Chapter 21, we looked at last
week, saw a lot of pictures. We saw pictures of wealth and
pictures of royalty and pictures of security and pictures of authority. We saw pictures of theology where
Jesus Christ is light, there is no darkness, there are no
closed gates, there is no fear of infiltration by the enemy,
because the enemy in all of evil has been consigned to hell, to
the wrath of God's righteousness and justice. In chapter 22, remember
that these chapter headings are not indicative of thought or
purposeful stopping in the writing. This is never truer as it is
right here. So when we look at this text,
we are really picking up from where we were last week. We're
still hearing the same vision that John was given in chapter
21. So let's look at it and talk about it in pieces. Chapter 22,
verse 1. Then the angel showed me the
river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the
throne of God and of the Lamb, through the middle of the street
of the city. Also on either side of the river, the tree of life,
with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.
The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No
longer will there be anything occurs, but the throne of God
and the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him.
They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.
And night will be no more, and they will need no light of lamp
or sun, for the Lord will be their light, and they will reign
forever and ever. In this text, as we look at this
in conjunction with what we've already seen last week and in
the weeks prior, we see that the Lamb, of course, is the ruler
of the city. We see that Jesus Christ is the
God of heaven, that He is not only the Judge or the Lamb of
God, but He's the Judge, just as Scripture teaches. that God
will judge the world through the one He has affirmed, Jesus
Christ. God will judge the world in comparison
to the one He has affirmed, who is Jesus Christ. So that every
man, every woman, every child will be judged according to His
works. And that at that day of judgment, the works will be compared
to the work of Christ. And those who have not fulfilled
the righteous requirements of obedience and holiness will be
found guilty of sin and thus will receive eternal justice. But we know that for us, the
church, the redeemed, those who can stand, we know that we are
not hiding from God in the day of judgment because we believe
and hold fast to the work of Christ. Christ is the one who
has propitiated for us. Christ is the one who has obeyed
on our behalf. Christ is the one who has given
us eternal life. Christ Christ calls himself the
living water. Christ calls himself the bread
of life. Christ calls himself the first
and the last. Christ calls himself the Lamb
of God. And when we look at this river,
we need to think of it as a river that supplies fresh water, fresh
life, fresh opportunity and vibrance to a city. For what is there? Where is there any community
without water? It's not existent. They die.
Jesus Christ is the living water. We see the symbolism or the imagery
or the pictures of the idea that this water, that Jesus Christ
is the living water flowing from the throne of God and of the
Lamb. You notice that the throne is the throne of God and the
throne of the Lamb. we see ultimately that all of
the redemptive work is God's. All of the living water comes
from the hand of God. Friends, there is a sovereign
picture here that all of life, all of redemption comes straight
from the hand of God. That there is nothing that man
has done. Man is not winding the times
of of this engine to move this water. Man is not dumping this
water into any type of trough. Man is not even there. Humanity
has done nothing on its part to secure or endure or to accomplish
salvation in any way. Man is not even believed without
the absolute divine intervention of God. So here this living water
as it comes through the middle of the street of the city. On
either side of the river we see in verse 2 is the tree of life.
So there are, if you will, depict this picture for a second or
see this depiction. There are two trees, the tree
of life. Well, what are these trees? This
is not literal tree standing there bearing 12 kinds of fruit.
But here we see the tree of life at the very beginning of creation.
What happened? to that tree. Do you remember? God sealed the garden, sealing
out any sinner from being able to be a part of His presence
in the Garden of Eden. God sealed away any possibility
of life eternal apart from His grace and mercy and His finished
work of redemption. Now all of a sudden we see the
tree of life has been opened to us. The tree of life is there
for us. The tree of life who is Jesus
Christ. The very comparison that we see
that Paul would say that the cross is foolishness to those
who are perishing, but to those who are being redeemed, it is
a tree of life. It is a tree of life. This tree
of life, as it is explained there, yields its fruit. Listen to the
agrarian contrast of what Jesus told the disciples about the
Jews. When He says, see this tree and
it doesn't bear fruit, it will be cut down and thrown into the
fire. Beloved, that which God has begun, God will finish. The redemption of God's people,
the sanctification of God's people, the justification of God's people,
the glorification of God's people is the fruit of righteousness,
which is Christ alone. And this righteousness will always
produce perfect fruitfulness. Not necessarily in the lives
of our depraved bodies, in the midst of this fallen world, will
we see perfection. It will not take place. That's
why our perfection is only in the life, in the person, in the
obedience of Jesus. So as we see this in this new
Jerusalem, we see that the perfection of the fruit of God's redemption
is there, and it blooms perfectly, and it blooms continually. We
are secure, beloved. We are secure in Christ. He has
done all that He is going to do and all that He has done is
necessary for all that He desired to accomplish. The leaves of
this tree were for the healing of the nations. Now there's an
imagery here that I'm sure that if I went back and I started
to look at other places of Scripture or if I look down on the little
notes found in the margins, I don't even think I've got marginal
notes in this Bible. They're too small for me to see.
