I thank you for that song. You'll have a difficult time
finding a song with better words than that. And that's a song
we sang in Michigan quite often. And I wanted the group to introduce
it to you today. And it's not in our songbook. We'll have to improvise and put
it and attach it maybe to the chorus booklet. But it is a very
precious, precious song written by Horatious Boneheart. Well, let's go to Revelation
chapter 16. And I'm going to ask your indulgence. I am absolutely hot. It is terrible up here. And I
see several of you fanning out there. And I know I look washed away
on the internet, but maybe it'll make me look better. Boy, it is really hot. Don't worry, this is it. You're welcome. It is quite hot up here, I assure
you. Well, it is time to go to work,
isn't it? Wow. One more thing. Okay. Here's my subject today. A joyful journey through Revelation. A joyful journey through Revelation. Let's just take a journey through
the book of Revelation very briefly. The book of the Revelation of
the Lord Jesus is a most glorious book. It is beautiful in its
meaning and it is beautiful in its purpose. Indeed, we have
learned, I hope, that the reason for the book, the purpose of
the book, is to assure the saints of God of the absolute certain
victory of the Lord Jesus and all of His followers over the
dragon. And in the book of the Revelation,
the dragon is Satan. So this is the book that assures
us of the victory of the Lord Jesus and His people, His followers,
over the dragon and his followers. And we know in old eternity God
determined to save the people. The only way He could do that
in a just way, and God must always act in justice. The only way
He could save sinners was by the substitutionary sacrifice
of the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God. To reconcile
us to God, to save His elect, the Lord Jesus had to join His
deity to our humanity. And so the Lord Jesus was born
of a virgin. He wasn't born as a result of
a union of a man and a wife, because then He would have been
contaminated by sin. and would not be, therefore,
qualified to be the sin offering. He had to be the perfect sin
offering. And so our Lord Jesus was born
of the Virgin. This God-man lived in obedience
to God's law, then he died as God's offering for sin. He died as the sacrifice. From
the very beginning of the Scriptures, God has instructed us that the
only way sinners can be saved, the only way that the rebels
can be forgiven, was by an innocent victim dying in their stead.
Indeed, this is seen at the end of Genesis chapter 3. when God
killed two animals and then our fallen parents lived. Adam and
Eve lived. Even though God had said to Adam,
in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die, God killed
substitute in their stead. In their stead, that's substitution.
Go back to Genesis, the 22nd chapter. You remember how Isaac
was to be offered as a burnt offering? unto God, and already
his body was up on the altar. And Abraham raised his knife
to kill his son, and God told him to stop. Actually, the Son
of God told him to stop. And he said, you see that ram? Called him the thicket by the
horns. He said, you take that ram and
you offer him. In the stead of Isaac. That's substitution. In the stead
of Isaac. In Romans chapter 8 and verse
32, He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for
us all are in our stead. I'll surely not freely give him
all things. This is substitution. When man
fell, God introduced on earth this doctrine of substitution. But you need to remember before
there was ever a fall on earth, there was a fall in heaven. Some time after God created the
angels, Lucifer fell. You see, before there was ever
any spiritual conflict, On earth, there was spiritual conflict
in heaven. Before there was ever a war or
a battle on earth over the things pertaining to God, the things
pertaining to Christ Jesus, there had already been a war and a
battle fought in heaven. And here's what the war was about. It began when Satan rebelled
against God. And the reason he rebelled against
God is because God had given to Christ Jesus a people. It
issued to Christ Jesus the gospel command to go to the earth, to
be born, to live and then to die as the substitute of sinners.
