Let's open our Bibles up there
to the passage that Brother Jim read in Revelation 22. This is
the last chapter of the last book of the Bible. Of course,
you know the Bible was not originally arranged in chapters. But these
are the last words that the Lord providentially revealed. And
I believe even in the bringing together of the Bible, the text
that we have, God's hand was in it to set the book of Revelation
last. And so here in this chapter,
we're given a glimpse into the glorious state of eternal life
that in which we who know Christ will exist forever and ever and
ever. And it's all because of Christ
who is himself and by virtue of his saving work in his obedience
unto death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension, his intercession,
his preservation, preserving us as the tree of life. And what a beautiful picture
that is. It begins, it's a continuation of what has been said in chapter
21 concerning eternal glory, but it starts out in verse one,
look at it, and he showed me this angel, this messenger of
God, showing John, revealing unto John these things, a pure
river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding, now listen
to this, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,
that there's so much truth there that we need to understand. Christ
himself is the water of life. You remember in John chapter
four when he dealt with the woman at the well? And he spoke of
himself as being the water of life and he told that woman,
if you drink of this water, you'll never thirst again. The Bible
speaks of the holy thirst that God gives his people by the power
of the spirit where he says, he that hungereth and thirst
after righteousness, He'll be filled. And why is that? Because
the Spirit leads us to Christ who is the bread of life, who
is the water of life. That refers to Christ in the
glory of His person, who He is, God manifest in the flesh, the
creator of all things, the creator of all things good. and in the
glory of His finished work as our representative, our surety,
having our sins charged to His account, imputed to Him, His
righteousness imputed to us. He is our surety, He is our Redeemer. Because our sins were charged
to Him, He had to come to earth and take upon Him the likeness
of sinful flesh, yet without sin. and die on that cross to
put away our sins. He paid that. He satisfied justice. He became our propitiation, sin
satisfying sacrifice. And as our surety, our substitute,
our redeemer, died on that cross, was buried in a rose again, now
he stands, is seated at the right hand of the Father, but he stands
as our intercessor, Jesus Christ the righteous, so that no sin
can be charged to us. Nothing can harm us eternally. We'll go through problems in
this life, and that's why this glimpse of glory is so precious
to us. Because the problems that we're
having in this life, physically, me having to sit down and step
up on a stool and all that, and you going through your problems,
your pains and your sorrows, they'll be gone. And that's not
just a pipe dream. That's not just pie-in-the-sky
religion. It's not just as some of the
old founders talked about utopia. No, this is heaven's glory that
we will experience in Christ. We have a little glimpse of it
now in our own persons as we see His glory, the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. But He is our intercessor. And
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. Isn't that beautiful? I can't
understand why a person who claims to know that truth could ever
put it on the back burner and act as if it's really not that
important. It's everything to us. Christ
died for our sins. He's the lamb. That's why he's
identified here as the lamb. What did the lamb do? He died.
For in our place, for our sins. He established righteousness
for us. That's what the Lamb did. And
we'll see Him as the Lamb. He was slain in the purpose of
God before the foundation of the world. But He came in time.
And He actually suffered. He actually bled. He actually
died. He suffered for His people, His
sheep. And so, this river of water of
life is clear as crystal. pure, holy, righteous. It's the river of all the blessings
of grace that flow out of the throne of God and out of the
Lamb. Blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. Do you realize that, and I know
we don't feel it now, I mean there are times in my life I
don't literally feel blessed. I hurt, I sorrow, all of that. But do you realize that it's
an ever-present truth with God's people that every blessing that
God has to give freely is given to us in Christ? Right now. Now again, we don't feel it all
the time. Sometimes we get close to it,
don't we? But here, we'll experience it, that river of life which
flows. And it doesn't originate with
men. It says it flows out of the throne of God, the throne
of grace. The throne of mercy doesn't originate with you or
me. If it did, it'd be corrupted. If it did, it'd be temporary.