They just look like ants on the page. But I'm sure there are
some cross-references that we could go to, and I'm sure if
we had some commentaries, we could come in and start to look
and see about what it is that's supposedly taking place here.
But look at it at face value. Where do we see any other vines
and leaves and branches? My friends, Jesus is the vine.
We are the branches. And I don't know if you've ever
tried to take a plant from one thing and attach it to the vine
of another plant and tape it together and see if it would
grow. It doesn't work. There must be something divine
in that. Jesus Christ to bring us to Himself. Not only are we
alive, But friends, we actually produce leaves. We grow. There
is spoilage. This is the picture that we see
here. The healing of the nations. The curse that once existed in
the world where every nation was a curse. Every people groups
were a curse because of sin. Jesus Christ is undone and redeemed
His people. And we are a flourishing, thriving,
living, growing people in the presence of the Lamb. And it
says no longer, look at verse 3, it explains that. Will there
be anything accursed? But the throne of God and the
throne of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship
Him. Imagine the intimacy. Jesse and I were having a conversation
earlier about people who believe that when we die we become angels.
Why would we be recreated into a different category of beings? Angels are not humans and humans
are not angels. That's like a dog dying and becoming
a cow. It doesn't really make sense, but yet we have this caricature
and this picture throughout all of history, even in the art of
antiquity, that people are depicted with halos because it's sort
of a Romanistic papal expression of sainthood. We see people depicted
with wings because that's just what we want to think. But why
do I want to be an angel when I'm an object of mercy and grace
and love and affection? Why would I want to become a
lesser being? Angels look into the redemption
of man for they are in awe over it, how they might even long
to even be subject to such things. But the fallen angels that went
with Lucifer are not subject to such things, for God has provided
no redemption for them, none whatsoever, and He is just in
that decision. He is just in that wisdom. But
here we have intimacy. What is in this city? You notice
this picture here. There's nothing accursed. Nothing. but the throne of God and the
Lamb will be in it. In what? In the city. It is the
focal point of everything that we see in the New Jerusalem.
We look upon our Savior. We look upon our King. And we
worship Him. We worship Him. Listen, worship
is not bowing and cowering. Listen, worship is not bowing
and cowering. Worship is not coming into the
throne room of a king who is maniacal and fearful. And we
bow down for lest we catch His eye and He zap us or kill us.
We worship the Lamb who sits upon the throne because He is
worthy of worship. And worship by definition means
to ascribe the worth to. So when we worship Christ, it
is because with everything in us, we love Him because He first
loved us. And not only do we love Him,
our greatest desire is to see and exalt in Him, so that we
may exalt Him above all things, for it is what He is worthy to
have happen, worthy to hear, worthy to see. And so we are
not looking at an act of worship like slaves. We are worshipping
intimately out of joy. We are worshipping because we
are His people and He is our God. Verse 4, what does this
intimacy look like? They will see His face. I think of Moses often when I
read things like this. As Paul would say many times
in the New Testament writings, that one day we will be like
him when we see him face to face. Imagine seeing Jesus Christ face
to face. Imagine the intimacy. People
say, well, how is there never any more tears or never any more
pain? Well, because all evil is gone. All creation is restored. And
beloved, what fear, what horror, what pain would there be if we
are face to face with our Lord Jesus? This is an intimate relationship
because He has called us His. And not only has He called us
His, but our very minds, our very being will be tuned into
His glory. We will be made like Him as we
saw the depiction throughout the Scripture where the name
of God will be on the foreheads of His people. Here we see that
we have His name on our foreheads. Now Jesus does not have a sharpie
as we've gone through this earlier in our study. Jesus does not
have a sharpie whereby He goes in and writes names, His name
on all of His people and then the devil's name on all of their
people. But what we know and what we acknowledge and what
we feel and what we love and what we do is evidence of whose
we are. More importantly, what we believe.
