verse 1 of Revelation 22 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 now there's
a clear parallel between these first several verses of Revelation
chapter 22 and the Garden of Eden described in the first chapters
of Genesis and And we'll see that as we go through this, but
in Genesis 2.10, we're told of the river that watered the garden. It branched out into four rivers,
and the names of those rivers are given. And I was gonna talk
about the names of those rivers, because they are significant,
but we won't take the time, I think. But look at those in Genesis
2.10, it introduces the that there is a river in the Garden
of Eden, and there's four names of the four rivers that branch
out from that river, and they mean things like bountiful and
plenty, and one of them means rapid, and it speaks of just
the abundance, and not only the abundance of water, rapid, but
the abundance that it created, that it produced in watering
the garden and Here in our text tonight. We have a river and
this of course By God's design water is vital to human life
and This river is symbolic of God's provision For his people
in his paradise. He put a river and it branched
out in every direction to all four points of the compass in
his garden and so his means of sustaining their lives was this
water and in glory that sustenance in our text here in this New
Jerusalem That sustenance that life-giving element is Christ
himself Flowing from the throne of God giving life to his people
We never cease to be dependent upon Christ Even in glory Especially
in glory he is glory Pure clear as crystal water of
life If you'll remember in John 7
37 when I The great day of the feast had
ended and folks were going back home after observing that religious
holiday. If you'll remember, the Ethiopian
unit was returning from one of those Religious feasts when he
was reading in the book of Isaiah, and he was trying to learn He
was he had questions. Who is this man speaking of himself?
or of somebody else and when Philip Able to turn in the scriptures
that same place and preach unto him Jesus Then he understood,
but he didn't find that out at the feast. He didn't find that
out in the religious Ceremonies and nonsense that were going
on and these people this great day of the feast had ended and
nobody knew anything because religion is empty and Christless
and so Christ stood in In that last day, that great day of the
feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, if any man thirst, if
you didn't get what you came here for, let him come unto me
and drink. Christ is the water of life. You remember the woman at the
well? He said, if you had any idea, the gift of God and who it is
that's speaking with you, You would have asked me. What a beautiful
scene that is. He came there asking her for
a drink of water. And then he says, if you knew
who I was and the gift of God in saving sinners like you, you
would have asked me for a drink and I would have given you living
water. What a beautiful, beautiful metaphor and reality. See there That he it doesn't
say he's going to be the water of life But he is The water of life,
it's not a future thing Christ now even now for that woman at
the well and for those who were returning from that religious
feast and He is the water of life. Even now, tonight, there
is no life outside of Christ. We're not looking at the book
of Revelation to see what's gonna happen. We're looking at the
book of Revelation and God reveals therein what is happening right
now and what your one need is tonight, tonight. God's love
for gardens is seen again in our text. I'm always amazed by that, God's
love for gardens. When man was perfect and had
perfect fellowship with God, and indeed before God even created
man and put him in his paradise, God prepared that garden paradise
for man to live in. He put a river in it and he put
trees in it, just like we'll see in our text tonight. A place
where God himself walked and communed with his people. Can
you imagine the garden? A place that was beautiful, life-giving And very enjoyable
it didn't just sustain life They were happy to live there And that's Christ in picture
and type the whole world think of this in In how that God loves
gardens. He said the whole world is my
garden when our Lord told that parable in Matthew chapter 13
and The whole world that he created is described as a farm, where
he has planted his people, that they might be fruitful and give
glory to him. It was in a garden that our Savior
interceded for us before going to the cross, a garden that he
frequented, the Garden of Gethsemane. The Son of God, whom God always
hears, that we might be with him forever in that garden. And that prayer is fulfilled
in this garden in our text tonight. Revelation 21 three, I heard
a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God
is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his
people and God himself shall be with them and be their God. We will be with him forever face
to face As he prayed for in that garden of Gethsemane our Lord
was buried in a garden and Rose again there appeared to several
of his people Mary supposing him to be the gardener Which
is exactly what he is John 20 15 And here in our text, in the
very presence of God himself, we see a river and a tree on
either side of the river bearing fruit. Like the garden in the
beginning, beautiful and life-giving and enjoyable, pleasurable. Remember what the Lord said,
come enter into the joys of thy Lord. It's not just beautiful,
it's not just vital. It's bliss. It's perfect fulfillment
of every need and want. It's not just what a sinner needs
that Christ is, it's everything that the new man wants. Everything. But in reading about the river
in Genesis, I don't remember seeing the words pure or clear as crystal. And I don't
remember it being referred to there as water of life. This
river in our texts is better than the one in the garden. Better than perfect. How do you
get better than perfect? Christ. Christ. God only made water one time. We're still living on the same
water that God made in the beginning. It still falls from the sky,
the same water that ran through that river in Eden, distills
upon our lawns and gardens now in our backyards. God made it
one time, water which cannot be manufactured, cannot be reproduced. It's given by God only. If you're
going to get some water, you're going to get it from God. You
can't dance and make it come. God's got to give it of his own
free will, the only free will there is in this universe. It's
given by God, water that is vital and refreshing, water that kills
and makes alive. This water is Christ our Lord.