And then as a result of his death, he would have universal authority
over all things as the God-man. And this was a work which our
Lord Jesus willingly performed. There was no reluctance on His
part. And Satan was envious of the Son of God because he wanted
the position assigned by the Father to the Son, that position
of universal authority and universal sovereignty. God would exalt
a man, the God-man. And that's the position Satan
wanted. He wanted to be exalted as God over all. And of course
that didn't happen. And there began in heaven a war. A spiritual warfare. A war that
later inherited the name Armageddon. That's where it began. It began
in heaven. when Satan fought against God. And of course, this was a battle
which the Lord easily won. When Satan said, I will be as
the Most High God, God said, no you won't. And God kicked
him out of heaven. And one third of the angels fell
with him. That's exactly when Armageddon
began. Notice here in Revelation chapter
16. Look at verse 15. Or even back
up to verse 14. For there the spirits of devils
working miracles, that is, that which came forth from the dragon,
the beast, and the false prophet. The dragon is Satan. The beast
is world government that's anti-God and anti-Christ, and the false
prophet, that's false religion. The spirit of devils which work
miracles go forth into the kings of the earth and the whole earth,
whole world to gather up to the battle of the great day of God
Almighty. That is the last battle. This
is the last battle. And I'll tell you, this is when
it's going to happen. The Savior tells us in verse
15, Behold, I come as a thief. It's when He comes back. That
will be the final Armageddon. He said, Blessed is he that watcheth
and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his
shame. Are you robed in the righteousness
of Christ Jesus? Oh, the utter, utter, if you're not robed in His garments
of righteousness. And He gathered them together,
verse 16, unto a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon,
or literally, Megiddo. What is Armageddon? I think most
of the world is convinced it's some kind of nuclear war that's
going to happen in the future. probably in the Middle East,
just before our Lord Jesus comes back. There may be a war in the
Middle East before the Lord Jesus comes back. I don't know, but
that's not Armageddon. Religious bookstores and non-religious
bookstores as well, they have their bookshelves stocked full
of books on this subject of Armageddon. And of course, The film producers
out in Hollywood, and they hate the Word of God. They hate the
things of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know why anybody would
ever listen to those folks. They make lots of movies about
Armageddon. This is a big thing. But as you listen to what the
world says about Armageddon, and then you go to what the Scriptures
have to say about Armageddon, this is easily the conclusion
that you draw. What God means by Armageddon,
what the world means by Armageddon, two different things. Because
what the world means is a physical war or conflict. What God means
is a spiritual warfare or conflict that began when Satan rose up
in rebellion against God, and the last battle will be fought
when our Lord Jesus comes back, and it will be over just like
that. Just like that. Now like so much of the book
of the revelation of the Lord Jesus, Armageddon is Well, I
guess we say a symbolic word for the conflict between our
Lord Jesus and His followers and the dragon and His followers.
It is symbolic. After all, the book of Revelation
is much full of symbolism. And I told you this when we were
studying back in chapter 1. I said, from this point on, it's
filled with symbolism. literally sign language. Armageddon
then is a symbolic word for that great ongoing battle between
our Lord Jesus and his followers and Satan or the dragon and his
followers. Now, to get an idea of what Armageddon
was all about, and Megiddo, you go back into the books of 2 Chronicles
and also the book of Judges. Especially in the book of Judges,
we find the Jews were greatly oppressed by the king and the
Canaanites, a man by the name of Jabin. And the leader of his
army was Sisera. They were so awful against Israel. I mean, they did everything they
could to oppress God's chosen people. In fact, the Jews were
so afraid, they hid from the king, Jabin, and the leader of
his army, Sisera. And they asked God for relief.
Because this went on for like 20 years. And the Lord led them
to go to the judge of Israel, who at that time was a woman
by the name of Deborah. Deborah. And Deborah said to
them, the Lord God will deliver Jabin and Sisera into the hands
of Israel. And there was a war fought in
the valley of Megiddo. And the scripture says they fought
from heaven. Stars and their horses fought
against Sisera, and the enemy was swept away." In other words,
God fought for His people. That's what you want to take
away from that story in Judges chapter 4 and 5. God fought for
His people and won the day in the valley of Megiddo. And every
spiritual conflict since then is just ongoing Megiddo, or as
it is in the New Testament, Armageddon. Armageddon. You get over to the
book of 2 Chronicles, Megiddo is a place of much weeping, much
sorrow, because that's where King Josiah died. And all of Israel wept over his
departure. So, here's what we've got so
far. Armageddon is not some future
military conflict between nations. It's not a military invasion
of Israel by Russia. That may happen, I don't know.
But it isn't a nuclear war among the superpowers. It isn't that. Armageddon is not a conflict
between nations. It is a conflict between God
and the dragon. That's what you've got to understand.
It's a conflict between truth and error. It is a conflict between
righteousness and evil. It is a conflict between the
gospel of God's sovereign grace and every other religious belief
in the world. Armageddon began in heaven, it
continued in the Garden of Eden, and it's gone on for lo these
6,000 years. And it will end when our Lord
Jesus comes back and brings everything to a halt. And that's when He
will destroy. He will destroy Babylon. That's the harlot religion, the
harlot church. He will destroy the false prophet. He will destroy the beast, pagan
world government. The governments of this world
aren't in favor of the Lord. They hate His Word. You know
that. They're all set in opposition
to Christ Jesus. Our Lord is going to come back
and He's going to defeat the false prophet, false religion,
the beast. And then lastly, He will destroy
the dragon. He's the last one to be destroyed
as we get to Revelation chapter number 20. And then all of His
followers will be destroyed. At that time, When our Lord Jesus
comes back to judge and make war against His enemies, Satan's
opposition to our Savior, his opposition against the Lord's
church will cease forever. Satan will have no more power.
