Let us turn then to God's words,
turning to Revelation chapter 22 and considering with you this
evening the words that we find here in verse 17. Revelation
22, 17 And the spirits and the bride say, Come, and let him
that heareth say, Come, and let him that is athirst come. and
whosoever will let him take the water of life freely and the spirit and the bride
say come and let him that hear us say come and let him that
is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of
life freely I want us to consider in particular the word come. And we find it of course these
three times in this particular verse. And come is surely a great
gospel word. A theme in a sense could be said
to be gospel coming. And here in the words that we've
read as a text there are two comings that are spoken of First,
there is Christ's second coming, which is the matter that is dealt
with in the first part of the verse, and then there is the
sinner's spiritual coming, the coming of faith, which is really
the subject matter at the end of the verse. So I want us to
follow that very simple division, to look at each part of this
17th verse. The whole context in which the
verse is found is very much speaking of the last things. Revelation of course is taken
up with that particular branch of theology that we call eschatology,
the doctrine of the last things and Here, at the end of the book,
it is not surprising then that there is mention made of the
return of the Lord Jesus Christ and that great day of judgment
that will be ushered in when he comes again in power and glory. In chapter 20, for example, and
there at verse 11, John says, And I saw a great white throne,
and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven
fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw
the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were
opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of
life. And the dead were judged out
of those things which were written in the books according to their
works, and so forth. Speaking there of that day of
final judgments, and we remember how it is Christ who is to return
as that one who will be the judge. He came the first time as that
one who is the saviour of sinners, but He is to return to judge
the living and the dead. The Father judges no man, He
says. but hath committed all judgments
to the Son, and hath given Him authority to execute judgment,
because He is the Son of Man. Oh, it is Him who is the God-Man,
who is to be the judge of all men and women." And here at the
end It is very much the Lord Jesus Christ himself who is speaking. Verse 16, I, Jesus, have sent
mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.
I am the roots and the offspring of David and the bright and morning
star. He speaks of himself there then
in both his divine and his human natures. He is the roots. of
David, he is David's Lord, he is before David but then he is
also that one who is the offspring of David, he is David's son with
regards to his human nature and it is Christ then who is speaking
and so he continues to speak here in the words of our text
And he speaks very much of his coming again. The Spirit and
the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say,
Come. Isn't this a response to what
he has already said previously at verse 7? Behold, he says,
I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the
sayings of the prophecy of this book. He speaks then of his return
and in our text there's a sense in which he makes mention of
the response on the part of the church as he says he will come
I come quickly so the spirit and the bride respond by saying
come and those who are the hearers of his words they utter the same
they say come and his coming will bring the ends of all things. That coming of Christ will mark
the end, the end of time. Again, doesn't Paul speak of
it when he writes to the church of Corinth there in the 15th
chapter of that particular epistle, 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 24? Then cometh the end, we're told. speaks of Christ's coming, the
end of verse 23, then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered
up the kingdom to God even the Father, when he shall have put
down all rule and all authority and power, for he must reign
till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy
that shall be destroyed is death. Very much here then, We have
this subject matter of the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the final judgments. And after that, of course, there
can be no more any changes. Verse 11. He that is unjust,
let him be unjust still. He which is filthy, let him be
filthy still. He that is righteous, let him
be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still, and behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with
me, to give every man according as his work shall be. Or where the tree falls, there
shall it burn. When the final judgment comes,
and the judgment is made, and the Lord makes that separation
between the sheep and the goats. And what we see here is that
this coming, this consummation of all things, is the great desire
of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the one who says
come at the beginning of this 17th verse. He desires, does the Spirit that
is God, the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Blessed Trinity. He desires that coming of the
day of judgment. Now this is the day of grace.