Whatever feels good. But it originates with God in
Christ. I love that passage in Ephesians
2 and verse 10. And I'm probably gonna be preaching
a series on these issues of good works here pretty soon. But it says there that we are
his workmanship. And what that means is that if
you're a sinner saved by grace, you're not your own work. You're
not a self-made person. You're the work of God. God created
you as a sinner saved by grace. So we are His workmanship and
the reason that we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. It's by and from and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, the glory of His person,
the power of His finished work. And He says, unto good works,
not because of good works, not based on good works, but unto
good works. And that's the one thing you
need to remember about good works. They are never the cause. They
are never the ground or the basis of God's blessings or our state
or our standing before God. They're always the fruit. And
that's why when we get to this tree of life, from the root to
the fruit, somebody said, it's all of Christ. Every bit of it. So unto good works which God
hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Look at
verse two. in the midst of the street of it, and on either side
of the river, which, when you have the river and the street,
and you see this tree, the symbol is that the roots are spread
out, and they reach wide and far, okay? And it's, there was
the tree of life, which bare 12 manner of fruits, and yielded
her fruit every month. Now there's not gonna be any
months in glory. There's not gonna be any calendars
like that, But he's using it to make a point, and I'll show
you in just a moment. And the leaves of the tree were for the
healing of the nations. Now, this tree of life is Christ. Look over at Genesis chapter
two. You know, the Bible starts out with a tree, a tree of life,
and it ends up with a tree of life. What does that show you? It shows you the message that
runs all the way through God's word. is Christ, the tree of
life. And again, he's the water of
life. Look at Genesis chapter two, look at verse nine. This
is where God says, out of the ground made the Lord God to grow
every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
Genesis two, nine. The tree of life, also in the
midst of the garden, and then another tree, the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. I've always seen the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. Were these literal trees in the
garden? I suspect they were, but that's
not the point. The point is this, the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil represents God's sovereign right
to say what's good and what's evil. In other words, good and
evil must be determined by God and as they pertain to God. Man
has no right, man as the creature, God's the creator, man's the
creature, man as the creature has no right to decide for himself
what's good and what's evil. You remember in the book of Judges,
as it sort of closes down, it says, every man did that which
is right in his own eyes. What is he doing there? He's
declaring his independence from God. What are people doing today?
It's the same thing. It's always been that way. Man
rises up, and it says later after man fell, he has become as gods. In other words, he imagines that
he has the right to do that which only God can do. God says what's
right and what's wrong. And that's what that tree of
the knowledge of good and evil is. And God said you can eat
of every tree except that one, but look at verse 10. It says,
and a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from
thence it was parted and became into four heads. I'm not going
to go into all that today. I've preached on that before.
But look down at verse 15. It says, the Lord God took the
man, put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep
it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree
of the garden thou mayest freely eat. This is a gift. And he says, but of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.
For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. So that one tree of the knowledge
of good and evil was forbidden because that's God's sovereign
right to determine what's good and what's evil. Well, look over
at chapter three. Look at verse 20. This is after
the fall now. And the curses have been pronounced.
The curse upon the serpent, Satan, and of course that curse was
his death by the hand of the Messiah, the God-man, the seed
of woman. The curse upon the woman and
the curse upon the man. And it says in verse 20, of Genesis
chapter three, and Adam called his wife's name Eve. This is
the first time she was named Eve. Before that, her name was
Woman. And what does Eve mean? It means
living, because she was the mother of all living. Well now, man
brought death into the world, but it's through the woman, the
woman's seed, that life would be brought through Christ, the
Messiah. And so she's the mother of all
living in that she was going to be the progenitor through
her seed, the woman's seed, that Christ would come, the Messiah.
And it says, unto Adam, verse 21, and to his wife did the Lord
God make coats of skin and clothe them. What happened? See, Adam and Eve tried to cover
their shame, their nakedness, with fig leaf aprons, representing
the works of man. Won't do it. Your works will
not save you. Your works will not make you
righteous. Your works will not put away your sins. Well, what
will? Well, remember he told Adam,
he said, in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely
what? Die. Dying thou shalt die. What's
God telling him there? That the only thing that's going
to be sufficient to put away sin is the death of a God-appointed,
willing, able substitute. And that's what Christ is for
his people. Well, look on verse 22, God slew an animal. He shed
blood because without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness.
