Turn back to where Lee read there
in Revelation chapter 22. If you remember last Sunday, we took our text from Matthew
1.23, where it was said that his name
would be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with
us. And my message was, Emmanuel
has come. Well, my message this morning
is, Emmanuel is coming again. If you look down in Revelation
22, it says, And the Spirit and the
Bride say, Come. Let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come,
and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." When the Lord Jesus Christ stood
and read from the Scriptures there in the synagogue in Nazareth, He read from Isaiah 61. I'll read some of that to you. He says, The Spirit of the Lord
God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good
tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening
of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord. And then he put down, it says
there in Luke, the Scriptures, and he said, this day, This prophecy
is fulfilled in your eyes. He brought in with that first
coming what would be called the acceptable year of the Lord. And that simply means that particular
and set time between the first coming and the second coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is called the year of the
Lord, the time of God's favor, the day of His grace. Because, you see, in the prophecy
of Isaiah, It goes on to say a bit more, though Christ stopped
at that point. It goes on now in the same verse
to say, and the day of vengeance of our God. To comfort all that
mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give them beauty
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise
for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be
glorified. And you see, the vengeance of
the Lord that he speaks of there was that vengeance, that righteous
and just vengeance of God that fell on Christ as he bore the
sins of his people. And so not only is the gospel,
the gospel of grace, and this time between the first and second
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, this day of grace. It is the message that is concerning
God's Son. And when you come to this book
of Revelation, if you turn back to the very first chapter and
opening words of the book of Revelation, what we find is that
contrary to what most have gotten out of this book, which is just
simply a bunch of charts and foolish notions about end times
and such as that, Look at how it begins. It says, The Revelation
of Jesus Christ. In other words, this book, like
every other book in the Bible, is about Jesus Christ. It's not about Antichrist. It's not about beasts and dragons
and such as that. He says that God gave unto him,
that is to the Apostle John, to show unto his servants things
which must shortly come to pass, and he sent and signified it
by his angel unto his servant John. he sent and signified these
things to John, which means, just as we find, that he gave
to John these things in a symbolic language. And he did not leave
that language for you and I to try to figure out. We know immediately
that this has got something to do with Jesus Christ. This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. And what we have in these twenty-two
chapters is a kind of panoramic view of the total control of
the complete victory and of the wonderful glory of Christ as
both the sovereign ruler over all things and the successful
Savior of all His people. It is His story. As a matter of fact, that's what
all of history is. It is His story which is brought
to pass in all of time and history. And as we had seen last week,
it declares His glory as God in flesh, It shows him as absolutely
successful in carrying out all of God's plan. And most importantly
to us, I suppose, it shows him fully and eternally saving all
his people while he conquers all his enemies. Somebody said it like this. If you want to kind of sum up
the message of the book of Revelations, it might be something like this. Christ wins. And not only does He win over
all, as He wins, as He is victorious He saves all His people from
their sins. And as He shows us all these
things, there is a constant promise and emphasizing, especially as
it is in chapter 22, that He is coming again. As a matter of fact, when he
ascended back into glory after his death and his resurrection,
as they watched as he ascended back into glory, the angels spoke
to those there watching, and this is what they said. They
said, this same Jesus, shall come again in like manner."
