Well, since the beginning of
the scripture, life, all life, spiritual life,
eternal life, has been symbolized in water, rivers, and trees. And that's what this is talking
about here. This is a continuation of the
vision that Christ gave to the Apostle John of the Holy City,
the New Jerusalem. And it says in verse 1, He showed
me a pure river of water of life. You remember in Genesis, Genesis
chapter 1 and chapter 2, you know, God created the rivers. He created the ocean. He created
the water. And this water is the life, physical
water, as physical water is the life of the physical body or
part of that. Then this spiritual water, this
river of water, is our spiritual life. And water can represent
just simply life itself. Here's the life of the city.
It can represent the word of God. When we talk about the word of
God, we're talking about the water of the word. And it can
be talking about specifically the righteousness of Christ.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,
the scripture says in Matthew 5, for they shall be fulfilled. So putting it all together, this
water of life is Christ himself. You remember in John chapter
seven, he talked to the woman at the well about water of life,
a fountain of waters, welling up inside of you. And that's
not just mystical language. You see, it's not just a feeling,
but what it is, it's the new birth given by the spirit from
Christ who is our life, whereby the word of God is written on
our hearts and whereby we see things we didn't see before and
hear things we didn't hear before in a new light. And that's what
he's talking about. Now this city, remember the New
Jerusalem, that's the church, that's the dwelling place of
the people of God. We're citizens of the heavenly
city built upon Christ, built upon his finished work of redemption,
populated with the people God chose before the foundation of
the world, Christ redeemed, those who are justified in his righteousness
imputed, and now what we're seeing is the glorified church. And
all of this symbolic language revolves around and centers on
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Psalms,
Psalm 46, four, I've got it written out in your lesson. It says,
there is a river. The streams whereof shall make
glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the
most high. And that's what this river is.
And it says here in verse one, this river of water of life is
clear as crystal. There's no impurities here. There's
no heresy here. There's no confusion here. There's
nothing of man that clouds this water. This is pure water, clear
as crystal. And look at what it says, proceeding
out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. So everything of
God's glory in his victory, that's the throne, his sovereignty,
is revealed to the people of God through the lamb, the sacrifice. So in other words, here you will
never listen in the scriptures. You'll never get away, as far
as salvation is concerned, as far as forgiveness of sins, as
far as all spiritual blessings and life itself, you'll never
get away from the issue of mercy, love, and grace based on justice
satisfied. And that's what the lamb means.
The lamb was a sacrifice. The lamb was slain. worthy as
the lamb, you see, that was slain for his people. So that's the
issue of the gospel, you see, and think about it. I mean, that's
what's missing in today's modern day Christianity, so-called.
There's no emphasis. I mean, they talk about, well,
Christ died for our sins, but they don't have in their minds
the truth established of justice satisfied for a people to ensure
and secure their salvation. So in this city, there is security
still. So here's the redemptive glory
of God revealed through the lamb, the gospel. And that's how sinners
are saved. It's all by grace, in and by
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb. Look at verse two. He says, in
the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river,
was there a tree of life. Now, some translations say this
means that between the street of gold and the river, this tree
existed. But that's not important. The
issue here is the tree of life. You know, when I was growing
up and going to a church where the gospel wasn't preached, and
they talk about heaven and they talk about streets of gold and
gates of pearl, I used to think that's pie-in-the-sky religion.
I really did. Even as a young boy, I thought,
you know, I mean, come on. Well, here's the thing about
it. These things symbolize something that's real. This is not pie-in-the-sky
religion. You know what the tree of life
is? The tree of life is Christ. That's
who it's talking about. Life comes from him. Now, in
the Garden of Eden, I believe there was a literal tree there.