All of his power to hurt God's creation will be ended. Every influence of the evil one
should be cast with him into hell. Revelation chapter 20.
In other words, this is what Armageddon is. It is the ultimate
victory of our Lord Jesus and His followers over the dragon
and his followers. That's what Armageddon is. And that's what the book of Revelation
is about. It's about the victory of Christ
Jesus and His redeemed ones, His church, over the dragon and
all of his followers. His followers include pagan world
government and also includes, of course, false religion as
symbolized by Babylon. Now with that in mind, with that
understanding of the book of Revelation, it isn't a book to
be afraid of. This is a book that brings joy
to the hearts of God's people. We are more than conquerors through
Him who loved us. I know the enemy is real. I know
evil is awful. Evil is powerful in this world. You say, we are so in the minority. Oh yes, but remember, if God
be for us, who can be against us? There is no real opposition
to our God. There is no opposition that will
ever be successful. For whatever God's eternal purposes
are, He uses evil, He uses the dragon to fulfill that purpose. And when He is finished, He will
cast the dragon into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone,
and he'll never get out. Let me remind you again of the
recipients of this epistle. The original recipients, they
were living in very difficult times. The world governments
were set in opposition to the people of God. The emperor of
Rome, he thought nothing of butchering the children of the Lord. The
emperors of Rome have already murdered God's preachers, God's
apostles. They're all dead except for John.
Men and women and young people were being killed by the thousands. This was the world in which John
lived when the Lord led him to write this book. He writes to
people who've got real difficulties. See, we don't know anything about
persecution. We don't know anything about
that. We don't know what it means to meet off in a cave somewhere,
to meet in somebody's house for fear that the government will
come in and shut us down and arrest our leaders. We don't
know anything about that. But they did. And the Roman soldiers would
come in and snatch their babies away from them. Do you believe
Jesus Christ? Yes, I do. If you believe Jesus
Christ, we're going to take your baby. Are you sure you believe
Jesus Christ? Are you sure you worship Him? Are you sure you won't bow the
knee to Caesar? And if you insisted saying, yes,
yes, I believe the Lord Jesus and I will not bend the knee
to Caesar, they had the right to snatch your baby away from
you. That's the environment that this
book was written. These people knew something about
suffering. And not only the pagan government
was against them, but all religions were against them. Judaism was
against them. All the religions of the world
with all of their dogmatism, with all of their error, they're
all opposed to the Lord's people. Spiritual Babylon. It's false
religion. They lured people into them,
all kinds of churches, and then they said, now we're alright.
And those few people over there, you know they actually believe
the Bible is the Word of God. Can you imagine? They actually
believe God created everything. Can you imagine such a thing?
They actually believe that salvation is solely by grace through the
doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the religious
people said, you mean they don't believe we have a free will?
You mean they don't believe in salvation by works? What kind
of crazy people are those? And they sought to put the church
out of business. That's the environment these
folks lived in. And so John is led to write this
book. And you can see how it encourages
the people of God. Here you are, you're being persecuted,
slandered. Some of your family members murdered. John writes and he says, listen,
one of these days, this is all going to come to a head. And
it's going to be over really quickly. And it will be seen
then, we're the victors. We're the conquerors. Through
the Lord Jesus, our mighty Captain, the Captain of our salvation. We're more than conquerors through
Him. Yes, it's difficult. Yes, the way is rough. Yes, we're
suffering. There's no question about that.
The suffering was real. The persecution was real. But
John says, listen! The victory is already assured
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We sang this song last Sunday. One of the verses of a song we
sang was, Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler
yet. This is my Father's world. Though
the wrong seems oft so strong, and it does, doesn't it? The
wrong seems oft so strong, but remember this, God is the
ruler yet, overall, and everything fulfills His eternal purpose. I know we're outnumbered by the
enemy. I know the world is set in opposition against the true
church of our Lord. I know Satan and his followers
are opposed to the gospel of free grace, the gospel of substitution
and satisfaction, the gospel of redemption by the blood of
the Lord Jesus, the gospel of imputed righteousness, justification
by imputed righteousness. I know the evil one is filled
with rage because he's ruled over by the God-man. That God-man who died on the
cross to redeem His people. And I know that's why He's always
on the war path. But remember, our Savior reigns. He reigns. And as we read through
the book of the Revelation, there's great encouragement for us. Can
I give you about seven things real quick? Go back to chapter
1. And certainly, we're already
encouraged in knowing there's going to be Armageddon. And the
Lord is going to say to Satan, you're through! You're finished!
