such ugliness within us due to our sinful nature. But God knows everything, and if we are a true believer, all of that ugliness has been forgiven in Christ and, so, we rest in Him. We are comforted that He knows us perfectly.

Yet, on the other hand, if we are not a true believer, God also knows us perfectly, and He knows everything about us, and He sees all that ugliness. And, yet, He does not see the Saviour---He does not see those ugly sins laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ----but He sees those sins on the individual. The individual bears those sins. The sinner has his sins upon him, a great multitude of transgressions and iniquities remain on him, and what does this provoke in God? It provokes His wrath and His fury.

So, here, we see a picture of the Lord Jesus, the Judge of the earth, the Judge of mankind, and "his eyes were as a flame of fire," because they do see all things: they see the perversions; they see the abominations; they see the wickedness and iniquity, and the constant flow of sin that comes out of the hearts of men, as it says in the Book of Genesis (before God brought the destruction of the flood), in Genesis 6:5:

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth...

Now let me read that again, with emphasis on the word *saw*, in Genesis 6:5:

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

That is what God's eyes see. That is what the all-knowing mind of God understands when He looks down upon the world. And just think, that was a world that was a handful of millions, at most. What do you think the all-seeing eyes of God see today when He looks down upon a world of seven billion people? And when He looks down upon those that have no Saviour? Oh, the terrible things that God beheld, and that is why He brought the day of judgment. When He saw the sins of men in the day of Noah, then He brought the flood. When He saw the sins of this world, He brought the day of judgment on May 21, 2011.

It was because His eyes were turned to "flames of fire" that He shut the door of heaven and ended salvation for this world, just as He shut the door of the ark, and the flood waters began to come, and the deluge overtook the earth. God has shut the door to heaven now, and He has darkened the light of the Gospel: the sun has gone dark; the moon is not giving its light; the stars have fallen from heaven; the candlestick has gone out in the church; the candlestick has gone out in the earth; the world lies in a thick darkness.

The only light that we can see---that the Bible speaks of---is the light of a *flame* that is burning, fire and brimstone and a lake of fire, as the wrath of God now is upon the inhabitants of the earth.