You remember the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? The
tree of life. And remember Adam and Eve? They
had free access to the tree of life, but they were forbidden
to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now
even though those were literal trees, I believe they symbolized
a spiritual truth, an eternal truth. The tree of the knowledge
of good and evil symbolized God's sovereign prerogative, God's
sovereign power to set the rules, to say what's right and what's
wrong. God is the creator. Man is the
creature. God is not responsible to the
creature, the creature's responsible to God. And you remember in several
passages where it talks about the sinfulness of man, especially
in the book of Judges. One of the indictments against
man by nature, one of God's indictments against man is that every man
did that which is right in their own eyes. Well, the problem with
that is just that's why Adam fell. That identifies us with
a dead, fallen humanity. Because we don't have the right,
we don't have the sovereignty, we don't have the power to say
what's right and wrong in our own eyes. Only God does. Now
think about our society today. You know, what's right with people
today? You know, people say, well, if
it's love, it can't be wrong. Is that right? No, it's not right. Because God determines what's
right and what's wrong. So there's the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. Well, under the sovereignty of God, as Adam
was submitted for a while, he had every right to the tree of
life. There was life conditioned on Adam's obedience. But what
happened? Adam partook of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. Remember Satan told Eve, he said,
you shall be as gods. What he meant there was you'll
be able to, you know what's right. You can determine for yourself.
You don't need the God. You'll be a God unto yourself.
And what's the problem? You know, what's the greatest,
the most widespread idolatry? It's not Buddha and Brahmanatman
and Shiva and all that. It's man. He worships himself. And every manifestation of idolatry
in some way has God being brought down off of his true nature and
glory and sovereignty and made like unto man. You worship a
God like unto yourself. And they give their gods human
qualities, human ignorance. Think about the Greek gods and
all the stories and the myths. They were just humans with superpowers,
like Marvel comics. But that's not the God of the
Bible, you see. And for example, why do people
take justice in religion and move it to the back of the aisle
if it's in the walls at all, if it's in the church at all?
Because people don't have any sense of justice today. Take
the death penalty, for example. Why do people argue against the
death penalty? It has nothing to do with justice,
see. It's all compassion. But see, death penalty, you know,
somebody says, well, it doesn't really prevent crime. That's
not the issue of the death penalty. The death, it prevents at least
one or two crimes, you know, whoever that guy's gonna, or
that woman's gonna commit. But the death penalty's about
justice. People don't have any idea of this justice, you see.
And that's why the lamb is at the forefront here. Well, here's
the tree of life. How did this life come about?
Well, it came about through the death, under the justice of God,
the death of Christ. Righteousness established. And
notice here in verse two, this tree of life, it says it bears
12 manner of fruits. There's completeness again, the
complete government of God, the complete population of God's
elect, the complete blessings. And it says that it yields her
fruit every month, not just during the spring months, not just during
the summer and the fall. It yields it all year round. This is not a seasonal thing.
This is a year-round eternal thing of the blessings of God. Christ is everything. That's
what he's saying. And the leaves of the tree were
for the healing of the nations. In other words, this is good
for your diet here. This won't harm you. This is
for healing. Christ, the great physician.
Christ, the life of his people. Christ, the healer. All of that
is included here in the grace of God. Look at verse three.
He says, there shall be no more curse. Well, why? Well, it says, it
tells you, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be.
There can't be any curse. where the throne of God and the
Lamb is in it. And it says, his servant shall
serve him. Now think about, where does the curse lie in the Bible
when you talk about a curse? Somebody says, well, I'm gonna
put a curse on you. You can't do that, you don't have that
kind of power. I don't care if you claim to be a witch or a
wizard or whatever. The curse lies in the law. Let me show you that. Turn to
Galatians chapter 3. Now remember in Galatians, false
preachers who claimed to be Christian, who claimed to believe in Christ,
but they thought, well, but you've got to keep the law in order
to be righteous, in order to be more saved. And so they tried
to bring people under the old covenant law. And look at verse
10 of Galatians chapter 3. It says, for as many as are of
the works of the law are under the curse. In other words, if
you're trying to be saved or to be righteous by your works
under the law, what does that say about you? You're under a
curse. And he goes on, for it's written, curse it is everyone
that continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do. Now, where Christ as the Lamb is seen, there
can be no curse. Why? Look at verse 13 there.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. If Christ
redeemed you, if Christ died for you, if his blood was shed
for payment of your sins, the curse is gone. You see, he did not die for any
who are under the curse. He says, for it's written, cursed
is everyone. He was made a curse for us. That's
the imputation of sin to him. And it says, for it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And that's a direct
reference to Christ, the Lamb. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
15. You remember where he's talking
about the glorified body. And over in the last part of
that, 1 Corinthians 15, in verse 55, the curse comes from the law.