And this day of grace, in many ways, is the day of the Holy
Spirit. It's the dispensation of the
Holy Spirit. It's that day when we see the
wonderful works of the Holy Spirit. And remember how Christ speaks
of those works There in John 14.12 he calls them greater works
than his works. When the Spirit comes the Lord
uses that expression there in John 14.12 greater works than
the works of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says it is expedient for you
that I go away For if I go not away, the Holy Spirit will not
come, but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And so it was. And we have the
record of it. You're familiar with that record
that we find in the second chapter of the Acts, when the day of
Pentecost was fully come. The Feast of Weeks, the Feast
of Pentecost. When the day of Pentecost was
fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and
suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty
wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And
there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and
it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the
Holy Ghost. and began to speak with other
tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." And that ushers in,
in all its fullness today of grace, the work of Christ as
being completed. He has finished the work that
the Father gave Him to do, His obedience unto death, even the
death of the cross. He has made that great sin-atoning
sacrifice. He has risen from the dead. He
has ascended on high. He has entered into heaven itself. And he is the one who sheds abroad
the Holy Ghost. There's that lovely hymn of Joseph
Hartz on Pentecost 715. I think we probably have sung
it, not very frequently, but it's a lovely hymn when The blessed
day of Pentecost was fully come. The Holy Ghost descended from
above, sent by the Father and the Son to bring immortal blessings
down and shed abroad God's love. This is the great work of the
Spirit, to make known the things of the Lord Jesus Christ. These
great works. And that ministry of the Spirit,
as you know, though it's the dispensation of the Holy Ghost,
yet His ministry is so self-effacing, he doesn't draw any attention
to himself. He comes as the Spirit of Christ.
For Christ says in John 16, 13, When He, the Spirit of Truth,
is come, He will guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak
of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak,
and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me, for
he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you." This
is his ministry. No man can say that Jesus Christ
is Lord but by the Holy Ghost. Or do we recognize the wonder
of that blessed person, God the Holy Spirit? When the Comforter
is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father even the
spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testify
of me says the Lord Jesus such a blessed ministry this self-effacing
ministry and we see this here even in the text how that he
desires the end the end of this dispensation in which his own
ministry is so paramount that the Spirit is saying, come,
which will bring the end of the day of grace and the final glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ as He comes and every eye sees Him
and every tongue will confess that He is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. For this second coming it is
clearly the desire of the Holy Spirit, it's also the desire
of the Church And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. Oh, the Bride, the Bride. Who is the Bride? Well, John
tells us, doesn't he? In that 21st chapter we read,
I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God
out of heaven, prepared as a Bride, adorned for her husband. And then again, in verse 9, there
came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full
of the seven last plagues and talked with me saying, Come hither,
I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. Oh, who is the bride? The bride is the church. And
what does the bride long for? Why the bride is looking. and
desiring that great marriage supper, even the marriage supper
of the Lamb. Verse 7 in chapter 19, Let us
be glad and rejoice and give honour to Him, for the marriage
of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready,
and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen,
clean and white, for the The fine linen is the righteousness
of saints. And He said unto me, Write, Blessed
are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.
And He said unto me, These are the true sayings of God. Oh, are we those who bear that
mark of Christ's Bride, Christ's Church. We're looking and watching
and waiting for His appearing. Oh, we long for His coming again. But you see how here in the text,
in this 17th verse, the emphasis is really on the union between
the Holy Spirit and the Church. Isn't the Church the possession
of the Holy Spirit? The Spirit and the Bride say
come, they're in union here. Every believer, of course, every
child of God is involved by that blessed Spirit of God. And, oh,
the apostle has to remind the Corinthian church of that great
truth. He says, What know ye not that
your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which
ye have of God, and ye are not your own? Or, the believer is
the possession of the Holy Spirit. You are the temple of the living
God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them
and I will be their God and they shall be my people. This is the
emphasis here. The Spirit and the Bride together.
They say come, this is what they desire, even the return of Christ in power
and glory, and that's great consummation of all things. Why, then you see, the whole
company of the elect will be called out of this world. And
what will Christ present unto the Father? That church that
is without spot or blemish or any wrinkle, complete, entire,
in all its parts. A perfect church. as he sees
of the travail of his soul and is satisfied. And it is by the
efficacious grace of the Spirit of God that believers hear the
Gospel. And as they hear the Gospel by
the Spirit, so they believe the Gospel. Let him that heareth
say come. Let him that heareth say come.
How does faith come? Faith cometh by hearing. And
that's not just the physical hearing with the outer ear. It's that spiritual hearing.
It's the mark of the sheep of Christ. My sheep know my voice,
he says. And they follow me and I give
unto them eternal life. Is it that they know the voice
of Christ? How is it that they hear the voice of the Lord Jesus
Christ? It's when the Spirit comes, and
He comes in the Word of Truth. And Paul reminds that church
at Thessalonica, our Gospel came not unto you, he says, in Word
only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. Here is the mark then of those
who are the true Bride of Christ, the Church of Christ. They hear. And their hearing is evident
in their obedience. They come to the Lord Jesus Christ
and they're looking for the coming of Christ. The spirits and the
Bride say, come. And let him that heareth say,
come. But then, turning to the second
part of the verse, it says, And let him that is a thirst come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. What is the coming that is spoken
of now? I say this is that spiritual
coming, the sinner's spiritual coming to Christ. You see, to
the very end of the Day of Grace, the Lord Jesus Christ, by His
Spirit, is calling sinners to Himself. If what we have in verse,
the first part of this 17th verse, is the Spirit's and the Church's
response to what Christ had said, Behold I come quickly, and the
Spirit and the Bride say, Come and Him that heareth says come,
then we have after that Christ's response to what they are saying.
