Anyway, let's take our Bibles. And let's turn to the book of
Revelation, chapter 22. Revelation 22. Revelation 22, 6 says this, And
he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true. And the
Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angels to show unto
His servants the things which must shortly be done." Let's
pray together. Our Father, how thankful we are
for this time to be able to call upon Your holy and blessed name
in and by the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask You this
day Bless Your Word. Bless, we pray, the preaching
and the hearing. Lord, we ask that You'd comfort
Your people. We ask that You'd call those
that You've everlastingly loved out of darkness. Magnify Yourself. Bless this Word to our heart.
Cause us to hear. Cause us to be comforted. Cause
us to understand. We ask these things for Christ's
sake. Amen. Chapter 22 deals with a description
of heavenly Jerusalem. That heavenly Jerusalem which
is the church now in her glorified state. We know something of that
which is described right now. But in that day, we will no longer
see through a glass darkly. In that day, we'll no longer
see and know in part. We'll know. And we'll see Him
as He is. Right now, we're torn. Paul said, I don't know which
is better. Go on and just leave this world and be with the Lord.
He said, or stay here and be with you. He was in a great straight. He wanted the Lord's will. He
did. But he desired truly to see Him. That's just a vapor. That's all
it is. It's just a moment. Just a twinkling. In comparison
to eternity, as I've said before, right now we're just a blip. Now these things that we read,
that we've read before, no more curse. Verse 3, the throne of
God and of the Lamb shall be in it. His servants shall serve
Him. They'll see His face. Verse 4,
His name shall be in their foreheads. Verse 5, no night there. That
is, no spiritual night. There is nothing, nothing to
cloud. No need of candle and light of
the sun. For the Lord God giveth them light. They shall reign
forever and ever. He said unto me, these sayings
are faithful and true. But don't we agree with David
in Psalm 139.6, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's
high. I cannot attain unto it. Don't we admit that? We know
this. We know it. And we believe it. Oh, how much we don't know. But
I do know this. By faith, Mitch, we're going
to see Him. We're going to see Him. But one of the seven angels that
was speaking to John gave him that blessed revelation concerning
these things, these sayings. Not just the sayings of chapter
22. Those are true. These sayings
are faithful and true. Not even just the sayings of
the book of Revelation. But the sayings of this Bible, all Scripture is given by inspiration
of God, breathed by Almighty God who has everlastingly been
pleased to reveal Himself. These sayings, these Scriptures,
These scriptures are faithful. They're trustworthy. You can
rest your soul upon what is said in this book. These sayings are reliable concerning
His will, His covenant, His purpose. Isaiah 55, 11 says, So shall
my word Be that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not return
unto me void." Empty. They're not coming back empty.
You know, a parent talks to a child. They say something. I want you to do so-and-so. Don't
go out in the street. Goes out and, you know, parents
said, did you hear what I said? Like I didn't even say anything. Returned empty. He said, not
mine. Not my word. But it shall accomplish that
which I please. It shall prosper in the things
whereto I send it. I'm convinced of this. If Almighty
God has purposed, and He has, to comfort His people, they'll
be comforted. If He's been pleased to call
one out of darkness, He shall. In time, what do we do? What
do we do? You be obedient. You preach. Do you believe that all that
the Father has given Him shall come to Him? Yes, we do believe
that. What do we do? We preach the gospel. And we
ask Him, Lord, call out Your sheep. He said, well, I don't
see why we should ask for that. He said, all these things, yet
all these things, Ezekiel 36, will I be inquired of? Ask me. You knock and you seek. You ask
and you keep on. And don't you stop. His sovereignty
has established all that He has everlastingly purposed to do.
And His people will ask, you'll ask. These sayings are faithful. And also, these sayings are true.