Now, this book begins, if you look again, in chapter 1. If you look back at verse 7,
he says this, Behold, he comes with clouds and every eye shall
see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds
of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so. Amen. That rules out any notion
of a kind of secret coming, or a secret rapture, or any such
things as that. When He comes, though no man
knows the hour and time, He comes again as this Emmanuel, this
God-man, who all this time has been seated at the right hand
of the majesty on high, John says, he comes again in clouds,
and every eye shall see him. Every eye will behold him, not
only his people, But every one of his enemies, he will come
again, not as some robed and sandal-footed man, but as the
glorious Christ. The glorious Christ. And you see, the Scriptures have
already told us that this very thing and the notion of the One
who came in human flesh and was crucified, the very notion that
He would come again is utter foolishness to man. He says by
the Apostle Peter, knowing this first, that there shall come
in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts and saying,
where is the promise of His coming? In other words, now for almost
2,000 years, gospel preachers have been talking about the coming
again of Jesus Christ, but we've not seen Him. But my friend,
the very fact that He came the first time, Emmanuel, that is
proof positive that He will come again the second time, Emmanuel,
God with us. They say, for since the fathers
fell asleep, all things continue. as they were from the beginning
of the creation. That's what they say, but they
ignore something. And that is the fact that the
first earth was, as it originally was, destroyed by water and the
flood. And so when it speaks of Him
coming again, and this time the earth being purged by fire, they
say, well, we've been hearing this for a long time. We've been
hearing that He's going to come again, but we've not seen Him. But the very fact that there
was a flood, and God destroyed the earth. That's the proof again
also that He'll do what He says the second time and purge it
with fire. So this 22nd chapter, and particularly
this 17th verse, is a call or a plea that arises as a response
to something that has been said. What is it, or who rather, are
the Spirit and the Bride speaking to? Well, look back in verse
sixteen. He says, I, Jesus, have sent
mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. Now, angel here has the meaning
of what it often is in Scripture pertaining to those that preach
the gospel. In other words, the angel of
the churches that were spoken of here were simply the messengers
of God to those churches by which he speaks his message. What do they say? He said, I
sent them to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring
of David and the bright and morning star. That's who they're responding
to. They're responding to the fact
that Jesus is the one who is really speaking, and they are
responding to what He describes Himself to be, the bright and
morning star, the root and the offspring of David, the very
Christ and Savior of God. But what has he been saying that
produces this amazing response? That somebody, that a group of
people would actually in their own weakness and sinfulness as
they are in themselves, that they would read of such awesome
events and things as we find described here, and yet they
would say, come, even so, come. Well, He has been showing the
eternal glory of God's presence. John here is enabled to see heaven
opened up. He has been enabled to see and
is describing the glories of his heaven, and especially the
glory which awaits the redeemed saints of God. You see, the reason why most
people do not want to leave this world is because they do not
have any hope of anything better. They don't have any prospect. They don't have any confidence
that the next world will be better than this one. And He shows in
these things the day in which his people will fully possess
that salvation that is in Christ in both their body and soul. That is, that the grace that
he has given to all his people, that grace will soon issue forth
in glory. Grace is the stepping stone to
glory. Now, look back at the very first
verse. He says, and he showed me a pure
river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of
the throne of God and of the Lamb. in the midst of the street
of it, and on either side of the river was there the tree
of life, which bare twelve manners of fruit, and yielded her fruit
every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing
of the nation. And there shall be no more curse,
but the throne of And of the Lamb shall be in it, and his
servant shall serve him, and they shall see his face, and
his name shall be in their foreheads, and there shall be no night there,
and they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord
God gives them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever. And he saith unto me, These sayings
are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the holy
prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things
which must shortly be done." Now, I realize that in those
words there may be a partial description of heaven and its
glory. But more importantly, if you
read those words, if you read them and are taught by the Spirit
of God as to their spiritual meaning, these are the very things
that He gives to His church, to His people, right now through
the gospel. You see, what could be said of
heaven itself, listen to me now, what can be said of heaven itself
can also be said of Zion. That is, that city which is spiritual
and which is that city where God says, that right now he dwells
in. You say, what do you mean? Well,
look what's flowing in the midst of that city. A water, a pure
river of water of life. Clear. Clear as crystal. You see, in the midst of God's
church, even in this world, this Zion or this spiritual Jerusalem,
which is all of His true people, even as they are at any time
on the earth, out from the midst of them goes forth the gospel,
the gospel of Jesus Christ, that clear, pure river of the water
of life. Look a little farther. Out of
it, he says, in this city, in the midst of this tree, there
was the tree of life. The tree of life. And he says,
which bear twelve manner of fruits, yielded upper fruit every month,
And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."
You know, it sounds like to me that everything that the inhabitants
of that city need, everything they need is right there in the
midst. And this is the same language
that Peter uses when he quotes the prophet and he says concerning
Christ and his sufferings for his people, he says, by his stripes
you are healed. In other words, here are all
of these people. that are pictured in the twelve
tribes of Israel. Here they are in their entirety. There is not any of them absent. And in the midst of them is this
river of the living water flowing up, and everything they need
they have in Christ. Everything. and there shall be no more curse."
You know there's not any curse to those who are in Christ Jesus. I don't mean there's just not
this part or that part. There is no more curse for any
believer in Christ because it says He was made a curse for
us. Because cursed is everyone that
hangs on a tree. It says, they shall see His face. They'll see the very face of
God Himself, which simply is exactly what Paul says, that
God has revealed His glory and His grace and His mercy to His
people where? In the face or in the person
of Jesus Christ. And there will be no night there.