Let him that is a thirst come. Whosoever will let him take the
water of life freely. Why is this still the day of
grace? Oh it is the day of grace yet. And what does the Lord God say?
I have heard thee in the time accepted in the day of salvation
of my soccer. Behold now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. And what we have at the end of
this text, the water of life freely. The water of life freely. What is that? It is nothing less
than the gospel. It is the gospel, the water of
life freely. Again, Going back to the first part
of our reading in chapter 21 and verse 6, He said unto me,
It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. There is
the Gospel. The giving of the water of life
freely. And that gospel centers in Christ. Remember the words of the Lord
Jesus when he must need to go through Samaria, there in John
chapter 4. Why is it so necessary that he
goes through Samaria? Well, he must go that particular
way to arrive at his destination, we could say, but it's more than
that. He must meet with that woman at the well of Syca. That woman who is brought to
acknowledge and to confess him as the Messiah. Did he not tell
her all things that ever he did? He knew everything about her
life. Whatever sort of life it may
have been that she'd lived, he knew everything. And what does
the Lord say to her? Now there at the well, and she
is wanting to draw water, and there is the Lord Jesus sitting
on the well, resting because he is wearied by his journey. And Jesus says this, "...whosoever
drinketh of this water," that is the water of the well, verse
13, "...whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst. But the water that I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting
life." The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that
I thirst not, neither come hither to drink. Oh, he himself, you
see, is that one who ministers the very water of life. He goes on later in the sixth
chapter of that Gospel, John 6 and verse 35, he says, I am
the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger, he
that believeth in me shall never thirst. And that's a striking
verse, is it not? He speaks of the satisfying of
both the hungry and the thirsty. And what does he say? He is the
bread of life. It's one of the great I Am passages. He is that
true bread that has come down from heaven of which the manna
in the wilderness was but a type. I am the bread of life, he that
cometh to me, he that cometh to me shall never hunger, he
that believeth on me shall never thirst. You see how the coming
is the same as believing. Coming is believing. Let him
that is a thirst come. It says here in the text. Or
what is his coming? It's believing. And I say again
that coming is a great word in the Gospel. We come to Christ. And what do we come to Christ
for? We come to Christ for the water of life. Come unto me, he says. all ye
that labour and are heavy laden I will give you rest take my
yoke upon you learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart
and you shall find rest unto your souls for my yoke is easy
and my burden is light he's always issuing this blessed word inviting
sinners to come which is really to believe In Scripture, when
we think about it, we see such a remarkable contrast between
this Gospel and the Law. We do not despise the Law. It
is the Law of God. And as God's Law, it is a revelation
of God, and the Law is holy. And the commandment, Paul says,
is holy and just and good. But what do we see of God in
the Law? We see His holiness, His righteousness, His justice. Oh, what a contrast between that
revelation that we have in the Holy Lord of God and what we
see in the Gospel. What does the Law say? The Law
says, stand back. Don't come near. Don't touch
the Mount. Remember the setting there in
the book of Exodus in chapter 19. Our bounds have to be set
all around Mount Sinai. God is going to appear. God is
going to descend upon the mount. There'll be thunder and lightnings
and the mount's quaking and the people must stand back. They're
not to presume to draw near unto this God. Well what is that law? Why it's a ministration of death? written and engraven in stones. That's how Paul describes it,
2 Corinthians 3, a ministration of death, written
and engraven in stones. And he goes on also to speak
of it as that ministration of condemnation. And there's a glory
in it. There's a glory in it, but in
that third chapter of 2nd Corinthians he is contrasting that law which
is God's law with the gospel. Now the glory of the gospel is
greater than that that belongs unto the law. What is the law? By the law is the knowledge of
sin. Oh it's in the law that we come
to see what we are as sinners to understand something of our
sad condition as those who are the transgressors if a man should
keep the whole of that law and yet offend in one point James
says he is guilty of all God reveals himself there But what
we see of God there is terrifying because He is the Holy One of
Israel and we are those who are the sinners. In contrast, the Gospel sets
forth the freeness and the fullness of the salvation that is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. these words at the end of the
text the water of life freely oh they so blessedly describe
to us something of the wonder of that gospel I think of a poem