Christ, the water of life, spiritual water that is the life of the
soul. He is partaken of by faith listen
to John 738 He that believeth on me as the scriptures hath
said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water You notice
that it's a river you know text and in these examples It's not
a pond It's not a finite water source. It's a continual river
an abundant river rapid and bountiful Notice how it says We come to
have that water inside of us Now we come to be partakers of
the water. He said he that believeth on
me as The scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water John 738 he that believeth on me It's by faith
That we partake of the water of life freely The word pure
means free from any mixture of anything false. Christ alone. Christ with nothing added, Christ
only. The simplicity, Paul said, that's
in Christ. It proceeds, look at the source
of water. It proceeds out of the throne
of God and of the lamp. All water does. It's given sovereignly. God makes his reign to fall on
the just and the unjust. He makes it happen. He directs
it. He withholds it when he's pleased,
and he gives it when he's pleased. But this spiritual water, the
Lord Jesus Christ and the life that he is for our soul, This
river represents salvation and God's salvation is sovereignly
bestowed. It's directed from the throne.
His word is like the rain that falls from heaven. It does not
return to him void, but it accomplishes the thing where to he sent it.
That's the throne, right? That's cuts water coming from
the throne right there. It does what he wants it to do
because he's the king. And God gives this life to whomsoever
he will. And we can never forget that.
Verse two, in the midst of the street of it, and on either side
of the river was there the tree of life. It's still talking about
the church, by the way. This is the vision that this
angel, this preacher gave John concerning the New Jerusalem
the elect the church the people of God The tree of life on either side
of the river Which bear 12 manner of fruits and yielded her fruit
every month and the leaves of the tree were for the healing
Of the nation's the Garden of Eden had the tree of life in
it But when we sinned we lost access to that tree Genesis 3
24 so he drove out the man and He placed at the east of the
Garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword Which turned
every way to keep the way of the tree of life? No man could
approach again to that tree If man tries to access the tree
of life by his own efforts or worthiness or lack thereof the
sword of God's justice will strike him down and This is of course, it signifies the condition of
man by nature, not welcome in the presence of God. Not acceptable. The only way that God can deal
with a sinner by nature is to put him in hell.
No access to paradise, no access to communion with God, no access
to restoration and life. And of course, as I said, this
signifies access to God himself, to God's paradise, to God's presence,
to God's communion, and the only way it can be had is if God freely
gives access to it. The sword of justice will strike
you down if you try to come any other way, But by God's permission,
by God opening the way, and that way, of course, is Christ, and
the tree is Christ. He's the fulfillment of everything
we need. We have access by the blood of
Christ. The sword of God's justice was
plunged into God's son, our substitute. God's justice was completely
Forever satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ and now God's sword
is put away as far as his children are concerned And so this tree
of life it grows within us We have full free access to the
water of life and to the tree of life There's no other way to God But by Christ to Christ No man
cometh unto the Father, but by me, our Lord said. Now it says
in this, in our text, that the leaves of the tree were for the
healing of the nations. There is only one way in all
of scriptures that sinners can be healed of their sins. He was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes
we're healed. This is Christ crucified, this
tree. A tree, he hung on a tree of
disgrace and shame and the curse. Cursed is everyone that hangs
upon a tree. But that same Jesus is risen
and lives and he is life. And he is the tree of life. 12
manner of fruit every month. We could look into that and try
to figure out what the 12 different kinds of fruits are. People pursue
that kind of thing. And nobody's convincing about
it. Nobody knows the answer to that. I'll tell you what's clear
though. There's always, and every time
there's a mysterious thing in the scripture and you're wondering,
I wonder what that means. There's something staring you right in
the face. Every time. Look at that. Rejoice in that. What God has clearly revealed. What's clear about this Is that
this tree is in glory. This tree is Christ. And so this picture's an abundance
of fruit, 12 different manner of fruit from one tree, and it
yields its fruit every month. You name me one other tree that
does that. We have a plum tree in our front
yard, man, and I've just recently discovered how delicious those
little plums are. I figured, you always think the
word, I saw those little things, I thought, well, that'll kill
me. But they didn't. They're delicious. And every
year, the tree blooms, beautiful, blossoms like a cherry tree,
and then there's a frost, and it kills every one of them. And
no plums for Daddy. And we always get a few, though.