And he made coats of skin, that's a type of the imputed righteousness
of Christ right there. We stand before God having his
righteousness, the sin debt that he paid accounted to us. And it says in verse 22, the
Lord God said, behold, the man has become as one of us to know
good and evil, And now lest he put forth his hand, and take
also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever." This
is all symbolic, and you know, like I said, whether it was a
literal tree or not, there was, but that's not the point. The
point is, is that man, in the fall, sinning against God, we
cut ourselves off to the way of the tree of life. And we can't
get it back by our works, by our efforts. God must bring his
son into the world. God sent forth his son made of
a woman made under the law and look at verse 23. Therefore the
Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the
ground from whence he was taken so he drove out the man and he
placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming
sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of
life to guard it. That tree of life is guarded.
But Christ came to open the way of the tree of life. And how
did he do it? He died upon a tree of death. The tree of death brought about
the tree of life. Because he died, we live. He died and he lives. Go back
to Revelation 22. Now, this tree of life, this
Christ, in the glory of his person and
the power of his finished work, bears 12 manner of fruits. What is that talking about? That's
the completeness of the government of God's grace in Christ. That's the fullness of the population
of all the people of God for whom Christ died. represented
by the number 12, which is the number that represents the completeness
of government, the completeness of God's reign and His throne,
all the fruit of grace, of life and glory in Christ sufficient
for the 12 tribes of Israel, the Israel of God, which is spiritual
Israel. There's nobody gonna be missing,
that's what he's saying. There's not gonna be any vacancy,
no empty seats. All for whom Christ died will
be there. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall cometh to me, and I will no wise cast him out.
This is the will of him that sent me, that of all which he
hath given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again
at the last day. And there it is. And it says,
he yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were
for the healing of the nations. Now again, there's no months,
but think about our months here. We come through the spring, and
there you see all the growth, the flowers, the trees, and all
that. Summer, it continues. And in
the fall, what happens? Everything begins to die. And
then in winter, it's all dead. And then it goes through that
cycle again. Well, in glory, it's not going
to be that way. In glory, it's always life, life, life, life
every month, even in October. You say, well, I like to go up
and see the beautiful colors. You know what you're looking
at there, don't you? You're looking at death. But for a believer,
death is beautiful. Death in this life, because it's
a passage into a better life where the fruit will be yielded
year round. And that's just a way of describing
the fullness of eternal life that comes through Christ and
his righteousness alone. This body is dead because of
sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness, and it's for
the healing of the nations. These leaves, you know, we think
about a lot of these plants, you know, they have healing properties.
Well, this tree of life has healing properties, and it's for the
healing of the nations. Who's that? That's God's elect
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Not just
one nation, but all nations. Look at verse three. And it's
such a beautiful picture of life eternal. Verse 3, he says, there
shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb
shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. Remember I said
over in Genesis 3, when Adam fell, God pronounced three curses. The curse upon the serpent, which
would be the death of the serpent and his work through the The
death of the seed of woman, the Christ, his death is a success,
a conquering of sin and death and Satan and all of it. The
curse that Adam brought in by his disobedience will be totally
removed by the death of Christ who was made a curse for us,
Galatians 3.13, he was made a curse for us. Christ, the Son of God
incarnate, as the substitute of his people was actually cursed
of God in our place. Now the curse is gone. And it
comes out of the throne of God and the lamp shall be in it.
The tree of life came about by the Christ, as I said, on the
tree of death. Remember he prayed in John 17, because I finished
the work which you gave me to do. And his servants shall serve
him again. In verse three there, his servants
shall serve him. Who are his servants? That's his elect. That's
his people. That's his sheep. That's his
church. And they'll serve him. You remember
over in Psalm 22, you don't have to turn there, but that's the
Psalm of the cross that starts out, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? Talking about Christ and what
he was going to go through. bearing the sins of His people
unto death, putting our sins away and establishing an everlasting
righteousness, which enables God to be just and justifier.
And it says this, this is the last two verses of Psalm 22,
that Psalm of the Cross. It says in verse 30 of Psalm
22, a seed shall serve Him. That's His people. It shall be
accounted to the Lord for a generation, all glory going to Christ, They
shall come and shall declare His righteousness unto a people
that shall be born that He hath done this. All the work of Christ. And look at verse four of Revelation
22. They shall see His face. Oh my soul, to see the face of
God. How are we gonna see His face?