And we who believe on the Lamb, His seal, His name, His adoption,
His gathering, His mark is upon us. We belong to Him for He has
purchased us through the blood of the Lamb. Verse 5 is a reiteration
of this fact that there will be no more night. Now that does
not mean that there won't be day and night or stars or the
moon or anything like that. I believe that creation, if it
is restored, it will work in some sense the way it works today,
but without the fall. But there is no need of darkness. So what will it be like? I don't
know. John's not showing us here the
details of what the new Jerusalem will look like or what the new
weather will be or what the new sunset or dawn might look like
or evening. But the point here is to show
that there is no need apart from the Lord God. that there is no
other place to look, that there will be no shadow of His turning. He will never leave our presence
again. And together we will reign forever and ever and ever and
ever. We will reign because the work
is done. Who are we? Those who are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. Those who are not written in
the Lamb's Book of Life, as we saw last week, are unclean. They
shall not enter into His presence, nor shall they look on His face,
nor shall they be at peace, nor shall they worship Him. But forever
they will be under His wrath. In verse 6 now, John is being
spoken to. He's not just looking and writing
what he sees or hears. He's being spoken to. These words
are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the
spirits of the prophets, has sent His angel to show His servants
what must soon take place. Now let me stop for a second.
Because you can come to see these things, and if you're not careful,
you'll begin to try to put a historical timeline together. You'll start
trying to chronologically place Revelation over the map of history
and say, okay, when does this fall? What is this talking about?
It is not intended for us to conclude that there is a date
and place in mind here. It is not for us to consider,
well, the Bible says now this is going to happen. Many people
who have tried to do that have to do two things that are erroneous.
Number one, they begin to try to push into a small window the
fulfillment of this prophecy and the coming of the Lord Jesus,
which we're told very clearly not to do. Number one. And number
two, they begin to ignore actual evidence and important chronological
data about this letter. And they make it a lot earlier
than it was actually written, some 30 years earlier. Some would
say, well, see, what's happening is that Jesus is coming back
at the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. He did not. People who believe that are called
full preterists. They believe that there is no
resurrection from the dead, but that this creation that we see
today is in constant perpetuity. And then we die in the flesh
and are raised to life in a spiritual sense. That's not what scripture
teaches. And I do believe that if God
intended for that to be true, He would not have preserved the
teaching of the resurrection. I just don't believe that. It
makes sense. God is not an illogical buffoon,
but rather is a God of order and a God of immutability, so
that when Christ comes, the living word then replaces this. However, I don't really care
to get into that brawl this evening. But here we need to understand
that for these readers, He is giving them some more assurance
as He closes this letter out. He's telling them, do not worry
about how much longer you shall suffer, for My return is imminent. That's what He goes to say. Behold,
look and see, I'm coming soon. Look, I'm coming. I'm coming
soon. Don't worry. But yet all of them
tasted death. All of them tasted the death
of their flesh. All of them tasted the plundering of their property.
All of them tasted it. But it was not an escape from
these things that God had promised them through this letter. It
was victory over these things that God promised through this
letter. God promised victory in the Gospel through Jesus Christ. I am coming soon. When are these
last days? After Jesus rose from the dead,
many would constitute the days of the church age as the day
of Pentecost, when God empowered the upper room inhabitants, those
120 people, with the gift of interpretation and the gift of
tongues. And they went out and proclaimed
the gospel of Jesus to all the nations. that that indicated
the very first moment of the latter days, of these last days,
of these thousand years, if you will, which has now been over
2,000 in our measurement. But the point is that Jesus is
coming and we can put ourselves in that hope. We can look to
that day, as Paul would say many times over, to look to that which
is unseen, not to that which is seen. But there's a second
part to this. And behold, I'm coming soon,
verse 7. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy
in this book. Now, what is it that is being
regarded here as keeping the words of the prophecy? What has
been told for us to keep? I mean, when we think about keeping
the words written, we think of obeying something that we've
been commanded. But what has been given to us to obey? Anything? I'd say indirectly, one thing.