Why? Because these people are the
children of light. Christ is the light. Light is
truth. He is the truth. They'll need
no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them
life. Gives them life. And they shall reign forever
and ever. They'll reign with Christ. He's
made us kings and priests under God. Right now, we're already
seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Well, and then in verse 7, he says
this, Behold, I come quickly. Well, those scoffers, they said,
well, where is the promise of His coming? We've been waiting a long time.
But Peter goes on immediately, and this is what he says. He says just what the prophet
said. He said a day is with the Lord
as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day. What does that mean? That means
that God's not on our timetable. That means that God His ways are not our ways, His
thoughts are not our thoughts, and His timing is not our timing. Well, why does He wait? If He's
coming, why hasn't He come? If He is who He says He is, and
He is, if He's done what He says He's done, and He has, if He's
coming like He says He is, and He will, why hasn't He come? Peter says it's for this reason,
because he's long-suffering, because he's merciful, and he's
not willing that any of his people should perish, but that they
should all come to repentance. The reason he has not come is
the reason that we find all through this book of Revelation. And
that is His purpose and His determination is, His will is, that He saves
all His people from their sins. You can just count this for a
fact. When He calls out that last one
of His sheep, When that moment comes and he reveals Christ through
the gospel to the last one of his people, when this church
that is described as a building, when he sets on what he calls
that last capstone with shoutings of grace, grace, then he's coming. Then he's coming. Emmanuel is
coming again. Verse 12, he says, Behold, I
come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according
as his work shall be. Somebody says, well, I told you.
that some part of salvation has to be by works. Do you think that's what he means?
Do you think that's what that means in light of all the times
in this book, in other places, that he tells us and shows us
that salvation is totally the gift of God's grace? I don't think so. Because you see, the work he's
talking about here is the work that every true believer claims
for his own, and that's the work of Christ. Would you mind being rewarded,
blessed according to the work of Christ? I sure wouldn't. I know this,
I don't want to be dealt with on the basis of what I've done.
I don't want to be dealt with on the basis of my works. It's
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy He saves us. I'm looking to the work of Christ. Every believer is rewarded with
the reward of grace, which is a reward based on what Christ
has done. And then he says this in verse
13, and Omega, the beginning and
the end, the first and the last, blessed are they that do His
commandments." Now, what's His commandment?
Somebody said, well, I'm glad preacher, because I'm trying
to live by the Ten Commandments. You're dead by the Ten Commandments. He said, this do and you'll live. But what is the commandment of
Christ? What is the commandment of God
in the Gospel? It is to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is the commandment, that
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and love the brethren. That they may have right to the
tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city,
for without or outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers,
and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loves and makes
a lie." Do you see that last statement? There's only one truth, and it's Him who is the truth.
It's the gospel concerning Christ crucified. That's the truth. And apart from God's grace, we
live here in this world and we love and we keep alive. That's what happened in the garden.
Eve believed alive. But you see, Christ is the truth. The gospel is the truth. And
yet, the natural man receives not the things of God, their
foolishness to him, the notion that God would, out of His own
sovereign will and good pleasure, save a sinner. just because he
would and save him by coming into this world and dying in
his place? I couldn't believe that. I got to do something. I got
to be something for God. I got to give something to God. That's a lie. And men and women
will embrace it and rest in it all their days and go out to
meet God, believe in a lie, and be found in this group. You see, He tells who will be
the possessors of His glory and who will be excluded. Those who
believe on Christ will be included, those who believe a lie will
be excluded. He's the root and offspring of
David. He's the one in whom the promise
is, the promise of life and of righteousness and salvation. He's the bright morning star.
He's the son of righteousness. And we're in darkness without
Christ. And the Spirit and the Bride
say, Come. Now, who are they saying, Come
to? They're saying, Come to Emmanuel. They're saying, Come, Lord Jesus. And I'll tell you what, when
we can say, when we can look at either death or the second
coming of Christ. You see, that's what a lot of
people don't seem to understand. If I die today, He's come for
me. There'll be some people who are
alive when Christ comes. And certainly everyone will be
made alive in the greater sense when He comes. But if I die today
or tomorrow or whatever, That's when He's come for me. But whether it's at that hour
or whether or not you and I are actually in the generation physically
alive when He comes, for you and I as sinners to be able to
look at that moment and to look at His glorious coming and say, to say, as Paul did, to rejoice
at the very thought of His coming. How could we ever do that when
it says, it's appointed unto man once to die, and after this,
the judgment? But you see, a few judgments
have already been dealt with. if your judgment has already
been dealt with. And that's exactly what's taking
place on that cross. The Lord Jesus Christ is bearing
the judgment of God against the sins of His people. You see, actually, judgment at
that hour is basically sentencing. You know, when the judge or the
jury pronounces somebody guilty, there's a time later when it
comes for sentencing. I've seen those videos of defendants
sitting in courtroom and when that actual sentencing comes,
when they say, The court turns you over to be
taken at a certain hour on a certain day and tied down to that gurney
and die by lethal injection, or he sentences you to 99 years
plus a day in prison. That gets real final, doesn't
it? Christ said, I'll say to them
on my right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father. Inherit that kingdom that the
Father gave you in me before the world began. Your judgment's
gone. I bore your sins in my body.