What is His face? His face is His glory. His face
is that which identifies Him and distinguishes Him from idols. We know we serve the true and
living God. And it says in verse 4, His name
shall be in their foreheads. How do we know? His name, His
identification, His glory, His truth. is revealed, set within
our minds, our affections, our wills through the gospel and
the doctrines of sovereign grace as we see them fulfilled in Christ. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse
6 calls it the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's how we know that God has
brought us to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works.
I realize, and many of you do too, that as I was brought up
in false religion, I was worshiping a false God. And I didn't even
know it until God revealed Himself to me through Christ. And then
I realized, hey, the God I've been worshiping and serving,
He's no God at all. I've seen His face. I've seen
His face. Verse 5. Verse five, there shall be no
night. There, that's darkness. Ignorance. The blackness of sin. They need no candle, neither
light of the sun. Nothing in creation is necessary
to lighten this place, because for the Lord God giveth them
light, and they shall reign forever and ever. God will shine forth
in his glory through the, what Malachi called the son of righteousness. S-U-N, that's Christ. and they'll
reign forever. Christ is the supreme ruler of
all things. You know, it's not gonna be that
he gets up there and he divides it all out and says, now Jim,
you're the king of this area, and Monica, you're the king of
this area. No. He's the supreme ruler of all
things, including his church. But as Adam, before the fall,
was given the authority over the earth and everything in the
created universe was under him, All things in the new heaven
and the new earth will be subject unto Christ's people, his church,
as we serve and worship him. And we'll be ambassadors of Christ
even then. Somebody asked me, said, well,
what will we be doing every day? I don't know. I know we'll be
worshiping and serving him. Will we have jobs? Will we have
things? I don't know. I know whatever toil, it won't
be like Adam's toil, like our toil by the sweat of our brow,
fighting the thorns and all of that. It'll be a joyous, glorious,
pleasant toil of love, labor of love. Verse six. He said unto me, these sayings
are faithful and true. Well, what else could they be?
Because as we're told in Revelation 1, He is the faithful and true
one. His faithfulness is the ground of our salvation. Because Christ was and is faithful
to do what He agreed to do in the everlasting covenant of grace.
And what was that? To come to this earth, obey the
law, die under the curse of that law for the sins of His sheep
imputed to Him. be buried and raised again the
third day, ascended unto the Father, and now ever living to
make intercession for us until he comes again to bring us unto
himself. And he never and never will miss
a beat. Now you and I miss a beat every
now and then, don't we? In our faithfulness. We are faithful,
don't get me wrong, because God keeps us faithful. In fact, I've
got listed here in Lamentations 3, I love this passage. Lamentations
3 in verse 21. It said, this I recall to my
mind, therefore have I hope. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we are not concerned, consumed, because His compassions fail
not. They are new every morning. Great
is God's faithfulness. That's why we're faithful. But,
he says in verse six, and the Lord God of the holy prophets
sent his angel to show unto us, his servants, the things which
must shortly be done. That's what's being revealed
here. Shortly. You say, well, it seems like
a long time. Maybe it does, but not to God. In verse seven, behold,
I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the
sayings of the prophecy of this book. To keep the sayings of
the prophecy of this book mainly involves a God-given faith, trusting
and resting in Christ alone for all salvation, for all forgiveness,
for all righteousness, and to keep us and to bring us to glory.
It's like Paul wrote when he said, I'm persuaded that neither
life nor death Nor anything can separate us from the love of
God in Christ. And when he said, I know whom
I have believed and am persuaded that he's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. Now, isn't that a beautiful
scene out of God's word? And it closes out. We'll get
to that next week. The rest of, I don't know if
I'll get to all the verses, but the rest of that chapter just
totally, totally, just Just consumes us, doesn't it? Looking to Christ. How do I know I'm gonna be there?
Well, my hope is built on nothing less, I quote that all the time,
doesn't it? Than Jesus, blood and righteousness.
All right, let's open our hymnals and hymn number 118, and we'll
close with When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. Hymn number 118,
let's stand and sing.