How is it that we shall stand before the Lord? How is it that
we shall stand being prepared for His coming? How is it that
we will stand ready when He pierces the clouds or pierces the sky
and takes us to be with Himself as He recreates the world in
a twinkling? by keeping to the prophecy of this book, which
is to believe that He alone has done the work of redemption.
He alone has done all that is required for our justification.
He alone has accomplished all of salvation for all of His people,
and that we hold fast to our confession of hope in Him, and
that is keeping the prophecy of this book. In verse 8, John
begins to write in first person. I, John, am the one who heard
and saw these things. Now what is he doing? He's closing
this out. He writes and then Jesus writes. Or Jesus speaks and he pens.
I am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard
and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel
who showed them to me. So, like he did in the beginning, the
angel, the messenger of the Lord, he bowed down before him, and
what happened? John bowed down and the angel
says, do not worship me, for we are fellow servants. The same
things happened again. The messenger speaking for the
Lord, I come quickly. Blessed is the one who keeps
the word of these prophecies of this book. John bowed down. But He said to me, you must not
do that. I am your fellow servant with you and your brothers, the
prophets, and with those who keep the words in this book.
And He gives them a command, worship God. Now there's a lot
there. There's a lot there that if I
were expositing this text, I'd probably preach an entire sermon
on verse 9. Maybe two sermons. But in passing,
let me give you something to think about. What is it that
we worship? We worship that which we hold
with highest honor. We worship that which we hold
with highest affection. We worship that which we hold
to the highest praise. Beloved, let's be careful to
keep ourselves from idols. Do not worship your pastor. Do
not worship certain aspects of your life. Do not worship your
children. Do not worship certain doctrines,
but worship God. Worship God. for He alone is
worthy. Verse 10, And He said to me,
Do not seal up the words of this prophecy of this book, for the
time is near. Now here is this messenger teaching
John for the second time not to seal up the prophecy. Not
to seal it up, but to print it and disperse it. Why is that
important? Because sometimes prophecies
were sealed until it was such a time as that they could be
opened for the intended audience. So because this was not sealed,
we know that it was intended to be understood and lived and
experienced by the very people who received the letter. Verse
11 can be confusing, but I'll try my best to explain it without
taking too much time. It says, Let the evildoer still
do evil. And the filthy still be filthy,
and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy. What does that mean? Well, keep
in mind, remember, Revelation's not showing us all the sequence
of time, it's just pictures. recapitulating, restating, repicturing,
recapturing the same stuff over and over again for us to see
with different points of view the same picture that teaches
us theological truths about the work of God and the place of
the church and the promise of God and redemption. Most importantly
is power. Now He's saying the coming of
Christ is soon and you're blessed. Hold fast and be careful. Let
the evildoers still do evil. And let the filthy still be filthy. What's that mean? Well, let me
give it to you this way. I'm coming. Those who are in this life that
do what they do, they do that. Let them be. Let them be. Let me give it another way. Don't
try to change the morality of the world. Don't try to change people's
behavior. Don't try to put my name on the
forehead of someone who belongs to the devil. Don't take the pig out of the
pig pen and put him at the table. The filthy will be filthy. The
evildoer will do evil. the righteous will do right,
the holy will still be holy. Friends, there would have been
a great, great, great temptation for this first century church
to try to go out and mold people's behavior. There would have been
a great temptation for them to think, wow, we've got to get
people to get in line. Maybe God is going to take the
world and make it all righteous. Maybe there's going to be great
revival in the world. Don't you hear this? And that
the large majority of people in certain areas are going to
come to faith. Not going to happen. You hear me? Not going to happen. We don't need to look to try
to draw in revival. We need to preach the gospel
and live as God has equipped us to live, as the church. And
that through the evangelism that goes out into the darkness, we
shine as a light. And when we shine light on dark,
it hides. When we shine light on that which
loves the light, it shines. What makes us love the light? Because God has given us a new
heart. How do we get a new heart? Because we hear the Word of God
and the Spirit of God births us anew. Don't let people tell
you that faith causes you to be born again. Faith is the result of your new
birth. A dead man cannot come to faith.