And my friend, if we see the glory of God's grace in the face
of Christ, we can look at tomorrow or the next day or think about
His coming, and it is utter delight. Come, Lord Jesus. Somebody said, well, you know,
I'm ready to get out all this. Without Christ, it's being like
going out of the frying pan into the fire forever. Come. Old Gil said, the Spirit and
the Bride. What's that? The Holy Spirit
and the Bride of Christ. The Spirit and the Bride expressed
an earnest wish and an most affectionate desire for His coming. The Spirit
of God in the hearts of His people who not only convinces them of
and acquaints them with the coming of Christ to judgment and gives
them a reason to expect it, but fills their souls with the love
of His appearance so that they look and long for it and hasten
in the breathings of their souls after it. And this, in like manner,
he may be said to wish for and desire it in them as he said
to cry, Abba, Father. Come. Emmanuel has come and ushered
in that acceptable year of the Lord, ushered in a day of grace,
a time when the gospel is preached and the Spirit of God brings
His people to believe the gospel and rest in Christ. have their
conscience purged with any notion of their own works being acceptable
to God, and have their conscience purged of fear at the judgment
of God, because Christ is already born in my place. And the Spirit and the Bride
say, Come. And let him that heareth say,
Come. You hear? He that hath a hearing
ear, let him hear. Can you hear the gospel? Can
you hear in your heart of hearts and believe that it is all in
Christ, it's all of His grace, that He actually in His death
did not just make something possible or available, but that He actually
did put away your sin? Can you believe that? and let him that is a thirst
come." You thirsty? I mean thirsty of soul and heart. Thirsty for that water. That One who is Himself the water
of life. That One who said, He that is
a thirst, let him come and take and drink of the water of life
freely. And whosoever will, not whosoever won't, But whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely." I can tell you this. If you have thirst of your soul
to know the true and living God, to be saved from your sins, and
to possess righteousness which he will accept and gives as a
gift." If you have thirst for the truth, it's because he put that thirst
in you. Years ago, I read a little No,
I believe I saw it on something like National Geographic or something,
but I just thought it was the most wonderful illustration in
this very thing that I ever saw. They were showing somewhere in
Africa where some tribes lived in a real barren desert place
where there was not hardly any water, and they could not of themselves
find where the water was. They'd learn to do something.
They would catch a monkey and they would take that monkey and
they would rub salt in his mouth. Make him real thirsty. And then they'd turn him loose.
He'd go scampering off, and they'd go running behind him, because
he knew where the water was. And he'd lead them right to the
source. That's what God has to do for
us. He has to make us thirsty. Thirsty for him who is himself
the water of life. He said, whosoever will. Whosoever is willing, let him
come and take drink of the water of life freely." Willing? Christ looked to the Pharisees
and he said, you will not come to me that you might have life. He said, you don't believe on
me because you're not my sheep. My sheep, you're my boys. And
in the psalm, God says to his son, thy people shall be willing
in the day of your power. I wasn't thirsty. I was very
satisfied with myself, my religion, my righteousness. One day God made me thirsty. for the truth, for His Word,
for His Son, for His salvation. He brings us to Christ to drink. Well, what is to drink? Christ
Himself said, to believe on me is to drink. Keep drinking. I know where there's a place. If you weren't a bear hunter, you'd
probably never find it. But I know where there's a place.
Way back in the woods. There's an old pipe that sticks
out of the ground. Nobody dug it. That water just keeps springing
out. They never stop. You go by it
one day, and you get back there, and there it is. That's a picture of Christ. You're thirsty. Emmanuel, God with us, has come. And He's coming again. Father, this day we give you
thanks and praise for that gift of your grace, for that salvation,
that righteousness that is in Jesus Christ the Lord. Grant that we might be found
among those that are blessed For he said, blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus Christ. They'll be filled. Bless your word to our hearts
and our time together this evening. For we ask it all in Christ's
name, Amen.