The birds get half of what grows, and we get the other seven. But
this year, we just had a frost. Maybe the last one, maybe. Probably
not, but maybe the last one. And now, a few days later, the
blooms are coming out, and I'm thinking, perfect timing. We're
going to get a lot of plums this year. But if we do, it'll be
one month out of the year, and they'll be gone. And we won't
have any more plums. This tree bears fruit every month
of the year, abundantly. Christ is plenteous in mercy. Oh, we're sin about it. His grace
did much more about. And life, he said, I've come
to give you life and that you might have it more abundantly.
That's not talking about your life. Religion uses that. Oh, he wants you to live the
abundant life. We don't have life by nature. This is not life
that we're seeing, that we're living in this world. He came
to give us real life and it's abundant life. It's not like
the life that we have in this world that's constantly waning.
It's life more abundantly all the time as we grow in his grace
in this world. So he gives it abundantly, never turned a sinner away yet
that came asking. And it is abundant in itself. And we bear fruit by God's grace
unto God. That's the point of him planting
his garden, that we might bear much fruit. If we abide in him,
We do bear fruit. You're the vine, and he is the
vine and we're the branches. If we bear fruit, it's because
we abide in the vine, Christ. And without him, there's no life,
there's no fruit. And when you think of the fruit
of the spirit, it's his fruit, right? It's the fruit of the
spirit, it's the fruit of Christ. Love, the fruit of the Spirit
is love, it's His love. Herein is love, not that we loved
Him. That would be the most noble love in the universe, wouldn't
it, to love Him? Still not love, that's still
not love. Love is His love for us. And
you see, Christ bears that fruit. The love, it's his love who gave
himself for us. The fruit of the spirit is joy,
it's his joy who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame. Love, joy, peace, it's his peace
which passeth all understanding that hangs on this tree. It's
his long-suffering who having loved his own, he loved him to
the end. In verse three in our text, in
closing, we'll think about this. Think about the monumental nature
of this statement. And there shall be no more curse. There's always been a curse.
Always. We live every day under the curse. When you get up to go to work
in the morning and you don't much want to go, And you lay
there like a little baby in the bed all curled up thinking, I'm
just not gonna go today. Think about the curse. Get up and go to work. Not everybody's like that. I
know it's possible to enjoy what you do. I'd say that's the minority
in this world though. And it's hard, even if you do
enjoy, it's hard if you work. honestly Because the Lord cursed this
earth for our sake and cursed us by the sweat of your back
brow you'll eat bread But there shall be no more curtains
the curse upon sinful man was pronounced in the first garden
and But in the last garden, there shall be no more curse. Why?
Because of everything that happened in between. All that in between there. The
first garden, the last garden, no more curse. And this is why. This is why. Happened between the time we
were cursed and what we see in our text the abolishing of that
curse Very simple look with me at a few passages of scripture.
We'll be through turn with me to Galatians 310 Relations 310 for as many as are of the works of the law,
are under the curse. Anybody that's saying, well,
my good outweighs my bad, or, you know, I walked down an aisle
and made a decision for Jesus, or anything like that. As many
as are of the works of the law, you did something to be saved.
You're under the curse. That hadn't changed. You're under
God's curse, and you're gonna die forever under that curse. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. Not to put them up on your
wall with a nice little plaque, to do them. Thought, word, and
deed to do them. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. It's evident to
those with eyes to see. That's not evident to everybody.