This is not about exercising liberty. These are tough things. Oh, I don't know. You're preaching
Calvinism. You better believe I am. But
I don't like that word. I call it the gospel. The good
news that Jesus, in His perfect redemption, in His perfect obedience,
in His perfect death, in His powerful resurrection, saves
a man or a woman or a child who cannot save themselves. That's
good news. And he does it powerfully and
mysteriously and miraculously through the hearing of words
in the natural ears. But brothers and sisters, when
the Lord Jesus Christ, when the Spirit of God opens the ears
of a dead man to hear the Lord Jesus Christ in truth, that man
is born of God. That's why there is never, there
is never, let me say that again, never, never, ever a reason to
point an assembly of the church to lost people. There is never,
ever, can I say that again? Ever a reason for a pastor to
preach to lost people when the church get together. The church
gets together to be equipped to worship, to be equipped to
do the work of the ministry, to be equipped through understanding
the depths of the riches of God and the riches of glory and the
riches of grace. While the world is still filthy,
while the world is still evil, we will still be holy. We as
the church are to go out to the world, not draw them in. How does God reveal Himself anyway?
through His Word alone. Period. No other way. Not through
the shack, not through the bucket, not through the straw. No other
way does God reveal Himself. He will not do it. You know who
reveals Himself that way? The God of this world, who is
Satan, reveals Himself this way. And every time Satan reveals
Himself, he reveals Himself as God Almighty. You hear that? Let me say it again a little
calmer. You didn't listen. Every time Satan reveals himself to
the world, he reveals himself as if he is God. He's not a malevolent, pointy,
fork-tongued, demonic-looking thing eating kittens for breakfast. He comes to the tongues of men
who look like me. Jesus Christ and those who hear his voice
are a small number in comparison to the reality of the existence
of human life. But every nation, every tongue,
every tribe, Myriads of myriads. Thousands of thousands. Heaven
is not going to be empty. But it's not going to be very
close to the universal mindset of everyone who professes Christ. Let the wicked do that. Let the
filthy be filthy. The righteous still do right
and the holy still be holy. Look, behold, see, I am coming
soon, bringing my recompense with me. What's that mean, recompense? I'm paying them back. I'm paying them back. It says
it rather than a comma. To repay each one for what he
has done. Let me ask you this question.
You want to be paid back for what you've done? No. I do not. I don't want to be
paid back for rolling my eyes in the 10th grade at my mother. Or mocking her when she stepped
outside the bathroom because I was running late and she came
back in. She doesn't want to be repaid
for punching me in the stomach and put me on the dirt to show
me she was still my boss. And I don't want to be repaid
for the thoughts I had that if she weren't my mother, what kind
of a tail whipping she'd have told me. And that's just one
three-minute circumstance. How long ago was that? 28 years ago. Wow. What about my lies? What about
my apathy, thievery? Murder. Oh, you've murdered. You've murdered, beloved. We
murder any time we think ill in our hearts towards someone
else. We murder them in our hearts. Covet. Let's don't even go there
and say we don't covet. Jesse, covetousness, it's a pastor's
bane. Man, that would be nice to have. shoes. That would be nice to
have. A Bible that looks decent. We don't want to be paid back
for what we've done. So how do we escape it? Believing that
Christ paid for what we've done. See, that's the simple gospel.
That's why it's good news. Christ has done nothing but obey. We've done nothing but rebel. Christ took our rebellion and
was punished for it. We took his righteousness and
it's called our own. That is wild. The authority that we see Christ
teaching here, He's coming to bring recompense to pay each
one for what He's done. Look what He says in verse 13,
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning
and the end. So He's exercising the expression
of His supremacy. Who is Jesus to come down here
and tell us He's going to judge us and pay us all back? He is
the I am. He breathed into existence the
world and He set in place every human being through one man and
one woman all the nations have been born. And He put according
to what we see in scripture in Acts chapter 17 as Paul teaches
the Areopagus at the Areopagus that God ordained their destiny,
that God ordained their boundaries, that God ordained their language
and their nation. And He is the God of them all,
and He brings what? Judgment. That's how God reveals
Himself, through the Word. He reveals Himself in two ways.
You want to hear it? He is the Supreme God of righteousness
and holiness. Therefore, all that which is
not righteous and holy is worthy of His wrath. That's how He reveals
Himself, generally to the world. When we talk about general revelation,
if you want to dare use the phrase, quote, common grace, end quote,
that's what common grace is. We are guilty under holiness
to be judged. Guess what? That's not grace. That's general revelation that
Paul says every human being knows without a shadow of doubt. But
in order to suppress that which they know, which is what? God's
divine power is obvious and His wrath against all ungodliness
is coming. See, that's the argument of Romans
1, part 2. God reveals Himself as the God
of everything, holy, and He's bringing justice against everything
unholy. And we know it. But in our sin,
we see it, we know it. That's how God has revealed Himself.