Cast him into hell. Go back to Revelation 1. Look
at verse 5. Could I encourage you a little
bit from the book of Revelation? In verse 5, this is from Jesus
Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead,
the Prince of the kings of the earth, unto Him that loved us
and washed us from our sins in His own blood. Is not this a
great encouragement? He loves us and He's washed us
from our sins in His own blood. Well, that's all the encouragement
we need, isn't it? Really. I mean, the rest of the
book is filled with much encouragement, but it starts off this way. He
loves you. He loves you with an everlasting
love. And He's washed us from our sins
in His own blood. And ourselves, we're filthy and
rotten and nasty and wretched, and our Lord Jesus has washed
us in His blood. Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? That's what we sing sometimes.
Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? If you've
been washed in the blood of the Lamb, they're spotless and white
as snow. You're loved by the Lord. Listen, if you believe this Gospel,
if you rest in this Savior, You have reason to rejoice. He's
loved you from old eternity. In fact, He gave you, God the
Father gave you to Jesus Christ for safekeeping. We've begun studying Bible class
Sunday morning on Matthew. And we've already learned this,
Matthew's name means gift of God. Gift of God. And you can look at that two
ways. We're God's gift to Him. He says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. You read John 17. I pray for
those whom Thou hast given Me. I don't pray for the world. I
pray for those that Thou hast given Me. For Thine they are,
Thou hast given them to Me. We're God's gift to Jesus Christ. And you know what? He's God's
gift to us. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. That's what the name Matthew
means. We're God's gift to Jesus Christ. He received us as a gift
and by grace we receive Him as a gift. We are His and He is
ours. So in the midst of your sorrows,
in the midst of your troubles, in the midst of your sickness,
we have people who are sick in our congregation. Some of them
are at home this morning watching on the internet. Some getting
over surgery. Some facing other physical illnesses
of one kind or another. Whenever you start feeling down
and depressed, when you feel like the world is kind of closing
in on you, do you ever feel that way? Feel like the world is kind
of crowding in on you? Be of good cheer. God gave you
to His Son in covenant love. And He has washed you from your
sins in His own blood. Now, if that didn't put some
wind in your sails, if that didn't put some joy in your heart, You've
got real serious trouble, I'll tell you. Because you see, the
Gospel, we say it's good news. Our lesson this morning is about
the word Gospel good news. Good spiel. Good tidings. This Gospel is such good news
that it makes all other news to be really insignificant. Insignificant. Say, oh, a preacher
of the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Yeah, but I've
got good news for the people of God. We're not going. Our
sins have been washed away. The Lord loves us with an everlasting
love. Nobody He loves can ever perish. He's washed us from our sins
in His own blood. See, the book of Revelation is
written to encourage God's people. Cheer up, my brother. Oh, cheer
up, my sister. Secondly, we're encouraged to
know that the Lord Jesus is with us. Where is it that John sees
Him? And we've covered this already.
He sees Him in the middle of the golden candlesticks. He's not a God of far off. He's
as near as your breath. You're never alone. He says,
Lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the world. He's
the light that is within you. He's the life that is within
you. He is our hope of glory. He abides
with us always when you get to feeling low and dejected and
depressed and things like that. Just remember this, the Lord
says, I'm not going to forsake you. Well, so and so said something
to me to hurt my feelings. The Lord Jesus is always for
you. God's always for you. The Spirit
of God's always with you. And then thirdly, let me give
you this bit of encouragement. Look over it. We are taking a
joyful journey through the book of Revelation. Look at Revelation
chapter 7 and verse 17. The day is going
to come, Revelation 7, 17, when He is going to wash away all
your tears. He is going to wipe away all of your tears. Revelation
7, 17, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall
feed them, speaking of us, and lead them under living fountains
of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
God's people have shed many a tear in this world. Some of you have
shed. I'm sure all of you have shed
tears. For one reason or another, grief, God and His purpose took somebody
precious to you, broke your heart. We're grieved by our own sins. That brings me the most grief.
