The hair of His head was white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a blazing fire.His head and his hair were white as white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire.His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
3 sermons cite this verse
… in a kind of symbolic way. Every eye will see him. The conservative churches have said, yes, we take this as a real historic, actual future event. But the conservative churches have tended to obsess on when will it be? What year will it be? What will the signs be? So that we can predict his coming. Now, not only did Jesus repeatedly say, no one knows the day or the hour, Nobody knows when that's going to be. In fact, Jesus, when he was on earth, said even he didn't at the time know when it would be. But to even try to guess shows that you don't understand how this doctrine is supposed to really shape our lives. So what is this doctrine? Well, take a look here. Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him, so may it be. Amen. Now, all Bible scholars over the years have said that the book of Revelation, more than any other New Testament book, draws on Old Testament imagery. …
the remains of the noble being whom God made to have dominion over all the works of His hands. This is what he has come to now—an empty skull and a few dry bones! This is what sin has brought him down to—to be food for worms! But I will not linger over that dark part of the subject. Think how Grace has much more abounded even where sin did most abound. Grace comes in and finds man under sentence of death—hopeless and polluted and full of everything that is obnoxious in God's sight! What does Grace do in such a case at that? I answer by pointing you to that wondrous vision that John had in Patmos when he saw, "One like unto the Son of Man. . .His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and His Countenance was as the sun shines in his strength." Who is this for whom all Heaven rings with hallelujahs, while Hell trembles at His word, and millions upon earth own allegiance to Him? Who is this? Why, 'tis the Man, Christ Jesus, who once slept as a helpless Babe in His mother's arms, who afterwards toiled at the carpenter's bench at Nazareth and who breathed out His earthly life amid the untold agonies of Calvary—but who is now exalted at His Father's right hand, "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." "Ah," you say, "that is all true concerning Hm, but we are not up there with Him." But faith says that we are if we are truly trusting in Jesus, for "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by Grace you are saved) and has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His Grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Now you see how gloriously true our text is! Sin did us untold damage, but Grace has given us more than sin ever took away! Sin robbed us of silver, but Grace has given us gold! Sin slew this body of flesh, but Grace has given us a spiritual body which shall live forever! Sin threw us down among the masses of this fallen race, but Grace has lifted us up and set us among the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus! Yes, Beloved, "now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like He, for we shall see Him as He is." Verily, "where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound." …
I have been addressing those who do not know what religious peace and Divine pleasures are, but there are those present, I hope, who in a measure are not strangers to them. I know that none of us gain all the pleasure from God's service which it might afford us; still some of us, I hope, gain some pleasure. I hope there are some of those who hear me, who take a pleasure in coming to Church, in saying their prayers, in thinking of God, in singing Psalms, in blessing Him for the mercies of the Gospel, and in celebrating Christ's death and resurrection, as at this season of the year. These persons have "tasted" and tried. I trust they find the taste so heavenly, that they will not need any proof that religion is a pleasant thing; nay, more pleasant than any thing else, worth the following above all other things, and unpleasant only to those who are not religious. Let such persons then think of this, that if a religious life is pleasant here, in spite of the old Adam interrupting the pleasure and defiling them, what a glorious day it will be, if it is granted to us hereafter to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! None of us, even the holiest, can guess how happy we shall be; for St. John says, "We know not what we shall be;" and St. Paul, "Now we see in a glass darkly, but then face to face." Yet in proportion to our present holiness and virtue, we have some faint ideas of what will then be our blessedness. And in Scripture various descriptions of heaven are given us, in order to arrest, encourage, and humble us. We are told that the Angels of God are very bright, and clad in white robes. The Saints and Martyrs too are clad in white robes, with palms in their hands; and they sing praises unto Him that sitteth upon the Throne, and to the Lamb. When our Lord was transfigured, He showed us what Heaven is. His raiment became white as snow, white and glistening. Again, at one time He appeared to St. John, and then, "His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." And what Christ is, such do His Saints become hereafter. Here below they are clad in a garment of sinful flesh; but when the end comes, and they rise from the grave, they shall inherit glory, and shall be ever young and ever shining. In that day, all men will see and be convinced, even bad men, that God's servants are really happy, and only they. In that day, even lost souls, though they will not be able to understand the blessedness of religion, will have no doubt at all of what they now doubt, or pretend to doubt, that religion is blessed. They laugh at religion, think strictness to be narrowness of mind, and regularity to be dulness; and give bad names to religious men. They will not be able to do so then. They think themselves the great men of the earth now, and look down upon the religious; but then, who would not have been a religious man, to have so great a reward? who will then have any heart to speak against religion, even though he has not "a heart to fear God and keep all His commandments always?" In that day, they will look upon the righteous man, and "be amazed at the strangeness of his salvation, so far beyond all that they looked for. And they, repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit, shall say within themselves, This was he, whom we had sometimes in derision, and a proverb of reproach. We fools accounted his life madness, and his end to be without honour; how is he numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among the saints!" …