But it's evident in the gospel. For the just shall live by faith,
not by law, not by sight, not by doing. And the law is not
of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. That's
hammered home here. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. being made a curse for us. Isn't
that simple? He explains our situation. Anybody that's doing anything
in order to please God is cursed forever. But his people, his elect, his
sheep, Christ hath redeemed us from that curse. From the curse,
the reason we're cursed is because we don't do them. No man is justified
by the law in the sight of God because we don't do them. We
talk a big game and we talk about, you know, thou shalt not and
all that. That's our rule of life and all
that. No, it's not. It better not be. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. How did he do that? On Calvary,
he was made a curse in our place. He was made a curse for us instead
of us and for us for our benefit. What does this mean that he redeemed
us from the curse of the law? Well, what is the curse of the
law? It's not some theory, it's not just something on paper.
We live it by nature. What were the actual results
of sin and the curse against our sin? Well, first, Adam and
Eve saw that they were naked. That's the first thing, which
signifies shame and guilt. Before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was stripped of his robe and
died on Calvary That we might wear the best robe that we might
be clothed that we might be Dressed in the robe of his righteousness
before God He redeemed us from the curse of the law from having
no garment before God from being exposed and naked and guilty
and full of shame before God and We are arrayed now in white before
the throne, because Christ hath redeemed us. And our robes are
washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. What was the
result of sin and the curse? Physical and spiritual death.
The cause of Christ's crucified. There's no more of that. There's
no more of that for his people. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. The one who died in our place
suffered our death for us. And there's no more death. John
11, 25, Jesus said unto Martha, I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall
he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never
die. Believest thou this, isn't it? Poignant, I guess, is the word
that he asked her that. She was telling him what she
believed. I know this, I know this. I know in the resurrection.
What about this, Martha? Do you believe this? I am. Life is me, not an event. What result of sin and the curse? Banishment from the presence
of God. But because of Christ, there's no more of that. Christ
also hath once suffered for sins, the just, for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God. Bring us to God, that's paradise.
Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. And why did God curse us? Because
of sin. Our text says that the throne
of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall
serve him. God's throne The throne of God
and of the Lamb is in his people And that never changes Throughout
endless ages that never changes Now the throne of God was in
the Garden of Eden, wasn't it? In the sense that God imposed
his authority upon Adam and Eve Allowing them to eat of the fruit
of the garden but forbidding them to eat of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. And his throne was in the garden,
sure enough, and Adam served him until he didn't. Adam served himself in eating
that tree that was forbidden. You remember what Satan's reasoning
was? You'll know things that you don't know now. It was all
about self-improvement, wasn't it? So Adam, it was self-serving
and dismissive of God's authority. Satan promised an improvement
of self and Adam believed the lie and served his own interests
and not God. Not there, not then, not in the
garden, Glory, it's not going to be that way Adam was personally
righteous before God before the fall in the garden but now Those
who are in Christ Jesus not only have the righteousness of Christ.
Not only are they the righteousness of Christ? But he is our righteousness
and that's different than how it was in the garden and Christ
is not only perfect righteousness, but he's infallible righteousness,
eternal, impeccable righteousness. And that's just me using the
words I know. We can't describe that righteousness,
which is a person. But I know this, we're more than
conquerors through Christ who loved us. through him that loved
us. Eternal, perfect, infallible
righteousness. I'll tell you what it means.
And again, this is just me throwing pebbles into the ocean.
I'll tell you what it means. As long as he stands, I stand.
That's what it is. For him to be my righteousness,
I stand as long as he does before the throne of God. I'm happy with that. I'm satisfied
with that. Yea, we are more than conquerors
through him that loved us. And even now, there is no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, because he is our righteousness.
We serve God perfectly. Christ Christ He is our righteousness
his servants shall serve him We do now in Christ and we will
throughout all eternity that's why no more curse no more sin Christ was made a curse for us
and that he might redeem us from
the curse of God's law. He is our obedience and he is
our sin offering. And no matter where we look in
this book, he's what we see. We've almost finished the book
of Revelation now. Do you think I should have put
a big old chart up here with a timeline on it? Did we need
that? with dragons and scorpions drawn
on it. It's not that complicated. It's
all Christ. His glory, his honor, his salvation. Thank God for giving us a glimpse.