That's what breaks my heart the most. My own guilt and sin. We're grieved by the world that's
opposed to Jesus Christ. We weep over the opposition of
false religion, pagan world governments. But one of these days we're going
to stand before the Lord Jesus and He's going to wipe those
tears away. No need to cry anymore. We're heartbroken by divisions,
heartbroken by conflicts, people who say they believe the
gospel. We behave sometimes, even us
too, as if we don't know the gospel at all. That grieves us. We grieve over our lost loved
ones. We weep for them. Some of you
moms and dads, your tears have been shed on your pillow at night,
asking God to save your children, save your grandchildren, save
your friends. We weep for a myriad of reasons.
But I'll tell you, one of these days, our precious, sympathizing
high priest, that's what he's called in it in Hebrews, he's
our sympathizing high priest, he's going to say, don't weep anymore. All is joy
up here. We're going to a land of everlasting
delight. Isn't that wonderful? That's
the reason I say don't get too attached to things in this world.
Don't get so caught up in all that's going on down here. We're
just here for just a spell. Just a short spell. And we'll
be gone. And look, here's another one.
Revelation chapter 8. There's something else to cause
you to be joyful. The Lord hears and answers your
prayers. Our God's a God. He's a prayer
hearing. and answering God. And you can
talk to Him anytime you want to. The psalmist says his ears
are open to our cries. Maybe I may not have time to
talk to you. And preacher, I wanted to talk
to you, but I couldn't get a hold of you for one reason or another.
Somebody called me yesterday and said, I've tried to get a
hold of you and talk to you, but I haven't been able to get
a hold of you. Well, I'm sorry. I'm unavailable for some reason
or other. But you can always talk to the
Lord. Look here in Revelation 8, 3
and 4. Verse 3, another angel came and stood at the altar. This is the Lord Jesus, the messenger
of the covenant. He has a golden censer. You know
the golden censer was only used on the day of atonement by the
high priest? He burnt incense and the golden
censer on the hot coals from off the altar. He'd go to the
brazen altar where the sacrifice had been offered, the sin offering
had been offered. He took the tongs, put those
hot coals in this container, in this censer, and he goes back
to the altar of incense, sprinkles incense on it, that incense ascends
to the Lord. There is only one who can do
that, that's Christ Jesus. This is not a created angel,
this is the angel of the covenant. There was given unto him much
incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the
saints before the golden altar which was before the throne."
Listen, the reason God hears your prayers and answers your
prayers according to His will is because they're offered on
the basis of what happened at Calvary. You see, the incense is burned
on the hot coals. The hot coals that came from
the place of substitution, came from the place of sacrifice,
came from the place of the sin offering. Those hot coals, that
represents the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when you seek God's face in prayer, you pray to Him on
the basis of Jesus Christ and His death upon the cross. Those
prayers ascend as sweet incense up to God because they go to
God through Jesus Christ the Lord. Isn't that encouraging that God
would hear you pray? What are we? Just nothing. We're
worms of the dust. Somebody said we're maggots. And yet the ever-living God He
hears us when we pray. Doesn't that encourage you? That
encourages me. I know it encourages these saints
of God meeting in their caves and whatnot, meeting in private
houses, and a messenger comes in and says, I've got a letter
from John. Oh, the dear Apostle John. He wrote us a letter, folks.
And everybody who gathered that Lord's Day said, oh, read it,
preacher, read it. He read the whole book of the
Revelation. They said, oh, this is wonderful! Our prayers are
not in vain. He hears our prayers. They go
to God through our great High Priest. And I'll tell you something
else. Look at chapter 14. Look at chapter
14. Your death day will be a blessing
for you. And remember, He's writing the
people who are suffering persecution They could be snatched out of
their houses without any notice. And you'd cut your head off.
That's what they did to the Apostle Paul. Cut his head off. A lot
of the others were sawn and sundered. Took a saw and sawed them in
half. Just awful things. Threw them
to the lions. Vicious, very cruel treatment
of God's people. But he's got this to say in chapter
14 about death. Well, what if they kill me, preacher?
Well, he's got something for that too. Revelation chapter
14 verse 13. I heard a voice from heaven.
14, 13. I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write.