that was written by a woman we read this morning of course in
the book of Proverbs there at the end of Proverbs, that lovely
final 31st chapter, which describes to us the virtuous woman. Beautiful
passage. And when I've read something of the
experience of Henrietta Gilpin, I thought, well, there is a woman
who meets that blessed description. This is the virtuous woman. And
how she was brought to the knowledge of her sins, new deep conviction,
of sin and an awful legal spirit much confusion in her mind and
then the Lord showed her that way of salvation that is in the
gospel and she wrote a poem, quite a long poem, I'm not going
to read it all but I'll read a couple of stanzas because she
found so much comfort in this word freder as we have it in
the text let him take the water of life Freely it says, and she
says this, Then to my inmost heart thou didst one word impart,
Mighty in strength, large, and yet larger grew, On my astonished
view its breadth and length. Freely, it seemed to say, cast
all your fears away, freely believe, cease from your legal state,
and my salvation great freely received." Oh, thank God! It is that, it is a gospel of
free grace. It is that that we obtain in
the language of Isaiah 55 without money and without price. This is what we have here, you
see. And see how the gospel comes
to sinners. Let him that is a thirst come.
And doest ever will let him take the water of life freely. And here we have certain marks
of those sinners who are so welcome to freely come and to partake
of this free gift of salvation. Who are they? Well, they're thirsty
sinners. They're thirsty sinners. We can't
escape that. Let him that is a thirst come.
Do we have a thirst? Do we have an appetite? Do we
have a hunger? I've already referred to those
words in Isaiah 55, O everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters. He that hath no money, come ye buy and eat. Yea, come,
buy wine and milk without money and without price. Incline your
ear and come unto me, he says. That is the language of the Gospel.
It's there in the Old Testament. We're not to think that the Old
Testament is law, the New Testament is gospel. There's law and gospel
in the Old Testament, there's law and gospel in the New Testament,
but we have to distinguish the two. And here we see that those sinners
who are thirsty are bidden to come. Or if we have an appetite,
a little thirst, we can come. and partake of the waters of
life blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness
says Christ for they shall be filled but it goes on to say
something much more doesn't it it says whosoever it says and whosoever will let
him take the water of life freely. Whosoever will. Ah, but what
does the Lord say to the Jews? But ye will not come to me that
ye might have life. He said to us, ye will not come.
We won't come. We refuse to come. Ye will not
come to me that ye might have life. It is the Lord Jesus Christ,
is it not, who makes his people willing to come. There is that
promise that is given to him in the Psalms, Psalm 110, Thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power, or the Lord
makes his people a willing people. And then they do come. He causes
His words to be fruitful in their souls' experience. Again, look
at the language that we have in that 55th chapter of Isaiah's
prophecy. Verse 10, For as the rain cometh
down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither but
watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud that it
may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. The Lord sends forth
his word in the day of his power, and when that word comes so efficaciously,
the sinner is made willing to Oh, Christ is that one you see,
exalted, the Prince and the Saviour, who gives repentance to Israel.
How we have to be those who would look to the Lord Jesus Christ
for that repentance, for faith, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Oh, here is the blessed language
of the Gospel, even right at the end of the Day of Grace.
The text says so much of coming. And I say again, as I said at
the outset, it is such a blessed gospel word, this word come. Those who are in that secret,
those who know Christ as their God and their Savior, all they
would be ever saying, come quickly Lord Jesus. and the Lord himself comes still
in the day of grace and says time and time again to the sinner
come the spirit and the bride say come and let him that hear
it say come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever
will let him take the water of life freely all God's granted
We might be those then who do come and receive so freely all
the blessings of this great salvation. The Lord bless His Word for His
name's sake. Amen. Well, let us conclude our worship
today as we sing hymn number 56 and we omit verses 6 and 7. Those bracketed verses on page
58, verses 6 and 7 we omit. Singing in number 56, the tune
is Jackson's 163rd. Let every open ear attend And
broken heart rejoice, the trumpet of the gospel sounds with an
inviting voice. O all ye hungry, starving souls
that feed upon the wind, and vainly strive with earthly toys
to fill an empty mind, eternal wisdom has prepared a soul-reviving
feast to bid your longing appetites. the rich provision tastes. Number 56, omitting verses 6
and 7.