They're truthful. They're reliable and they're
truthful. John 14, verse 6, Jesus saith
unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by Me." Now when it comes to the proclamation
of truth, we say we preach the truth. Now truth, when you say
the truth, the truth is concerning the glory of God in the person. of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
preach the truth. The Lord Jesus said, I am the
truth. Christ is the full and final
revelation of God. We start at Hebrews 1.1. God
who at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto us by the
prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. He's the last word. There is
no other revelation. Anytime someone says, I've got
a revelation for you from the Lord. If it's not in this book right
here, it's not of the Lord. These, the Lord said, these Scriptures,
these are they that testify of Me. He is the final word. He's the fullness of the revelation
right here. Anytime somebody says, I've got
another, a new, you know, it's not of God. Last word, truth. And we think of truth. Truth
is not merely a system of morality. A man stands up and says, abortion
is wrong. I agree with you. Abortion is
murder. Abortion is murder. That is what
it is. But it is not the proclamation
of the truth. Preaching the truth is the proclamation of the Lord
Jesus Christ being God's servant in the redemption and salvation
of His people. Sovereign saving grace. is the proclamation of the truth.
It's the proclamation of Christ. So though some things may be
morally so, that doesn't mean that the truth has been set forth. Any message that sets forth salvation
to be of the works of the flesh, or any message that fails to
set forth salvation to be all of grace in Christ, is a lie. It's a lie. I don't care how
moral it is. I don't care how moral it is.
I don't care how moral it is. If it's not the glory of God
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation is of the Lord. All of grace, electing grace, particular redemption, Particular quickening calling
out. If it's not proclamation of sovereign
saving grace, I don't care how moral it is, it's a lie. It's a lie. Anything that doesn't
set forth the truth, Christ is a lie. 1 John 1.6 says, If we
say that we have fellowship with Him, and we walk in darkness,
we lie. And do not the truth. If we say
we have fellowship with Him and we walk in darkness, what does
it mean to walk in darkness? I'm not talking about whether
or not we're speaking of moral things. The Pharisees were moral. Read what Saul of Tarsus, what
Paul the Apostle said concerning himself. The Pharisees, I mean,
they would strive after the keeping of the law. They wouldn't pick
up a stick on the Sabbath day and walk around it. They would
not. I mean, why? Striving after the
keeping of a righteousness before God that they thought that they
were earning before Almighty God. What does it mean to walk in
darkness? It means to be unconverted. Let me show you that. Ephesians
5a, let me read it for you. Ephesians 5a, For ye were sometimes
darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children
of light. It doesn't say you were in darkness,
though they were. Paul says you were darkness.
See, we get to thinking of these words and we start using these
words. We heard some morally right things,
so we heard the truth today. Not if you didn't hear Christ.
Not if you didn't hear the glory of God. Not if you didn't hear
sovereign grace. Sovereign saving grace. Not if you didn't hear that Almighty
God saves a man for God's honor and God's glory and God's praise
in spite of that guy. That God Almighty kept him in
spite of him. That he was kept by the power
of God. He didn't keep himself. It wasn't the truth. It was a
lie. The gospel of God's grace In
Christ, the gospel of God is truth. Galatians 1.8, But though
we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached unto you. Let him be accursed.
Doesn't it almost seem that somebody would read that and just ask
themselves this? What was the gospel that Paul
preached? Though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other
gospel unto you, then that which we've preached unto you, let
him be a curse." It seemed like a man would ask that. But do
you know why he doesn't ask? Because he's darkness. And he's
convinced, Carl, in his mind, I am light. Do you know why he
believes that? Because his heart is desperately
wicked and it's deceitful above all things. Who can know it? If a man knew he was blind, He
would have light. But the Lord told those Pharisees,
because you say, we see, therefore, your sin remains. Almighty God
has got to call a man. That's why you can't convince.