Or what should I write, Lord? Write, blessed are they which
die in the Lord from henceforth. Your death for you, child of
God, it's not going to be a judgment upon you. It will be a blessing. Death is a blessing for the people
of God. I know there's the unknown element
of death because we haven't faced that yet. But for the people
of God, it's a blessed day. I think of dear sister Wright
who passed away last Lord's Day and we had her funeral Tuesday.
Her death didn't make the headlines of any newspaper. Just a few folks knew her. There was no interruption of
television programming. We interrupt this program to
announce the death of this dear lady in Ashland, Kentucky. No,
there wasn't anything like that. In fact, except for a few folks,
her death was of no interest to anybody. But it was of interest to God. Because He's the one who came
and got her. He's the one who took her home to glory. And this is what John says of
those who fall asleep in Jesus. Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord. And you can't write cursed where
God wrote blessed. Oh, how blessed it is to die
in Christ Jesus. It means the end of sin. It means
the end of suffering. It means the end of disease.
It means the end of all conflicts. I jotted a few things down this
week. I wrote, it means no more sin
to struggle with, no more sickness to suffer with, no more conflicts
to endure, no more weakness to bear, no more Satan to resist,
no more divisions among believers, no more errors to oppose, no
more despondent to encourage, no more enemies to engage, No
more fences to mend. No more transgressions to confess. No more strife to heal. No more
wrongs to make right. No more burdens to bear. No more
diseases to battle. No more mistakes for which to
apologize. No more pain to endure. No more
grieving family members to comfort. No more tears to wipe away. Forevermore
we'll be occupied with one thing. Worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ. That's just glorious, isn't it? And I'll tell you this, sixly,
every enemy of Christ Jesus and His people will be destroyed.
Armageddon? Oh, the harlot church. She's
so big. Used to be the people of God.
It was the Roman Catholic Church. It's bigger than that. It's all
false religion. They're all opposed to the gospel
of God's saving grace. And they'll even join arm in
arm against the gospel. Even though they can't get along
on a lot of things, they get along on this. We don't like
that sovereign grace message. Well, someday all these enemies
are going to be destroyed. The harlot, the false prophet,
and the beast. I give you this note in passing
interest In the book of Revelation, we're introduced in this order
to these evil entities. The dragon, that's Satan. Then
we're introduced to the beast, that's the pagan world government. Then we're introduced to the
false prophet and the harlot. And all of them are the avowed
enemies of the Lamb and His followers. But in the end of the book of
Revelation, We read of their destruction in reverse order. First the harlot, chapter 18,
then the false prophet and the beast, chapter 19, and then finally
the dragon in chapter 20. The enemies of our Lord, your
enemies, can never be victorious. I know they're a thorn in the
side of God's people, but they can't be victorious. There's
coming a day, because the Lord said, vengeance is mine, saith
the Lord, I will repay. There's going to come a day He's
going to set everything right. And we're going to be with you. We're going to be behind Him.
And when He damns forever the false church, churches, the heart
of the church, we're going to say, Hallelujah! For the Lord
God Omnipotent reigneth. Read Revelation chapter 19, see
if that isn't so. And then, I'll say this. Go to Revelation 21. Number seven, soon all the people
of God will be with Christ Jesus. All opposition is going to be
done away with forever and in that great never-ending day,
we'll live with the Savior forever and ever in a rejuvenated universe. Revelation 21, verse 1, I saw
a new heaven and a new earth. Revelation 21. And I saw a new
heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw
the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." This is not a literal
city. This is a group of people. That's
us. And all the rest of God's people
with us. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. Who is the tabernacle of God?
Christ Jesus. He 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, and God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. There shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, no more crying, neither shall there be any more
pain, for the former things are passed away. And He that sat
upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He
said unto me, Write, write, For these words are true and faithful.
And He said unto me, It is done. It is done. That's the words
of the Sovereign King. It is done. Soon this life will
be over and we will be with Christ Jesus. And let me give you the rest
of that verse 6 and we'll quit. He said, I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end. And this is what He says, I will
give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of water of life
freely. If you're thirsty for this salvation,
if you're thirsty for this gospel, it's because God has made you
thirsty. And He says, come and drink. Come and drink. He said, I'll
give to him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water
of life. And you know what? He gives it
freely. Doesn't cost you anything. Oh,
it cost Him dearly. But it's free to us. Free to
us. Oh, it's an enjoyable journey
going through the book of Revelation. I hope it encouraged you this
morning. And for the next few Sunday mornings, we're going
to be looking at these different visions, seven different visions
that God gave to John. We'll be looking at those in
the coming few weeks on Sunday morning.