So there is condemnation for all who are not in Christ. And
that's the revelation of God. Nowhere has God ever generally
said, I'm a kind old fart and I love you. I am God and there is no other.
There is none like me. I declare the end from the beginning
and the beginning from the end. From ancient of days to things
not yet come. I do everything to the pleasure
of My will, and by My counsel all things shall stand. Sound
familiar? It's what I preach Sunday. This
is the God of heaven. But then also the God of heaven,
as we see now in verse 14, reveals Himself explicitly, specially,
especially, particularly through Jesus Christ. So we know the justice of holiness. We know the condemnation that
comes rightly and lovingly and goodly and bidly from God. But oh, how precious is the revelation
of God intimately. Listen, intimately, God intimately
reveals Himself through Jesus Christ who is the exact imprint
of His nature. So that's why we can hear this
messenger say in verse 14, blessed are those who wash their robes. What's this robe? So that's how
we get to heaven, we wash our clothes? You've forgotten all
the other pictures. of the saints clothed in robes
of white, a symbol of perfection, righteousness, holy, beauty. How is it that we stand so beautiful? Blessed are those who wash their
robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and
that they may enter the city by the gates. Verse 14, listen
to the contrast. Before we get to 15, listen to
what He's saying here. Beloved, we're not worthy to
stand in His presence, to stand in His holiness, to stand in
His righteousness, to stand and partake in the life that He offers,
to drink of the living water, to digest the bread of life.
We're not worthy in our sin and unless we're absolutely 1000%
perfect, we cannot stand in His presence. So, where do we stand? We are those
who believe on the Christ. Because Christ has stood. Because the alternative, as we
see in verse 15, this is a reminder, outside are the dogs, and the
sorcerers, and the sexually immoral, and the murderers, and the idolaters,
and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. And beloved, we know
that they are not hanging out outside heaven. But that is the
picture that we've seen throughout all of the narrative of the Bible,
is that there is an inside where God's people are, and there is
an outside where those who are accursed live. That in the temple
even, in the outer courts where the Gentiles could hang, but
in the inner courts only Israel could come, and in the center
only the high priest. Jesus went into the Holy of Holies,
into the presence of God, and sat down. And He's taken us with Him. And He brings it all together
here in verse 16 to the end. I, Jesus, have sent my angel
to testify to you about these things for the churches. Don't
forget who he's talking to here. This is not an evangelical book. There's no evangelistic appeal
to revelation. It is a promise from God to His
people. Are there rebukes? Yes. Admonishments? You betcha. Warnings? Same thing. There's also assurance, encouragement,
and promise. I am the root and the descendant
of David, the bright morning star. The Spirit and the bride
say, come. Let the one who hears say, come. And let the one who is thirsty
come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without
price. So now all of a sudden, what we see here, It's twofold. The drinking of the water of
life is to believe on Jesus Christ. We have access to that. This
is not an invitation. It's not an invitation. It's a promise. Come. Jesus only invites in those
who are His. Listen to me, church. This is
important. We're done tonight. This is the whole key. Jesus
says, come to those who have been washed by His blood. Come
to those who believe. Come to those who are in the
Lamb's Book of Life. Come to Me. Come to Me. Come in and dine and eat and
live with Me. For the water is yours forever
to drink. For I have purchased it with
my blood. In verse 18, there's a warning here. And it is a warning
that we and our culture would do well to heed. It is a warning
that pastors in conjunction with James 3.1 should take and get
on their face and cry out to God that He would forgive them
and hold them not accountable for the twisting of His Word.
I warn everyone. Who's saying this? Jesus Christ. Why do you say Jesus Christ?
Because when John wrote the words, I, John, and the one who heard
and saw these things, that is God saying these things. We don't
have to have quotations and proper allocation of who is speaking
and what person. If it is written in this text,
God has said it. And more importantly, God is
saying it today. And God says in His Word, I warn
everyone who hears the words of this prophecy of this book,
what's the warning? If anyone adds to them God will add to him the plagues
described therein. If anyone takes away the words
of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share
in the tree of life and the holy city which is described therein.