I couldn't. How would I convince someone
that I love if I could? Don't you think I would? It's not by blood. It's not by the will of flesh,
not by the will of man. You think I would, if I had the
ability, you think I would let those that I love and know, you
think I'd let them die? I would do all that I could,
set them down, wear them out. Sit down here, let me show you
this. I can prove to you, watch this, I'm going to prove this
to you. What do I do? I ask God to have mercy. These sayings of the sayings
of God, they're faithful, they're reliable, and they're true. And
the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his
servants the things which must shortly be done. Here we find in this Last chapter
of this divine book, the accomplishment of what the Holy Spirit set forth
in the first verse of this book. Just look back at Revelation
1.1. Revelation 1.1, the revelation
of Jesus Christ. It is the laying open, the unveiling, of the Messiah. Have you noticed this in this
book? We've gone through this book of Revelation now almost
twice. We're in the last chapter. We're
going through it the second time. And the world looks at this book
and they see things that are just Great amazement to them. They
see dragons and they see all kinds of locusts that fly out
of this. And they draw pictures of them. You get somebody and tell them
you're going to preach on the book of Revelation, and I'm telling
you, everybody and their brother will show up. Oh, we want to
hear these weird things. We're going to be seeing these
pretty soon, you know. We're going to see some dragons and
we're going to see some locusts and this dragon's got ten heads. There's nothing that is set forth
in the book of the Revelation that's not set forth in the book
of Ephesians and Romans and Galatians and Philemon and on, Genesis. All the Scriptures are concerning
Him. This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. John 5.39. In closing, I want
you to look at this verse of Scripture. John 5.39. Concerning the Scriptures, listen
to the words of our Lord as He spoke. to some Jews. He said, search
the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. And they are they which testify
of Me. Now let me ask you this. If the Scriptures testify of
the Lord Jesus Christ, will there be any Scripture that will be
contrary or contradictory to any other Scripture? If they
all testify of Him, search the Scriptures. This is what it means. It didn't
say read it. It didn't say read the Scriptures. Though we do. Though we do. It says search
them. Seek. Investigate. and compare Scripture to Scripture. Search the Scriptures. They're consistent. For in them,
the Lord told those Jews, you think you have eternal life.
Now, I read that and tried to look at those words to see exactly
what he was saying. And this is what he was saying.
He wasn't saying something that is contradictory like you think,
though they did think that. What he was saying was this.
You are persuaded, and rightly so, for in them you think you
have eternal life. You're persuaded, and rightly
so, that you have eternal life. Now let me tell you how I know
that that's so. You take someone that's standing here that's Armenian,
that they believe that salvation is possible. All you have to
do is accept it. It's offered. The Lord made salvation
possible, they say. They are in their mind, they're
convinced, and rightly so. is what the Lord was telling
them. That in these Scriptures we find eternal life. Though
they look in the Scriptures and they don't see Christ. But they'll
take Scriptures and they'll base everything they believe on what
they think the Scriptures are saying. That's what the Lord
said. He said, you search the Scriptures. And in them you think
or you realize. Have an understanding that you
have eternal life. But the failing of the carnal
heart is this. It doesn't see salvation to be
all of grace. They say they believe all of
grace, but with their words they manifest that they believe that
salvation is truly by works. Listen to them. Search the Scriptures. John was told these sayings are
faithful and true. Search the Scriptures. This is
a challenge to you and to me. Search the Scriptures during
the week. You say, I don't have time. Make
time. Well, I've got to be at work
so I can get up earlier. Well, I can't change your schedule. Yeah, but I've got an opportunity. Search the Scriptures. Concentrate
and diligently search. Examine every expression. Search
for the meaning of every word. Trace the occurrence of that
word in the Scriptures. Search them. Let me ask you something. If you've got a three-quarter
carat diamond ring, and it's not where it's supposed to be,
you picked it up, you took it off, you went out there and mowed
the grass, you know, weeded the garden and stuff like that, took
your rings off and set it up there. Well, it's supposed to be sitting
right there. Now, I don't see it. I'm going to look at every place
around here. I'm going to look. Search them. They are they which testify
may search the Scriptures. Let me ask you this. Does John
3, 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but
have everlasting life, does that set forth that Almighty God loves
every man without distinction? God so loved the world. Men have
told me that that means that God loves everybody. Search the
Scriptures. Compare Scripture to Scripture. 2 Peter 3, 9. The Lord is not
slack concerning His promises, as some men count slackness.
But as longsuffering to us, we are not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance. Does that mean
that God desires for every man born in Adam to be converted? Search the scriptures. Compare
scripture to scripture. God Almighty sent His angel,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight
in. Behold, Malachi 3 says, He shall
come, saith the Lord of hosts. God sent Him to show unto His
servants. Who are the servants of God?
That's His people. His people. To show unto His
servants the things which must shortly be done. Or that is, come into existence. Become as God has purposed them
to be. These sayings are faithful and true. If Almighty God has given any
man, any woman a heart to search the Scriptures, to look for the
glory of God in Christ, to see Him who is faithful, He who is
true. If God's given a man a heart
to do that, he's a blessed man. May the Lord add His blessing
on the reading of His Scriptures for Christ's sake.