If sin is charged to me or you, if sin is imputed to me or you,
then we're under the curse. But if righteousness, now the
sins of God's people have been imputed to Christ, and he was
made a curse for his people, for us, he says. And therefore,
righteousness is imputed to them. So the curse is connected to
the law. It's not connected to voodoo,
it's not connected to magical things, or you know, mythology,
it's connected to the law. And he says in verse 55, O death,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin. Why do people die? Why is there spiritual death?
Because of sin. In the day that you eat thereof,
you shall surely die. And the strength of sin, now
what is the strength of sin? Is the law. What does that mean? The power of sin to curse us
and condemn us is because the law requires perfection, righteousness. And so if we don't have one,
condemnation, curse. But go back to Revelation 22
now. Verse three. Now in this holy
heavenly city, there shall be no more curse. Why? The throne of God and of the
Lamb is in it. We have a sacrifice. We have
a righteousness that answers the demands of God's justice.
The law cannot curse us. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Who can condemn us? God that
justifies, it's Christ that died. The Lamb, the blood, the righteousness
of Christ imputed. That's our security. He says,
and his servants shall serve him. Now, the curse being removed,
those who are justified and glorified, what do they do? They serve Him.
Somebody asked me, well, what are we gonna do in glory? Well,
we're gonna serve Him. How? However He says to serve
Him. And it's gonna be a service that is freedom. It's the perfect,
pure service of a willing, loving bond slave of Christ. No curse,
no threats. You see? No earned reward. It's just doing it because we
love Him. Now what a place. And incidentally, we really can't
imagine what that's like, can we? It does not yet appear what
we shall be, 1 John 3, 1 and 2. Well, look at verse 4. He says, they shall see His face.
That's His glory. It's not like there's going to
be some kind of a face up in the sky or anything. That's His
glory. That's what the face means. The expressions of the face in
the Bible are considered expressions of the heart. That's what it's
saying. And the heart of Christ is for
His people. And His glory is revealed. Anytime
you see in the Bible, for example, the countenance, His countenance
Cain's countenance fell, because the expression of his heart was
unbelief and hatred. When Peter and James and John
saw Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, his countenance, the appearance,
you see. And so it says, they shall see
his face and his name, that which identifies and distinguishes
him, shall be in their foreheads. Remember what the forehead represents.
It represents the mind. It represents the conscience.
It represents the heart. That's what the forehead is. Remember the mark of the beast
was on the forehead. Now I don't believe he's talking
about a literal 666 written across people's foreheads. You know,
think about this. Think about this. If he was talking about a literal
mark on the forehead, then there'd be no deception. I mean, if you
walked in here this morning and you had a 666 on your forehead,
that wouldn't deceive anybody, would it? And the last days are
going to be a day of great deception. The 666 represents man's sinfulness,
especially in false religion, his efforts to save himself by
his works. The hand represents The works,
it can represent reaching for something. What's man reaching
for? Well, he's reaching for immortality,
isn't he? How many times you read in magazines today or see
programs where they talk about life extension? Nobody wants
to die innately. I mean, God may, it may be you'll
be brought to a degree of illness and pain that you'll wish to
die. But that's just natural. That's just a natural thing. Even unbelievers can get that
far. But man's reaching for heaven. He's reaching for rewards. He's reaching for salvation. And if that reach is not reaching
out as a sinner seeking mercy, clinging to Christ, it's a 666
situation. But now on their foreheads is
the name of the Lamb. Glory to the Lamb, sinner saved
by the grace of God, glorified in heaven. Verse five says, there
shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither
light of the sun, Does that literally mean there'll
be no sun and moon and night? I think so, but I don't know,
but here's what it says. This is the lesson here. For
the Lord God giveth them light. God said, let there be light.
He is the light. Christ is the light of the world.
He's certainly gonna be the light of the new heavens and the new
earth. And they shall reign forever and ever. We are one with Christ. the son of righteousness, the
glorious son of God, the supreme ruler of all things. And we're
safe and secure in his hands. Somebody, you know, we sing that
song, he's got the whole world in his hands. Well, he does.
He's king of the world. Not that guy that stood on the
Titanic. He's not king of the world. God
is. Christ is king and Lord of his
people. And he owes all things in his
hand. And when we come to this glorious place of dwelling eternally,
it'll be the same way. He's never relinquished his authority
or given up his sovereign root. All right.