I want you to think about that for a second. From where do the cults come? Twist in scripture. extracurricular,
external revelation? Where do these false doctrines
come from, pushing aside the authority of Scripture? Where
do these dumb and stupid practices in the name of ministry come?
By saying that the Word of God is antiquated and not useful. Why do people think men are inherently
good? Because they don't believe the
Scripture. Why do people think that God wants everyone rich?
Because they ignore the very teaching of Paul and Jesus and
James. Why? Why have people so butchered
the body of Christ? Because they've gathered up people
who aren't the body, and those people who are not the body have
gathered up teachers to give them what they want. We don't twist Scripture. We
don't take a tiny piece out of Revelation and pair it with something
we learned in seminary from some guy who learned it from some
doofus down on the corner. I know I'm being cynical, but
that's about how much respect I have for this. Because it's not just to sell
books. It's not just to have a large congregation. It's not
just to seem like we're smart. Because we know the Scripture
says, professing to be wise, they became fools. It's not just because people
want to have a following and be esteemed. It's because when
we twist Scripture, we lead people to a false Christ. When we twist
Scripture, we lead people to a false hope. When we twist Scripture,
when we abuse the Word of God, when we relegate it to a tool
rather than the authority, we push people into a Christless
eternity. for which I had rather burn in
hell for all of eternity than to leave one person away from
Christ." Friends, there are in this very
city, this very day, I have had conversations with people whose
leadership has brought them into a Bible study by heritage. who said, quote, the Bible is
not like other books of other religions. Christians do not
believe that God spoke through the men who wrote these pages. What Christian is he labeling?
Is it you? Certainly not me. The plagues of justice and wrath
are poured upon those who twist Scripture. It comes to this very,
very serious point. When Jesus says broad is the
way that leads to destruction, He is including the large majority
of people who claim Christ. From the 2000 10 census? Is that the last one
we did? Nearly 90% of this region claimed Christianity. Nearly 80% of those who claimed
Christianity as their religion are not in church. And we're the Bible Belt. What
a mockery. What a misnomer. We're not the
Bible Belt. I don't know what we're called.
So much so that even other nations are sending, listen, sending
missionaries to the Bible Belt to preach to the lost heathen
by what they see on TV and the Internet. and hear not the worldly,
disturbed, immoral things they see, the spiritual things they
see. Let us pray that God would never
allow us to abuse the Scripture. He who testifies to these things,
verse 20, says, Surely I am coming soon. Amen. It is so. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be
with all. Amen. I don't know about you,
church, but it's been a blessing to go through this letter. It's
been a blessing for me to read it, and in preparation for John's
Gospel in a couple of weeks, it's been encouraging. Because
after years and years of studying and being in the church, we all
know we have a lot of misunderstanding about this text. So I pray that
if nothing else, that the Lord would give us peace about knowing
that what it was intended to communicate is simple. Simple
and glorious. not convoluted and complex and
frustrating and fearful, but glorious and simple. The truth
that Jesus Christ is victorious and His church will prevail and
all that has happened in history is under His sovereignty and
is because of His decrees. We rest. We rest. And we are more than conquerors
in Christ Jesus. Not only is this grace given
to us, but as we see in this last letter, this last sentence,
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with us now. How? By the Spirit of God, through
the hearing of His Word. Let's pray. Lord, we'd be fools to think
that we had a handle on this. There is no possibility There is no possibility that
we are all right all the time about everything concerning you. So when we see error in our lives,
let us be gracious. Let us be prepared to give a
reason for our hope in Christ, not a reason for our being right. Father, work in us as a people,
not to just have a knowledge now of this apocalypse, but Lord,
to live it, to live in the knowledge, to live it out, to share it with
others, not in correction, but in instruction and encouragement. Father, solidify in us the peace
that comes through Your grace, perfected, certain, powerful,
effectual, because of Jesus Christ and His accomplishment. And even
way before then, because you decreed it so. Lord, I thank You for the honor
of being able to read through this letter as quickly as it
is and has been. Lord, we've missed a lot. But
Father, with that which we aren't able to handle, Lord, Your Spirit
can do more in a minute than we can do in a year. So we pray
that You would show us things that we have overlooked. Help
us to understand things that we may not remember or are confused
on. And Father, as we engage in the
next series or the next letter, the next study, that we would
be overjoyed. And Lord, we pray these things
in the name of Christ. Amen.